In 28 Years Later and its sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple films, the eccentric recluse Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) spends his days building a colossal ossuary as a memorial to all those who have died since the outbreak of the Rage virus. But by night, he relaxes in his modest bunker and listens to music. His treasured record collection proves key to the best scene in The Bone Temple, following a long tradition of post-apocalyptic stories fascinated with what pieces of pop culture will survive the collapse of civilization, and what that art will mean to the survivors.
[Ed. note: This article contains major spoilers for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple]
Kelson admits he doesn’t remember much of what life was like before the Rage virus, but he takes a lot of comfort from old music. He sings along to Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film” while going about his day cleaning corpses, and dances to the title song of the pop rock band’s 1982 album “Rio,” while hanging out with his unlikely new friend, the Alpha infected Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry).
But all those jams are just set up for the film’s climax. The twisted cult leader Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connel) demands that Kelson convince his followers that he is Jimmy’s father, Satan, blessing his son’s unholy mission. With his life on the line, Kelson puts on a heavy metal concert where he sets off copious amounts of pyrotechnics while dancing around in goth garb to Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast.”
Jimmy’s young followers are understandably awed by the display, so convinced of Kelson’s devilish power that they’re willing to crucify their leader on his behalf. The music and associated fanfare was designed to appeal to misfit teenagers, and they didn’t even know what they’d been missing. It’s certainly much more entertaining than listening to Jimmy recount the plot of a Teletubbies episode for the hundredth time.
Kelson’s powerful spectacle is reminiscent of Patrick Somerville’s 2021 HBO Max miniseries Station Eleven, an adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 novel of the same name. Set 20 years after a pandemic killed most of humanity, the show primarily follows the members of the Traveling Symphony, a theater troupe that tours the Midwest performing Shakespeare for the survivors. Their productions are so inspiring that the group is constantly picking up followers who want to escape their isolated enclaves and become actors.
Both The Bone Temple and Station Eleven acknowledge that what endures can sometimes be arbitrary. Just like Jimmy reveres Teletubbies, Station Eleven’s protagonist, Kirsten, is obsessed with a comic book that was never even published because she was handed a copy as the world was falling apart around her. Most other people who read the comic are baffled by Kirsten’s enthusiasm for what seems to be a moody, brooding, and self-indulgent story. If civilization hadn’t collapsed, both Kirsten and Jimmy probably would have grown up to have very different cultural touchstones. But sometimes context is everything.
There are numerous other stories that also consider the role art will play in the apocalypse. In Francis Lawrence’s 2007 horror film I Am Legend, Will Smith is the sole survivor of a pandemic that turned the population of New York into vampiric mutants. He finds comfort in Bob Marley’s music as he spends his days searching for a cure. After dragons take over the world in Francis Lawrence’s goofy 2002 film Reign of Fire, Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey wow kids by performing scenes from Star Wars – which they claim to have made up. Sorry to Bother You director Boots Riley is reportedly adapting Mr. Burns, Anne Washburn’s play about a post-apocalyptic theater troupe performing an episode of The Simpsons.
Station Eleven’s Traveling Symphony’s motto is “survival is insufficient,” a quote from Star Trek: Voyager. That could also be the motto of the 28 Days Later franchise, where Alex Garland’s scripts are focused on what matters to humanity when everything else has been stripped away and the new organizations, traditions, and monuments people build in the aftermath of disaster. Kelson, more than any other character, understood the need for lasting art in a fallen world, dedicating his life to crafting a memento mori. While his concert couldn’t actually save his life, it’s fitting that he died after putting on one hell of a show.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is in theaters now.