28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
After delivering his cancer-ridden mother to Dr. Kelson's (Ralph Fiennes, "28 Years Later," "The Choral") compassionate care on the UK mainland where infected run rampant, Spike (Alfie Williams, "28 Years Later") decided not to return to his safer island home immediately, instead leaving an infected's healthy baby with a letter in a basket promising his eventual return. But when we last saw him, he had just had a run in with the Jimmys, let by the sadistic Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O'Connell, "28 Years Later," "Sinners"). Director Nia DaCosta (2021's "Candyman," "Hedda") picks right up where Danny Boyle left off, taking writer Alex Garland's ("Ex Machina," "28 Years Later") tale to even darker places in "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple."
Laura's Review: A
Now THIS is how you create a trilogy. DaCosta doesn't attempt to copy Boyle's distinctive style, instead highlighting character development with Spike, Jimmy and Kelson, and as the latter, Ralph Fiennes goes to places one might never have imagined this actor could go. His is a brilliant performance of a compassionate humanist, a physician, a memorialist and a shaman willing to make a deal with the devil himself.
DaCosta and Garland rejoin Spike, now surrounded by Jimmys in an empty pool, Crystal above them all declaring the terrified young boy must now fight to the death in a twisted initiation rite. Things look awfully grim until Spike surprises us with a move that is childish and funny but gives him an unexpected lethal advantage. Impressed, 'Lord' Crystal asks his name, then informs him that it is now Jimmy.
We'll also meet up with Dr. Kelson, who retrieves the body of Samson's mate who gave birth in an abandoned train car to prepare it for his ossuary. He is also repeatedly meeting up with Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry, "28 Years later"), shooting morphine darts when the raging infected appears to charge, then tending to the man's wounds. And although we first see Samson ripping the head off a hapless human, he seems to be beginning to understand that Kelson, in offering him brief moments of respite, means him no harm and Kelson begins to speculate about just how the infected might see those they attack. Dancing and singing along to his 80's record collection (Duran Duran's 'Girls on Film!'), Kelson begins to formulate a possible cure.
Meanwhile, the man and woman who were with Samson's victim return to their farm, only to be told at the door that they 'have visitors.' Seated around the table are the Jimmys, Crystal holding court and cracking wise. This is clearly a home invasion that is about to go south, but we will also learn that Crystal's childhood trauma of witnessing his pastor father invite the infected into his church has twisted his mind into Satanic worship where 'charity' involves horrific deaths offered to his 'father.' (That trauma has also immortalized the Teletubbies, the show he was watching when the infected attacked.) Jimmy orders Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman, "28 Years Later," "Eleanor the Great") out on a scouting mission, where she will observe Kelson dancing with Samson from afar, and when she returns, she'll find Spike vomiting outside the barn where the Jimmys are offering 'charity' by skinning their victims alive. 'I just can't' he says, his eyes pleading and she takes pity on the boy as all hell breaks loose a few feet away. When the pregnant woman whose home was invaded manages to get the better of Jimmima (Emma Laird, "28 Years Later"), a female Jimmy intent on torturing the baby's father, from her hiding place in the loft's barn, she sets off a chain of events that engulfs the barn in fire. Crystal demands Spike hunt her down. When the boy returns empty handed, Jimmy says the 'Old Nick' must decide his fate. And that is when Jimmy Ink tells the group that she saw 'Old Nick' that very afternoon, mistaking Kelson's mercurochromed skin for the devil's red.
The film's climax is absolutely breathtaking, a crescendo of character arcs all meeting within the Bone Temple. It should be experienced and not spoiled by any further description. Garland has written a perfect ending followed by just the right surprise to launch the finale and DaCosta has brought it all together with cinematic flair. Fiennes, also appearing in a more typical role for him this week as the conductor of an English choral during WWI, is simply magnificent here, boldly going full frontal and dancing like a maniac. But it is the deep feeling he brings to the character that most stays with us, one which the filmmakers almost, just almost, allow him to abandon to survive. Even Lord Crystal admits that he likes this man he can converse with so easily. O'Connell, whose look is based on British personality Jimmy Savile, a man found to be one of the worst sexual predators and pedophiles in their history, created two of 2025's most twistedly charismatic villains and he expands on what was only hinted at in the prior film, adding just a touch of Achilles Heel, a defining characteristic of evil men. Kellyman is also strong here, portraying a more adult version of her younger charge, someone who recognizes the Jimmys represent a form of survival in a world gone mad, albeit one her morality rejects.
The film is beautifully shot by cinematographer Sean Bobbitt ("12 Years a Slave," "Hedda"), his visuals complemented by composer Hildur Guðnadóttir's ("Tár," "Hedda") score, which thumps and wheezes like an old calliope, suddenly erupting in sweet uplift at just the right moment, departing with the franchise's theme. In addition to Duran Duran, the soundtrack also features Iron Maiden's 'The Number of the Beast.'
"28 Years Later: The Bone Temple" is not for the squeamish, but it is a movie for these troubling times. 'Watch out now. Take care, beware of greedy leaders. They'll take you where you should not go.' Memento Mori.
Sony Pictures releases "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple" in theaters on 1/15/26.
