28 Years Later : Time to grow up

Zombies carry spoilers even decades later!

28 years after the initial outbreak of the Rage virus that turned ordinary humans into monstrous, rampaging zombies, an isolated island community north of the UK sees young Spike leave the island for his first zombie hunt under his father’s strict guidance.

Welcome back to the world after its destruction, where yes, the United Kingdom was basically abandoned after being overrun by Rage-fueled zombies, as had large swathes of other European countries. The tiny isolated tidal island of Lindisfarne (translated as Holy Island) is separated from the mainland of Northumberland by the rising tide, and the survivor community there takes their security very bloody seriously. And this is where our story begins, on the day of Spike’s first visit to the mainland under his father’s eye, for his first hunt and kill of a zombie.

Spike (Alfie Williams) is declared awfully young for such an adventure, being all of twelve years old, but his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is adamant, his sons’ had plenty of training and learning and now need to put it into practice. Even the movie itself seems to think so, tossing in cuts of ancient videos of children merrily goose-stepping in formation and giving Nazi salutes, but hey, onward we go. The island is small and so is the community and everyone seems to know everyones elses’ business, so after making sure all his gear is together Spike heads out with his father and everyone out and about has to cheer Spike on, wish him success, and crow about the party they have planned for his return.

Spike’s mother, Isla (Jodie Comer) is clearly ill, bedridden and haggard, and jaundiced-looking, though what exactly is wrong with her is a matter of debate for most of the movie. Upon hearing Jamie’s plans to take Spike to the mainland for the first time, Isla is briefly galvanized into a mama bear to try and protect her only child, but otherwise, there are periods of her ranting and being confused and prolific nosebleeds, which could be any number of things. Spike loves his mother and wants her to be well, but resolutely, he follows his father to accost the gatekeepers and find his destiny.

Spike and Jamie are subject to a reiteration of the Rules regarding them leaving the island, which basically boil down to two very simple things – If you leave the island, you may return; if you leave the island and don’t return, no one is allowed to leave the island to go find you.
Basically, once you exit the island gate and cross the protective tidal barrier to the mainland, you are on your own. And hey, given the utter desolation of the mainland and the destruction the Rage virus and zombies wrought, that’s freaking fair enough. You were warned, little man.

Spike and his father encounter a great many things out there on the mainland, but two things stick clearly in Spike’s young inexperienced mind – the evolved Rage zombie, resistant to the usual methods the survivors employ against the other zombies, stronger and faster and way more scary somehow, that his father refers to as an Alpha; and the fires and smoke seen off in the distance that clearly seem to indicate another community or at least other survivors, that Jamie says he’s too scared to actually explore. Even a story from long ago about a younger Jamie and some hunter friends discovering a man up to some sort of weird ritualized mummery to deal with the corpses of the Rage zombies won’t convince Jamie to go investigate what, and who, could still be living over there.

Getting back to the island during low tide while being chased by the Alpha was a harrowing experience, but having survived all that and everything else besides, both Jamie and Spike succumb to an almost hysterical sense of relief during the party the islanders throw for their return. And while Spike can’t abide his fathers exaggeration of his zombie-hunting skills, nor the surreptitious shagging of someone other than his mother his father was prepared to do off in the shadows, unaware that Spike was watching, Spike is still just too young and inexperienced to understand things like the necessity of morale upkeep in order to endure life stuck on an island in the aftermath of the apocalypse. Sadly, after a relative chummily tells Spike that the fires he saw off in the distance likely belonged to a Dr. Kelson, that was all Spike needed to spur him into action on his own, for likely the first time ever.

For his beloved sick mother, Spike set a fire and easily thwarted more than twenty years of practical island security, which could have been utterly disastrous if he were less of a conscientious boy. And somehow he convinced Mum to get up out of bed and follow him through the gate, across the tidal break, and into the mainland unknown, to hunt down Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) in hopes of a cure, or at least some treatment, for whatever’s wrong with her!

What Spike and his mum find out on the mainland, what they lose and what they gain, the friends and allies they make along the way and the things they learn about the evolution of the Rage virus and the zombies themselves, are all way too spoiler-laden and will be left for the actual viewing of the film itself. A good deal of the movie is shown in a way other than what is expected, like bone and skull towers that are poignant and respectful and even lovingly backed by pretty music, instead of being terrifying and grotesque. And yes, there are references to Jimmy, yes, that Jimmy, sprinkled throughout the film and boldly shown at the very end, which of course opens the way for the sequel film of the planned trilogy, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.

See if you too can outrun an Alpha in the first 28 Years Later, in theaters now!