28 Years Later

28 Years Later (2025)

88% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 391 reviews)

Runtime: 115 minutes

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Starring: Jodie Comer, Alfie Williams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Edvin Ryding, Ralph Fiennes

From: Columbia

28 Years Later was a mixed bag; I know not everyone will be happy that my rating is lower than the norm on Letterboxd. An explanation will be provided for my opinions-note that it was still a motion picture liked by me. The three movies in the series released so far are all different from one another; that is refreshing these days even if Weeks is seen by many as a generic action-horror film.

Years follows a 12-year-old boy named Spike, who lives in an insulated island community; the only path appears during low tide. We accompany him as he explores the UK, isolated for 28 years due to the Rage Virus from the rest of the world. Yes, you could be unbearable like CinemaSins and nitpick the entire premise; I’m not an awful human being so this will not be done. Many movies have premises even more outlandish than an entire region being quarantined from the rest of the world due to a lethal virus for many years.

I can question some of the filmmaking decisions Danny Boyle made or how the Rage Virus mutated. The ending, it was just… bizarre. Unlike probably many Americans, solely due to a comment I heard that legit sounded like a gag or exaggeration from elsewhere, I knew what was being referenced by the group we see in the conclusion. It’s a disgraced figure every person from the UK would know due to their infamy. I’m a dumb Yankee who didn’t learn about him for a long while.

There is a documentary about him on the American version of Netflix yet there were probably even people in the UK that didn’t make the connection, as WHY would they reference that person? Of course, the upcoming film The Bone Temple will further elaborate upon this and hopefully address additional questions I had concerning Years. Let’s hope that isn’t being referenced for tasteless, tone-deaf reasons. All that stated, I still enjoyed that this had ambition (more than you can say about 28 Weeks Later) and for the movie’s sake, it was a blessing that Alfie Williams did a swell job as Spike, and there were nice performances from Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and an incredibly weathered-looking Ralph Fiennes.

Years told an interesting story, featuring some nice horror scenes. I’m cautiously optimistic about the next two films in this new trilogy. Will those movies have even more naked men? That was one of the many curious decisions made here.