My honest take on the twisted ending of 28 Years Later (and why 28 Weeks Later felt easier to follow)

28 Years Later is the latest installment of the long-running franchise. Danny Boyle joined forces with original screenplay writer Alex Garland to recreate the magic they once brought to the screens with 28 Days Later, which starred Cillian Murphy in the lead role.

Murphy served as an executive producer on the new film. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Alfie Williams, Ralph Fiennes, and Edvin Ryding play major roles.

Disclaimer: The following article contains spoilers for 28 Years Later and the writer's opinions. Reader's discretion is advised.

At the end of the new movie, Spike finds safety not in a cure or community but in a cult led by a man who embodies the look and creepiness of one of the UK’s most notorious real-life predators, Jimmy Savile. This twisted ending seemed deliberate, as if to show how humanity rots from within and how trauma breeds cult-like loyalty.

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28 Years Later is not just a horror movie; it is a statement

Released on June 20, 2025, 28 Years Later is a standalone sequel and the first installment of a trilogy. The film is set in the Scottish Highlands and the coastal island of Lindisfarne, which is connected to the mainland only by a narrow tidal causeway. I was too stunned to speak or even move after the movie ended, and the gore and the chaos were not the reasons behind that reaction.

After leaving the infant, Isla, at the village gate, Spike returns to the mainland. He leaves a note explaining Isla's origins and states that he will return when he is ready. 28 days later, Spike is rescued by a cult styled after Jimmy Savile, and its leader is a man named Jimmy. This leader turns out to be the same little boy who escaped the infected during the film’s prologue.

For those unversed, Jimmy Savile was a widely known English TV personality. It was not until after his death that most people learned the reality about Savile, who turned out to be a s*xual predator hiding in plain sight. After his death in 2011, several complaints were raised about his behavior. In 2022, Netflix even released a two-part documentary titled Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story.

So, where does this put that surprising ending of the Aaron Taylor-Johnson-led feature? For me, the clean-cut, tracksuit-wearing cult leader resembling Savile turns an already dark movie into something far more uncomfortable. It blurs the line between fictional dystopia and real-world horror, implying that the worst monsters might still be humans.

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I believe 28 Weeks Later has a clearer story

Nearly two decades ago, 28 Weeks Later left us with that haunting shot of the infected sprinting through the Paris Metro. Going into 28 Years Later, I expected the infection to be a global issue or at least find out the scale at which the Rage virus was affecting the world. Instead, the latest film completely sidelined the Paris outbreak and acted as if that never happened.

To add to that, 28 Weeks Later has a story with clear emotional stakes: a broken family, a deadly mistake, and a rapid collapse. The plot is indeed chaotic, as post-apocalyptic movies often are, but the twists are rooted in human emotion and desperation. This made the movie easier to follow.

On the other hand, the new installment is more thematic and less plot-driven, which also makes it harder to invest in the characters emotionally. Instead of taking the natural next step in the story, the creators decided to take a different direction, which was thought-provoking but certainly unsatisfying if you were expecting closure like me.

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28 Years Later is playing in theaters.