28 Days Later recap: the story so far

No. 01 · 2002 · Film

28 Days Later recap

28 Days Later (2002) follows Jim, a courier who wakes from a coma in an empty London hospital to find a rage-inducing virus has wrecked Britain. Danny Boyle directs from Alex Garland's script. The film opens with animal rights activists freeing an infected chimpanzee from a Cambridge lab. Twenty-eight days later Jim (Cillian Murphy) wanders deserted streets until survivors Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark save him from the Infected. Jim finds his parents dead by suicide, and when Mark is bitten, Selena kills him without hesitating. In a tower block they meet cab driver Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his teenage daughter Hannah (Megan Burns), who have heard a radio broadcast promising salvation at an army blockade near Manchester. They drive north in Frank's cab and find the blockade abandoned; Frank is infected by a drop of blood and shot by soldiers. The survivors are taken to a mansion held by Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston). It starts the series.

How 28 Days Later ends

28 Days Later ends after Jim learns West's men plan to keep Selena and Hannah as sex slaves. He frees an infected soldier chained in the yard, who kills most of the unit, and Hannah reverses the cab so the soldier drags West out. Twenty-eight days later, Jim recovers in a Cumbrian cottage, and the three spread a giant "HELLO" banner for a passing jet. The home release added alternate endings in which Jim dies.

No. 02 · 2007 · Film

28 Weeks Later recap

28 Weeks Later (2007) follows two children who return to a NATO safe zone in London and bring the Rage Virus back by finding their mother alive. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo directs. During the first outbreak, Don (Robert Carlyle) abandons his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) to the Infected at a country cottage and escapes by boat. Twenty-eight weeks later, the Infected have starved, and US-led troops bring settlers into a guarded zone on the Isle of Dogs, among them Don's children Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton). The children sneak out to their old home and find Alice there, alive but ill. Army medical officer Scarlet (Rose Byrne) finds she carries the virus without symptoms; Don visits her, kisses her, is infected and kills her. When the outbreak spreads, troops are ordered to shoot everyone, and the sniper Doyle (Jeremy Renner) helps Scarlet get the children out. It follows 28 Days Later.

How 28 Weeks Later ends

28 Weeks Later ends in the Underground, where the infected Don kills Scarlet and bites Andy before Tammy kills her father. Andy, like his mother, carries the virus without symptoms. The helicopter pilot Flynn (Harold Perrineau) flies the children to France. Twenty-eight days later, a French voice calls for help on the radio and the Infected pour out of the Paris Métro, the outbreak that 28 Years Later says Europe later stamped out.

Post-credits scenes

No. 28 Weeks Later has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 03 · 2025 · Film

28 Years Later recap

28 Years Later (2025) follows Spike, a 12-year-old from an island village, who crosses to the infected mainland with his father and later his sick mother. Danny Boyle directs again from Alex Garland's script. The virus has been wiped out across Europe, but Britain remains under quarantine. On Lindisfarne, cut off from the mainland at high tide, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) takes his son Spike (Alfie Williams) across the causeway to make his first kill. They run from an Alpha, a stronger, more intelligent Infected, and see a distant fire, which a neighbour says belongs to Dr Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes). Spike learns his father is cheating and will not seek help for his mother Isla (Jodie Comer), so he slips away with her. Swedish soldier Erik Sundqvist (Edvin Ryding), stranded from a patrol boat, helps them until an Alpha kills him. It follows the earlier films after a long gap.

How 28 Years Later ends

28 Years Later ends with Kelson revealing his Bone Temple, a monument of skulls and bones, and diagnosing Isla with terminal cancer; she chooses to die, and Spike places her skull at the top. Spike leaves the baby girl Isla helped deliver at the village gate and returns to the mainland. There, a gang in tracksuits and blond wigs led by Jimmy Crystal (Jack O'Connell) saves him from the Infected. The Bone Temple continues directly.

Post-credits scenes

No. 28 Years Later has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 04 · 2026 · Film

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple recap

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) follows Spike inside a Satan-worshipping gang while Dr Kelson forms a bond with an Alpha Infected. Nia DaCosta directs from Alex Garland's script, shot back to back with the first part. To join the Fingers, Spike (Alfie Williams) must kill a member in a fight; their leader, "Sir Lord" Jimmy Crystal (Jack O'Connell), renames him Jimmy like the rest. Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman) quietly protects him. Dr Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) keeps building his ossuary while the Alpha Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) visits him for doses of morphine and stops attacking. When Samson says his first word, Kelson starts to think the virus might be treatable. The Fingers skin farm survivors alive as sacrifices, and Jimmy, who claims Satan is his father, decides Kelson must be the Devil and orders him to play the part. It follows 28 Years Later directly.

How 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple ends

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple ends with Kelson staging a fiery Satan act for the Fingers, then turning on Jimmy, who stabs him. Spike stabs Jimmy and Ink, whose real name is Kellie, nails him to an inverted cross before an Infected finds him. Samson, now lucid, thanks Kelson as he dies. Later Jim (Cillian Murphy) and his daughter see Spike and Kellie in trouble and go to help. A third film, greenlit in December 2025, was put on hold in October 2026.