The struggle for survival is constant in the post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested world of 28 Years Later, and therefore, father-son quality time looks different, too. The much-anticipated sequel to gripping zombie thrillers 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, 28 Years Later examines life decades after the fictional Rage Virus was unintentionally released into the world. The story, which reunites original director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Jimmy, a man who, according to Sony’s official description of the film, leaves his small, fortified island of survivors “on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.”
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ComicBook spoke in depth with Taylor-Johnson, as well as stars Jodie Comer and Alfie Williams, about the latest installment in the cult-horror franchise. The discussion was particularly focused on Taylor-Johnson and Williams’s father-son relationship, which in a world decimated by the Rage Virus, has become “warped.” Specifically, it pointed to the film’s scene in which their characters, father Jimmy and son Spike, go hunting — not for game — but for the infected. The conversation touched on how the scene demonstrated the high threshold of “accepted violence” in the world of 28 Years Later. Williams agreed that the level of brutality in the world of the film is “normalized.”
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Taylor-Johnson Says Denial and Protectiveness are Behind the Father-Son Zombie Hunting Scene
Taylor-Johnson, a father of four himself, found the scene in which Jimmy takes an impressionable Spike hunting for other humans ironically “kind of funny.”
“You see this moment of a herd of deer and it’s so beautiful and they’re watching there, ‘Wow, that’s amazing,’ but they’re actually out there to teach [Spike] to kill the infected,” Taylor-Johnson mused, regarding the unconventional prey. He then explained Jimmy’s motivations, using the hunting trip to prepare Spike for what survival looks like in a gruesome, dangerous post-outbreak world.
Taylor-Johnson went on to share that behind Jimmy’s protectiveness and desire to prepare his son for the realities of the world in 28 Years Later is a sense of denial about what’s outside the island they inhabit and how they’ve adapted to survive. He revealed that Jimmy taking Spike on the hunting trip is his character’s attempt to “make [killing the infected] feel like acceptance, and dehumanize the infected when really, your moral guidance is telling you that this can’t just be it. There’s something more to that.”
Taylor-Johnson continued, “I’m very much like, this is the way of life, this is how you survive, this is how we’ve done so well. And our community is so perfect. There’s nobody else out there. He’s very sort of in denial, but trying to protect his son, but sort of also holding back.”
Despite Jimmy’s attempts to instill a certain perspective in his son, Spike still challenges his father. While Jimmy may not appreciate it in the film, Taylor-Johnson likes that “Spike’s looking for the answers and the truth in it all,” and not blindly accepting what his father tells him, especially since their hunting trip takes a terrifying, deadly turn in the film.
28 Years Later is in theaters now.
