There is an important and somewhat disturbing element in 28 Years Later: Temple of Bones that may have been lost in translation when it moved from England to the United States.
In Nia DaCosta’s wild and bloody sequel to 28 Years Later, much of the story focuses on Lord Jimmy Crystal, the cult leader of a satanist and sadistic group of murderers, played by Jack O’Connell. Their name is The Jimmys (members include Jimmy Ink, Jimmy Jones, Jimmy Shite, and Jimima). Their appearance consists of colorful jerseys and long gray hair wigs.
Many viewers, especially those outside the UK, may think that the obvious choice of name and appearance is simply to add an extra splash of madness to an already crazy movie. After all, “The Bone Temple” also features a scene in which Samson, a giant Alfie zombie who rips his body from his head, dances to Duran Duran with a skull-collecting doctor played by Ralph Fiennes, naked and completely ripped off morphine.
But that’s not all. The Jimmy family and their shaken pseudo-evangelical head take inspiration from one of Britain’s most notorious figures, Jimmy Savile.
Instantly recognized in his home country for his eccentric appearance (tracksuits, gray hair and lots of bling), Savile was a British icon, a longtime star on radio and BBC children’s television, and was knighted in 1990 for his contributions to charity. However, shortly after his death in 2011, it was revealed that he had been a prolific sex offender for more than 60 years. Hundreds of charges were filed, and many of the victims included young children and the elderly. The revelations have shocked Britain, revealing how one of this country’s best-known and best-loved figures was able to misuse his fame in such a horrific way.
For DaCosta, who freely admits that American audiences are unlikely to refer to the film because Saville is by no means a household name nationally, The Jimmys are there because The Temple of Bones deals with a “deliberate perversion” of various social themes.
“There are perversions of dogma and religion, but there are also perversions of childhood memories and childhood media,” she says.
The Zombie series’ key Rage Virus occurred in the first “28 Days Later,” set in 2001. At the beginning of “28 Years Later,” young Jimmy Crystal is seen watching children’s television, just before witnessing his father become an infected zombie in an exceptionally brutal manner. Importantly, everything was now in place before Savile’s crimes came to light ten years later. So in Jimmy’s eyes within the film’s alternate reality, he is still someone to look up to and, later on, someone to emulate.
“There’s a world that ends in 2001, and a character like Jimmy whose life is destroyed in a powerful way sees Teletubbies on TV and his father was bodysurfing infected people at the time. So what is the media that he consumes?” she says. “So I think he uses these images and perverts them. That was really important to us.”
DaCosta admits he didn’t think of Saville for a second when he first read Alex Garland’s script (although he did know about Saville, as he was in the UK filming Top Boy when the story broke). For O’Connell, an Englishman of a certain age, it was a different matter.
For the actor, his understanding of this reference is also a comment on the “unlimited power” that Savile was able to wield during his lifetime.
“He’s a Lord Jimmy hangover from a time when popular culture existed. He doesn’t know what we know,” he points out.
“But he’s definitely there to cause anxiety.”
