The filmmaker breaks down that tantalizing final sequence.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple director Nia DaCosta unpacks that surprise ending reveal

The filmmaker breaks down that tantalizing final sequence.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in *Vanity Fair*, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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January 16, 2026 2:15 p.m. ET

Ralph Fiennes as Dr. Kelson in '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple'. Credit:

Columbia Pictures

**This article contains major spoilers from *28 Years Later: The Bone Temple*.**

Ahead of the *28 Years Later* premiere, fans of the Danny Boyle- and Alex Garland-spearheaded horror saga were convinced they discovered Cillian Murphy's cameo in the legacyquel. One particular infected standing in a field, as glimpsed in the first trailer, had apparent physical similarities to Murphy, who starred in the original, 2002's *28 Days Later*, as bike messenger Jim.

Nia DaCosta, the director of this month's *28 Years Later: The Bone Temple*, remembers this online reaction well. "I actually thought it was hilarious," the filmmaker comments to **. "When the internet runs with something, to me it's a good thing because it proves how you can't trust anything online."

It's only funnier in hindsight because DaCosta knew the truth of Murphy's role in the new *28 Years Later* trilogy, and it kicks off at the end of her movie.

When last we saw Murphy's Jim at the end of the original film, he and two other survivors, Hannah (Megan Burns) and Selena (Naomie Harris), caught the attention of a Finnish jet, which requested a helicopter to ferry them to mainland Europe, 28 days after the outbreak of the rage virus.

Without any teases or overt build-up in *The Bone Temple*, the new film's ending sequence reveals Jim now living in a small house somewhere in the English countryside with his daughter, Sam (Maiya Eastmond), whom he's homeschooling. The scene begins during one of his lessons but pivots outside when Jim and Sam rush to find Erin Kellyman's "Jimmy Ink" and Alfie Williams' Spike, chased by infected off in the distance.

Cillian Murphy as Jim in 2002's '28 Days Later'.

Peter Mountain/Fox Searchlight

Sam asks her father if they should help, to which he replies, "We help them."

DaCosta loves that last line in the movie, as Garland wrote it. "That's what this whole thing is about," she says. "What do we choose to do? How we choose to live and choosing good."

This all leads into the third *28 Years Later* movie and the end of this trilogy. Ahead of *The Bone Temple*'s release in theaters, press reported Sony is moving ahead with the next installment, with Murphy in talks to return.

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"I wanted it to reflect the domesticity that was on the page," DaCosta says of Murphy's grand entrance. "He is making toast and tea for his daughter, he's teaching her history, and they live in a cottage in the Lake District in the post-apocalypse. The least important part of that is the post-apocalypse in terms of how it needs to look. And also, this is a punk-rock, metal series of films.... When you think of franchise filmmaking, you don't think about movies like this. So I wanted to stay true to that, as well. I didn't want it to be like, 'Here comes the hero on his horse.' No, this is f---ing bike messenger Jim. He can barely run up some stairs in the first film. Now he's a dad. And so I wanted to present him that way."

Because of the way DaCosta shot the scene, Eastmond's Sam is the first person we see. The director and Boyle — who helmed *28 Years Later* as well as the original, and produces all the movies — had a general understanding that he would cast any role that's most prominent in his films, while DaCosta would do the same for any prominent part in *The Bone Temple*. Though she ultimately left the Sam casting to Boyle.

Cillian Murphy as Jim in '28 Days Later'.

Peter Mountain/Fox Searchlight

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"I went through a whole thing with some people, and then he went through a whole thing with some people 'cause we had different casting directors," DaCosta recalls. "Because she's so big and important in this film, he went through the final rounds. Then there were two actresses that he liked — funnily enough, one for each of our sides."

Sam will presumably have a larger role in *28 Years Later 3*, to be directed by Boyle, but DaCosta says she doesn't know what's happening with that movie. "My involvement is basically being like, 'Alex, what's happening? What's happening now?'" she adds.

Despite a series of early fan screenings that began in December, the team largely maintained the secrecy around the specifics of Murphy's comeback. DaCosta remembers photos of the *Peaky Blinders* and *Oppenheimer* Oscar winner leaking from set, but notes how the crew "were truly shooting in the middle of nowhere" in the Yorkshire Dales, North Yorkshire.

"It's so north in England it's like near Scotland," she describes. "But, I don't know, people are just more chill about *28 Years Later*, I think, in the sense of, Who's actually gonna go out and start stalking set? We don't have a Timmy Chalamet movie."

*28 Years Later: The Bone Temple* is now playing in theaters.**

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