’28 Years Later’ Ending May Be Divisive, But It Works

Preview: 

• ’28 Years Later’ has an ending that is dividing audiences. 
• The ending is a perfect transition into the next film, ’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’.
• The final scene could have been an end-credit scene.

SPOILER ALERT: Some spoilers for ‘28 Years Later’ below.

The ending of ’28 Years Later’ is getting people to talk about the movie, that’s for sure. Some love it, some hate it, some are indifferent to it, but either way you look at it, that final scene is splitting audiences. People online have gone so far as to say that the end completely ruined the movie for them.

While it does shift the movie tonally, it feels as if there is a reason for that. Nia DaCosta’s follow-up, ’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’, releases January 16, 2026, and this is likely a transition into that. It also ties together the opening scene as well as hints that were sprinkled throughout the film in an interesting way.

“In 28 days it began. In 28 weeks it spread. In 28 years it evolved.”

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Academy Award®-winning director Danny Boyle and Academy Award®-nominated writer Alex Garland reunite for 28 Years Later, a terrifying new story set in the world… Read the Plot

’28 Years Later’ takes place, you guessed it, 28 years after the infection prominently featured in ’28 Days Later’ and ’28 Weeks Later’ started. It is not necessary to have seen the other movies, as this one follows a new group of people and does a decent job of catching viewers up on where they need to be to understand it.

Spike (Alfie Williams) has turned twelve and his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) believes it is time for him to go zombie hunting on the mainland and get his first kill. His mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), is very sick, although they do not know with what. After discovering there is a doctor on the mainland, he leaves the safety of his community with her to try to help her.

What follows is a terrifying adventure as they navigate a plethora of zombies and threats – including a pregnant zombie who births a non-infected child, something that will surely come back around later.

Related Article: As Intense As Ever, it Feels Like No Time Has Passed in ’28 Years Later’

’28 Years Later’ Ending Explained

(L to R) Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his son Spike (Alfie Williams) in Columbia Pictures’ ’28 Years Later’. Photo: Sony Pictures. © 2024 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

After Spike drops a newborn baby off at his community, he decides that he needs some time to clear his head and wander the countryside. You see, this movie has always been about him. About his relationship with his parents and his journey into adulthood. The trailers showcased Spike and Jamie, but that was in an effort to keep a lot of surprises, twists, and turns hidden so audiences can experience them on the big screen.

As he is cooking fish and relaxing, a zombie horde attacks. He holds his own for a while, but thankfully Jimmy (Jack O’Connell) shows up with some friends to take down the rest of the horde in a wild, ridiculous, over-the-top, yet extremely fun action sequences. The internet is calling this group Power Rangers and the Tracksuit Mafia, because they all wear brightly colored outits. Jimmy wears a crown on his head and definitely a weird guy, but this is not the first time we have seen him.

The opening scene showed a young Jimmy at the start of the infection. His father was a priest and welcomed the zombies, claiming that it was a prophecy being fulfilled. Jimmy hid in the church as he watched his father be devoured, so it makes sense that his brain might have snapped a little at that moment.

While we did not see him at all throughout the rest of the movie, we did see his name a few times. It was carved into the hanging zombie that Spike and his father come across early on, as well as written on one of the walls that they passed. There are likely even more references to him that eagle-eyed viewers can spot.

There Is A Method To The Madness

(L to R) Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) and Spike (Alfie Williams) in Columbia Pictures’ ’28 Years Later’. Photo: Sony Pictures. © 2024 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

It might seem like this final scene comes completely out of left field, but it instantly felt like a transition into the next movie. Looking around the internet, so many have forgotten about Nia DaCosta’s ’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ and the fact that it not only was shot together with this movie, but that it is releasing in January.

When a director takes over the franchise for another director, often they collaborate on the pivotal scene that leads from one to another. For example, The Russo Brothers directed the end-credit scene in ‘Thunderbolts*’ because it is going to lead into ‘Avengers: Doomsday’. Surely she had some involvement, and potentially even directed this divisive scene.

Jack O’Connell shined in ‘Sinners’ as Remmick, a cenuries-old vampire who has some quirks of his own. He is a little weird and a little twisted, so it should come as no surprise that he is channeling a little bit of that into his ’28 Years Later’ character, Jimmy. Plus, it makes sense storywise for him to be a little off.

The Ending Would Have Been Easier To Digest As An End-Credit Scene

Nia DaCosta (director, ’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’), (L) and Danny Boyle (director, ’28 Years Later’) at CinemaCon 2025 for Sony Pictures at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on March 31, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Sony Pictures via Getty Images.

All of this to say that the final sequence should have been an end-credit scene. This would have helped audiences separate the two with it not being such a stark difference from the majority of the movie, and certainly the third act. The tonal shift seems to be what it holding a lot of people back from allowing themselves to not only enjoy it, but to get excited about what is coming next.

It would have been easy enough to start rolling the credits when Spike was cooking the fish, but then during a mid-credit or end-credit scene show the zombie horde attacking with the lead-in to him meeting Jimmy and his crew. This would have helped viewers to see this as the start of the next movie, rather than an ending that comes out of nowhere for this one.

(L to R) Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), Isla (Jodie Comer) and Spike (Alfie Williams) in Columbia Pictures’ ’28 Years Later’. Photo: Sony Pictures. © 2024 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Who is in the cast of ’28 Years Later’?

(L to R) Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his son Spike (Alfie Williams) in Columbia Pictures’ ’28 Years Later’. Photo: Sony Pictures.

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