Continuing the story of its predecessor, 28 Weeks Later provided a deeper exploration of the franchise’s post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested world. Its advancements to the narrative -specifically, the spreading of the rage virus – are sure to drive the plot of the follow-up installment, even if none of the actors will be reprising their roles in 28 Years Later.

While Cillian Murphy not returning for 28 Years Later has naturally disappointed fans, there is perhaps an even more interesting character return that we could have been headed for. Theories about Murphy’s character are brewing, but the most promising character in the two films that already exist is, of course, Andy, played by Mackintosh Muggleton in 28 Weeks Later, whose ending will be retconned in 28 Years Later. Even if the film’s ending is headed for a retcon, it still has significance, especially in setting up 28 Years Later.

How 28 Weeks Later’s Ending Confirms The Rage Virus Has Spread

28 Years Later Could Have Started Off With A High-Intensity Scene

Even though the director or writer of 28 Days Later wasn’t involved with the movie, except for Alex Garland as an executive producer, 28 Weeks Later seems surprisingly in tune with the original film. From close-up sH๏τs with a handheld camera, and an homage to the fire zombie scene, to that unmistakable score and starting where 28 Days Later ended, 28 Weeks Later is a great follow-up, albeit tonally different. It trades in whatever cinematic distance is present in the first film for a more gritty, jarring, and cynical version of the familiar zombie apocalypse.

The overrarching theme of 28 Weeks Later is the impossibility of surviving such a situation. This is why the film begins with people infected by the Rage Virus killing or infecting a few survivors who had kept themselves secure from the outside until one fatal moment. That one scene continues from 28 days after the rage virus first broke out in Britain, as shown in the previous film. Interestingly, the ending bookends 28 Weeks Later, as the final scene is set 28 days after the events that occur between the opening and closing scenes.

Right before the epilogue-like ending scene, we see Andy and his sister Tammy (Imogen Poots) being rescued by a helicopter pilot, Flynn (Harold Perrineau). We learn that he will be taking them to France, away from the newly infected lands in the UK. The characters had actually arrived from Spain at the beginning of the film. However, the final scene is far from triumphant or comforting because it doesn’t feature Andy, Tammy, or Flynn, but conveys further disparaging news.

It is unclear where the helicopter is, but the final scene of 28 Weeks Later, which occurs 28 days after Flynn rescues Andy and Tammy, depicts Flynn’s helicopter radio buzz with a call from someone. Unfortunately, Flynn wasn’t there, and neither was anybody else, suggesting the caller possibly never got the help she was calling to ask for. However, the panic in her voice and the short scene that follows it, with the score playing in the background, and frenzied, rapidly cutting handheld sH๏τs, convey clearly what is happening.

No one knows what has happened in the 28 days since Flynn flew the kids away from Britain, but the ending of 28 Weeks Later tells the audience that the rage virus has now officially broken out in mainland Europe as well. The frantic call on Flynn’s helicopter radio is from a woman desperately asking for help, and as her voice turns into shrieks, the scene transitions from Flynn’s helicopter into a sH๏τ of rage-virus-infected people running out of a Parisian metro station near the Eiffel Tower.

Andy’s Immunity In 28 Weeks Later Explained

He May Have Special Blood

Andy, who already has blood of an infected person on him from a sharpshooter killing a rage-infected person about to attack him within inches of his face, is standing alone, calling for his sister, when Don turns to him. Before Tammy can warn him or Andy can understand what’s happening, Don is on him and has attacked him, effectively infecting him. Tammy’s attempt to lure away her father by sounding like her mother is another way the ending bookends 28 Weeks Later, as she sounds exactly like their mother calling him in the opening scene.

While Tammy manages to distract Don and shoot him, Andy is surely gone by now, as the infection takes seconds to take hold. However, surprisingly, while his eyes do show blood clots, he is fine. This is perhaps because he shares the same genetic component as his mother, Alice (Catherine McCormack), which prevented her from turning despite being bitten by an infected person. Scarlet wanted to save the children in hopes that their blood might reveal a way to create a vaccine for the blood, but the final scene of 28 Weeks Later suggests something much worse has happened.

There is no proper explanation offered for Andy’s or his mother’s immunity, and there is no mention of the possibility of being immune in 28 Days Later. Since the children never learn why their mother has a bite mark but isn’t infected, they wouldn’t know that they have special blood that’s immune to exhibiting symptoms of infection. So, they’ll also not realize that, just like their mother, they can become carriers of the infection. It is likely that Andy spread the disease in France, which turns his role of hope for the future on its head, completing the bookend, as his father, who was supposed to be the protector, had abandoned his mother to be attacked by a horde of infected people in the first scene.

Where Cillian Murphy’s Jim Is Supposed To Be In 28 Weeks Later

He Is Nowhere To Be Seen

The reason everyone was excited for Cillian Murphy to reprise his role from 28 Days Later is that Jim, who doesn’t have immune blood or military training, is miraculously one of the original survivors of the viral outbreak. In a remarkable twist, and perhaps the best moment in 28 Days Later, it is revealed at the end that he has survived. Unfortunately, Murphy never returned to the role, and one can only presume he died during the outbreak in 28 Weeks Later, since he won’t be returning.

Jim isn’t in 28 Weeks Later either, so he likely succumbed during the six months between the ending of 28 Days Later and Andy and Tammy’s arrival in London, which the film starts with. Or, he might have survived that, and could have died during the second outbreak that 28 Weeks Later follows, either eaten by the infected people or sH๏τ down by the army. It is also likely Jim survives, but without Murphy returning, it is unlikely we’ll ever see the character again and Cillian Murphy’s Jim’s real ending will always be a mystery.

What Happens To The UK After 28 Weeks Later

It Is Ground Zero For The Outbreak

Since 28 Years Later plans to retcon the ending of 28 Weeks Later, it is difficult to say if the infection will actually spread to Europe or be contained within the UK. Without Andy or Tammy in the films, the possibility of developing a vaccine is possibly also not going to be explored in the new film. Moreover, the gap of 28 years could have changed everything, and all we can do is make theories about what the new film will show.

However, 28 Weeks Later is itself not ambiguous about its ending. It clearly shows that with a new outbreak and with the declaration of Code Red, there are possibly no more survivors in the Isle of Dogs, where the US Army tried to bring back civilians. Moreover, since everyone who Scarlet had told about the special properties of Alice’s blood presumably died by the end of 28 Weeks Later, inoculation is also not a possibility, leaving the UK in the same situation as 28 Days Later did.

How Andy’s Escape & The Rage Virus Spreading Set Up A 28 Weeks Later Sequel

It Is A Tease About The Franchise’s Future

The ending of 28 Weeks Later is specifically a setup for a movie to follow its events immediately. After the development of the plotline based on Alice’s surprising lack of symptoms despite being infected, the choice to show Andy being attacked by Don was made with the future in mind. Don’s attack on Andy is what makes him a carrier and also the only hope for a cure or a vaccine. If Andy hadn’t been attacked, we wouldn’t have learned that he is also carrying his mother’s genetic modification and could survive being bitten by an infected person.

This plot point has been well foreshadowed since he gets infected blood on him, and even though he doesn’t ingest it, it’s an omen for what’s to come later, especially considering Andy is the first of the siblings to see Don after he is infected, when Don seemingly attempts to attack him through a door. So, when Andy goes to France as a carrier and the film ends with a sH๏τ of infected people running in France, that’s a setup for a sequel, and makes 28 Weeks Later one of the horror movies with a great cliffhanger ending.

Will 28 Years Later Actually Follow 28 Weeks Later’s Ending?

A retcon has been teased

The fact that Cillian Murphy’s Jim isn’t returning for 28 Years Later or that Tammy and Andy won’t be in 28 Years Later is all the evidence one needs to conclude that the film won’t be picking up from 28 Weeks Later‘s ending. It could feature an homage scene similar to 28 Weeks Later, which follows people during the second outbreak before the credits, but canonically continuing isn’t possible. Being set 28 years into the future makes that particularly difficult to execute.

28 Years Later may be releasing in 2025, but Danny Boyle and Alex Garland had spoken about an idea for a third movie in the franchise back in 2007, just a month after 28 Weeks Later originally came out in theaters. If not for the years spent in development hell, 28 Years Later may have been a completely different movie altogether. However, in its current form, it won’t be following 28 Weeks Later‘s ending, and the ending of that film is going to be retconned in 28 Years Later.