28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Hey everyone, and welcome. We will be talking about the film 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Fun Fact: Jimmy Crystal is styled after real-life monster Jimmy Savile, who was a popular English personality and DJ who was known for being eccentric and was a predatory sex offender. This Film came out in 2026 and stars Ralph Fiennes, Jack O'Connell, Alfie Williams, and Erin Kellyman and was directed by Nia DaCosta. So without further ado lets get right into it.
Bone Temple follows two stories during this zombie apocalypse. A group of Satanists that has taken in Spike, as seen at the end of the last film, who believes they need to kill people to send them to satan and that the virus is because of him. The other story sees Dr. Kelson trying to befriend an alpha and, in the process, learning that the virus may have a cure, and tries to see what could be the cause. The stories converge, and we see how humans deal with these stressful times.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a zombie apocalypse film. It has similar vibes to 28 Years Later, All of Us Are Dead, or Midnight Mass.
The Bone Temple picks up right where 28 Years Later ended, with Spike being saved by the Jimmys, who he thought would protect him, but he soon finds out they are crazy. In 28 Years Later, we found out that Dr. Kelson was able to deal with the alpha, and this film gives a little more explanation to his madness. While there are obviously zombie attacks going on, we also see how the worst villains aren’t the mindless infected, but the humans who are fully conscious of what they are doing.
Ralph Fiennes is un-shockingly great as this very weird and eccentric Dr., who I understood was helpful but questioned what his end goal was, which we do learn is to find a cure. He spends most of his time with Samson, played by Chi Lewis-Parry, who also gave a great performance of this zombie finding his humanity again. This Dr. did something that is not seen in many zombie properties, which is thinking about how to cure these zombies and not just being in a constant state of survival. I think it’s great to see that, yes, so much has changed, and people with knowledge of how this started are probably dead, but the books aren’t, and you can at least try to teach yourself and experiment to find a potential cure. That’s my general issue with zombie movies and shows, because if you have sequels or many tv seasons of people just trying to survive, then it makes me question what’s the point of surviving and why nobody has attempted to find a cure. Early in the film, we see that Samson sees the man he killed as a monster of sorts through his eyes, and later, the Dr. asks himself what if they are seeing the world differently, which helps him think differently about a cure. I love how this film further sets up a path forward, which I think is hinted at in the last film with Isla and her mental issues, and has him look at things differently. His storyline and getting this cure to work have me interested to see how they will handle that in the future and try to make it more widespread since he died saving Spike.
Jimmy was a maniac played by Jack O'Connell who thought he was the son of satan. I’m going to be honest, when he said Old Nick, I thought he meant Santa Claus, not Satan. After doing some digging, I found out that 'old Nik' could be short for the Danish word 'nikker' or the Swansea devil, while Santa Claus is called Saint Nick because of Saint Nicholas. Jimmy gives people a chance to join his crew, but they have to fight, and the people his crew kills get killed in some of the worst ways. He is a cult leader who thinks he’s above everyone else and in line to be some great deity when he’s just a man who’s good at manipulating people who aren't mentally well. It was interesting to see his group and how most seemed a little crazy, and the ones who weren’t seemed to be scared to leave or hoping he was right because they didn’t know what was next. Towards the end of the film, he’s telling his backstory to the Dr, and I didn’t realize that the little boy at the beginning of the last film was him, but now it all makes sense. I’m glad in the end he dies, and even better that it was at the hands of Spike.
Jimmy is the perfect example of how, in a world where you have enough going on, there could be some human being who will be worse than mindless zombies. It’s interesting to see because no matter how much you think you are all on the same page, you might not be. It’s an added stress because now there is just one more thing to focus on, as if you don’t have enough.
Alfie Williams did great as spike who ran off in the last film and got saved by Jimmy’s crew, who we now learn is evil. In this film, he realizes he shouldn’t have gotten involved with them after he is forced to kill someone, and they attempt to get him to watch as they skin a family alive. He did a good job of showing the horrors of being with the crew, but trying to escape and not knowing whom to trust. He’s not the best person to be alone because he’s so young still, but I’m happy that Jimmy Ink, aka Kelly, looks out for him. I love how he was instrumental in taking out cult leader Jimmy, and he shows the innocence that some people have, and how his goal was survival, while the others’ goal was murder.
The way the virus spreads in this film makes so much sense compared to other zombie things I’ve seen. If the blood gets into any crevice that can get to your internals, you will be infected, and it happens fast. I love this because getting infected blood in a cut and getting infected blood in your eye or mouth should have the same effect, and it does here. It’s scary because it shows how cautious you should be, and it doesn’t help that the zombies are running so fast and can alert others.
At the end of the film, we get a little surprise, which is Cillian Murphy returning as Jim and raising his daughter. I heard he was in 28 years later and was shocked when he wasn’t, so I was happy to see him in this film. I love how he’s teaching his daughter history because he mentions a Churchill line that " those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it". I think that mirrors real life as we have the rise of fascism with people not understanding how bad that is or what it is, and on a smaller scale, in the movie, just look historically at cult leaders like Hitler, Manson, and Jim Jones, for example, and how the Jimmys take influence. I think history is often seen as a less useful major in school, but it’s extremely important in many aspects of life to prevent stuff from happening again. I love that Jim is back, and in the short time we see him, he’s trying to better the world for the people who will be taking it over.
Jimmy Ink aka Kelly, is played by Erin Kellyman, and her performance was probably one of my favorite parts of the film. While there is so much to love, I really enjoyed seeing someone who is in this cult and believed what the leader was saying, realize he’s full of shit. She follows, but she doesn’t follow blindly, so with so much time with him, she can tell when he’s lying. I feel like her meeting Spike really put the nail in the coffin because she sees how young he is and how much he doesn’t enjoy doing what they’re doing, but he can't leave, and she doesn’t want to harm him. She eventually saves him and helps to unravel this cult. I love how great she is at fighting, and that she won’t hesitate to kill just because in this world, that hesitation will get you killed. I hope she stays on the right path and we see her helping the crew to survive and stop this virus.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a great addition to the franchise. It pushes the story forward while introducing us to some new horrific characters. The cast was fantastic, and the end leaves you wanting more from this franchise.
