When 28 Years Later arrived earlier this year, it was full of surprises. While Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s infected odyssey still gave us sprinting zombies, a Britain long in decline nearly three decades into the outbreak, and terrifying new mutations of the virus, it also delivered something soulful and meditative, with a streak of unruliness running right through it. And then, there was that ending – SPOILER ALERT – in which the acrobatic, wig-wearing youth cult of the Jimmies sprang, quite literally, into action in the film’s final minutes, slicing up the infected with wild abandon, dressed somewhat like… well, Jimmy Savile. Talk about unexpected.
By the sounds of it, things are only just getting started. 28 Years Later was shot back-to-back with sequel The Bone Temple, written again by Garland and produced by Boyle, with Candyman’s Nia DaCosta stepping up as director – and her film is set to go even darker and stranger. “My movie is quite… weird,” she tells Empire. “It’s surprising. There were multiple moments reading the script where my jaw dropped, literally.” Jack O’Connell, who plays Jimmies leader Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, a sadistic murderer who raised himself in the apocalypse after witnessing his parents’ demises, calls The Bone Temple the “weird, demented, relative cousin of what we’ve seen before, in a way I’m really fucking proud of. Because it’s rooted in soul, and the what-ifs,” he says. “Massive what-ifs. And it’s fucking shocking.”
In The Bone Temple, expect more danger from the Jimmies as young hero Spike (Alfie Williams) is brought into their ranks, while Ralph Fiennes’ benevolent Dr Kelson strikes up an unlikely kinship with marauding Alpha infected Samson. Among it all, audiences will learn more about the bizarre belief system Sir Lord Jimmy has constructed for himself – channeled through pop cultural memories from his childhood, like Teletubbies, Power Rangers, cricket, and Jimmy Savile; who, in 2002, had not been unveiled as the monstrous predator he truly was. “The reality of the viewer and the proposed reality of these characters we’re playing are two very different perspectives,” says O’Connell of the Savile reference. “What I hope it does is invite people who watch it to consider that time, consider the zeitgeist of that period when the world in which we’re portraying just fucking went to shit.”
In DaCosta’s words, she’s “not doing any Jimmy Savile exploration in my film,” she says – though there is purpose in the way Sir Lord Jimmy presents himself. “This character of Jimmy Crystal, he perverts things,” says DaCosta, “and he takes something that’s innocent and great — like the Teletubbies — and he makes it horrific.” Prepare for another wild, unexpected journey into the rage apocalypse.
Read Empire‘s full 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple feature – speaking to Nia DaCosta, Jack O’Connell and Ralph Fiennes about shaking things up in the infected sequel – in the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man issue, on sale Thursday 18 December. Pre-order a copy online here. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple comes to UK cinemas from 16 January.
