28 Years Later dropped a meta clue you might have missed

Danny Boyle is back, and hits as hard as ever with 28 Years Later. The zombie thriller has roared to the top of the box office, bringing in $30 million domestic and $60 million worldwide. Not too shabby for an R-rated horror movie!

Fans of 28 Days Later have been poring over every detail of this masterfully scary movie, from its use of iPhones to its possible retconning of 28 Weeks Later and its bonkers ending. But there is one detail amid the thrilling finale and the Teletubbies references that some audience members might have missed.

Be warned, we’re talking spoilers for the final sequence of 28 Years Later — in particular, how it connects to an infamous British public figure, prolific sex offender, and one of the UK’s worst pedophiles, according to a posthumous police investigation.

What does Jimmy Savile have to do with 28 Years Later?

At the end of 28 Years Later, hero Spike (Alfie Williams) arrives at a dead end pursued by the infected. But fear not, in comes a new character named Jimmy (Sinners‘ Jack O’Connell), who saves the day with the help of his band of Merry Men, who do parkour to kill zombies to a hard rock cover of the Teletubbies theme song.

In Mashable’s ending explainer, I broke down what the references to Teletubbies and the upside-down cross on Jimmy’s neck could mean. But I missed what his overall fit alluded to: Jimmy Savile.

The shoulder-length blonde hair. The tracksuit. The array of gaudy gold jewelry, including necklaces and rings. To British audiences, Jimmy (O’Connell) immediately called to mind the radio and TV personality, whose media career spanned from the 1960s to the 2000s.

For decades, Savile was chiefly known for his philanthropy and for hosting the long-running series Jim’ll Fix It, on which he’d help kids make their wishes come true.

However, after his death in 2011, hundreds of allegations were made public around Savile, accusing him of sexual abuse against children. This was a massive and shocking news story, in part because Savile was so well esteemed in his life that he was friends with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and King Charles (then Prince), who saw the entertainer as an adviser. Some accused the BBC (the broadcaster behind Jim’ll Fix It) of a cover-up of allegations. A report found there were five senior people at BBC who knew about allegations and did not act on them. The same report found that the BBC missed five major opportunities to stop Savile, but failed to do so. The police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) also admitted they “made mistakes” over the way they handled the allegations. Allegations were made against Savile as far back as 1958, and in the 1960s, but nothing was done by authorities. More than 450 victims, aged between 5 and 75, have come forth.

What do Danny Boyle and Alex Garland say about the Jimmy Savile reference in 28 Years Later?

In the 28 Years Later junket, Eammon Jacobs asked Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland about the Savile reference. Speaking to how this film will lead to the sequel, 28 Years Later: Bone Temple, Garland said, “If we ever get to make the whole trilogy, it is in some ways about looking back and looking forwards, and the relationship to looking forward to better worlds or trying to construct the world you’re in on the basis of old worlds…the thing about looking back is how selective memory is. And that it cherry picks, and it has amnesia, and crucially, it also misremembers. And we are living in a time right now, which is absolutely dominated by a misremembered past.”

Boyle added, “[Savile is] as much to do with pop culture as he is to do with sportswear, to do with cricket, to do with the honors system. It’s all kind of twisting in this partial remembrance, clinging onto things and then recreating them as an image for followers.”

Garland added, “He’s a kaleidoscope in a trippy, fucked-up way.”

What does Jimmy Savile signal about 28 Years Later‘s ending?

Well, to those who recognize that Jimmy (O’Connell) is recreating Savile’s signature look, the allusion should suggest that 12-year-old Spike is not in trustworthy hands at the film’s end. Yet there’s something curious in this because of this film franchise’s timeline.

Though there were rumors for decades about Savile, he wasn’t publicly exposed as a sexual predator until after his death in 2011. In the movie, the Rage Virus breaks out in 2002, meaning that it’s unlikely young Jimmy — who fled his home to escape the infected who made a meal of his sisters and mum — would know about the allegations against Savile.

This means when Jimmy dresses up like him, he’s more likely modeling himself after the persona of Savile that focused on philanthropy and being a friend to children. Essentially, Jimmy is a walking red flag, but he doesn’t realize it. And more importantly, Spike doesn’t realize it.

Spike has little awareness of the world that existed 16 years before he was born. In the course of the movie, he is introduced to a Frisbee, a cell phone, and the beauty effects of lip filler. References made by other characters to Shakespeare and classic cocktails fly right over his head. So, naturally, Jimmy referencing Savile would be missed by Spike as well.

But we know. Just like we know 28 Years Later: Bone Temple will give us more of Spike, Jimmy, and the return of Cillian Murphy. All we need to know now is when tickets go on sale.

28 Years Later is now playing in theaters. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is slated for theatrical release on Jan. 16, 2026.

Additional reporting by Rachel Thompson.