28 Years Later concluded with a cameo introduction of Jack O’Connell’s character Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal.
We first saw him as a boy in the film’s opening scene, which depicts the outbreak of the Rage virus in 2002.
The Scottish lad was totally traumatised seeing his whole family killed in front of him, and his vicar father madly welcome the infected as a sign of the apocalypse before being turned himself.
Film fans were quick to point out that, as an adult, the character is dressed like Sir Jimmy Savile. The late TV presenter was considered a national treasure in life before being discovered to be one of Britain’s worst sex offenders after his death.
Now, director Danny Boyle has teased why he and his gang of Jimmies are dressed like the monster at the film’s conclusion and in the sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
Speaking with EMPIRE at a Q&A screening, Boyle said: “What he’s done to emerge out of his trauma…he’s processed that through memories of pop culture, sportswear, the English honours system… and the final one is cricket. It’s meant to be like… y’know, those terrible tumours, teratomas, that have bits of teeth and bits of hair in them? He’s kind of blended everything that he remembers because culture stopped dead [in 2002 with the Rage virus outbreak]. That’s what he’s built his new family out of.”
Boyle added: “The film is really about the nature of family and there’s many different families. And there’s the Jimmies who play a large part in the second film.” Asked if wearing his father’s crucifix upside down was a sign of rejecting God, the director replied: “The second film is about the nature of evil.”
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple hits cinemas on January 16, 2026.