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Of the many off-the-wall moments in 28 Years Later, the coda featuring Jack O'Connell's acrobatic, color-coded Jimmys butchering a bunch of infected while bouncing around the screen was perhaps the zaniest. The Jimmys are back in a major way in sequel, The Bone Temple, but in a much scarier form – and there's nary a backflip in sight.
That's according to director Nia DaCosta, who sat down with GamesRadar+ in London last November to discuss her second instalment in the 28 Years Later trilogy. Once again penned by Alex Garland, The Bone Temple picks up almost immediately after 28 Years Later's hysterical ending, with Spike undergoing a brutal initiation into the Jimmys' death cult before hitting the road with Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal and his seven fingers.
"[The Jimmys] are mostly in my film. They weren't in the first script as much, actually, in the first draft, and then they were built in a bit more for that last scene," DaCosta says. "But it was funny because Danny [Boyle] and I would be like casting, and he'd be like, 'Oh, I want people who are really physical, like backflips.' And I was like, 'Why?!' I knew I wasn't going to be needing any of that [in The Bone Temple]. And then I saw it and said, 'Oh my gosh, I love it.'"
Despite featuring several returning characters, including Spike (Alfie Williams), Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), and Alpha Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), the Jimmys are central to The Bone Temple's elemental story of good vs. evil. Ultimately, it's a film about fear and faith, as opposed to grief, which marks The Bone Temple as a film notably distinct from its predecessor.
"The two scripts were quite different and had different characters," DaCosta explains. "So I felt like there was a lot of liberty, actually, to make something that felt unique. The first thing I said when I met with the producers, including Danny and Alex, was: 'I love this, but if you're looking for like a Danny Boyle-ish film, I'm not the right person; I don't know how to do that. He's an idiosyncratic genius, and I'm not Danny Boyle. But here's what I see and here's what I'd like to do, and if that's what you're into, then great.' And then they were into it, and so really I had the freedom to make the movie as I saw it."
But after watching the Jimmys corkscrew around the screen at the climax of Boyle's film, was DaCosta tempted to introduce similar acrobatics into the Bone Temple? Or, to put it another way, is there a Backflip Cut of the film?
"Absolutely not. No, no, no," DaCosta says with a chuckle. "There's no slow-mo backflips to metal music."
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple releases in US theaters on January 15, and in UK cinemas on January 13. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming horror movies.
