Did you survive that '28 Years Later' chase scene? It was just as tough on the actors.
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's 28 Years Later is full of terrifying moments, scenes in which the end is extremely f***ing nigh.
However, one scene early in the film takes the cake as Scene Most Likely to Propel Your Heart Into Your Throat. We're talking about Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his son Spike (Alfie Williams) and their encounter with the evolved variant of infected, the Alpha.
SEE ALSO: Should you watch '28 Days Later' and '28 Weeks Later' before '28 Years Later'?
These super-strong male zombies are near-unbeatable, with improved speed, agility, and intelligence over their infected brethren, whom they can command in a single horrible screech. During Spike's first excursion to the mainland, the father and son see a colossal Alpha looming on the horizon, and the next 12 hours are spent battling his legions of infected.
"In the movie, you've gone for an interesting day out," Taylor-Johnson told Mashable. "Father and son have gone out to the mainland, he's going to show him the infected and see who they can hunt and kill, and it gets worse and worse, their situation, so the stakes definitely get very scary."
However, it's the final chase, when Jamie and Spike are on the home stretch, with the tide lowering enough for them to cross the all-important but extremely narrow and long causeway to Holy Island, that the Alpha finally gives chase. Reader, it's one of the most frightening scenes you'll see all year, our protagonists scrambling through shallow water with the thundering Alpha on their heels, and Young Fathers' distressing score sending your heart rate sky high.
"It was very intense. When you watch this movie, my exhaustion as Spike is real," Williams said. "The amount of takes it took was exhausting, wasn't it? I mean, you had to literally drag us through the water."
"Terrifying, because the Alpha's like seven-foot-tall, so his stride would meet our every two," said Taylor-Johnson.
"When we were out in the scene, it felt real, like we were being chased by the Alpha," said Williams.
Hard same.
28 Years Later is out now in cinemas.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘28 Years Later' Review: Danny Boyle Delivers Severed Heads And Broken Hearts In His Gory Zombie-Horror Threequel
Now/then, now/then… The past and the present exist in perpetual tension in the gory second sequel to Danny Boyle's zombie horror franchise. 'Time didn't heal anything,' goes the tagline, and as we learned from the recent pandemic, mankind isn't always prepared for the worst. By far the most political of the three films, 28 Years Later is particularly scathing about Brexit Britain and its little-islander mentality. But it does have global relevance at a time of rising tensions across the world, bringing to mind the possibly apocryphal quote attributed to famed German physicist Albert Einstein: 'I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.' More from Deadline '28 Years Later' Walking To $56M+ WW Opening, 'Elio' Orbiting $50M+ WW As 'Dragon' Looks To Lord U.S. Box Office – Preview '28 Years Later': Sony's Danny Boyle Pic Is Biggest Advance Ticket Seller For Horror Pic YTD, Eyes $34M+ Opening '28 Years Later' $5.8M, 'Elio' $3M Previews - Friday AM Box Office It's a moot point whether the film is set precisely in the present day, since the original 28 Days Later was made in 2002, which makes this two years early. Intriguingly, it begins with a roomful of children watching Teletubbies, the BBC kids show that first broadcast in 1997, 28 years ago. The peace is shattered by an agitated woman who begs the eldest, a young boy called Jimmy, not to open the door. Nevertheless, the walking dead break in anyway and the boy runs for his life, hiding out in a church where his father is the priest. But sanctuary is short-lived; his father is an end-times Christian who welcomes in his ravenous flock and hands his horrified son a crucifix, telling him to 'have faith.' This opening scene seems more like an overture and, indeed, has very little to do with what follows for most of the film's near-two-hour running time. We then jump forward 28 years to an island community off the northeast coast. By this time, we learn, the Rage virus has been contained to Britain, while European armies patrol the coast to prevent any of its inhabitants from leaving. The island itself is cut off from the mainland via a path that only appears at low tide, and its citizens keep a constant vigil at the ramshackle but heavily fortified entrance. The island is home to 12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams), who lives with his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and mother Isla (Jodie Comer). Confined to her bed, Isla is given to violent fits and delusional behavior, slipping in and out of rational consciousness. It is during one of these rare moments of clarity that she learns of Jamie's plans to take Spike over to the mainland, which does not go down well. Indeed, the islanders also warn Jamie that Spike is a little on the young side ('14 or 15 is more in keeping'), but off they set anyway, man and boy each armed with a bow and a quiver's supply of arrows. The trip is filmed like a father-son safari, with Spike in awe at the sheer expanse of the mainland. 'It's so big,' he marvels. 'You can go for days and weeks without seeing the coast,' Jamie tells him. The zombie hordes, meanwhile, exist for Spike to make his first kill, starting with the fat, bloated ones that writhe around on the forest floor and seem to survive on worms. 'Head and heart,' his old man reminds him as he lines up the shot. Things have changed a bit since Jamie was last there, however, and the undead have mutated; a new strain has appeared — stronger, faster, more intelligent, more alpha. Back at the island, Spike is welcomed as the returning hero, with Jamie significantly, and drunkenly, embellishing his son's bravery. It also becomes clear that Jamie is cheating on Isla, a betrayal that Spike takes personally. Believing that Jamie is simply waiting for Isla to die so that he can move on with his life and be with his mistress, Spike takes his mother on a perilous journey to the mainland, where he believes a mysterious doctor (Ralph Fiennes), the last physician still alive in the area, will be able to cure her. The first film always seemed a little far-fetched, given the speed with which seemingly rational people took up cross-dressing and cannibalism in the space of less than a month. But nearly 30 years does the trick, and Alex Garland's script makes great play of how life in Britain has become stunted. Flirting with folk horror, he makes the islanders little better than the infected, inviting comparisons with The Wicker Man as they carouse in the community center while a faded portrait of Her Majesty the Queen looks down. Spike, meanwhile, has never heard of smartphones or the internet — both of which are flourishing in the real world beyond Britain's borders — and, ever playful, Boyle often drops the ancient sound of a dial-up modem into the ominous score by Young Fathers. Good horror, though, should always be about something else, and while it takes awhile to emerge, the zombies come to represent mortality, channeling the spirit of Damien Hirst's 1991 shark piece The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. As Spike goes further upstream in search of the strikingly Colonel Kurtz-like Dr. Kelson, he learns a lot about life and death, witnessing the birth of a baby and seeing a man's head and spine ripped from his shoulders. It's a very violent film in that respect, but the emotion is more affecting than the blood, most of it generated during Fiennes' powerful 30-minute screen time. Most threequels tend to go bigger, but 28 Years Later bucks that trend by going smaller, eventually becoming a chamber piece about a boy trying to hold onto his mother. It still delivers shocks, even if the sometimes over-zealous editing distracts from Anthony Dod Mantle's painterly cinematography, but the biggest of them all is the jaw-dropping final scene, a clapback to the film's beginning and an indication of how crazy Britain has become in its lonely isolation. It's a very specific cultural reference, and seemingly comes from nowhere, but Brits in particular are likely to have a very, very visceral reaction, as it happens. Title: 28 Years LaterDistributor: SonyRelease date: June 20, 2025Director: Danny BoyleScreenwriter: Alex GarlandCast: Alfie Williams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Edvin Ryding, Ralph FiennesRating: RRunning time: 1 hr 55 mins Best of Deadline Broadway's 2024-2025 Season: All Of Deadline's Reviews Venice Film Festival 2024: All Of Deadline's Movie Reviews Telluride Film Festival 2024: All Of Deadline's Movie Reviews
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘28 Years Later' $5.8M, ‘Elio' $3M Previews – Friday AM Box Office
UPDATED FRIDAY AM AFTER EXCLUSIVE: Sony's 28 Years Later gobbled up $5.8M in previews Thursday night. That's an excellent preview number for a horror movie, especially in these times, besting the Thursday nights of Final Destination Bloodlines ($5.5M), Sinners ($4.7M), pre-Covid's A Quiet Place ($4.3M) and even post-Covid's Scream VI ($5.7M). The question is whether moviegoers, like the undead themselves, will continue to run to 28 Years Later. More from Deadline '28 Years Later' Review: Danny Boyle Delivers Severed Heads And Broken Hearts In His Gory Zombie-Horror Threequel What Are The Critics Saying About '28 Years Later'? Deadline On The Red Carpet: Aaron Taylor-Johnson On '28 Years Later's Brexit Nod, Danny Boyle Talks "The Growth" Of Horror, Jodie Comer On "Manifesting" A Movie Musical & Tom Rothman With An Actor Tip As we saw with the Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 68% last night, PostTrak audiences were also a hard crowd for this Danny Boyle movie giving it 3 stars and a 54% definite recommend. Men over 25 showed up at 52% and gave the zombie third chapter its best grades at 75%. Women over 25 were next at 27% (72% grade), followed by women under 25 at 13% (65%) and men under 25 at 9% (74%). Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar's Elio in total Wednesday and Thursday previews did $3M. The animated feature is booked in 3,750 theatres including 725 premium large format screens, 2,500+ 3D Screens and 175 D-Box/Motion screens. Elio, 28 Years Later and How to Train Your Dragon are sharing the PLFs, while Imax auditoriums will be held by the latter title. Those who watched Elio, are loving it with a 60% definite recommend from the general audience and 4 1/2 stars. Kids under 12, a near even split between boys and girls at 51%/49%, also think it's 4 1/2 stars. Parents, mostly Dads yesterday at 56%, gave it 4 stars. With yesterday being Juneteenth, a young federal holiday, distribution sources are always mixed on whether it's a big moviegoing day or not. Kids are already off from school. Yeah, but adults are off from work. While not massive, the day did have a pulse, check it out: Eight of the movies in the top 10 saw spikes in their daily grosses over Wednesday including How to Train Your Dragon (+15%), Materialists (+7%), Lilo & Stitch (+16%), Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning (+22%), Ballerina (+10%), Phoenician Scheme (+6%), and The Life of Chuck (+3%). Top 5 from yesterday: 1.) How to Train Your Dragon (Uni) 4,356 theaters, Thu $9.7M, Wk $123.4M/Wk 1 2.) Lilo & Stitch (Dis) 3,675 (-510) theaters, Thu $2.7M Wk $26M (-45%), Total $376.8M/Wk 4 3.) Materialists (A24) 2,844 theaters, Thu $1.6M, Wk $17.5M/Wk 1 4.) Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning (Par) 2,942 theaters, Thu $1.5M, Wk $15.8M (-27%), Total $171.8M/Wk 4 5.) Ballerina (LG) 3,409 theaters, Thu $1.1M, $14.1M (-56%), Total $46.5M/Wk 2 EXCLUSIVE: Sony's 28 Years Later is coming in with a preview gross tonight that's well north of $5M, we are hearing from sources. But don't start comping it yet to New Line's box office surprise sequel, Final Destination: Bloodlines which did $5.5M in previews for a franchise best opening of $51.6M. Horror films are frontloaded, duh. Rotten Tomatoes audiences are being pretty hard on this Danny Boyle zombie movie at 67% despite critics giving the installment the best reviews the 23-year old franchise has ever seen at 92%. Final Destination: Bloodlines earned both great reviews and audience exits on Rotten Tomatoes respectively with 92% and 87%. Previews began at noon for 28 Years Later. Tracking spotted this viral infected undead post-apocalyptic movie at an opening between $28M-$30M. The movie reps a return for Boyle as director and Alex Garland as screenwriter after 2002's 28 Days Later. That movie opened to $10M back in the day at 1,261 theaters, while 28 Weeks Later, which was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, opened to $9.8M back in 2007 at 2,303 theaters. Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar's Elio after two nights of previews is looking to be around $2.5M-$3M. That's the amount of preview cash that Pixar's summer 2023 movie, Elemental, banked before an $11.7M Friday and $29.6M opening. Elio is hoping to clear a 3-day between $20M-$25M. No RT audience scores yet, but critics enjoyed it at 86% certified fresh. Those reviews are stronger than Elemental at 73% fresh which wind up with an audience score of 93% and a solid A CinemaScore. As we mentioned, the best advertisement for Elio is the movie itself. In a marketplace where it's hard to launch original animation, the hope is that the Adrian Molina-Madeline Sharafian-Domee Shi directed movie pulls an Elemental and posts some wild multiple of 5x or more (that pic ended its stateside run at $154.4M). As we reported previously, Universal/DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon is expected to hold the fort at No. 1 with a second weekend of $40M-plus. Through Wednesday, the Dean DeBlois directed live action take of his animated movie is up to $113.7M. Best of Deadline 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More 'Stick' Soundtrack: All The Songs You'll Hear In The Apple TV+ Golf Series 'Stick' Release Guide: When Do New Episodes Come Out?
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Universal Swoops Into CineEurope With Fresh ‘Jurassic World Rebirth' & ‘Wicked: For Good' Clips; Touts Steven Spielberg & Christopher Nolan Projects
Hot off the nearly $200M global opening of its live-action How to Train Your Dragon, Universal kicked off its CineEurope presentation here in Barcelona today with a different sort of soaring beasts — showing exclusive clips from its upcoming Scarlett Johansson-starrer Jurassic World Rebirth. The Gareth Edwards-directed sci-fi adventure entry in the $6B+ grossing franchise starts rollout on July 2. And, of course, there was plenty of attention paid to Wicked: For Good, the sequel to Jon M. Chu's 2024 $750M global grossing fantasy musical. This included an illuminated green balloon descending from the rafters into the auditorium and an exclusive behind-the-scenes look that was introduced by Chu. More from Deadline 'Superman' Flies Into Barcelona With 30 Minutes Of Footage During Warner Bros' CineEurope Presentation Sony Unleashes Extended Footage Of '28 Years Later', Screens Scenes From Darren Aronofsky's Austin Butler-Starrer 'Caught Stealing' - CineEurope Lionsgate Shows Off Movie Magic With First 'Now You See Me: Now You Don't' Footage; Paul Feig Promises Pearl-Clutching Moments In 'The Housemaid' - CineEurope As is typical, Universal came to Barcelona with a packed slate. Veronica Kwan Vandenberg, President of International Distribution, Universal Pictures International, introduced the show, saying, 'We believe in celebrating the power of cinema and the unparalleled theatrical experience for all types of films, ranging from emotional dramas, to animated event films, daring action blockbusters, inventive horror films and charming romantic comedies.' Citing the upcoming slate from Universal, Illumination, DreamWorks Animation and Focus Features, Kwan Vandenberg said, 'In the next two years, we will deliver you the biggest and most diverse slate of films of any studio with 27 wide releases this year, and our most exciting lineup yet for 2026, which will include films from two of the greatest directors of our time Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan, and three blockbuster animations.' Of the latter, DreamWorks Animation's August release, The Bad Guys 2 zoomed in with an extended exclusive look. Niels Swinkels, EVP & MD, Universal Pictures International noted that Spielberg has wrapped his untitled event film, and that Nolan is hard at work on his epic The Odyssey which is being entirely shot with Imax cameras. Swinkels and Julien Noble, President of International Marketing, Universal Pictures International later had some fun introducing live-action/animated adventure comedy Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie, the big-screen version of Netflix's immensely popular kids series. They showed off an extended trailer. It releases domestically on September 26. Other key titles touted were Bob Odenkirk sequel Nobody 2 and Blumhouse's Five Nights at Freddy's 2, the sequel to 2023's horror hit — which got a new teaser and starts offshore rollout on December 3; M3GAN 2.0, Soulm8te and Black Phone 2 footage was also screened. From Focus, CineEurope got an exclusive look at Yorgos Lanthimos' fall release, Bugonia starring Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone; and a new exclusive trailer for Focus threequel Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, whose first trailer dropped earlier this month and has more views than the combined total of the 2nd film's teaser and trailer. The U.S. and UK open on September 12. Best of Deadline 'The Buccaneers' Season 2 Soundtrack: From Griff To Sabrina Carpenter 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More