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The first trailer for 28 Years Later is legitimately terrifying. The second trailer released this week is a little less extreme and gives us a much stronger idea of the plot, including what seems to be some big spoilers. Here’s what Alasdair Stuart found.

0.0 – Soldiers in the Hall

This trailer is made of a lot more extended scenes and this first one seems to combine three elements we’ve seen before. The Hall that may be on Holy Island, the NATO soldiers and the colossal Infected played by Chi Lewis Parry. It ends very badly for the NATO soldiers.

0.29 – ”There were so many dead, infected and non-infected alike.’

We get a name for Ralph Fiennes’ doctor, Kelson, and confirmation he was on the frontlines in the initial outbreak. We also get a horrific shot of hundreds of dead which looks like it was shot in the same way as the original movie. Is this a flashback? And are the hundreds of dead we see here ultimately going to be part of The Bone Temple?

A Shot Note About Accents

One of the things that really impresses me is how carefully the accents we hear are chosen. Kelson is an upper-class, Oxbridge-graduate sounding chap. Jamie, who we hear speak for the first time here, has a Northeast accent. Given the movie is at least partially set on Lindisfarne, an island off the coast of Northeast England, that makes a lot of sense. It also subtly raises the threat level, if Jamie is still living relatively near his childhood home.

0.46 – Repeated use of wounded figure

There’s a figure we glimpse over and over again in this trailer, often in near subliminal cuts showing drawings of it. It could be an Infected, but it looks a lot like the pale mask with the arrow in its head we saw in the previous trailer.

1.00 – Something Awful

The super-fast shot we saw last trailer of a huge, disfigured form is given more space here and it definitely looks like a human.

1.20 – Happy Eater

This is a smart touch. Happy Eater was a chain of restaurants in the UK, It closed in 2020. Given 28 Days Later is set in 2002, Happy Eaters still being around (admittedly to be blown up as we see here) makes sense.

1.26 – Eyes

This goes by quickly but the Infected have reflective eyes suggesting they can see at night. The rumours that the virus has caused evolutionary changes seem to have just been borne out.

1.27 – Slow Walk

In a franchise that made fast zombies popular, the slow, deliberate walk down the hill we see here is terrifying.

1.28 – The Bone Temple

Looks horrifying. And enormous as we see the back of the hill it dominates here.  That looks like Kelson, possibly Isla played by Jodie Comer and Spike played by Alfie Williams. No sign of Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Jamie and the trailer really wants us to think he doesn’t make it. But hold that thought.

1.40 – Hug

I love this shot. The overgrown city behind them really drives home that the UK has collapsed and these two terrified people are very alone and in terrible danger.

1.44 – Flaming Arrow

If you haven’t seen the trailer before reading this article, this time code seems to show a fairly major spoiler about one character. It might just be an angle that’s deceptive as to who we see hit but you’re going to want to be careful if you want to stay unspoiled.

1.45 – Spike on the dam

This shot is beautiful and seems to show Spike aiming at someone in the water in front of a dam. It’s cut so we think it’s his dad but it isn’t.

1.46 – Jamie’s New Outfit

The prevailing theory is that Jamie survives the attack we see in the first trailer, and for some reason Isla and Spike leave Lindisfarne while he’s recovering. He seems to be in front of the gates as the tide rises here, and we don’t see him in this outfit anywhere else in the trailer. Also he seems to be holding a note in his left hand. Maybe a goodbye?

1.52 – ‘A Day of Judgment!’

Current rumours are Jamie, or possibly the bad guy in The Bone Temple (or, intriguingly, both of them) are seen in a flashback as children. One of them runs to his father, the local priest, who we see at the end here. He’s… not okay about the end of the world.

It’s a nice change to have a second trailer raise more questions and I’m looking forward to getting some (presumably very horrible) answers to these questions when the movie releases on 20th June.