’28 Years Later’ ending explained: who is Jack O’Connell’s Jimmy?

Over twenty years after director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland rejuvenated the zombie horror genre, the pair have reunited on 28 Years Later.

The third instalment in the 28 Days Later franchise takes place on an island off the coast of England, as a father takes his 12-year-old son to the infected mainland for the first time.

• READ MORE: ‘28 Years Later’ review: brilliantly bizarre sequel turns the franchise on its (decapitated) head

Cillian Murphy, star of the original film, serves as an executive producer on 28 Years Later, with Scottish hip-hop trio Young Fathers providing the film’s score.

The cast is led by Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams, alongside Ralph Fiennes, Erin Kellyman, Edvin Ryding and Jack O’Connell.

What happens to Spike at the end of 28 Years Later?

Following the death of his mother Isla (Jodie Comer), who chooses to die after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, Spike (Alfie Williams) places her skull at the top of Dr Ian Kelson’s (Ralph Fiennes) bone temple in an act of remembrance.

Spike, who is left with a newborn baby from an infected mother, leaves Kelson’s temple and briefly returns home to drop off the baby outside the island’s gates. He leaves a note for his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), telling him that he’s returning to the mainland and to look after the newborn, which he’s named Isla after his mother. Jamie attempts to chase after Spike, but the high tide stops him from crossing the causeway.

We jump forward 28 days later, where Spike is surviving alone on the mainland, just as an infected horde clocks his position. His chances of survival look slim, but he’s saved by an unusual group of bandits, led by Jimmy (Jack O’Connell).

Who is Jimmy?

If the upside-down crucifix didn’t give it away, Jimmy is the survivor of the outbreak who is seen as a young kid at the start of 28 Years Later. In the opening sequence, Jimmy’s family are brutally killed by the virus, as he watches the Teletubbies, but he escapes after being given a crucifix necklace by his vicar father.

When we catch up with Jimmy years later, he’s turned into a cult-like figure inspired by Jimmy Savile, with a blonde wig and coloured tracksuit. The implication is that Savile, a TV personality who was later found to be a prolific sex offender, is still held with high regard within the deprived, quarantined English mainland depicted in 28 Years Later.

Speaking about the Jimmy character to Variety, writer Alex Garland said: “What he is from is the same thing that the entire film is from in a way, which is this film – and in a way the whole trilogy, if we ever get to make it as a trilogy – is in part about how we look in a regressive way to the past.

“Very simply, Danny [Boyle] and I grew up in an era where everything was about looking forward in some respects, and currently, for the last 10 or 15 years, we’re in an era that is very much about looking back. What the film is preoccupied with on some level is the way when we look back, there is amnesia, and there is cherry picking. Also, there are things that are misremembered.

‘What the film is, if you look at individual characters, but you also look at the community that’s represented and the elements about the communication and the world-building is a mash of those things. Things that have been forgotten, things that have been cherry-picked and things have been misremembered. They’re smushed so together, which carries within it a kind of commentary.”

When is the sequel coming out?

A sequel was shot back-to-back with 28 Years Later, titled 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. It is set to be released in cinemas on January 16, 2026.

Directed by Nia DaCosta (Candyman, The Marvels), the sequel will see Jack O’Connell, Ralph Fiennes, Alfie Williams and Aaron Taylor-Johnson reprise their roles. Cillian Murphy will also return as Jim from 28 Days Later.

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