If you've been wondering why the latest 28 Years Later movie is called The Bone Temple, here's why:
The full title of the new movie is called 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple because "The Bone Temple" is a central location and symbol in the story, not just a cool subtitle.
In the film, Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) has built a literal "bone temple," a shrine constructed from the skulls and remains of victims of the Rage Virus, meant as a memorial to both infected and uninfected dead. This structure becomes a focal point where the main factions collide: Kelson’s quasi-religious memorializing of the dead versus Jimmy’s (Jack O'Connell) violent, Satanic cult and its warped ideas of worship and sacrifice.
The temple embodies the movie’s themes of how survivors turn grief, guilt, and trauma into new forms of belief or fanaticism after nearly three decades of apocalypse. Major plot turns and confrontations happen in and around The Bone Temple, and it sets up story threads for the planned third film, so the title highlights this structure as the trilogy’s key "monument to death."
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple opened Friday, January 16, 2026 and is now playing in theaters nationwide. ~Alexandra Heilbron