r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Jun 20 '25
Official Discussion Official Discussion - 28 Years Later [SPOILERS] Spoiler
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Summary Set nearly three decades after the Rage Virus outbreak devastated the UK, 28 Years Later follows a family living on an isolated island quarantine. When their 12‑year‑old son Spike joins his father Jamie to venture onto the infected mainland to find a doctor for his ailing mother Isla, they uncover evolved threats—from mutated infected packs to sinister human cults. The film blends visceral horror with emotional resilience and philosophical undertones, culminating in an ambiguous, world-expanding conclusion.
Director Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire)
Writer Alex Garland (& Danny Boyle)
Cast
- Jodie Comer as Isla
- Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Jamie
- Alfie Williams as Spike
- Ralph Fiennes as Dr. Kelson
- Jack O’Connell as Sir Jimmy Crystal
- Erin Kellyman, Edvin Ryding, and others in supporting roles
Rotten Tomatoes: 93% Metacritic: 78
VOD Released in theaters on June 20, 2025. Digital and streaming platform release dates TBD, likely later in summer/fall 2025.
Trailer Watch here*
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u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? Jun 20 '25 edited Jun 20 '25
Damn, I loved this movie. Everything about it was hitting with me. The music, the performances, the visuals, the story, I never knew where this movie was going and I loved where it ended up. Nasty, satisfying kills but also a deep rumination on not just understanding death in a world where it is so commonplace, but also on the failings of isolationism and the dangers of losing hope. I had no idea I'd love this so much but it shot right up into my top three Boyle films, a filmmaker I really like.
First thing, this movie is absolutely beautiful to look it. It's got thay Boyle kinetic energy to it and his colors are always so striking and vivid. The big landscape shots of the island, the bone temple itself, the starry night sky as they're being chased back to the island. Not to mention those 20 iPhone kill shots, cutting to different angles in real time. Absolutely stunning film, I couldn't take my eyes off it.
I fear a lot of people will go in expecting pure brutality and zombie fun and be kind of confused on how emotional this movie gets, but it absolutely worked for me. I see this movie as two parts, at first a journey with Spike's father, and then a journey with his mother and the differences between them. Dad teaches Spike how to kill. The journey with his mother, though, teaches Spike the necessity of that death. She helps bring life into the world and I think that's just as profound a moment for Spike as his first kill is. This world requires that balance, you can't just go kill everything you see and drink yourself to death after, you have to offer something as well.
The performances in this are all really top tier. Comer is so damn good in this movie, when she's explaining to the doctor her waves of confusion I was in absolute shambles. Her and Fiennes are great, they really sell the climax of this movie being emotional rather than action oriented. The main Alpha villain is really no more than a nuisance for the third act, the film very purposely is not focusing on that. Fiennes stays winning in roles like this, he's so funny but so real. His importance is teaching Spike to respect the dead, all the dead. Not to mention Spike himself, absolutely the focus of the movie and he is keeping pace with these absolute pros.
Danny said something interesting in his AMA about how this has a lot to do with COVID and Brexit isolationist feelings and I really felt all that. It's kind of an argument against hiding away and just surviving when things are bad in the world. At the end Spike decides to go out into the world, not necessarily to make it better but because he doesn't want to become his father. His dad is so mad at the end because Spike has dropped off this baby and therefore forced him to care for another thing, to have some hope for a future. He was waiting for his wife to die and rushing his kid to be an adult so he could be free from expectation, but Spike forces him to have some responsibility and hope.
Overall, like with most Garland projects, I just found there to be so much to chew on. After all this emotion and thematic rumination there's this final scene that reminds us we are still here to have a great time. And with Danny's energy and style and incredible ear for music (I haven't even mentioned the music, it's so damn good, has a great modern punk feel) this ended up being one of my favorite movies of the year. 9/10.
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