28 Years Later's Wild Ending Sets Up The Most Controversial Horror Villain Ever

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for "28 Years Later." Read at your own risk.

At the very end of the scary, gruesome, and emotional "28 Years Later," director Danny Boyle stops trying to make your heart burst through your chest and instead sets us up for a case of cinematic whiplash. In the film's final moments, blood-curdling cries fill the air as Spike (Alfie Williams) sprints down a mountainside highway, only to reach a dead end with a group of the rage-filled Infected closing in. When all hope seems lost, help suddenly appears in the form of a grinning, perfectly healthy stranger, played by "Sinners" villain, Jack O'Connell. He and a team dressed in similar outfits descend on the frenzied mob and quickly dispatch them with impressive gymnastics and fighting skills. It's only when the dust settles and the infected are taken out that it becomes apparent to many UK-based audience members the company young Spike has found himself in, and he needs to get as far away from them as possible. 

In a bizarre and unhinged fashion, it quickly becomes clear that this gang of heroes is modeled after one of the most notorious and horrific figures in British culture, which could spark a different kind of dread and borderline offense for some UK-based moviegoers. For Boyle and writer Alex Garland, though, they know exactly what they are doing: pressing on a nerve that local audiences would prefer them not to. This wandering stranger is named Sir Jimmy Crystal, whose name and look are in line with the now haunting fashion of Jimmy Savile, one of Britain's most predatory, serial sex offenders.

Speaking as someone from "the mainland" sitting in a London showing on the night of its world premiere, I can confirm there was a collective moment of unease as the penny dropped to just what was on the screen, and who it was Jack O'Connell was supposed to be paying a grim homage to. By this point, we'd seen a rage victim give birth and a boy carefully place his mother's skull on a pile of others, but seeing someone dressed as Jimmy Savile beat them all, given the immense controversy and horror surrounding this well-known abuser, who was never charged for his crimes.

A popular radio DJ in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as a children's television show host who was knighted for his charity work, Saville died in 2011 at the age of 85. However, the year that followed led to one of the darkest chapters in British television and the nation as a whole when a scandal gripped the country and over 450 sexual assault claims were put forward against the media personality, varying between the ages of 5 and 75. Reports also surfaced against the accused involving necrophilic activity within hospitals. During these investigations, the BBC was placed under review, having backed Savile for most of his career, questioning the channel's knowledge of his activities. 

Referencing such a heinous individual is a jarring direction to take, particularly against a post-apocalyptic setting. So, what does any of this have to do with "28 Years Later," and what might the impact be for the franchise going forward?

"28 Years Later" begins with Boyle and Garland dropping us back into this nightmarish world by way of the Teletubbies. Playing on a worn-down VHS, children watch the antics of Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po as an invasion of infected sweeps through their home, just outside their living room door. It's one of the many small details that highlight exactly where society in the United Kingdom collapsed when the virus broke out. The first film was released in 2002, which, if we blend our timeline with Boyle's zombie universe, is a full decade before Savile was exposed. This also serves as our first introduction to Jimmy as a child, who grows up with a skewed perspective, including whom he chooses to see as a hero.

With no contact with the outside world, and perhaps only videotapes from a bygone era to reference, it makes sense in this catastrophic and unhinged world that the reputation of a children's television host and charity worker remains intact. Now, with such a crucial moment in the UK's history never occurring, Savile could instead be idolized in this wretched future that survivors of the infection have found themselves in. What's fittingly twisted and worth questioning, though, is what kind of cultists this following has created and the dangerous game that Garland and Boyle might be setting themselves up to play. Creating a new breed of terror is one thing, but basing it on a real-life monster that is still a highly sensitive subject is something else entirely.

While O'Connell's Jimmy is the most prominent member of the gang that comes to Spike's aid, the credits list a band that all share variations of the same name. "Falcon and the Winter Soldier" star, Erin Kellyman is listed on IMDb as Jimmy Ink, Robert Rhodes as Jimmy Jimmy, and Emma Laird of "Mayor of Kingstown" fame is credited as Jimmima. With all these names and matching outfits, Alex Garland seems to have created his own band of droogs similar to the gang led by Malcolm MacDowell's Alex in "A Clockwork Orange" (a film that was banned as a 'video nasty' in the UK and couldn't be seen for 25 years) and stuck them in this zombie infested universe. It feels like a nightmarish cocktail of British nostalgia that's intentionally hard to swallow, but one that O'Connell seems keen to dish out in the film's inevitable sequel.

In an interview with GQ earlier this year, the "Sinners" star took a moment to hint at what we can expect for his character when he appears in the Nia DaCosta-directed sequel, "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple." "Yes, Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, full moniker. He's a ... He is a gas c**t," the actor explained. "I don't know quite how to describe him yet. But thrilling to portray, that's for sure. He definitely exists in the darker pocket, certainly in contrast to anything I've ever played before." 

We'll see just how dark things get when "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple" opens its doors to theaters on January 16, 2026.