Returning to the dystopian world created by director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland all the way back in 2002 and later reprised with 28 Years Later last year, The Bone Temple sees new director Nia DaCosta take over the reins of the franchise. Garland is still on board as the writer, and the film picks up where the last movie ended.
We are dropped into this out-of-control world with more characters and more story lines to follow. The architect of the bone yard, Dr Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), returns and has actually become friends with an infected alpha male by the name of Sampson (Chi Lewis-Parry). His medical curiosity is engaged by his connection with this monster of a man through getting him addicted to opioids.
Elsewhere, Spike (Alfie Williams) returns and he has become a member of a marauding gang led by the Satanist Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell). Nicknaming all his fellow thugs Jimmy, the gang gets up to some very horrible things. This repulses Spike, but he stays in the gang out of a sense of self-preservation. He is befriended by Jimmy Ink / Kelly (Erin Kellyman), who helps him hold on to the last parts of his humanity.
When the Jimmys and Dr Kelson finally come together, it leads to one of the greatest utilizations of a rock song in film history. While Iron Maiden’s track The Number of the Beast blasts away, through impressive theatrics, the Doc convinces the Jimmys that he is actually Satan. This scene alone is worth the price of admission. Elsewhere, the story is given extra gravitas by the underlying hint of redemption in a world that is in the throes of absolute chaos. This all happens amid the rampant escalation of the infected and the barbarism that lies at the heart of survival.
Rob Hudson
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