28 years later, 3 must bring back a character – their story isn’t over yet

This article contains major spoilers for “28 years later: The Temple of Bones”.

Simply put, “28 Years Later: The Temple of Bones” completely changes our understanding of this franchise. Ever since director Danny Boyle’s 2002 zombie classic “28 Days Later,” the world has been reckoning with people infected with what’s known as the rabies virus. The latest film, directed by Nia DaCosta, famous for “The Marvels” and “Candyman”offers a new understanding of the virus through the alpha zombie known as Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry). We can only hope that we are not done with him.

“The Bone Temple” picks up immediately after from the crazy ending to last year’s “28 Years Later.” We are dealing with two different scenarios which eventually converge. One involves Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) who makes a pretty shocking discovery about the Rage virus. The other focuses on Spike (Alfie Williams) and his new alliance with Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) and his gang, which quickly turns into a violent nightmare.

Kelson eventually develops a unique relationship with Samson, as the two begin sharing morphine and going on, for lack of a better term, drug trips with each other. Through this we learn that Kelson has developed a theory on how to deal with the Rage virus. Thanks to him, “The Bone Temple” offers our most in-depth understanding of the Rage virus yet.

At the end of the film, after Kelson gives Samson a cocktail of medicine, he is effectively cured of his symptoms, which he had been suffering from since he was swept away during the initial outbreak as a child. Kelson succeeded. Unfortunately, Kelson is fatally injured during the confrontation with Jimmy Crystal during the crazy climax. This leaves us with a host of questions about what comes next.

Despite Kelson’s tragic demise, by the end of the film, Samson has regained his humanity, seemingly fully. We see flashes of what was obviously his life before the zombie apocalypse during the bizarre flashbacks on the train, but we still don’t know much about who Samson was. More importantly, we don’t know what will happen to Samson as a result of the treatment.

The very the end of ‘The Bone Temple’ finally brings Cillian Murphy’s Jim back to the ’28’ universewith Spike and Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman) running towards his house to get to safety. It is clear that Jim and his daughter will play an important role in the already planned third installment of the “28 Years Later” trilogy. The question is, will Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland allow this story to converge with Kelson’s work at the Temple of Bones and with Samson, or will they just say that part of the story is finished?

Frankly, it doesn’t feel like Samson’s story is over. It feels like we have more to learn from him, both from the audience and from the other characters in the universe. Will he remain more human than zombie without further treatment? Might he be able to help Jim, Spike, or anyone else replicate what Kelson did? Or is he now the only proof of what is possible? There are far too many unanswered questions to completely walk away from this character.

The first The film ’28 Years Later’ reveals that the UK is isolated from the rest of the worldwith virtually no outside contact. If Samson is truly treated and that treatment can be replicated, could that pave the way for some sort of happy ending? Without Samson, it’s hard to imagine a true happy ending.

Then again, maybe getting to a happy ending isn’t the point. These are dark, post-apocalyptic films, after all. Even if Samson came back and joined forces with Jim or Spike or whoever, there would still be an awful lot to sort out. Kelson kept detailed notes, but would these notes be enough to replicate what was done for Samson? And was Samson a special case? Would this only work on an alpha version? Or could this also work for average infected people? It is also to say nothing of the uninfected zombie baby that Samson appears to have fathered. We didn’t see the baby in “The Bone Temple” and that’s a thread worth pulling more.

All of these questions only highlight the importance of not straying completely from the story of Samson. While there will rightly be a lot of excitement and focus on Cillian Murphy’s return in the third film, it would be all the more rewarding if the filmmakers could find a way to tie it all together. Samson feels like a big piece of the puzzle in making this happen.

“28 Years Later: The Temple of Bones” is currently in theaters.