What actually happens
A hunting trip for a twelve-year-old
In the first days of the Rage virus outbreak, a boy named Jimmy Crystal runs from his home in the Scottish Highlands while infected people attack his family. His father, a minister, is in the church praying as though the end has come. He hands Jimmy a crucifix necklace and gets him to safety before letting the infected in. Twenty-eight years later the virus has been wiped out across continental Europe, but Britain is still under quarantine. On the island of Lindisfarne, connected to Britain by a causeway that the tide covers, a community gets by. Jamie, a scavenger, takes his twelve-year-old son Spike across for a hunting ritual. Out there they come across an infected man who has been bound and branded with the name Jimmy. Spike makes his first kill of an infected, and a pack led by an Alpha, a stronger and smarter kind, chases them. The sentries on the island shoot the Alpha with a ballista.
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A party for the boy, a scandal for the parents
The village throws Spike a party for his first kill. He is unhappy when Jamie exaggerates what he did, and he finds out that Jamie is having an affair with Rosey, the schoolteacher. Spike also talks to a family friend, Sam, about the fire he saw on the mainland. Sam thinks Dr Ian Kelson made it. Kelson is a former GP living in exile. The next morning Spike confronts his father about not getting medical care for his mother Isla, who has undiagnosed cancer, and about the affair. Jamie says Kelson is too unstable to help, since he once saw the doctor burning corpses in large numbers.
A baby and an Alpha
Spike does not believe his father, so he and Isla sneak off the island. A pack of infected corners them on the mainland, and a Swedish Navy seaman named Erik Sundqvist saves them. He is the only survivor of a wrecked NATO patrol boat. Isla comes across an infected woman in labour and helps her deliver a baby girl who is not infected. The woman then turns violent, and Erik shoots her. He threatens to kill Isla and Spike unless they let him kill the newborn as well. An Alpha arrives and decapitates Erik. That is the scene to brace for, and it comes right after Spike and Isla leave the island. Spike and Isla run with the baby, and Spike hits the Alpha with arrows until Dr Kelson appears and sedates it with a blowgun dart. He calls it Samson. Kelson takes them to the Bone Temple, an ossuary he built from cleaned bones of survivors and infected.
A diagnosis and a tranquilizer dart
Kelson examines Isla and finds that her cancer is advanced and terminal. He comforts Spike by saying memento amoris, which translates to remember, you must love. Spike and Isla spend their last moments together, and Isla lets Kelson euthanise her. Kelson gives Spike her skull, and Spike sets it on the highest spot in the Temple. Samson later rampages through the sanctuary, and Spike knocks him out with a tranquilizer dart, which saves Kelson's life. Kelson tells Spike to take the baby home. Spike leaves her at the village gate instead and goes back to the mainland, still disillusioned.
The ending, explained
Jamie reads a note from Spike. Spike has named the baby after Isla and promises to return once he is ready. Jamie tries to follow him to the mainland and the incoming tide blocks his way. Twenty-eight days after that, a pack of infected closes in on Spike, and an adult Jimmy Crystal rescues him. Jimmy now leads a cult of violent young people in colored tracksuits and bleached wigs. He introduces himself and invites Spike to join the group. Isla and Erik are dead, and Kelson, Jamie and Spike are alive. The baby, named for Isla, is at the village gate where Spike left her.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is 28 Years Later scary?
Yes, 28 Years Later is a 6 out of 10 with medium dread. Most of the fear comes from chases, sudden jumps and infected people appearing from nowhere, and there is a long sad stretch about a mother's illness.
How does 28 Years Later end?
Isla dies of terminal cancer and Spike leaves a baby at the village gate before returning to the mainland. The last scene has him rescued by an adult Jimmy Crystal, who leads a cult in tracksuits.
Does the dog die in 28 Years Later?
No dog dies in 28 Years Later. A deer does die: its head is ripped off in a scene that lasts a few seconds. You see the head in a tree first, which is your cue.
Is there a post-credits scene in 28 Years Later?
No. 28 Years Later has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Who is Dr. Kelson in 28 Years Later?
Dr Ian Kelson is a former GP living in exile on the mainland in 28 Years Later. He built the Bone Temple from bones, sedates the Alpha he calls Samson, and gives Isla her diagnosis.
