Warning: This article contains spoilers for 28 Years Later.The use of old war footage in 28 Years Later may seem unusual, but it ties in with a very important part of the movie. The new horror release is the third installment in the post-apocalyptic 28 Days Later franchise and features original director Danny Boyle reuniting with screenwriter Alex Garland.

The new movie, which is the beginning of an intended trilogy and is set to be followed by the upcoming 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple in January, is set in the British Isles, which have been quarantined by the outside world for almost three decades after the Rage virus reduced the population to near zero.

28 Years Later Features War Footage From Newsreels And Movies

The Trailer Also Ties Into This Element

28 Years Later features an editing trick that is not present in either of the previous 28 Days Later movies, which is the fact that certain portentous moments build tension by cutting back and forth between the action of the main story and stock footage of war scenes from old movies and newsreels.

Also included alongside this footage is a 1915 audio recording of Taylor Holmes reciting Rudyard Kipling’s 1903 poem “Boots.” The agitated, disembodied voice is also present in the trailer for the movie, highlighting how much this element of the filmmaking is integral to the filmmakers’ vision for the project. Read an excerpt from the poem below:

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!

However, as of the ending of 28 Years Later, the war footage and the audio recording are never specifically referred to or explained in the context of the story. Nevertheless, it all has an important role to play in the story that has to do with the overarching themes of the new movie.

The War Footage Represents The Loss Of British History

This Is A Major Theme In 28 Years Later

The fragments of footage that pop in and out of the action in 28 Years Later turn the movie into a poetic exercise in exploring the slow crumbling of British history and idenтιтy in the aftermath of the apocalypse. These brief glimpses represent the small, half-remembered pieces of their legacy that the survivors carry with them into a new world.

By drawing parallels between the battle against the Infected and wars from throughout Britain’s past, 28 Years Later brings British history to the forefront of the story, largely to highlight how little it is of immediate concern to the post-apocalyptic countryside.

While some of this history has proven vital in the preservation of certain enclaves like the community on the isolated coastal island of Lindisfarne (underscored by an angel statue that remains standing over the landscape), other elements have been lost to time entirely while still more have been misremembered and remixed.

This theme also extends to the 28 Years Later character Sir Jimmy Crystal, who appears at the end of the movie and is revealed to have created a cult with a unique visual aesthetic that cobbles together half-remembered elements of British pop culture from before the Rage virus struck in 2002, including the children’s series Teletubbies.

One Major Character Subtly Ties This Theme Together In 28 Years Later

Her Name Explains Everything

The most direct reference to this theme is the name of one of the most important characters in the 28 Years Later cast, which is the young protagonist Spike’s (Alfie Williams) mother Isla (Jodie Comer). His journey in the movie involves seeking a doctor for her condition (which involves severe memory loss), only to be forced to come to terms with her death.

The fact that Isla is slowly losing her memory and eventually loses her life is already potent thanks to her relationship to Spike, but her name is a clear reference to the British Isles themselves. This allows her character to function as a potent metaphor for the loss of the memory and history of the entire territory.

While this element of 28 Years Later is one of its most dour, the fact that Spike comes to accept his mother’s death proves that the movie does not lack sparks of hope that a new society can eventually be created using the best parts of the old one.