28 Years Later Reveals What Happened To The Rest Of The World (And It's Not What You'd Expect)

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

There's one moment in "28 Days Later" that sparks a different kind of fear if you're quick enough to see it. In the final act of the 2002 horror, Jim (Cillian Murphy) tries to outrun an unhinged platoon of soldiers when he takes a tumble, landing on his back and looking up at the sky. Amid the chaos, the former bike messenger spots a contrail as an airplane flies overhead, confirming a shocking realization for our hero – the world has moved on without the rage-riddled U.K., which has been left to die alongside its infected inhabitants. No help is coming for the remnants of humanity on this island, and if it did, it would be purely by chance. 

Now the scary, gruesome, and surprisingly emotional "28 Years Later" is here and the threequel confirms that nothing has changed and that the British Isles are inhospitable environments that no one intends to visit. It's only when a stranded outsider crosses paths with Spike (Alfie Williams) that we see just how alarmingly normal the rest of the planet has remained. Coming to the rescue of a young boy and his mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), is Erik Sundqvist (Edvin Ryding), a Swedish soldier, who blows the youngster's mind with tales of the internet, next-day deliveries (implied to be via Amazon, though never directly stated as such), and botox. While this might create a brief moment of levity, it takes the previously mentioned moment from the original film and expands it to even greater unsettling lengths. The question is: how far will this discovery of a country being ostracized be taken in the future?

One thing to remember is plans are already in place for "28 Years Later" to kick off a brand new trilogy. There's just no telling of how further afield Danny Boyle and screenwriter, Alex Garland are going to take this story, and if it will stay on the shores of the U.K. as revealed in the new chapter. Yes, fans of the franchise, we know what you're thinking — "28 Weeks Later" ended with infected people making their way onto the streets of Paris, which may be addressed in future films or retconned altogether. Either way, Spike's revelation merely adds to the isolation of an island that's lost at sea, and could hold even more horrors for unfortunate folk that somehow find themselves washed up here. Or, you know. Maybe not?

As revealed in that finale and the arrival of a very controversial character, "28 Years Later" suggests that the next film, Nia DaCosta's "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple," will take us further into the mainland and potentially the abandoned towns and villages that Spike has never seen before. Doing so would be like reopening a forgotten wound on the planet that every other nation never tended to, with nothing but horrors waiting to spill out. It's there where the greatest fear might be explored in Garland and Boyle's impending trilogy. Some horrors aren't the snarling rabid ones scratching at our doors, but the ones we try to forget and carry on through life without, until they rear their ugly heads again, even angrier than before.