Spoiler Space: The side characters that turn 28 Years Later into an infectious odyssey

A newcomer to the quarantine zone, Erik knows there’s no going back home. Once he steps onto the island, he’s there for life. But it doesn’t seem to bother Erik, who immediately accepts his new lot as another mundane horror of modern life. He joined the patrol on a dare, looking for a purpose outside of video games, and his subplot paints a picture of life outside: Aside from Britain falling to the worm suckers, the rest of the world has returned to normal.

Erik is a few years older than Spike, and their differences create hilarious banter that’s sorely needed after the film’s grim first half. Spike has never seen a TV or a phone. His ignorance extends to delivery drivers, meaning the boy has never even DoorDashed a Triple Dipper from Chili’s To Go. Spike might as well be from Mars, and Erik’s befuddlement toward his life is funny, but like Jamie, Erik seeks wholeness through violence. The difference is, Erik abandoned the comforts of life to be there, to run off and shoot infected. He chose this. Ironically, it’s his modern weaponry that alerts the alpha-infected Samson, who promptly rips Erik’s head off and spine out. Spike’s time with Erik teaches him a valuable lesson: Even with military training and infinite ammo, the end is still coming for all of us, and we have little control over when. It’s a lesson the film expands upon with Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes).

Kelson refused isolation as part of a community and has spent his 28 years commemorating the dead via the construction of the Bone Temple, yet he remains casually cheery. He turns his Temple into a commemorative monument, like the rusted angel statue that reminds Isla of her father, a way for the future to experience the past. Through his Bone Temple, he gives himself a purpose and finds balance in the chaos, showing Spike that there are different relationships to have with the world aside from domination, even in death.

With his bright, iodine-coated orange skin and cheerful disposition, there’s plenty to judge, yet he starts revealing layers of reasoning that click with Spike and Isla. Moreover, he’s the first happy person Spike has ever met. However, he doesn’t have a cure, for either the infected or the cancer-afflicted. After examining Isla, he diagnoses her, then euthanizes her. It’s preferable to the slow, painful death from untreated cancer or the endless sprint of the infected. She can choose this, and, just like Erik, her choice has immediate, mortal consequences.

The final character Spike meets is Sir Jimmy (Jack O’Connell). The audience first met the Jimmy Savile-looking wasteland monarch as a child, anxiously watching Teletubbies as his parents are ripped to shreds. Now the jewel-encrusted head of a gang of tracksuit-wearing Lost Boys, he introduces Jimmy to a different life in the wasteland, one of luxury, apparent cleanliness, and, given the Savile of it all, probably child torture. What this means for the next 28 days won’t become clear until the sequel, but by the end, Spike has rejected his life in Lindisfarne, its rigid roles, and its violent focus. Like Sir Gawain on his Arthurian adventure, the people he meets challenge his notions of the world, his idea of safety, and what it means to live a life. In 28 Days Later, Jim (Cillian Murphy) reads “Repent, The End Is Extremely Fucking Nigh” scrawled on a church wall. 28 Years Later explores life after The End, and what kind of life is worth surviving for—something Spike learns from a series of engrossing examples.