{"id":223438,"date":"2026-01-16T17:13:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T23:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/?p=223438"},"modified":"2026-01-16T17:13:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T23:13:48","slug":"28-years-later-the-bone-temple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/28-years-later-the-bone-temple\/","title":{"rendered":"28 Years Later: The Bone Temple"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a very fascinating, mysterious quality in all of the 28 Days Later<\/em> films. With its many layers of political, religious, historical, and perhaps even racial symbolism, it\u2019s difficult to even describe what the series is about. It\u2019s easy to forget that the original film opens up in a bizarre science lab involving experimentation on chimps. A chimp is strapped down to a bed in front of several TV screens all depicting scenes of mayhem, political violence, and crime across the world. They\u2019re infected with \u201crage,\u201d the scientist says ominously before total hell breaks loose.<\/p>\n

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The series is written by the incredible sci-fi writer and filmmaker Alex Garland. His show and films like Devs<\/em>, Ex Machina<\/em>, and Annihilation<\/em> brilliantly explore topics like determinism, consciousness, and materialism. His horror movie Men<\/em> explores generational trauma\u2014particularly cycles of male violence. In 28 Days Later<\/em> this theme takes on a more historical and political dimension. England has collapsed and regressed into barbarism. Our main characters\u2014a man and two women\u2014are saved by a group of all male soldiers. The leader of the soldiers is a realist and argues that the rules of the old world must return if they are to survive. The men need a reason to live and the women must serve their role. The film doesn\u2019t quite moralize about the soldiers. Morale is genuinely low and the men need a reason to risk their lives in battle.<\/p>\n

28 Weeks Later<\/em> and 28 Years Later<\/em> are much more overtly political. Weeks<\/em>, from 2007, was a direct commentary on the Iraq war. In Years<\/em>, we take a deep look into the psychological history of English political violence. In the infamous \u201cBoots\u201d scene, we are given a historical homage of generations of young English men being raised to work and kill in an endless cycle of war. When Spike comes of age, his village resoundingly expresses gratitude and praise for his sacrifice as a soldier being lavished with feasts and legends. His father demands that he learns how to kill.<\/p>\n

The infected are infected with rage. They are the disempowered violent masses who have been activated by political revolution. In Weeks<\/em>, the US Army is sent to manage a community of survivors\u2014only to be put in a position where they have to gun everyone down to contain the infection. Again\u2014the film doesn\u2019t moralize about this. It\u2019s very realistic about the situation. The rage spreads through their community in a way that is beyond their control, and the soldiers must kill everyone for the sake of containment. Even the smallest act of humanity leads to a spread of the infection to continental Europe at the end of the film.<\/p>\n