Sony Pictures has released a first trailer for 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE.
Expanding upon the world created by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland in 28 Years Later – but turning that world on its head – Nia DaCosta directs 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE. In a continuation of the epic story, Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) finds himself in a shocking new relationship – with consequences that could change the world as they know it – and Spike’s (Alfie Williams) encounter with Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) becomes a nightmare he can’t escape. In the world of The Bone Temple, the infected are no longer the greatest threat to survival – the inhumanity of the survivors can be stranger and more terrifying.
Cillian Murphy serves a executive producer.
Sitting at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, critics said the film taps into contemporary anxieties with the ferocious urgency of someone infected with Rage Virus, delivering a haunting and visceral thrill ride that defies expectations. As of late July 2025, the film has achieved a worldwide box office gross of over $150 million https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt10548174/
28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE was shot back-to-back with 28 YEARS LATER and is scheduled for release on January 16, 2026.
Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) in Columbia Pictures’ 28 YEARS LATER. Courtesy of Columbia Pictures
28 DAYS LATER was a terrifying horror hit about an viral infection that ripped through Britain, rapidly killing its victims and turning them into angry zombies that spread the infection. Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland followed that up with 28 WEEKS LATER, with the Rage virus morphing and spreading to Europe. Now Boyle and Garland are back for a third round, but this time set farther into the future, with 28 YEARS LATER.
Set much farther in the future from 28 WEEKS LATER, 28 YEARS LATER is not a true sequel that continues the story line of 28 WEEKS LATER, but a new full-on post-apocalyptic story set in the same world. After a prologue that loosely ties this new film to the previous one, in which a boy evades to zombies who kill his parents, the film updates us on the situation 28 years later. The Rage virus has been fought back on the European continent but Britain has been declared a quarantine zone, with the remaining people abandoned to their fate and the waters around Britain patrolled by NATO to contain the virus.
Cillian Murphy was the star of the first two horror films, doesn’t appear in this one (although he is one of the film’s producers). Instead, the main character is a 12-year-old boy named Spike (Alfie Williams), who lives in a colony of survivors on an island off the northeast coast of England.
The people on the island are pretty self-sufficient, growing food and raising domesticated animals, with a structured society with assigned jobs and a store of scavenged items for things they can’t or don’t produce themselves in a pseudo pre-industrial life. Being an island helps keep them safe but they also guard against intruding zombie with a force armed with bows and arrows. The island does have an access to the mainland, a causeway that is accessible only at low tide. which they guard with a gate and sentries. The villagers seem to have created a pretty comfortable life but the one thing they lack is a doctor.
Spike lives with his parents Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Isla (Jodie Comer), and his grandfather. Isla is sick with a mysterious illness that comes and goes, leaving her with terrible headaches and confused when she is in the grip of a bout, but a lively, fun-loving person when she’s feeling well. With mom not feeling well, Spike’s dad Jamie decides his son is ready for the colony’s coming-of-age ritual, at trip to the mainland with his father, to kill his first zombie. Although as the other villagers remind Jamie the usual age for this ritual is 14 or 15, he insists his son is ready, although Spike seems less certain about this, and mostly trying to please his father. Leaving his ailing mother Isla in the care of Spike’s grandfather, father and son load up their arrows, grab their bows and make the trek across the causeway at low tide to the mainland, with a four hour window before the tide covers the causeway blocks retreat.
You know something has to go awry but at first all goes well. Weirdly, while they are on the mainland, Jamie and Spike do not forage for supplies to supplement their meagre ones at the store, but instead mostly stick to the forest, hunting slow-moving zombies.
They come across some, pitiful fat slug-like zombies who crawl slowly across the ground but are still capable of infecting people if they manage to sneak up on one. Spike does make his first kill – shoot them in the neck, dad says – but a few more almost sneak up on dad while he is focused on coaching his young son. The pair encounter some faster-moving zombies and even spot a dreaded Alpha, a large fast zombie with more of a brain than the rest. There are harrowing moments and frightening mad dashes, and they are even forced to hide out in a structure, something they had avoided, and while hiding in an attic, catch sight of a puzzling huge bonfire in the distance, not something likely created by the zombies.
Eventually they do make it back to the causeway. Back on the island, the villagers have planned a celebration for Spike but the boy is both rattled by his experiences and his father’s bragging and exaggerating about his prowess as a zombie-killer, and sneaks off to see his mother, accidentally glimpsing something that rattles him even more. Back home with his grandfather, Spike learns something his father concealed from him, that the bonfire they saw was probably built by a doctor. When Spike, concerned about his sick mother, asks his father about it, the father insists that the doctor has gone mad and isn’t really a doctor anymore
Spike, unsettled by his experience on the mainland and even more by his father’s behavior goes on a quest to the mainland with his sick mother, hoping to find the doctor to cure her.
The doctor is played by Ralph Fiennes, in an excellent performance, although we have to wait quite a while for his appearance which is too brief overall. The rest of the cast is good too, especially young as Spike and the wonderful Jodie Comer, as the sick mother who is charmingly funny, strong-willed and capable in her moments of lucidity. Aaron Taylor-Johnson does a fine job as the father, trying to project an bravura image but revealing a selfishness underneath. A surprise character who makes a brief appearance is a Swedish sailor who was stranded on the mainland by a shipwreck and runs into Spike and Isla on their quest. Coming from Europe, where cell phones and other benefits of modern life still exist, he has strange conversations with young Spike who has known only the medieval-ish world he was born into, making for an interesting bit of post-apocalyptic commentary.
28 YEARS LATER has its moments, with high tension moments and scary zombie attacks and chases. but there is more that is unsettling and even disturbing in the non-zombie human story that unfolds in this post-apocalyptic world. However, the script has its problems, and not everything that happens really makes sense. For example, why would the villagers risk a trip to the mainland only to shoot zombies, and not forage for supplies, which a high-risk for low-yield decision. There are other odd missteps in logic (a pregnant zombie?), while other details are carefully thought-out. It gives the story an unevenness, which is exacerbated by it’s bit episodic nature, with different sections that seem rather disconnected, and finishing with a last scene that mostly just sets up for a sequel (who knows what they would call that one).
On the plus side, along with its fine cast, the film has beautiful, even haunting locations shots, as it was largely shot where it is set, with wonderful north and northeastern locations, although weirdly, they filmmakers chose to shoot on cell phones. The island of Lindisfarne, off the northeast coast of England and connected to the mainland by a low-tide causeway, stands in for the villagers’ island. The setting is lush, green and dotted with ruined castles, abbys and cottages, as well as more modern derelict buildings
28 YEARS LATER is mixed bag, likely to divide audiences, satisfying those who can’t get enough of its zombies more than some others. Still, there are fewer zombie scenes and less pure horror of that type, while it focuses more on the subtler horror of post-apocalyptic life. While it does feature a strong cast and lovely locations, it also has an unsettling, uncomfortable and disturbing non-zombie human story. Add to that, the film’s final sequence is pure set-up for yet another sequel, which also tends to undermine it, although that might be welcome news to those who crave more Rage virus zombies.
28 YEARS LATER opens in theaters on Friday, June 20, 2025.
Sony Pictures has released 4 new character posters for 28 YEARS LATER.
Tickets are now on sale on Fandango for the next installment of the hugely popular zombie franchise 28 Years Later,premiering in theaters on Friday, June 20.
Zombie superfans can own a piece of the outbreak with a 28 Years Later Collector’s Bundle which includes a ticket to 28 Years Later and an exclusive poster for $40!
Academy Award®-winning director Danny Boyle and Academy Award®-nominated writer Alex Garland reunite for 28 Years Later, a terrifying new “auteur horror” story set in the world created by 28 Days Later. It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island 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. The film stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams and Ralph Fiennes.
This film is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for the following reasons: strong bloody violence, grisly images, graphic nudity, language and brief sexuality.
In a recent interview with IndieWire, Boyle said of Cillian Murphy and the now planned trilogy, with the next film slated to be 28 Year Later: The Bone Temple, helmed by Nia DaCosta:
It doesn’t take a genius to work out there’s going to be a big role for Cillian Murphy in it. Yeah, a significant role. All I can say, because I know the idea of the story, which has been mapped out, it is clever. It is a very smart use of him.
There is a very satisfying introduction of him in the second film, and when I saw it, the way [Nia had] done it, I was like, “Oh, yeah, that’s pretty good.” Because I’ve seen a rough cut of it. They’re doing a test of it in July. The whole Sony Corporation hasn’t turned its attention to that film yet.
I remember asking Nia DaCosta [about this new trilogy], “What do you think it’s about?” It won’t necessarily end up being about this because films change, but I said, “What do you think it’s about?” And she said, “Well, I think the first one is about the nature of family. The second one’s about the nature of evil. And the third one is about the nature of redemption.”
That’s our ambition. It is ambitious, and it’s going to be set in England, and there aren’t going to be American soldiers arriving to save it, because we know you’re not sending American soldiers anywhere anymore. It’s going to be a homeland-made and executed and completed, really. It’s a big story, but about these characters who are much as they were in the first film.
Cillian is playing the same character. He will be playing the same character. And, as you’ve seen, the characters are Jodie and Aaron and eventually Ralph in this film and Jack right at the very end.”
Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Danny Boyle (Director) at the Columbia Pictures’ 28 YEARS LATER Fan Event at Regal Union Square Theater – PICTURED: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Danny Boyle (Director) – PHOTO by: Marion Curtis /StarPix for Columbia Pictures – Regal Union Square Theater
A scene from WARFARE. Credit: Murray Close. Courtesy of A24
WARFARE is an intense, immersive experience of war that recalls the opening sequence of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN but in this case, it is most of the film. Told in real-time, it recreates the experiences of a group of U.S. Navy SEALS during an Iraq War operation that goes terribly wrong. The realism is electrifying and unblinking, with a script drawn entirely from the memories of the people who were there. Co-written and co-directed by one of the Iraq War veterans who was a part of that operation, Ray Mendoza, and Alex Garland, director of CIVIL WAR and 28 DAYS LATER. The film stars a line up of rising young stars, including Will Poulter, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Taylor John Smith, and Michael Gandolfini.
WARFARE aims to present a realistic, close-up view of war, so the drama does not flinch from the unpleasant or emotionally tough, as war films often do, cutting away at difficult moments or inserting music to ease the blow. WARFARE instead honestly shows real events, the complexity of the situation, the moral gray areas in their action or mistakes made, while also focusing on the bonds between the SEALS in this difficult situation and their commitment to their mission. Another film that springs to mind is BLACKHAWK DOWN, where what seems a simple mission becomes anything but that.
WARFARE recreates the remembered event of an operation that took place in November 2006 in Ramadi, Iraq. A platoon of U.S. Navy SEALS was divided into 3 squads, as part of an operation to to surveil suspected Al Qaeda insurgents. We follow one group who are in charge of providing support for the operation, in the form of a sniper and surveillance from the second floor of a house across the street from the building where the insurgents are meeting. It seems a straight-forward, and even a lower-risk, assignment but uncertainty, the unexpected and the unknown are the heart of war.
Will Poulter plays the officer in charge of this group, which includes two Iraqi Army members, while Ray Mendoza (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) is in charge of communications. On the second floor are medic and sniper Elliot Miller (Cosmo Jarvis) and petty officer Hildebrand (Joseph Quinn) helps keep things on task.
That commitment to honesty in portraying war means WARFARE puts us in the middle of a wartime operation gone wrong, with a script based entirely on the memories and experiences of those who were there and lived the experience. Since the script is built from various people’s memories, the point of view is shifting, as everyone has their own perspective. Co-director Alex Garland knows how to build tension and how tell a nuanced story with complicated characters and situations, a skill he demonstrated amply in CIVIL WAR and 28 DAYS LATER, and WARFARE is gripping throughout its 95 minute running time.
But before we go into the war zone, WARFARE introduces us to this squad of young soldiers, with a scene that lets us grasp how very young they are, many of them still teenagers and perhaps even far from home for the first time. These very young men are relaxing before the go on their mission, but options for relaxation are limited in this Muslim country at war. We see the young soldiers crammed into a tent, crowded around a TV monitor playing an exercise/dance video of women in tight ’80s workout gear. It is clear this video is a familiar one, a favorite even, as the young men exuberantly sing, dance and clown around along with the familiar video, anticipating favorite parts. It is an expression of typical teen silliness, of youthful male spirit and a rare release of the tensions, and while the short sequence also depicts their bonds as a team, it also gives us insight when we see these very young these men in the harrowing scenes to come.
The opening sequence gives way to another view of some of those young men, a platoon of Navy SEALS, who are sent out on a mission. They are to provide backup, and support in the form of snipers to another group who will be engaging with a group of suspected insurgents. The group’s first task is to move into the house they are to occupy, which means storming into the home of an Iraqi family, who are naturally terrified and confused by the invasion. Herding the frightened family into a ground-level room, the SEALS then breaks down a wall to a neighboring unoccupied apartment, to access the building’s second story, where they will set up their surveillance and sniper. The men joke around, and we start to get a sense of their personalities, but we know that something bad is on the horizon.
WARFARE creates an authentic view of combatants’ experiences, flaws and all. While much of the focus in on the soldiers, all the characters are portrayed as real people, and the film also honestly portrays the terror of the family, and fears of the Iraqis embedded with them. As things go wrong and become unpredictable, some people break, some make poor decisions and there is some just plain bad luck leaves then pin down with injuries, as calls for assistance go out. The snipers come under attack, grenades are tossed in, and an attempt to evacuate the wounded goes horribly wrong.
No spoilers here, but it is an intense experience, and at times, graphic one with severed limbs and more. The humanity of everyone involved in this tragic event is always fully developed, a rare thing in a war film. The actors’ strong performances are one of the highlights of this drama, with these gifted young actors crafting complex characters based on real people, who have the flaws of any human, and who make choices, good or bad, based on what limited information they have and, sometimes, on raw emotion. We can’t help but be drawn in, and be moved, by the experiences of these people caught in this horrifying situation.
At the film’s end, we get some side-by-side shots of the actors and the real people they portrayed. Unsettlingly, some of the faces of the real people are blurred out, including the Iraqi family whose apartment was commandeered, reflecting the mixed feelings around the wartime events.
This heartbreaking film can be difficult to watch but it is worth that effort for its honest portrait of the on-the-ground experience of warfare, something that people who have never experienced it directly need to understand in a world where war could occur again.
WARFARE opens in theaters on Friday, Apr. 11, 2025.
Written and directed by Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland (Civil War, 28 Days Later), Warfare embeds audiences with a platoon of American Navy SEALs on a surveillance mission gone wrong in insurgent territory. A visceral, boots-on-the-ground story of modern warfare and brotherhood, told like never before: in real time and based on the memory of the people who lived it.
Starring D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini, Adain Bradley, Noah Centineo, Evan Holtzman, Henrique Zaga, , with Joseph Quinn, and Charles Melton, WARFARE Opens In Theaters April 11.
Written and directed by Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland (Civil War, 28 Days Later), WARFARE embeds audiences with a platoon of American Navy SEALs in the home of an Iraqi family, overwatching the movement of US forces through insurgent territory. A visceral, boots-on-the-ground story of modern warfare, told like never before: in real time and based on the memory of the people who lived it.
Starring D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini, Adain Bradley, Noah Centineo, Evan Holtzman, Henrique Zaga, , with Joesph Quinn, and Charles Melton, watch the trailer below.
Garland’s CIVIL WAR, also from A24 Films, was released in early 2024. At the time he said, “It is exceptionally difficult, to make a war movie that is, in fact, anti-war. War movies find it very, very difficult to not sensationalize violence,” he says. “Most of the anti-war movies in a way are not really anti-war movies. They have so much to do with camaraderie and courage. It’s not that they are trying to be romantic, but they just become romantic. They sort of can’t help it because courage is romantic and tragedy in a way is romantic.”
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are back for more terrifying Zombie horror in the brand new thrilling trailer for 28 YEARS LATER, in cinemas on June 20, 2025.
The chilling and well-cut trailer features Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams and Ralph Fiennes.
Bravo! The narration makes it even scarier!
The addition of Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “Boots” is BRILLIANT! https://allpoetry.com/poem/8445289-Boots-by-Rudyard-Kipling. First published in 1903, in his collection The Five Nations, “Boots” imagines the repetitive thoughts of a British Army infantryman marching by forced marches in South Africa during the Second Boer War (which had ended in 1902). “It has been said that if the first four words in each line are read at the rate of two words to the second, that gives the time to which the British foot soldier was accustomed to march.”
Here are the beginning verses of Rudyard Kipling’s “Boots” (and here is the full poem):
We’re foot … slog … slog … slog … sloggin’ over Africa Foot … foot … foot … foot … sloggin’ over Africa — Boots … boots … boots … boots … movin’ up and down again! There’s no discharge in the war!
Seven … six … eleven … five … nine-an’-twenty mile today Four … eleven … seventeen … thirty-two the day before — Boots … boots … boots … boots … movin’ up and down again! There’s no discharge in the war!
Don’t … don’t … don’t … don’t … look at what’s in front of you Boots … boots … boots … boots … movin’ up an’ down again — Men … men … men … men … men go mad with watchin’ ’em An’ there’s no discharge in the war!
Academy Award®-winning director Danny Boyle and Academy Award®-nominated writer Alex Garland reunite for 28 YEARS LATER, a terrifying new story set in the world created by 28 DAYS LATER.
It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway.
When one of the group leaves the island 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.
The highly anticipated and long-awaited 3rd film in the 28 DAYS LATER series debuts next summer.
Opening in cinemas on June 20, 2025 is 28 YEARS LATER and Sony Pictures has dropped the first poster for the film starring Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell. The film is directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland.
Both 28 DAYS LATER and 28 WEEKS LATER were box office successes. Danny Boyle’s 2002 sleeper hit grossed $64,232,714 worldwide. It starred Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Megan Burns, and Brendan Gleeson. The “Rage Virus” origin story made BRAVO’s 100th spot on their list of ‘The 100 Scariest Movie Moments’ in a four-episode 2004 television series.
Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s follow-up took in $65,048,725 globally. Twenty eight weeks after a virus has wiped out all human life in the UK, the island is declared safe, and people start to move back, only to be attacked by thousands who have been infected by a new airborne version of the rage virus. The film starred Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau, Catherine McCormack, Mackintosh Muggleton, Imogen Poots and Idris Elba.
DAWN OF THE DEAD, ZOMBIELAND, WORLD WAR Z, TRAIN TO BUSAN, WARM BODIES, and SHAUN OF THE DEAD are perfect examples of how 28 DAYS LATER influenced the zombie genre. It was cool to LOVE zombie films. It still is. THE WALKING DEAD and THE LAST OF US are super successful, with no signs of stopping.
An announced fourth installment of the series, 28 YEARS LATER PART II: THE BONE TEMPLE, was shot back-to-back with 28 YEARS LATER, directed by Nia DaCosta, with Boyle and Garland returning as writers and producers and Murphy reprising his role.
Writer/director Alex Garland explored the near future in two of his previous three features. In EX MACHINA he pondered the possibilities of emerging technology and the rise of sentient artificial beings. Then in ANNIHILATION, he tackled the results of alien contact and the impact on the ecology and the military response to it. With this new film, Garland goes “back to the future”, though it’s not centuries ahead, but rather a time that could be “just around the corner”, spawned from events happening right now. And it’s not gizmos or ETs that propel the cautionary fable. No, it’s the dangers of hatred and intolerance that divide the country and lead to a CIVIL WAR. It’s not the first time, but it could be the last…
We’re not shown the causes or origin (no “first shot heard ’round the world” flashback). Instead, we’re “backstage’ as the “third-term” President (Nick Offerman) readies himself before a televised address to the fractured United States. War is already raging between the federal military and the Western Forces (WF) of California and Texas, and some other states may be joining them (Florida is mentioned in the speech). And where there’s war, there are journalists (writers and photogs) on the ground. In NYC, celebrated “shutterbug” Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst) is at the front lines with scribe pal Joel (Wagner Moura) during a violent clash between citizens and soldiers. During the mayhem, Lee assists a battered young woman named Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), who has a dream of following in Lee’s footsteps. However, Lee strongly discourages her and insists that she return home. Later, at a local hotel filled with press from around the globe, Lee and Joel meet up with an old pal, veteran New York Times reporter Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), who gets the duo to share their big plans, They’ll go the “long route” to get into the now fortress-like D.C. and somehow get an interview with the President (who has been “unavailable”). They give into Sammy’s pleading and decide to take him along. Early the next morning Lee is shocked to discover that Joel has taken on another travel partner, Jessie. After some bickering they hit the trail, making a “big circle” to enter the “back door” of the Capital. But can they survive the horrors and threats that await them down every highway and side road?
Her role as the veteran photojournalist proves to be a “high-water mark’ in the now 35-year feature film career of Ms. Dunst. The early street riot sequence gives us an insight into Lee’s character with merely Dunst’s “coiled” body language and her “taking in everything” glare under heavy “seen it all” eyelids. it appears she’s trying to file this with the far-flung conflicts she’s covered until the realization that this is happening in her “old backyard” truly hits home (it nearly paralyzes her in the big finale). A “fun” visit to a dress shop reminds her of a life she could have lived. The same is true in her relationship with Jessie as Lee tries to push her aside, then experiences a maternal joy (or perhaps as a “big sister”) in protecting and mentoring her. This film, coming off her splendid work in THE POWER OF THE DOG, really showcases Dunst’s mature acting skills. Interestingly, Ms. Spaevy’s career trajectory is so similar to the first decade of Dunst on screen. So terrific in last year’s PRISCILLA, Spaevy captures the dichotomy of Jessie, bouncing from young wide-eyed innocent to devious “climber” to headstrong post-teen making very dangerous choices to get her “props” from the seniors. We want to shield her while she still annoys us. And we finally see her ‘take the reins” as Spaevy shows us that Jessie is now a true battlefield daredevil. Much like Moura’s aspiring “swashbuckler for truth” Joel who plunges into the thick of “it”, then must try and bluff his way out of the consequences. On the opposite end is Henderson, who has also seen too much but can’t shake the “rush” even as he becomes more frustrated by his failing physicality. He knows he has his cohorts’ respect, but he fears becoming a burden and slowing them down. Offerman uses his stern gravitas to give a sinister spin on the typical blustery lying politico. But the film’s big scene stealer may be Jesse Plemons as a taunting militia bully who becomes the biggest “poster boy” for the erosion of humanity via callous banal acts of evil.
As mentioned earlier, Garland dives confidently from the worlds of science fiction, with the detour into horror with MEN, into speculative fiction with a slight hint of satire as he distorts the already twisted political atmosphere of these times. Once we get past some of the wilder concepts (“blue” Callie and “roarin’ red” Texas teaming is a big stretch), he drops us into this nightmarish “what if” fable. The villains are not easily labeled as each side commits truly barbaric acts. In one scene we side with WF who seem hopelessly “pinned down” until the battle takes a turn, ending when we find the “underdogs” take no prisoners. Yes, it is a cautionary tale, but also a tribute to the recently maligned press (we’re told that they kill members of the press on-site in DC). Lee and her team could turn back, but it’s just not in their DNA, even as they use any “downtime” to numb themselves with booze and weed. Perhaps that’s to chronicle the carnage and snap pics of a steaming pile of entrails that was a person mere seconds before. Garland also has elements of a road trip/odyssey as the crew encounters a stadium-turned-tent shelter city and a serene main street that seems removed from it all, until a big reveal. Surprisingly the film is beautifully rendered, whether driving on a highway as bodies dangle from rope tied to the overpass, to that excruciatingly tense encounter with Plemons and his murderous cohorts. Kudos to the sound techs who have crafted an immersive mix of arsenal fire, screams, and nature still being heard. The audio may be at its best, along with the rest of the film, in the dizzying final act assault on democracy’s home which gives us a sense of the chaos and desperation of those “boots on the ground”. Maybe it took a filmmaker from the “mother country” to craft the compelling, haunting, and very sobering “wake-up call” that is CIVIL WAR.
In 2017, the film BUSHWICK was released starring Dave Bautista and Brittany Snow. (Trailer)
BUSHWICK tells the story of twenty-year- old Lucy (Snow) and war veteran Stupe (Bautista). Texas, and other states (mostly Southern) are trying to secede from the U.S., and NYC is being used as a negotiation tool. Lucy meets Stupe after coming up from the subway into the military invasion of Brooklyn. Together they decide to cross the treacherous five blocks of Bushwick – littered with looters, local militias and the invading forces, in order to get home and be reunited with Lucy’s grandmother.
In December 2023, Netflix released a similar, dystopian movie, LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND. (Trailer) After a series of coordinated attacks on the United States from within, a series of bizarre events leaves most of the population isolated from their phones, internet and communications, and leads to a state of confusion. The film stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Bacon and Mahershala Ali. It’s Ali’s character, G. H. Scott, who breaks the bad news that this entire thing could be part of a three-stage process meant to destabilize the United States and start a Civil War. https://www.netflix.com/title/81314956
Hitting theaters this spring is writer and director Alex Garland’s CIVIL WAR and, you guessed it, another foreboding film of what could be coming down the pike next year after the presidential election.
Starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Cailee Spaeny, check out the trailer below.
Garland is the director of EX MACHINA and ANNIHILATION, and the writer of NEVER LET ME GO, 28 DAYS LATER and SUNSHINE, so it should be no surprise as to what kind of film is coming from the Oscar-nominated filmmaker.
“19 states have seceded.” “The three-term president assures the uprising will be dealt with swiftly,” and the most chilling, “We’re American, okay? Okay, what kind of American are you? You don’t know?”
Definitely a film not to be missed, CIVIL WAR opens in theaters April 26, 2024.
