28 Years Later

Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland both came back to the series they started. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle shot most of the film on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The curved array carrying the phones was designed for eight and ended up holding twenty. Dod Mantle says the rig does two jobs: it turns faces into a violent blur, and it denies the actor, and the operator too, any knowledge of which frame will be used. Drones and other camera systems covered the rest. The island is a real one, Lindisfarne off the Northumberland coast, and the shoot spread as far as Yorkshire, Newcastle and Somerset. The 1915 Taylor Holmes recording of Kipling’s Boots reached the film by way of its own trailer. Boyle says they tried it against the archive sequence and it sat there as though made for it; it plays as Spike and his father leave the island. The film was shot back to back with its sequel, which Nia DaCosta directed. It cost 60 million dollars and took 151 million worldwide. A good fit if you want the attacks delivered as unreadable blur from twenty simultaneous lenses rather than one held shot. Not for viewers expecting the story to close here; the ending hands off to a sequel with a different director.