28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is in cinemas now, but how does Cillian Murphy’s character Jim feature? Find out below.
READ MORE: ‘28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ review: sensational horror sequel will shake you to the core
The film is a sequel to last year’s 28 Years Later, which itself served as a return to the universe that was set up by Danny Boyle’s original 28 Days Later in 2002.
The Bone Temple was filmed back-to-back with its predecessor and was directed by Nia DaCosta (Hedda, The Marvels, Candyman). It sees Ralph Fiennes return as Dr. Ian Kelson, a former GP dedicated to memorialising the victims of the rage virus epidemic.
Jack O’Connell reprises his role of Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal from the final scene of 28 Years Later, while Alfie Williams returns as Spike, the teenager who sets out alone in the previous film.
The film was released in UK cinemas on Wednesday (January 14), and you can check out the trailer here:
In a four-star review of the film, NME wrote: “DaCosta and accomplished writer Alex Garland (Warfare, Ex Machina, Civil War) delight in exploring a desolate, gruesome and lawless Britain, ignored and forgotten by the rest of the world. Some jokers might say that it sounds like a documentary but the goings-on here wouldn’t happen in your local high street. Not this week, anyway.”
“With a uniformly impressive cast, spectacular scenes of carnage and the unshakeable feeling that anything could happen, this zombie franchise is as thrilling as it’s ever been. It’s well worth taking a trip to The Bone Temple.”
28 Years Later was also named as NME’s second best film of 2025.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple: what happened to Cillian Murphy’s Jim after 28 Days Later?
**Warning: spoilers ahead**
It has long been rumoured that Murphy would be involved in the new films in the 28… franchise. After it was revealed that he was listed as an executive producer on 28 Years Later, Danny Boyle confirmed that the actor would appear at some point in the trilogy.
“Like all good things in life, you may have to wait a little while for him to make his appearance,” he said last April.
When the trailer for the 2025 film dropped, many fans speculated that a particularly emaciated infected shown in the clip was in fact played by Murphy, although this later proved to be a mistaken assumption. “That’s great people think I look like a zombie cadaver,” Murphy later quipped. “It’s very flattering.”
Murphy did not end up appearing at all in 28 Years Later, and most of The Bone Temple passes without him too, until the very final scene, a coda in which the third film in the trilogy is set up.
In that scene, after the brutal conclusion to the Jack O’Connell story arc is told, the story cuts to a familiar remote cottage in Cumbria. It is the same building from the end of the original 2002 film, where Murphy’s Jim, along with Naomie Harris’ Selena and Megan Burns’ Hannah, sought refuge from the infected after fleeing Christopher Eccleston’s military blockade.
We see Jim sharing a cup of tea with his daughter Sam (Maiya Eastmond) – who we presume also to be Selena’s daughter, although Selena is so far nowhere to be seen – in the cottage, which appears to be a cosy, settled home.
Jim is prepping Sam for a history test that he is setting her, and tells her about how fascism and nationalism had been sidelined when the virus hit in 2002, but their idyll is interrupted by noises outside.
They go outside to see Spike and Kelly (Erin Kellyman) being pursued by the infected, having escaped the Jimmys. Jim and Maiya decide to help them, as the film cuts to black, setting up the final film.
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