28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Review

Directed By: Nia DaCosta
Written By: Alex Garland
Runtime: 109 minutes
MPA Rating: Rated R for strong bloody violence, gore, graphic nudity, language throughout, and brief drug use.

Ralph Fiennes – Dr. Ian Kelson
Jack O’Connell – Jimmy Crystal
Alfie Williams – Spike
Erin Kellyman – Jimmy Ink
Chi Lewis-Parry – Samson
Emma Laird – Jimmima
Sam Locke – Jimmy Fox
Robert Rhodes – Jimmy Jimmy
Ghazi Al Ruffai – Jimmy Snake
Maura Bird – Jimmy Jones
Connor Newell – Jimmy ****e

The 28 Days Later saga continues with the second installment of the planned 28 Years Later trilogy, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Continuing from where the last movie left off, The Bone Temple introduces interesting ideas and worldbuilding into the wider franchise. However, together with the previous entry, the two movies fail to form a grander, more cohesive story.

The new sequel picks up mere minutes from when 28 Years Later ended as the young boy Spike is rescued by the charismatic Jimmy Crystal (O’Connell). Unfortunately for Spike, Crystal, an unhinged, Satan-worshipping cult leader, forces Spike to take part in a brutal challenge to become one of his followers. Jimmy Crystal was the young boy shown in the prologue at the start of the Rage Virus outbreak in the last movie.

Jimmy’s trauma of seeing his family butchered by the Infected provoked a psychotic break, causing him to believe that God has forsaken him, and thinking that he’s the son of Satan, or “Old Nick” as he refers to him. Now, Jimmy believes it’s his job to enforce the will of Old Nick across the British Isles, which are under strict quarantine, and Spike becomes his unwilling captive as Jimmy and his followers commit depraved and reprehensible acts against other survivors.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kelson, the former doctor who constructed the movie’s eponymous Bone Temple, forms an unlikely bond with the Alpha Infected variant, Samson (Lewis-Parry). When Samson is tranquilized by Kelson’s blow darts, he appears rather docile and harmless. The lonely and solitary Dr. Kelson finds an interesting kinship with Samson, but he also notices a glimmer of human awareness, and with it, hope for potential treatment of the Infected.

Whereas 28 Years Later was a coming-of-age story for Spike, Dr. Kelson becomes the more throughline protagonist of The Bone Temple. Dr. Kelson’s overall arc with Samson is compelling because it finally offers necessary explanations and context regarding the Rage Virus and Infected. Director Nia DaCosta depicts specific beats from the perspective of Samson in an interesting way, offering a sense of how the Infected view the world and non-Infected humans.

It’s pretty wild that after all these years, franchise co-creators Danny Boyle and Alex Garland finally offer some major answers regarding the Rage Virus, which, going back to the original movie, seemed incurable. Even the un-filmed alternate ending for the original movie featured a wildly ridiculous and convoluted solution to the Rage Virus. What’s presented here makes much more sense in relation to what the franchise previously established.

Thus, The Bone Temple gets an A for effort in terms of its world-building. Fiennes brings a fascinating, quiet dignity and integrity to Dr. Kelson. He’s a character who lives a quiet and solitary existence, and he seems at peace, despite the movie’s hints at what he lost before the plague.

Kelson’s relationship with Samson is interesting because Kelson appears far more motivated to help Samson than to create a miraculous treatment that could change the world. Fiennes brings such a quiet, yet believable, sincerity to Kelson that his infinite capacity for kindness and compassion in such a bleak setting makes him one of the franchise’s most endearing characters yet.

Apparently, Dr. Kelson’s storyline with Samson is meant to juxtapose Jimmy Crystal and his cult’s cruelty, before they eventually collide, but the movie starts to fall apart with the Jimmy Crystal storyline. Spike becomes more or less a passive observer in The Bone Temple. In the last movie, Spike reached a major turning point, setting out on his own, but in this movie, the character has very little to do, and almost nothing he does has any bearing on the plot.

O’Connell certainly brings an unhinged mania and glee to Jimmy Crystal, but his villainy grows somewhat boring after a while. His cult turns out to be rather small, so they can only menace smaller settlements and groups of survivors. In one tense sequence, another group of survivors witnesses Jimmy’s cruelty firsthand. It’s certainly tense and suspenseful, and later it gets rather gruesome. However, the character peaks after that scene.

The Bone Temple certainly does not take the expected direction after the last movie, and it’s fine; but rather than attempting to expand Jimmy Crystal’s purview, perhaps attempting to infiltrate or take over Spike’s isolated island, he meets with Dr. Kelson instead. That brings the movie to a rather anticlimactic final act.

Both 28 Years Later and The Bone Temple struggle to collectively form a cohesive story, with The Bone Temple displaying even less narrative cohesion than its predecessor. Even the setup for a sequel looks underwhelming, highlighting the core issue: the latest entries lack a strong, overarching narrative.
This is frustrating because the movie provides many satisfying answers and ideas about the Infected and the Rage Virus. However, DaCosta and Garland fail to set them up for a way to further expand upon them. Sure, the movie’s ending is mildly amusing, especially for fans of the original, but it’s not exactly a game-changing cliffhanger that makes the next installment a must-see event.

There does not appear to be a pressing threat or conflict on the horizon, and there are no strong hints for what’s next. Does Spike’s father even care about what happened to him? What about his community? What about the neighboring countries? Are they okay with maintaining the quarantine, or did they get spooked by the Bone Temple and want to just turn the British mainland into glass? The 28 Years Later trilogy needs something bigger to tie everything together, but instead, the movies come off more like an episodic television series that was reformatted into a movie trilogy, when the franchise does not have enough plot for three movies.

DaCosta should be credited for her overall style and presentation. She opts for a more traditional, cinematic visual style with 28 Years Later, which provides a refreshing change of pace from the more frenetic, chaotic, guerrilla-style of Boyle’s entries. DaCosta clearly puts her own stamp on the franchise rather than attempting to mimic Boyle’s style, and she does provide some nice flair with the way she depicts the point of view of the Infected; something the franchise has never truly touched on before.

Overall, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is not a total loss. There are some fine performances, nice direction, and interesting world-building elements on display. However, as a film franchise, the 28 Years Later entries lack that effective snap and panache to create a satisfying, standalone entry.

The movie plays more like the middle portion of a longer television season rather than providing a more well-rounded cinematic event. Perhaps the planned third installment will satisfyingly bring all the elements and ideas together, but so far, it looks rather disjointed.

Where to Watch 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple arrives in theaters on January 16. Tickets and showtime information are available at the movie’s official website.

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

There are quite a few things to like in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, including a fine performance by Ralph Fiennes, and the new ground the plot covers regarding the Infected and the Rage Virus. However, The Bone Temple is a tale of two movies, between Dr. Kelson's relationship with Samson, and Spike's captivity in Jimmy Crystal's cult. The Jimmy Crystal storyline loses steam quickly, and the two simply do not coalesce well. It sets up a sequel in a way that will likely delight certain fans, but it left this reviewer rather cold. As a standalone movie, 28 Years Later worked much better than The Bone Temple. However, as a duology, both of these films come up rather short and lack cohesion. The grander plot appears to have been lost.