Now playing in theaters from Sony Pictures Entertainment!
Directed by Nia DaCosta.
Written by Alex Garland.
Check out the trailer here!!
Continuing pretty much right where 28 YEARS LATER left off, 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE picks up with young Spike (Alfie Williams) surrounded by the Jimmies; a group of chaotic survivors sporting blonde wigs, gold chains, and track suits—modeled after Jimmy Saville, a notorious British entertainer who was exposed to have committed some heinous crimes against his underage fans. The leader of the Jimmies, Sir Jimmy Crystal (played by SINNERS’ Jack O’Connell) is worst of all, ordering his band of same-named acolytes to pillage and murder both infected and the living. Though he doesn’t adopt the Jimmies’ feral appetite for chaos and murder, Spike is allowed to tag along with them. Meanwhile, Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) attempts to study and understand the infected, specifically an Alpha he calls Sampson (Chi Lewis-Parry), who he has been drugging with sedatives in order to see if some kind of bond can be made with the man Sampson used to be. The two stories converge when the Jimmies happen upon the Bone Temple and mistake the iodine-covered Dr. Kelson as Old Nick, aka Satan himself, who Sir Jimmy claims is his father.
28 YEARS LATER established the rules and explored a world that has evolved since the infected overran Europe. We know that the rest of the world has quarantined at least the UK and possibly further and that the infected has evolved, some of them into Alphas—massive man-monsters more savage and powerful than the others. Humanity has also survived, such as the island where Spike is from—an island that survives by following a set of strict rules. This structured society is the exact opposite of the chaotic band of rogues Spike finds himself entangled with. A lot of the first half of this film is dedicated to showing how horrible the Jimmies really are as they lay siege on a farmhouse full of survivors. Like the Droogs from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, the Jimmies are monsters who respect no one and follow no rules except those of the sadistic Sir Jimmy.
If there is a criticism I can lob out at this point of what will most likely be a long review, it is that I think it would have been more interesting to see Spike’s sanity and morality challenged more during his time with the Jimmies. He is terrified by them when the film opens. This opening scene undercuts Spike’s growth we saw as he stood up to his strict father Jamie (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and reverts Spike into the quivering, crying child we knew him as for most of the first 28 YEARS LATER film. While there is an internal struggle going on with Spike as he tries to cope with basically being the Jimmies’ hostage, I think seeing Spike accept Sir Jimmy’s ways and do a little wilding would have shown some interesting development. Just as Spike’s dad Jamie ultimately failed him, forcing him to rebel. I think seeing Spike follow Sir Jimmy and then learning that his heinous lifestyle isn’t for him either would have offered up some nice symmetry to the character. But instead, Spike is pretty horrified and understands the Jimmies are wrong from the get-go. Spike is given a lot to do and learn in THE BONE TEMPLE, and I don’t think I’d want to see him wantonly murder a family, but at the same time, it feels like a regression for the character after all of that focus on him in the first film.
But while the Jimmies are busy destroying any sense of normalcy, Ralph Fiennes’ Dr. Kelson is attempting to understand and bring back some semblance of order to the world. He is still adding skulls to his Bone Temple and leads a very orderly life when we find him. But we get to know this character so much more intimately in this film, seeing photos of his old life and hearing him sing Duran Duran songs to himself as he works through the day. While he functioned more as a symbol of normalcy and hope, teaching Spike important life lessons in the first film, here be becomes more of a character with dimensions as he at first, is clinically fascinated with Sampson the Alpha and soon realizes, once Sampson responds positively to basically making Kelson addicted to the sedatives he shoots him up with, that he longs for friendship in this desolate world. Some of the more resonant moments of THE BONE TEMPLE are between Kelson and Sampson, two very different people who long for peace in this world. It is a momentary peace of course, but it felt like a reward earned by both characters.
Of course, this new peaceful existence building between Kelson and the infected is on a collision course with the Jimmies. The fact that I didn’t want that meeting of these two storylines to occur shows how well-written Alex Garland’s script really is. But the clash is unavoidable and seeing the way Garland and director Nia DaCosta orchestrate this meeting leads to the highlight of the film for me, when Sir Jimmy Crystal meets Dr. Kelson. This scene is pivotal and so well-done between a wizened actor in Fiennes and an up-and-coming superstar like Jack O’Connell. It’s a scene where the two simply sit down and have a conversation; Jimmy representing chaos and Kelson representing order. It shows an understanding of both characters on a molecular level by the actors and filmmakers but also seems to be saying something about how the world requires both chaos and order in order to exist.
The result of this meeting leads to the spectacular climax where Fiennes channels his inner Voldemort one last time and things get truly biblical by the end. It elevates the storytelling to an epic pitch and dazzled the hell out of me. As a writer myself, it is a sincere rush to witness the inner workings of a well-tuned script as it pulls all of the plot threads together. So, seeing the stories of Kelson, Sir Jimmy, Sampson, Spike and the Jimmies all come together in a fiery spectacle turned to eleven is truly a sight to see.
It’s interesting that such a gory series as the 28 DAYS LATER franchise made a film that truly is brutal and sometimes painful to experience, but still, with all of that savagery and gore, it is the turns the characters made and the characters themselves that impressed me to most. I loved every second of this one. Fiennes once again delivers his usual amazing performance, but in Dr. Kelson, he is given a lot of character to chew on. Jack O’Connell offers up another iconic role to set right next to his role as the Irish vampire in SINNERS. His Jimmy is savage and wild but also has immense depth to him. He also is a dead ringer for my favorite wrestler, Rowdy Roddy Piper. Which is pretty damn awesome!
The rest of the cast is great too. Little Alfie Williams continues to evolve as the wide-eyed innocent in the middle of these extreme characters. Erin Kellyman does a decent job as the only member of Jimmy’s crew with a bit of sympathy for Spike. I do find it interesting that THE BONE TEMPLE really is a male lead narrative with the most important characters being men; Spike, Kelson, Sir Jimmy, and Sampson, with only one of the Jimmies, Kellyman, being consequential to the story. I don’t want to kick the hornet’s nest, but I do think it is notable that this film was made by a female director yet still played around with so many male perspectives. It’s just something that made me go, “Hmmm.” Finally, if there’s a breakout performance in the film, it’s Chi Lewis-Parry as the Alpha, who is pants-shittingly scary, yet still manages to be soulful, simply by changing his facial expression and emotional eyes.
I was concerned when Nia DaCosta was announced as director of 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE. I wasn’t impressed with her CANDYMAN remake, didn’t have any interest in HEDDA, and the less said about THE MARVELS the better. But here, it seems she has been given a bit of leeway and able to tell a cohesive story with THE BONE TEMPLE. Though the revolutionary filming techniques of this series was established in the first 28 YEARS LATER film and DaCosta herself has said that the script was so good it was impossible to make a bad movie from it, DaCosta does seem to have talent as she really gives a sense of serenity to the calmer shots as well as capture the horrors during the more barbaric scenes. Hopefully, this means better movies from her in the future, as this one’s a winner.
There’s really not much more to say about 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE. I’m going to be talking with my pal Kristian Horn on the Part-Time Fanboy podcast about this film, so be on the lookout for that. Boyle and Garner have really fleshed out a fascinating world. THE BONE TEMPLE does shed some light on what the world looks like through the eyes of the infected and it’s pretty horrifying. Personally, I really didn’t like the way the Romero DEAD films kept moving towards humanizing the zombies and it seems, in its own way, that’s where this series is going. That said, each movie not only has been its own monster but still exists firmly in the 28 DAYS LATER universe. It may not be as epic and far-reaching as 28 YEARS LATER was, 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE is a worthy sequel that hones in on this marvelous and horrible world full of memorable characters and iconic moments galore.
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