Crew
Director – Nia DaCosta, Screenplay – Alex Garland, Producers – Bernard Bellew, Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, Andrew MacDonald & Peter Rice, Photography – Sean Bobbitt, Music – Hildur Guðnadóttir, Visual Effects Supervisor – Dean Koonjul, Special Effects Supervisor – Sam Conway, Makeup Effects Supervisor – John Nolan, Makeup Effects – John Nolan Studio, Production Design – Carson McColl & Gareth Pugh. Production Company – DNA Films/Decibel Films.
Cast
Ralph Fiennes (Dr Ian Kelson), Jack O’Connell (Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal), Chi Lewis-Parry (Samson), Alfie Williams (Spike), Erin Kellyman (Jimmy Ink), Emma Laird (Jimmima), Mirren Mack (Cathy), Connor Newall (Jimmy Shite), luncredited] Cillian Murphy (Jim), Maiya Eastmond (Jim’s Daughter), Louis Ashbourne Serkis (Tom)
Plot
Following his capture by the gang known as The Fingers led by Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, Spike undergoes trial by combat, killing another of the gang to be accepted as one of the Jimmies. Meanwhile, Dr Ian Kelson continues to build his bone temple. He has befriended the alpha he has named Samson. By giving Samson morphine and dulling him, Kelson has maintained a friendship with him where Samson will not attack him. Running out of morphine supplies, Kelson prepares to euthanise Samson but is then startled when Samson speaks. He believes that it is possible to formulate something that will restore Samson’s consciousness. Meanwhile, Jimmy Crystal, who claims to be led by Old Nick and be his son, has been directing the Jimmies to kill other survivors they encounter. They come across Kelson and the Bone Temple where Jimmy decides that Kelson must be Old Nick himself.
28 Years Later … (2025) was the second sequel to 28 Days Later (2002), the film that started off the Zombie Film revival of the 2000s. This was sequelised with the much superior 28 Weeks Later (2007). The Bone Temple was conceived as a direct sequel following on from 28 Years Later … and was shot even before its predecessor was released. It features the continuing characters of Dr Kelson, Spike and Samson, as well as Jimmy Crystal and the Jimmies who were introduced at the end of that film.
I looked forward to The Bone Temple but was put off by the name of Nia DaCosta in the director’s chair. This was DaCosta’s fifth film. Following the Western Little Woods (2018), she began to specialise in genre material with Candyman (2021), a remake that missed much of what made the original unique, and The Marvels (2023), which I am happy to call the worst film to come out of the entire MCU. In fairness, I haven’t seen DaCosta’s Hedda (2025), which premiered three months before The Bone Temple and attracted some critics’ awards attention.
The upside is that at least Nia DaCosta’s genre films are different in tone. You could run all three of her genre works alongside one another for someone and they would likely never guess it was the same director. As compared to the farce that was The Marvels, The Bone Temple is strong and grounded. Your attention is held from the opening scene where young Alfie Williams is thrown into a disused swimming pool and expected to fight a much bigger boy, which he succeeds in doing in a surprise defeat.
Ralph Fiennes’ Dr Kelson was one of the best parts about 28 Years Later … and is made the centre of the film here. One of the best developed parts is his relationship with the Rage-infected alpha Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) with he providing morphine so that Samson can slow down and sit with him. The friendship that grows between the two of them is one of the finest aspects of The Bone Temple. And one where Alex Garland’s script manages to throw in several surprises that opens the relationship up. The zombies, aside from Samson, have largely been pushed to the periphery and The Bone Temple becomes about finding humanity amidst the apocalypse.
The other side of the coin is represented by Jimmy, played by Jack O’Connell, who was also the Irish vampire in Sinners (2025) nine months before this. O’Connell gives a lively performance – it is rather amusing to watch is his wily manipulations of the Jimmies and others they come across.
This leads to the fantastic showdown between O’Connell and Ralph Fiennes. Fiennes gets another whole side of his character that plays on modern (or at least 80s) pop music, including two of the best tracks from Duran Duran and a spirited climactic scene where Fiennes goes wild with his rendition of Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast (1982) where you would swear that Fiennes seems to be doing his best impression of a Cenobite. The twist that Garland lets the film go out with is splendid.
Trailer here