Before the first film was even released, fans knew that the highly anticipated 28 Years Later wouldn’t be an isolated sequel. The reunion of Danny Boyle and Alex Garland to the horror franchise was being sold as an entire trilogy of new movies, and though it may have seemed like a pipedream at first, we now have two of those films officially out in the world. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is now playing in theaters, and just like the first film last summer has a major tee-up for what the next movie in the series has in store for fans. Naturally, spoilers for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple will follow.
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One major element of the new 28 Years Later movies that has had fans excited is the involvement of original 28 Days Later star Cillian Murphy. The Academy Award-winning actor was involved from the jump, acting as an executive producer on the new movies with a promise that his character Jim will return at some point. Set photos and the rumor mill pointed toward Murphy reprising his role in The Bone Temple, and now we know that that ended up being true. The big surprsie though, was who he shared the screen with, a character no one saw coming, Jim’s daughter.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Confirms Jim and Selena Have a Daughter
As 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple reaches its natural conclusion, the film surprises audiences with one last scene. After cutting away from Spike and Kelly as they leave the titular Bone Temple, the movie shifts focus to a peaceful cottage out in the countryside. Inside this home is a young woman, Sam, who is reading and learning about the aftermath of World War II. Off-screen, her father lectures to her about why the Allies decided to help rebuild the economies of their enemies rather than let them be destitute, only for the film to reveal that the teacher/dad in the sequence is Murphy’s Jim. It’s implied, based on Sam’s appearance and how 28 Days Later concluded, that Sam is the daughter of Jim and Selena (Naomi Harris). It’s worth noting that Selena isn’t seen in the sequence, but there’s nothing to indicate that she’s not still out there somewhere.
As Sam and Jim sit in the house, they hear the distant sounds of infected humans, prompting her to ask her dad what they should do. Upon leaving the house with their weapons, Jim and Sam look across the countryside and see Spike and Kelly being chased by the infected. Sam asks her dad if they should help them, and Jim says “Of course,” with the film ending as a tease for the next movie.
What’s so remarkable about the introduction of Sam and how it gives us a tease into what the next movie in the 28 Years Later series could be is how she’s so immediately fully formed. From her first line of dialogue, it’s clear that not only is Sam very intelligent and inquisitive, but that her parents have attempted to raise her in a way that is “modern,” at least in the sense that they try to still teach her about the larger outside world in addition to how to survive the infected UK landscape. This stands in direct contrast to Spike’s upbringing, who grew up only knowing the fight or flight instincts of living with the infected. As a result, these two young characters are on a collision course that we’ll no doubt see in the third film. Not a bad one, mind you, but one that will allow the series to continue exploring distinct viewpoints, something it’s done incredibly well so far.
There’s no release date yet for 28 Years Later 3, but the film has officially been greenlit, and now we can assume that Cillian Murphy will be joined by Alfie Williams as Spike,
Erin Kellyman as Kelly (fka Jimmy Ink), and also Sam.
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