Why is “28 Years Later” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong bloody violence, grisly images, graphic nudity, language and brief sexuality.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes one oral sex scene, many scenes of non-sexual full male and female nudity, the birth of a child, many scenes of people being attacked by infected people that move unnaturally and make animal-like sounds as they bite and tear people apart with a lot of blood and gore, scenes of an infected person pulling the heads off humans and animals, discussions of cancer and death, several arguments and over 30 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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In this third sequel of the zombie saga, the rage virus seems to have been confined to the Scottish Highlands, with survivors quarantined in neighboring islands. When a man (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) takes his teen son (Alfie Williams) to the mainland to hone his hunting skills, they face many survival challenges but also discover a doctor (Ralph Fiennes) who may be able to provide them with much needed medical attention. Also with Jodie Comer, Emma Laird, Robert Rhodes, Erin Kellyman, Kim Allan, Edvin Ryding, Christopher Fulford and Chi Lewis-Parry. Directed by Danny Boyle. A few lines of dialogue are spoken in Swedish with English subtitles and a few Latin phrases are spoken with translation. [Running Time: 1:55]

28 Years Later SEX/NUDITY 7

 – A man and a woman leave a celebration and go to a building where they kiss and the man lifts the woman’s skirt (he performs oral sex on her and they both moan); a teen boy watches from the shadows and runs away upset.
► A teen boy asks his father if he is going to be with another woman after his mother dies (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man remarks about the “magic of the placenta” that kept a newborn from becoming infected with a virus that its mother had. A woman refers to her son as her father and appears to be losing her sense of reality in a few scenes.
► A doctor examines a woman and presses on her breasts (they are covered).
► Many scenes show infected individuals fully nude and bare breasts, abdomens, genital areas and buttocks are visible, with some male genitals being thrown back and forth while men run. An infected pregnant woman is shown fully nude with bare breasts, her swollen abdomen and genital area visible. A man showers in a street and we see his bare back and partial buttock cleavage. A woman wears a camisole that reveals cleavage and bare shoulders. A man shows a teen boy a picture of his former fiancée wearing a deeply cut top (we see cleavage and her shoulders) and the man becomes upset when the boy asks what’s wrong with her face (apparently the woman has had Botox injections and her lips are unnaturally large).

28 Years Later VIOLENCE/GORE 9

 – A woman tells several children gathered in a room to stay put and closes the door; they hear screaming and thumping outside and someone breaks through the door and attacks the children inside (blood splatters and we hear screaming), a young boy escapes the attack and sees many people with bloody faces and bodies and sees his mother attacked (several people vomit torrents of blood). A young boy rushes to a church where he finds his father inside as many infected people pound on the windows and walls; they break through and pile on the man, biting and infecting him (he vomits blood and we see his face and body bloodied as he rushes out of the church and the boy hides in the confessional). A man’s severed head is thrown into a fire and we see it later as a man pulls the hair and remaining flesh from it to reveal a skull.
► Many infected people jump into a deep trench chasing soldiers that shoot at them; several are struck and blood splatters and several soldiers are bitten and infected and they are also shot (blood sprays); a few soldiers lock themselves in a protective cage and shoot at more infected people outside. Three soldiers walk through a dark passageway and are attacked by an infected person that pulls the head off one soldier (we see the separated head and spinal column and a lot of blood). Many infected people chase a teen boy and he shoots arrows at several; he comes to a dead end and several people on top of a mound ask if he needs help; they attack the hoard of infected people using spears and golf clubs and we see a severed head, and blades run through bodies and blood sprays from wounds.
► We hear screeching coming from a room in an abandoned building; we see a man hanging upside down by the feet with a bag over his head and letters carved into his flesh as a bird pecks at his side, pulling out something that looks like intestine; the man begins to thrash and make noises, unties his hands and falls to the floor preparing to lunge at a teen boy until the boy shoots him in the head with an arrow (blood spurts). A man and a teen boy are chased by many infected people and they shoot arrows at them until they run out; they run into a house, up the stairs and climb into an attic as several infected people yell and screech on the floor below. A man and a teen boy are chased onto a causeway and through water by an infected person; the man shoots arrows at the infected person hitting him several times and he falls back, and people in a fort at the shoreline shoot him with arrows and eventually kill him with a flaming arrow to the chest. An infected man chases a teen boy and a woman and the boy shoots the man with arrows, but he keeps coming until he is shot in the neck with a dart that contains a sedative. A man and a teen boy run and jump in a hole in the ground under a grate; a large infected person tries to pull the grate open, slams his hand through the dirt and grabs the man by the back and then the head and the teen stabs him in the arm with a dart that contains a sedative.
► A teen boy falls asleep in a ruined building and an infected person enters and moves toward him slowly (we see slime on the person’s skin): the infected person gnashes on the boy’s shoelace and crawls on top of him about to bite him on the face when the scene changes quickly (a quick cut is seen of the infected person being slammed against a rock) and we see the boy and his mother wake with a start and a soldier stands near them. An infected person lumbers toward a woman and a teen boy and the boy shoots him in the neck (blood spurts); other infected people move toward them and they chase them. A woman and a teen boy enter a building that is filled with gas fumes, they cough and struggle to breathe; they are followed by many infected people and a soldier shoots into the building causing an explosion and we see many infected people engulfed in flames and screeching; the woman and the teen get out and continue coughing and the woman vomits white goo, which we see. An infected woman appears to be lunging toward a woman and a soldier shoots her (blood splatters) and threatens to shoot the newborn the woman is holding until the soldier is grabbed by a large infected man that pulls his head off (off-screen).
► A few infected people are shown with discolored flesh and growths on their skin; an infected man moves slowly toward a teen boy in a forest, the man sucks up a long worm from the dirt and a large bird pecks at his back; the teen shoots him in the neck with an arrow (blood spurts), and an infected woman approaches a man and he shoots her with blood spurting and he takes aim at an infected child before his son interrupts him. Blood is seen on leaves and branches as a man and a teen boy walk through a forest; they find a pit with ribs and organs of a deer in it and the head and spinal column are found in a tree nearby; we see a flashback to the animal being killed by its head being pulled off. We see a giant pile of human skulls and many columns made from human bones outside a forest (a memorial). Many dead bodies are lined up on the ground and a large fire burns as a man puts the bodies on the flames to burn them; another man describes the smell of death. A woman walks through a forest and a man shoots her with a dart (presumably a poison dart to kill her); we see her skull later placed on top of a monument of many human skulls. A woman enters a train car and we hear screams coming from inside; we see a pregnant infected woman in labor and the woman holds her hands to help her push and catches the child as it is delivered; she ties a cord around the umbilical cord and cuts it with a knife (we see blood and the chord).
► A teen boy asks his father if he is going to be with another woman after his mother dies and the man hits the teen hard across the face; the teen leaves the room, pushes his father away later, tells him to leave and holds a knife on him; the man punches a wall twice and storms away. A teen boy is upset with his father for exaggerating his abilities on a trip to the mainland. A teen boy thinks his father is lying about many things.
► A teen boy asks his father if his mother is dying and the man says that he doesn’t know. A soldier says that this ship sank. A doctor tells a woman that she has cancer that has metastasized and she will likely die soon; her teen son becomes upset pleading for a way to cure her. A woman tells a man and a teen boy that if they leave the community, they are welcome back, but that there are no rescues. A man’s skin is bright orange and he says that he is painted with iodine to avoid being infected by a virus. A teen boy says that he felt sick and afraid when he was being attacked and had to shoot infected people. We hear that some infected people react to the virus as if they are on steroids, developing strength and size. We read that infected people were quarantined and left to fend for themselves. We hear that people on an island have limited resources.
► Infected people move unnaturally and make moaning, groaning and screeching sounds throughout the movie. A teen boy sets a fire in a medic building and many people fill buckets with water and douse the flames. A man and a boy sleep in an abandoned house and wake up to rumbling as the house collapses around them; they get out unharmed but covered with dust.
► A man and a teen boy walk along a causeway when the tide is low. People arm themselves with arrows and pocketknives. A voiceover repeats a rhyme telling the story of how an infection and spread of a virus was handled and we see flashback-type images of people firing arrows, digging trenches, and night vision images of the infected with glowing eyes. A woman in bed yells, apparently vomits on the floor (a man cleans it up later; we do not see anything) and she complains of pain and headaches and we hear that she is very ill. A man and a teen boy search an abandoned building for supplies. A large herd of deer tramples near a man and a teen boy.
► We see drawings of infected people with enraged expressions. A teen boy drinks beer and we see him vomit later (we see goo). A woman’s nose bleeds.

28 Years Later LANGUAGE 8

 – About 34 F-words and its derivatives, 7 scatological terms, 6 anatomical terms, 4 mild obscenities, name-calling (crazy, sick, baby murderer, kiddo, soft, nuts, bloody thing, odd, carnage, ugly, weird, confused, berserk, silly, daft, joy killer, bloody fool, gone insane), exclamations (gotcha), 6 religious exclamations (e.g. for Christ’s sake, Jesus Christ, Christ, oh God). | profanity glossary |

28 Years Later SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man uses sedating darts in a few scenes and a poison dart in one scene to kill a person. People (including a teen boy) drink beer at a celebration.

28 Years Later DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Viral infections, quarantines, Stonehenge, the Pyramids, The Angel of the North, terminal cancer, death.

28 Years Later MESSAGE

 – Surviving viral infections can be very difficult, and we all die eventually.