The Bone Temple’s ending, explained

A lot happens in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which picks up nearly three decades after Danny Boyle’s groundbreaking 2002 zombie movie 28 Days Later, and just moments after his 2025 sequel 28 Years Later. This latest entry, from director Nia DaCosta, sets up a conflict between good and evil with no clear winners, but once the dust has settled, the future of this franchise comes into surprising focus.

So what happens at the end of The Bone Temple, and what does it mean for the next movie in the planned 28 Years Later trilogy from screenwriter Alex Garland? We spoke to DaCosta to find out.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for the ending of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.]

Does 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple have a post-credits scene

No, the movie ends when the credits roll. However, we do get an epilogue of sorts in the final scene, which brings back a familiar face and sets up the final film in the trilogy.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’s ending, explained

At the very end of the movie, after the main story has concluded, we finally see Jim (Cillian Murphy), the protagonist of 28 Days Later. Murphy is an executive producer on these new films, but this is the first time he’s appeared on-screen in one of them, and his scene reveals a lot in just a few short moments.

We see Jim in an isolated old house that looks a lot like the one where we left him at the end of 28 Days Later. He’s speaking with a teenage girl who seems to be his daughter. He’s apparently homeschooling her, as they discuss 20th-century European history and prepare for an exam he’s administering the next day. There’s no direct mention or appearance of Selena (Naomie Harris) or Hannah (Megan Burns), the two other lead characters who survived 28 Days Later. However, it seems safe to assume that this girl is Jim and Selena’s child.

When I ask DaCosta, however, she’s hesitant to reveal anything.

“I think the answers will come,” she says.

Asked more generally if Garland or Boyle gave her any advice on how to end the movie beyond what was in the script, Dacosta replies: “No, not at all.”

“I had the privilege of leaving some things open and asking different questions,” she continues. “The main thing was just not knowing what was happening in the third film, and being like, ‘Hey, where do we need to leave off these characters for the next one? Is it OK if this is what they look like?’ Those sorts of things.”

How 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple changes 28 Days Later

The ending also raises a few other questions. Are Selena and Hannah simply off-screen, or did the zombies (or something else) get them at some point between 28 Days Later and The Bone Temple?

The fact that Jim is still in the same rural cabin in England also seems to confirm a dark answer to the original film’s open-ended question. In 28 Days Later, we see the three survivors attempt to flag down a small plane as it flies overhead in the movie’s final shot. I always assumed they were rescued soon afterward, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Hopefully, Jim and anyone else who survived with him can still get rescued when the third and final entry in the 28 Years Later franchise arrives.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is in theaters now.