The Secret Behind 28 Years Later’s Terrifying Trailer Poem

Summary

• Trailer for 28 Years Later uses a haunting Rudyard Kipling poem to create psychological terror.
• The poem’s rhythm mirrors British soldier’s march, symbolizing mental anguish and breakdown.
• Film explores passage of time and survival, hinting at characters’ broken mental states.

The first trailer for 28 Years Later turned out to be one of the most unsettling things in recent cinematic memory – and there’s a good reason for it. The upcoming 2025 post-apocalyptic horror film features an unconventional needle drop that pierces through the audience’s subconscious mind. More importantly, perhaps, it ties in well with the story of the Rage virus outbreak.

28 Years Later might have felt like a sequel that had passed its shelf life, but it seems to be back in full glory. It marks the reunion of director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, the original minds behind 28 Days Later. The 2002 film used groundbreaking techniques to heighten the sense of terror, like shooting on an amateur digital video camera. It looks like the third installment will also employ horror techniques that transcend the mainstream, right from its trailer.

What Is The Poem In 28 Years Later?

Trailer Uses Rudyard Kipling’s Boots

Most trailers today opt for needle drops of popular songs that are either re-recorded in a modern setting or edited to match the trailer’s cuts. But the 28 Years Later trailer takes it up a notch by using a spoken-word recital of a terrifying poem. The poem in question is Boots by Rudyard Kipling, first published in 1903 as part of his collection The Five Nations. The particular recording featured in the trailer dates back to 1915, narrated by American actor Taylor Holmes.

Military Connection & True Meaning

This recording was used by the U.S. Navy’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) school. It was played repeatedly on recruits confined in small, isolated cells. This was done to mentally prepare troops for survival, especially if they were captured and tortured. The reason Boots feels so visceral is that it goes inside the mind of a British foot soldier. Infantrymen endured seemingly endless marches in South Africa during the era of colonization in the 1890s.

What Makes Boots Haunting?

Rhythm Inflicts Psychological Pain

If the first four words of each line in the Kipling poem are read at two words per second, it mimics the rhythm of a British soldier’s march. During this war, soldiers would keep marching, often losing their minds due to the hypnotic thumping of the boots in front of them. Holmes’ recital, in particular, starts on a slow, haunted note. It then escalates into wails and screams during the poem’s most powerful line: “There’s no discharge in the war,” symbolizing that there’s no escape from this mental hell.

Trailer Matches The Poem’s Terror

The cryptic 28 Years Later trailer imitates this pattern as well, starting with a creepy, upbeat Teletubbies intro just around the beginning of the outbreak. That’s when Boots starts to take over in the background. The trailer then introduces key characters played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, and Jodie Comer, as they try to make their way through the dystopian countryside almost three decades after the Rage pandemic’s aftermath. The horror imagery is equally powerful, featuring infected zombies, burning graves, and towers made of skulls.

What Does The Poem Mean In 28 Years Later’s Trailer?

Thematic Links To Survival & Time

Using Rudyard Kipling’s Boots in this trailer makes a lot of thematic sense as well. Just as the march seemed endless to British foot soldiers in South Africa in real history, the characters in 28 Years Later too could have descended into madness from the years of their fight against the virus. It also highlights the power struggle between apolitical civilians, who are just trying to survive, and authoritarian military forces led by characters like Major Henry West. Their efforts to stabilize the infected may have gone in vain over time, ultimately leading to the all-out apocalyptic global war we witness.

Alex Garland Hints At Connection

Just as the poem imagines the mental plight of a British foot soldier, 28 Years Later might just get inside the heads of its survivors and explore their broken mental state. It’s unlikely we’ll get a repeat of this poem recital in the actual film. But an equally unsettling experience awaits, just from its story. In fact, franchise creator Alex Garland addressed how the film will explore the passage of time in a ReelBlend podcast episode:

That’s partly what the film is about. It’s exactly that. It’s to do with the passage of time and thinking about what effect the passage of time would have. Is it what you would traditionally call a post-apocalyptic state or has something else begun to manifest? Time is really at the core of the engine of the film.

What Is 28 Years Later About?

Plot Details

According to the official 28 Years Later synopsis, it revolves around a group of survivors who live on a small island connected to the mainland by a single heavily defended causeway. The quarantine in place is evidently ruthless, and one of the groups tries to leave the island on a mission. Their journey leads them to discover horrors on the mainland that have not only mutated the infected but other survivors as well.

More Sequels For 28 Days Later

The third installment in this post-apocalyptic horror series has been in development hell for so many years that some even began to question why there was no 28 Months Later in between. The revival of 28 Years Later makes sense chronologically, as it’s just a few years shy of 28 years since the first film came out. It is expected to be quickly followed by 28 Years Later Par t 2: The Bone Temple and another untitled film. For Part 2, Danny Boyle will hand over the director’s chair to Nia DaCosta. More updates are expected only after the release of 28 Years Later, but it’s clear that this is a horror franchise to look out for.