Latest news with #28YearsLater
Daily Mirror
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
I'm still reeling after watching the horror film everyone's talking about
28 Years Later is a sequel to the popular 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later films, and has left viewers terrified, shocked and confused - all in equal measure. When 28 Days Later first hit the screens in 2002, I was just six years old - far too young to appreciate the intense, psychological pseudo-zombie horror filled with sprinting infected spewing blood and driven by the Rage Virus. However, as a teenager, I developed a fascination for the film and its less acclaimed sequel, 28 Weeks Later - which, in my view, boasts the best opening scene of any zombie film ever. So, you can imagine my thrill when I learnt that director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland were returning in 2025 with the third chapter of the franchise, 28 Years Later. This sequel deviates significantly from the previous films, and personally, I think this is a positive move. In the film, 28 years have elapsed since the Rage virus ravaged the UK. Mainland Britain has been quarantined, leaving those outside the island to grapple with the hordes of infected who range from the typical sprinting zombies made famous in the initial films to the swollen bloated infected who drag themselves across the forest floor surviving on worms. The introduction of these infected is utterly terrifying - the foley sound effect of these corpse-like creatures slurping down worms will echo in my mind for weeks. There's also another new type of infected - an Alpha. This monstrous zombie appears capable of critical thinking, making him a formidable foe for the main protagonists - father and son duo Jamie and Spike, portrayed by Aaron Taylor Johnson and Alfie Williams respectively, reports the Express. When Jamie guides Spike from their fortified village on Lindisfarne, across the tidal causeway to the mainland, Spike gets a rapid initiation into zombie hunting and scavenging. Echoing its predecessors, 28 Years Later is as much about family and society as it is about zombies. The plot thickens when Spike learns of a mysterious doctor on the mainland, portrayed by Ralph Fiennes, setting off an unparalleled hero's journey. In a desperate bid to find a cure for his mother Isla, brought to life by a brilliantly unhinged Jodie Comer, Spike leaves the safety of the village and his father's influence. He embarks on a perilous journey through the treacherous forest with his hallucinating mother, relentlessly chased by all three types of infected. The emotional bond between Spike and Isla was hidden in the film's promotional material, making its revelation a surprise that adds another layer of terror to the movie. Spike's commitment to finding a cure for his mother forms a central part of the storyline, ratcheting up the tension as the plot unfolds. In her lucid moments, Isla embodies the perfect mother - but she can also succumb to fits of rage and uncontrollable bleeding, eerily similar to the infected they are desperately trying to evade. The entire film is a thrilling ride, with the suspense barely easing off for a moment, culminating in the most unexpected and outlandish ending I've ever witnessed. Boyle and Gardener have already shot the next chapter of the series. 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple is slated for release in January next year, and I'll be there in the cinema on opening day. In conclusion, 28 Years Later is a brilliant extension of the franchise, and it's one of those films that has you insisting all your mates see it too, just so you can collectively ask 'what on earth was that?'.
Irish Examiner
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Irish Examiner view: It's not just sci-fi — the future may be all about being good with your hands
The new zombie-fest from film director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, 28 Years Later, has a number of rib-tickling, if far-fetched, jokes at the expense of our next-door neighbour. Who could possibly believe that it would be a good idea to place Britain into perpetual quarantine? But amid the black humour and the gore — Cork's Cillian Murphy will feel right at home when he returns to his original franchise in the second and third parts of the trilogy — there are a number of discerning pointers about what the future might hold for humankind, notwithstanding rampaging legions of 'The Infected' carrying the 'rage virus'. We are given insight into some of the employment opportunities of the future. While many people in 2025 seem to dream of becoming influencers or top sports people, these prospects appear to be fairly thin on the ground in this new world, unless the ability to run away very fast can be considered an important new life skill. Much more prized and celebrated abilities, according to hand-drawn posters on the schoolroom walls in the movie, are talents which were once ubiquitous in our society until technology took over. Children are urged to consider a career as a herdsman, or a shepherd. Job opportunities exist for those who are capable in scavenging and foraging. People who can carry out a few running repairs are highly prized. There are even vacancies for a role which is little advertised these days — that of nightwatchman. The thought that what we need to carry ourselves through the next 30 years are old-fashioned techniques and experience presented itself this week when the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) fretted about the shortfall of the 40,000 construction workers we need to make a dent in the growing backlog of housing completions. This acknowledgement that we have been encouraging young people to look in the wrong place for the wrong jobs coincided with yesterday's news that a record 15,747 people — 4,844 of them children — were in emergency accommodation at the end of May. For more than a score of years, youngsters have been urged to master technology as a route to a more rewarding and secure future, but even that golden opportunity now looks more fragile with the speedy roll-out of AI which has begun by consuming the kind of starter jobs that many new entrants to industry needed to give them early experience and a chance to build networking skills. 'Tsunami of job cuts as AI empowers Big Tech,' said one trade magazine this week. Other report illustrates how video game developers — one of the high job satisfaction meal tickets across the past two decades — are struggling with the impact of generative AI upon their work and their career prospects. Two weeks ago, the Irish Examiner published a challenging insight on the influence of AI on our college campuses — and the grades of students — in the Diary of a Gen Z Student column provided by Jane Cowan. She wrote: 'The feeling that 'you'd be stupid not to use AI' is very real, particularly when you see people walking away with high grades that they didn't really work for.' If everyone has an unearned advantage, then no one has an advantage. And if thought processes can be so easily reproduced, we may indeed find that the key jobs go to those who can solve practical problems, and work with their hands. A real example of going back to the future. End of the free ride for cycling coverage There will be many among us this morning who rise to watch the British and Irish Lions begin their antipodean campaign at 11am in the Optus Stadium in Perth, Western Australia, under the guidance of Ireland's favourite Englishman, Andy Farrell. Ireland's Stephen Roche celebrates after winning the 1987 Tour de France. After this year's Tour, the event will no longer be free to air. File picture: Billy Stickland/Inpho And each and every one of us will be familiar with the proposition that our rugby is made available from behind a paywall. If we want to watch the nine-match tour, then fans must stump up for Sky Sports, or join friends in a bar or sports club. There are very few blue riband events which are free to air these days and it's sad to note another — the Tour de France which starts from Lille on July 5 — will be disappearing after this year's race. It's an event which has provided glorious moments over the past four decades of television coverage including the 1987 triumph of Dundrum's Stephen Roche and the green jerseys of Waterford's Stephen Kelly. In a competition which has always been visually exciting and which has taught us a host of new words — not least the meaning of peloton — it was inevitable that the growth of cycling would eventually command a large worldwide audience ready to be 'monetised". We will be sorry to see it roll off our screens on the final day in Paris on July 27, but many of us will become poursuivant, chasing our annual fix of a sport which can be rough, tough, and chic all at once. What's your view on this issue? You can tell us here Appetite for apocalyptic news is falling There used to be a marketing slogan favoured by some publishers which told readers that spending time with their newspaper was 'like a friend dropping in'. This conjured up a convivial picture of happy occasions spent around the family fire, perhaps with a cup of tea, exchanging and debating the news of the day or the week. Until, someone archly observed, the 'friend' became more prone to delivering tidings of a gloomily depressing nature: Crime reports, political scandals, economic shocks, accidents and disasters, a catalogue of human failures and failings. They, and their diet of despair, were not as welcome then. And increasingly less so, if we are to accept the conclusions of the always interesting Reuters digital report which maps the tastes, responses, and conclusions of readers and news consumers around the world. The findings of the 2025 Reuters digital report show that, while overall trust in news has remained stable at 40% globally, news avoidance is higher than ever. Across markets, four in 10 people say they sometimes or often avoid the news, up from 29% in 2017. The figure for Ireland — which recorded its biggest ever increase last year, up 10 points to 44% — drops back to 41%, comparable with the US and Canada, and behind Britain. The reasons for avoiding news may seem achingly familiar. Some 39% of respondents said the news has a negative effect on their mood, while 31% say the volume 'wears them out'. A similar number, 30%, say there is too much coverage of war and conflict and 29% feel the same about politics. One in five people say there is 'nothing they can do with the information', while 18% say that it leads to 'arguments they would rather avoid'. Of course it is easy to see, through even a cursory check of today's Irish Examiner and its related supplements, that there are many examples of happy and positive coverage. But it can seem that the devil, while not possessing the best tunes, certainly has some of the loudest. 'Humankind cannot bear very much reality,' wrote TS Eliot in Burnt Norton, one of his Four Quartets, an observation validated by the latest Reuters' findings. One of the striking features of the past 10 years has been the increasing role of influencers and podcasters in the news ecosystem, and several prominent examples are name-checked in the report: The Joe Rogan Experience, the Tucker Carlson Podcast, Candace Owens. On the weekend that RTÉ broadcaster Joe Duffy signed off Liveline after 27 years, we can acknowledge his place in a lineage of Irish anchors who have had significant impact, and built large followings, over the years. The ability to deliver the news with a helping of personal spice and perspective is a characteristic in demand, although not everyone believes it is the future. In a telling interview earlier this month Mathias Döpfner, CEO and co-proprietor of the expansionist Axel Springer empire — which includes Politico, BILD, and Die Welt — warned that one of the reasons people lose trust in the media is because many reporters confuse journalism for activism, telling us what the world should look like and ignoring inconvenient news. This is a dangerous dilemma for newspapers and digital news providers. Trust, and its vital partner, credibility, once lost, cannot be recovered. Read More Irish Examiner view: Ireland needs immigrants to help address our labour shortage
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Scotsman
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Next James Bond Odds Latest: Here are the 11 favourites for 007 role - as Scott Rose-Marsh and Aaron Pierre join frontunners
1 . Aaron Taylor-Johnson - 11/8 Aaron Taylor-Johnson had previously been favourite to become the next Bond for months, following news reports that he had agreed to play the iconic role. There's been silence since though, and the lack of an official announcement has cast doubt on his involvement - particularly since Amazon took over creative control of the franchaise. Best known for playing the title character in the 'Kick-Ass' films, Taylor-Johnson also starred opposite Brad Pitt in 'Bullet Train' and is soon to be seen in horror sequel '28 Years Later'. He's now back to the favourite at 11/8 to step into 007's shoes. | Getty Images for Sony Pictures
Indian Express
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
28 Years Later: Danny Boyle has probably made Shashi Tharoor's favourite film; a thriller that punishes the British for all their plundering and pillaging
While promoting his new film, 28 Years Later, director Danny Boyle expressed retrospective reservations about Slumdog Millionaire. By far his most successful movie, it delivered the box office performance of a Marvel blockbuster and won him the prestigious Best Director Oscar. Boyle was already famous thanks to his boundary-pushing past work, but he wasn't Bollywood famous. And yet, while reflecting on Slumdog a decade-and-a-half later, he declared that he would never make something like it again; instead, he said, he would appoint a young Indian director at the helm. It seems like Boyle, who also spearheaded the opening ceremony for the London Olympics, has developed an acute case of 'white guilt'. This guilt can be felt in every frame of 28 Years Later. In addition to being a thrilling achievement in genre filmmaking, and a surprisingly emotional coming-of-age tale, 28 Years Later is stark indictment of the British Empire — a stronger one, mind you, than both RRR and Kesari Chapter 2 combined. Set in a world that has outcast the British entirely, 28 Years Later punishes them for all their plundering and pillaging. The only foreign character to set eyes on the British in over two decades views them with a mixture of curiosity and pity. They don't even know what the internet is; they've never laid hands on a mobile phone. The majority of them are brain-eating zombies; some even crawl around in the muck, slurping on worms. Forget handing out reparations, they've forgotten the very concept of money. It's as if Shashi Tharoor himself wrote the screenplay. Also read – Sinners: Ryan Coogler drives a stake through Marvel's heart in one of the year's best movies The story unfolds nearly three decades after a virus broke out and turned the majority of Britain's population into the undead. The island was quarantined, with nations of the world deploying soldiers across its perimeter to keep people from sneaking out. Anybody from the outside who dared set foot on 'Great' Britain would have to bid their old life goodbye. Nobody gets to leave. But those who survived the outbreak, and, presumably, the events of 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, created tiny communities scattered across the country, protecting themselves from the zombies with rudimentary weapons. It is in one of these isolated communities that our hero, a young boy named Spike, lives with his brawny father and bed-ridden mother. For no fault of his own, Spike inherited an irreparable world, infected by the trauma caused by generations past. All he wants is to live up to the expectations of his peers, and to not disappoint his dad. As a rite of passage, kids of Spike's age are taken out of the village, across the causeway that connects it to the country, and made to experience the zombie-infested wilderness for themselves. Over the sounds of a rallying cry expertly weaved into the background score by the Scottish trio Young Fathers, Spike and his dad make the trek into the mainland, or, what remains of it. 'There's no discharge in the war,' the voice in the background says, reciting the imperialist poet Rudyard Kipling's 'Boots'. A tattered flag of England waves atop a rusty pole. Boyle's camera cuts occasionally to propaganda posters, perhaps designed to motivate the populace during a past war — a war that the 'living' likely lost. The village that Spike lives in is a symbol of resilience, yes, but it is also a reminder of battered pride. We're told that Spike's village has no communication with others scattered across Britain; it's isolationism within isolationism. The colonisers have cornered themselves. Electrifying, unwavering, and yet, deeply sentimental, Boyle's new film is a near-perfect example of what can be done with the zombie genre. 28 Days Later was a mediation on post-9/11 paranoia. In Sean of the Dead, Boyle's fellow British filmmaker Edgar Wright used the undead to comment on the mundanity of middle-class existence; the Cuban film Juan of the Dead used zombies as a metaphor for mass-migration. Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead offered a critique of American consumerism, containing the entire plot inside a shopping mall. In 28 Years Later, Boyle and his writer, the great Alex Garland, are drawn to the idea of a nation reduced to a shadow of its former self. It is almost as if the British deserved it. Read more – Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning: Tom Cruise deserved better than a goofy Abbas-Mustan movie that chooses spoon-feeding over spectacle The indications were there from the very first scene; the movie opens with a flashback to zero day. A young child named Jimmy watches his mother being eaten to death by a horde of zombies. He makes a dash to the church, where his father, the vicar, is in some sort of trance. Spreading his arms out wide, Jimmy's father spouts some nonsense about the Day of Judgement. We're being punished for our sins, he screams with a mad glee on his face, as he's overwhelmed by zombies. A song called 'Promised Land' plays in the background; the angelic voices underscoring the apocalypse. The tone is set immediately. This is a movie about karma. It makes sense, because the last thing that Garland did was Warfare, another film that dared to point fingers at Western imperialism, but via the Iraq War. 28 Days Later ends on a rather wild note, with the sudden introduction of a cult who've modelled themselves on the (possibly un-outed) convicted sex offender Jimmy Savile — a perverse symbol of national pride if there ever was one. Britain's sins are haunting its youth. That's why Spike was forsaken; to suffer and survive with a stiff upper lip. Post Credits Scene is a column in which we dissect new releases every week, with particular focus on context, craft, and characters. Because there's always something to fixate about once the dust has settled.
Wall Street Journal
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
Hollywood Is Having a Boy-Mom Moment
In '28 Years Later,' the new zombie movie from director Danny Boyle, the undead all but disappear for a pivotal stretch toward the end of the film. That's when it becomes a five-hankie movie about a boy grappling with his mom's mortality. 'It sets out as everybody wants it to, with lots of male action and bonding, and then it begins to shift,' said Boyle. 'There's a spiritual thing that his mother teaches him.'
