Marvel Could Learn A Lesson From 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple's Ending

This article contains major spoilers for "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple."

There's been a significant level-up in franchise filmmaking going on, if you haven't been paying attention, and big-budget rivals would do well to take some notes. Danny Boyle's return to the zombie genre with 2025's "28 Years Later" was everything we could've hoped for and more from a legacy sequel. Screenwriter Alex Garland's bold (and unmistakably studio-unfriendly) decision to tell a brand-new story with completely different characters paid dividends. The result was a much more emotional and deeply meaningful film than the straightforward follow-up most fans likely envisioned in their heads going in. Next, it was Nia DaCosta's turn to recreate that same magic with "The Bone Temple." DaCosta and Garland's chosen ending might be even more overt in its sequel-bait ambitions than its predecessor's jarring ending. And, yet, it works incredibly well.

The final scene brings back Cillian Murphy's survivor Jim from the original "28 Days Later" but, more to the point, feels like a challenge thrown right in the face of blockbuster IP. In a vacuum, the sudden change in perspective from young, traumatized Spike (Alfie Williams) and his fellow "Jimmy" henchkid (Erin Kellyman) to Jim and his young daughter Sam feels entirely natural. Thematically, Jim's teacherly discussion about the post-WWI Weimar Republic and the conditions that gave rise to Nazi Germany — interrupted by Spike's arrival, fleeing from authoritarian violence of his own — simply makes the film's subtext into text. What could've been an obligatory, stand-up-and-cheer cameo ripped right out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe playbook instead feels integral and vital.

Compared to, say, "Avengers: Doomsday" dragging its two biggest stars out of retirement out of sheer desperation, this is franchise storytelling done right.

It's the cameo we've all been waiting for ever since the announcement that "28 Years Later" and its proposed trilogy would continue the story of the original. You'd be forgiven for spending at least some of the runtime of "The Bone Temple" wondering exactly how Jim might get roped into the events of this ongoing narrative. The sequel predominantly splits its focus evenly between Ralph Fiennes' Dr. Ian Kelson and his shockingly friendly interactions with the Alpha infected known as Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), and poor Spike's struggles as he's held captive by the sociopathic Satanist Jimmy (Jack O'Connell) and his cult of Jimmys. But rather than follow in the footsteps of "28 Years Later," which was bookended with sequences featuring Jimmy, "The Bone Temple" opts to avoid any indication of Jim's return until it actually happens, for maximum impact.

That's how you use public information against the expectations of an audience. We've known that Cillian Murphy would play a small role in "The Bone Temple" for quite some time, with the implicit promise of a much more extensive appearance in the third film to come. But that's what makes the final sequence such a pleasant surprise, where (hopefully) we've all been sucked into the action so thoroughly that franchise concerns are the furthest thing from our minds. Better yet, Nia DaCosta doesn't even treat this as some sort of "Avengers: Endgame" portals moment, either. We simply cut to Jim's house that he shares with Sam, arriving right in the middle of their conversation and without any break for applause whatsoever. It's presented as matter-of-factly as anything else in the film, daring to respect its target demographic as grown adults who don't need jingling keys to remain invested.

Funny how much things change in just a few years, eh? In 2023, Marvel delivered a mangled and barely-recognizable version of "The Marvels" that may have had Nia DaCosta's name attached to it, but clearly didn't reflect her original intentions for the project. Fast-forward to the here and now, and the talented filmmaker has already left the superhero studio in the dust with two sterling efforts, between last year's Ibsen adaptation "Hedda" and now "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple." Even more satisfyingly, her latest work soundly beats the MCU at its own game — and something tells us that this will still hold true for the Marvel movies scheduled to arrive next.

No pressure, "Avengers: Doomsday." While directors Joe and Anthony Russo have plenty of box office success to their names (well, with a few glaring exceptions), they haven't exactly shown a taste for restraint like DaCosta has. The aforementioned "portals" sequence in "Endgame" speaks for itself, perhaps the Russos' nadir when it comes to their fan-service tendencies. And though not a Russos' film, "Spider-Man: No Way Home" is an even more egregious example of crowd-pleasing decisions hijacking an entire movie, complete with awkward pauses, hesitations, and throat-clearing for the grand returns of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Does anyone really believe hauling Chris Evans and Robert Downey, Jr. out of retirement will go any differently?

The "28 Years Later" and "Avengers" movies couldn't be more diametrically opposed in their aims, but one clearly represents the superior option. And as we wait for Cillian Murphy's expanded role in the next "28 Years Later," his "The Bone Temple" cameo represents all the potential the MCU keeps wasting. Bring it on.