28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

Following the events of 28 Years Later, Dr. Kelson and Spike continue trying to survive in the overgrown wilds of an isolated and long-abandoned England. It is a dangerous place, quarantined from the rest of the world due to the rabid hordes of infected that still roam there. And yet, despite that, it is the vicious cruelty of the other survivors that proves to be the most terrifying.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is the second movie in a new trilogy set in the same world that was first seen in the movie 28 Days Later in 2002. This is a world where an experimental "Rage" virus–an extremely contagious and highly virulent disease that casues an uncontrollable homicidal rage in anyone infected–is accidentally released from a laboratory in England, resulting in an epidemic that causes widespread societal collapse throughout Great Britain, threatening the entire world, so the island is quarantined and abandoned. Franchise originators Danny Boyle directed, and Alex Garland wrote, the first entry in the new trilogy, and they will return for the third. Nia DaCosta steps up to directs this middle film, with Garland writing this entry as well. Shot back-to-back with 28 Years Later, 28 Years Later: The Bone Palace picks up within hours, maybe even minutes, after the end of that film. Most importantly, much like the entire 28 Days franchise, this film continues to not be a zombie movie. I’ve talked about these movies before, but the gist of it goes like this…

In "Western" pop culture, there’s basically just two types of zombies.

1. Voodoo Zombies, which are (usually/most likely) rooted in super racist and xenophobic white Christian-centric views of what the religious practices of Afro-Caribbean communities are like.
2. The “Romero Rules” zombies, so called because this version first appeared in 1968 in George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, are the most popular kind of zombie in "Western" pop culture. So, whether they're actually in a movie by George Romero, or in one of the myriad others occupying the same narrative space, regardless of whether the zombies in question are fast or slow, smart or dumb, funny or scary, or whatever the variation is dreamed up, Romero Rules zombies have one rule that is always the same: They are all the recently reanimated dead.

Always. No matter what else you do with them, no matter what other rules you apply, when it comes to Romero Rules zombies, whenever a person dies, they then get up and kill. The people they kill, get up and kill! And I think we can all agree on one thing here... if the Infected in the 28 Days movie franchise were zombies—they’re not, but if they were—they’re clearly not Voodoo Zombies, which means they‘d have to be Romero Rules zombies, because there are only two types. And that is how you know for a fact that the Infected in the 28 Days franchise aren’t zombies.

Because they aren’t dead.

The very first film in the series, 28 Days Later, proved this at the end of the film. The previous film in this new trilogy, 28 Years Later, also proved this by showing the Infected not only eating, drinking, and making conscious tactical decisions, but by giving birth to living babies too. Living babies!

Like I said… they’re not dead, so they’re not zombies.

Now, does this franchise share several tropes with zombie movies? Yes, most definitely. That’s fine. When it comes to common Zombie movie tropes, there’s often overlap with Survival Horror films, with Post-Apocalyptic films, and with Outbreak films. But that doesn’t change the fact that the one thing this franchise doesn’t share with Zombie movies… is zombies. Here, the Infected are just people who should‘ve worn an N95 mask when they were out on the town, having their favorite Oriental Chicken Salad at TGIFriday's, or while shopping at Nordstrom's, or when they were going to the latest country music star's concert, instead of doing dumb shit like not wearing a mask indoors or in crowded outdoor spaces, probably while drinking raw milk, or taking horse de-worming pills, or listening to all those worm-brained, creepy weirdo dipshits like RFK jr., but they didn’t do that, so now, just like in the real life, the world has ended.

My point is… 28 Years Later: Bone Palace is not a zombie movie.

But it's still a great movie.

Also, due to the setting and the people responsible for creating it, the 28 Days franchise is somewhat unavoidably British, and while I’m sure the British people are terribly sorry for the imposition, old chaps, but the fact remains… there’s parts of these films that make no sense if you’re not British. Things like... the cult of white-blonde-wig-wearing murderous weirdos in track suits that show up at the end of the last film and are the main characters in this one.

Just for instance.

So, those scary weirdos are all dressed that way because they want to look like a man named Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile. For decades, Jimmy Savile was an extremely popular, seemingly omnipresent, English media personality and DJ. He was known for his eccentric image, charitable work, and for hosting the BBC show Top of the Pops, a weekly show that featured popular music acts teens love. Savile was basically England’s Dick Clark, and being on Top of the Pops was not only a huge deal for bands, it was a right of passage, a necessary milestone in a successful career. Meanwhile, in his public life, Savile was a ubiquitous and distinctive figure, beloved by kids and adults alike. He was well known for his various catchphrases, his distinctive mannerisms, and for his unique look, which was usually a shock of white hair, a tracksuit, and some audacious gold jewellery.

He died in 2011 at the age of 84.

After Savile’s death, there were hundreds—Hundreds!—of allegations of sexual abuse made against him. This eventually led police to conclude that not only was Jimmy Savile a predatory sex offender, but he was maybe one of the most prolific ones in the history of the United Kingdom. So, turns out, he wasn’t just England’s Dick Clark, he was also England’s Bill Cosby…

Apparently there had been multiple allegations during his lifetime, but in that familiar old song and dance, his privilege and power and position protected him, so his accusers were all either dismissed out of hand or ignored.

The only upside to all of this is the fact that Jimmy Savile–much unlike Donald Trump, whose name appears in the Epstein Files more times than Harry Potter's name appears in the book series written about him by that withered old harridan of a terf–at least so far, does not seem to be linked to Jeffrey Epstein.

So, at least there's that...

It's unclear exactly when the first film in the series, 28 Days Later, took place "in-world." Some say 2002, which is when the film was originally released, meaning these recent films are all set in 2030. Or maybe it was set in the late 90s, as some suggest, due to the presense of the Happy Eater restaurant in the previous film, 28 Years Later, which was an English franchise which closed sometime in the late 90s, which would put these recent films squarely about 2025. Others claim the first film was maybe even set as late as 2007, due to the appearance of the rebuilt Wembley Stadium in the first sequel, 28 Weeks Later, placing these current films in the mid-thirties. Whichever it was, only one thing really matters... Savile died in 2011, so in the world of the 28 Days franchise, he was still alive when the outbreak began, still on tv, and for the most part, still considered a "national treasure" as his reputation at this time was as of yet still undamaged by the revelations he was a serial sexual assaulter and rapist with a list of alleged victims ranging from young children to elderly individuals. But chin up, because this also means that, in the world of the 28 Days franchise, he was probably devoured by the Infected.

Anyway, I’m telling you all of this because, in the world of the 28 Days franchise, since the young boy–who grew up in the terrible aftermath of the end of his world to become the man known here as Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, the murderous leader of a satanic cult of survivors–was only about 8 or so when the Rage Virus outbreak first began, it's believably possible that he would've have known of, and looked up to Savile. Or at the very least, remembered him enough so that, decades later, he might decide to emulate his look based off the hazy, psychosis-addled, childhood memories he still holds onto.

Plus, in a meta-sense, Jimmy Savile's distinctive look being used the way it is in this film is a fitting eulogy to the now forever tainted myth that once wrapped an ugly man and his ugly life. May he burn forever in Hell.

So, with that, we come finally to the movie itself…

Picking up almost immediately after the end of the previous film...

After being rescued from a group of Infected by the seemingly very friendly satanist, Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal–Sir Jimmy for short–and his cult of similarly-dressed obedient young droogs, The Fingers, Spike is generously offered a place amongst them. However, since there can only ever be seven Fingers, he is forced to fight Jimmy Shite to death in order to claim a spot. Managing to eek out a victory by sticking a knife in Jimmy Shite's thigh and cutting an artery, Spike is welcomed with open arms. Sir Jimmy then officially dubs him as "Jimmy" to match the rest of his brothers and sisters in the Fingers... Jimmy Fox, Jimmy Ink, Jimmy Jimmy, Jimmy Jones, Jimmy Snake, and of course, Jimmima. And with that, he's part of the gang!

The more clever amongst you will immediately connect this group to the many times that we saw the word "Jimmy" scrawled across different surfaces in the last film, 28 Years Later, which included someone who had been tortured and strung upside down and left for the Infected to find and devour.

So, y'know... lots of red flags going up for poor Spike.

Meanwhile...

Dr Ian Kelson is continuing his quest to build the Bone Temple, a massive memento mori, its towers and columns all constructed of the stacked and bound bones of the seemingly endless dead. It is meant to be a memorial for all those who were taken and killed by the rage virus epidemic. It‘s what he does, day in and day out, finding the dead, cleaning them, and then stacking their bones, all the while protecting himself from the rage of the Infected, as well as any infectious blood splatter, by arming himself with a blowgun and morphine-tipped tranquilizer darts, and by coating his body in the orange sheen of iodine.

For a long time, the biggest threat has been the local Alpha Infected, a giant of a man Dr. Kelson has dubbed Samson, and he often has to use his blowgun to slow down the otherwise seemingly unstoppable brute. But more and more, Samson seems to be seeking Dr. Kelson out, and he seems to be doing it specifically to get tranqed. He seems to enjoy the high, and the sense of calm that comes with it, as it provides him a break from the blinding rage that is constantly boiling his brain.

Dr. Kelson begins to suspect that maybe the man Samson once was still lurks somewhere within his mind. Soon enough, Samson is no longer attacking Kelson, allowing himself to be drugged easily, and the two develop a kind of drugged-hippy friendship as they sit stoned by the river together, or dance to Rio by Duran Duran, and bits of Sampson's humanity begins to resurface. However, after all these years, especially under Samson's now much more constant use, Kelson is running low on drugs. He'll soon run out, and then he will no longer have any defense against the Infected, and most especially against Samson, so he is faced with no other choice than to euthanize his massive friend.

But just as Dr. Kelson is about to do that, Samson, while gazing up at the night sky, high as shit, dreamily utters a single word: "moon." Perhaps, Dr. Kelson thinks, the rage virus maight actually be treatable.

Meanwhile...

Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal and The Fingers raid a farm of survivors, including a pregnant woman named Cathy. Sir Jimmy claims that he is the son of Satan, so he has The Fingers brutalize the farmers, and prepare for a night of holy communion for the glory of satan, or as Sir Jimmy calls him: Old Nick.

While they're getting ready for the festivities, Sir Jimmy sends his second-in-command, the resourceful and clever Jimmy Ink, to scout around the surrounding area for their next target. Jimmy Ink is growing suspicious of whether Sir Jimmy's dad really is Old Nick, but when she stumbles across the Bone Temple, and sees Samson, the Infected Alpha, dancing amongst the bones with the capering, orange-iodine-covered, Dr Kelson... Holy shit! A palace of bones? A red-skinned old man? A friend to the Infected? Is it possible that what Sir Jimmy has been saying this whole time is true?

In the barn at the farm, Cathy manages to hide as Sir Jimmy orders the Fingers to skin all of the captured survivors alive as a sacrifice to Old Nick. But Spike can't handle it, which is understandable, because it's super gross, so he stumbles outside to puke. Jimmy Ink returns, burdened with both terrible knowledge and doubts, and finds Spike outside. She takes pity on him, and the two wait in the yard as screams echo from the barn.

Inside, as the holy communion continues, Sir Jimmy decides to offer one of the farmers, a man named Tom, a place in amongst The Fingers. But only if he can win a death match against one of the Fingers, of course. This time, Sir Jimmy allows Tom a chance to choose his opponent, and Tom very stupidly chooses Jimmima, a petite young woman dressed as Jimmy Savile with a pair costume angel wings on her back, believing her to be the smallest and the weakest–since Spike is outside–which mostly proves that Tom is a huge dumbass, as Jimmima is clearly as crazy as a loon, and the most dangerous of all The Fingers.

Jimmima quickly proves this.

She is about to rip Tom's dick off when Cathy manages to crush Jimmima's skull with a large block and tackle. All hell breaks loose as Tom lights the barn on fire with a gas tank, and only Cathy, Sir Jimmy, Jimmy Snake, Jimmy Jones, and Jimmy Fox manage to make it out alive.

All whilte Jimmy Ink and Spike watch with mild concern outside.

Cathy runs for it, and Sir Jimmy orders Spike to capture her, but Spike, once he's away from the group, desperate to escape, begs Cathy to take him with her instead. Cathy decks him and runs off. Sir Jimmy is livid at another failure, and threatens to kill Spike, but Jimmy Ink suggests instead that they visit Old Nick and let him decide Spike's fate, and then tells the others how she found the Bone Palace, all while watching Sir Jimmy's reactions closely.

Trying to hide his own surprise, curiosity, and confusion, Sir Jimmy agrees and takes the gang to the Bone Temple, where he has The Fingers wait in the distance while he meets with Kelson alone. Upon discovering Kelson is in fact not Satan, Sir Jimmy threatens to kill him if he does not pose as Satan and help substantiate Sir Jimmy's leadership over the Fingers. One of the best moments of this fantastic film is these two sitting by the river and talking.

Early the next morning, Spike tries to sneak away from Sir Jimmy's camp, but is confronted by Jimmy Fox, who attempts to kill him to avenge Jimmy Shite's death. Jimmy Ink intervenes and kills Jimmy Fox. But when she brings Spike back to the group, she tells Sir Jimmy that Jimmy Fox had fled out of fear of their impending meeting with Satan, and that she and Spike were forced to kill him in self-defence.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kelson fears that his research on curing Samson will be cut very suddenly short by the dangerously insane Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal. In a Hail Mary attempt to grant the giant Infected man some peace, Dr. Kelson injects Samson with a mix of antipsychotics and other drugs, hoping that the key to dealing with the rage virus is to control the psychotic hallucinations.

Samson wanders off, absolutely tripping balls, and ends up at the nearby abandoned train, where he was infected as a child, where he soon finds himself lost in memory of a conductor asking for his ticket. But the moment he speaks aloud to let the conductor know that he does not have a ticket, a pack of infected attack him as if he were uninfected, and Samson goes totally sickhouse on all their asses. He unleashes some murder machine mayhem, tearing the pack apart, and proving that while he may not be blind with rage anymore, he is still strong as fuck.

That night, Dr. Kelson more than complies with Sir Jimmy's demands. He puts on a heavy metal lip-sych performace for the ages, once Sir Jimmy and the remaining Fingers enter the Bone Palace, and once he's blown hallucinogenic powder in their faces, delivering a whirling, pyrotechnic-filled performance to the dulcet thunder of Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast"

And while all of this was very very cool, a highlight of an otherwise fantastic film, let me just take a moment here and say... I have no idea why this raucus display of light and sound didn't attract any of the Infected.

No idea at all.

Anyway, after the performance, Dr. Kelson recognizes Spike and seizes the moment, capitalizing on the Fingers belief that he actually is Satan to order them to crucify Sir Jimmy. In the ensuing chaos, Jimmy Ink immediately turns on Sir Jimmy, who panics and fatally stabs Kelson in desperation. Jimmy Ink is forced to fight and kill Jimmy Snake and Jimmy Jones, and Spike stabs Sir Jimmy in the side, before comforting the dying Dr. Kelson. Jimmy Ink then crucifies Sir Jimmy on the inverted cross, and then, with no one left to stab, and after first revealing to Spike that her real name is Kellie, the two of them leave the Bone Palace.

This was a good idea on their part, as Samson soon arrives, and is taken to be Satan by the mortally wounded, crucified upside-down, and also tripping balls Sir Jimmy. Samson greets Dr. Kelson by name and thanks him, as Kelson succumbs to his wounds, before carrying his body off. Sir Jimmy is then attacked by an unseen figure, who might have been Samson, but it was difficult to say.

Some time later, Spike and Kellie are seen running from a group of Infected, unaware that they are being watched by Jim, the hero of the very first movie, 28 Days Later, and his teenage daughter Sam. The father/daughter pair decide to go help Spike and Kellie out, taking a break from Sam's homeschool work, which involved a very obviously somehow pregnant-with-meaning mention of the Treaty of Versailles, which I could not quite puzzle out, but I assume will have meaning in the third film.

And thus ends 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, with the teasing promise of bringing the whole decades-long story full circle in the inevitable third chapter of this so far unexpected and brilliant new trilogy...

28 Years Late: The Bone Temple is a film that asks, in all its gory unsubtly... Are people basically good or evil? Do we get to choose which one we are?

And can we change?

And it does this while being Metal as Fuck, and also while showing that the violence of The Infected is just no match when it comes to man's gigglingly evil inhumanity to man.

If the first film in this trilogy was all about family, then this is a film all about the nature of evil. As a result, I expect the third and final one to be about redemption, but we'll have to wait and see about that. For now, this one is all about the nature of evil, and it's a film that somehow manages to find a really nice balance between it's absolute stomach-churning horror and it's surprisingly poignant commentary on acceptance, forgiveness, and the value of simple humanity. It also proves, once again, that there really is nothing scarier than being chased through the woods by a bunch of dirty naked people. Well, except for maybe when you nod off while sitting next to one. Or perhaps, when you run into a group of smiling, similarly-dressed weirdos, all of whom call each other by the same name, who really want you to hang out with them... or else.

The end of 28 Years Later left us with the promise of a very dark future awaiting Spike in this film... so let me assure you, it delivers.

The characters of Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal and The Fingers, his little gang of feral post-apocalyptic killer children, are inspired and terrifying. The whole concept is a masterful combination of some classic tropes... survivors who've been irrevocably broken by the horrors they have witnessed, an incestous hillbilly murder-clan, as well as that classic fear of "nice" people everywhere... dangrous youth gangs. It's good stuff, especially when coupled with the moments that show you that, despite the violence and the sadism and the cruelty, these kids, with their obvious naivety, and their child-like innocence and wonder, and the fear and ignorance they display towards the world, really are just a bunch of lost children, adrift in a terrible world, who got caught in the web of another child, a terrible child who experienced some terrible things, and has now gathered to them a found family of similarly broken little things, and together, their jagged edges nowcut. The look on Jimmy Shite's face, the terror and panic and sheer surprise, when he realizes he is bleeding out from the knife wound that Spike gave him, is a fantastic, and very revealing piece of character work.

And all those terrible moments make the small moments of kindness that much more meaningful. Everything you need to know about Jimmy Ink, she tells you in the moment where she sits quietly, and without judgement, next to Spike outside of the barn, unbothered by the screams echoing out of the barn herself, and yet, still understanding how it could bother him. Erin Kellyman is always ridiculously charismatic on screen, but in this moment, she clearly conveys for all to see that she will likely end up redeeming herself, and being the hero of the whole piece.

Nia DaCosta gets a lot of shit, but it's usually just a bunch of nonsense, and nothing proves the truth of that better than this film, because it was an absolute banger. Now, on it’s own, perhaps if you watched this film in a vacuum with no knowledge or interest in the other films, then sure, it could be argued that it's a fair critique to say that overall this film was a frustrating experience because it brought nothing new to the story, started too suddenly, with too little explanation, and then ended just as suddenly, without a clear point. Sure. Perhaps, much like Jim in the first movie of the franchise, if you have just woken up from a month long coma, so you have no idea what is going on here, that would be a valid response. But outside of that specific situation, I can't see how that could possibly be true in any way. For one, it's totally wrong. Just wrong. I don't understand how anyone who actually watched the film could say that and legitimately believe it. I don't know what film they were watching if they did. For two, I’m not sure what these people expected from the film. It's the middle act in a trilogy! We all know this!

I don't get it.

Well... I do.

I do get it. It's just fucking annoying and so fucking tedious, because this is how fandoms always are. It's the usual suspects doing their usual annoying shit. Just like so many other things in this world, it's a bunch of pouty bitches and truculent little big baby assholes, with their obstinately crossed arms, being all deliberately obtuse, because just like always, the entire reason for their negative reactions are nothing more than their own internalized racism and misogyny, same as it fucking ever was. This, of course, is something these fuckers will never admit to, because they are cowards who desperately need to be liked, so they'll just deny it forever, depsite how transparent they are, and despite the fact that they seem to only ever complain like this about POC or women-led genre productions, especially when they are led by POC woman.

And if that's the case–and it will be obvious if it is–then fuck those guys.

Of course, to be fair, I should clarify that it's not always due to racism and misogyny, at least not solely. You will often see these same reactions in “fandom” spaces whenever a film or tv show or a comic book or a novel or whatever fandom franchise these people claim to love comes out with a new entry, and for whatever reason, disappoints them, usually because it didn't give them a story exactly like the one they’ve made up in their head and refuse to let go of. And that's also really annoying and hugely toxic, but these weirdos are simply incapable of being normal about the fact that they're not the objective authority on whatever pop culture nonsense they've glomed onto and turned into a stand-in for their personality.

And it would not surprise me if there were a lot of examples of this in response to this movie here, as 28 Years Later: The Bone Palace, much like the previous entry, 28 Years Later, is a bold and unexepcted film from beginning to end, which is why it is so exciting and scary to watch.

But those two reasons aside, I don't think you should underestimate the visceral anger that a not-insignifigant amount of people experience as a reaction to seeing fictional gore and violence on screen. Some people just get very, very mad about it. Then, these weirdos often take this strange mix of roiling emotions that resulted from watching the film, their upset anger and revulsion, and instead of saying "I personally did not like that," they'll decide that this film was actually an objectively "bad" movie, and nothing you say will ever convince them otherwise. In fact, they'll only get louder and more angry if you try.

Now, at this point, your question may be "But if they hate gore and violence so much, why did they even go to this movie in the first place?" This is a reasonable, very "normal person" question to ask, at which point, I will remind you that these people are entitled weirdos who can not understand a world that isn't centered on them every single second of every single day, and the simple threat of potential FOMO is more than enough for them to want to burn everything down instead.

And sure, I'll allow the idea that some of these people are having difficulty squaring the idea that this new trilogy–much like the first two films–isn't strictly a horror film, at least not in the classic sense. That isn't to say that these films aren't also definitely horror flilms, because they totally are, what I am saying is, for a lot of the time, these films, and this trilogy especially, are clearly also being presented to us as a classic epic adventure story. Spike is on a quest into the unknown, and he is picking up a strange party of companions along the way. And there is most likely a very old and dangerous dragon awaiting them all at the end of their quest.

So, maybe some people are struggling with the unexpected ways that these two types of stories are intersecting. As I said already, if there's one true thing you can say about this new trilogy, it's that they are unexepcted. That unexpectedness in a story can really put some folks off balance. I mean... remember the Red Wedding? People crashed the fuck out over that. These movies are much the same. Shocking moments. Unexpected turns. And sometimes you've got to take a moment and sit with unexpected art. Sometimes its a struggle to wrap your head around, and that's fine. Sort of. I mean, there's two films now, and some of these people are still really struggling, so that starts to become a little more suspect, and I start to think maybe they should just admit that these films might not be their cup of tea (it is England, after all) and then move on, instead of throwing up smokescreen excuses because the real reason they're upset at these movies is one of the ones that I mentioned already. Maybe. Maybe not. but sure, whatever you say... they're "struggling."

But I digress.

No matter what, this film is the second film in a trilogy, the middle act that depends on the first act to exist, all so it can set up the third and final act. By its very nature, second acts have no beginning and no end. It's a bridge. And here, in this particular story, wading through hell is the point. The characters are trapped, and the only way out is through. Meanwhile, the full story, the whole point of it all, is as of yet still untold. Hopefully they'll stick the landing, but we don't know that yet. In the meantime, as everyone knows, or at least, they should know, the 2nd act is where things gets the darkest for our heroes.

But it's also where hope is rekindled...

Either way, Nia Dacosta really turns up the bleakness here. This film can get bloody and brutal at times, and in surprising ways too. I really liked its audacity and its willingness to do the unexpected. Is it a little heavy-handed? I mean, sure. I think that I'd maybe prefer to say that it is "not subtle" at all, but if you want to say heavy-handed? Fine. But to my mind, why even bother being subtle when most of your audience won’t be able to understand it anyway? Plus, as I mentioned, this is a horror/adventure film about a disease-ravaged England that is now populated by monsters, that wonders how any supposed God could allow their creation to turn into such a hell, and all while suggesting that our world was always hell... so what would even be the point of trying to be subtle here?

Maybe it's obvious at this point, but me? I liked this one even more than I did the last one, and I loved the last one. I love the idea of a quarantined England, the idea of this no-man's-land smack dab in the middle of the ongoing modern world. It's a very appealing idea to me, one ripe with possibilities. I wondered if there had ever been smugglers looking to rob banks, or to loot art museums, or if there had been NGO-funded aid drops for the survivors, or maybe off-the-books attempts to find and evacuate survivors, almost like a heist, but with getting survivors out past the quarantine. I figured there must have been at one point, but now it’s been thirty years, so maybe, after all the terror and the fuckups and the horror that probably resulted, the close-calls that showed the rest of the world how close they are to the brink, how very "there but the grace of god" their society is, so now... much like in the real world, what with COVID and Trump and all the other shit we've normalized and live with, all so we can go on with our selfish little lives, our heads turned away from the horror we have wrought, all so we can focus on the knick-kancks, bric-a-brac, and tchotchkes in peace... for most of the people in the world of the films, it's probably just too much work having to continue to pretend to care about the plight of any survivors who might still be stuck in Post-Rage England. They're probably all tired of maintaining the appearance of a soul. After all, their kids have a game later, and they need to hire a contractor for the guest bathroom, and gas is so expensive. They'd probably just rather stop thinking about it and move on, right? Turn the page. So that's probably what they did.

And I honestly love the franchise even more for that, especially when they tell you all of this that may have been through a simple shot mixing a ruined city skyline with the bleached-bone spires of the Bone Temple.

Chef's kiss.

So yeah... now I'm very curious to see what happens next. I'm very curious to find out what that reference to the Treaty of Versailles meant. I assume that, much like the introduction of Sir Jimmy and the Fingers at the end of the last film, that this is the film teasing some of the pieces to this puzzle, and I am very excited to see that full picture be revealed.

Until then, I will say that I have been very happy with this new trilogy. The bold style of the filmmaking and the unexpected turns to the story have been a delight. I am looking forward to the next chapter.

Loved this one. Thumbs up.