The third instalment of the hugely successful ‘28’ franchise, 28 Years Later is a terrifying return to the dystopian future first seen in 2002’s 28 Days Later.
Directed by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle and released in June 2025, it was one of the year’s summer blockbusters and while much of the shoot took place in Northumberland and on Lindisfarne (Holy Island), the climatic scenes were filmed in Somerset’s Cheddar Gorge.
Written by Alex Garland and starring Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes; 28 Years Later imagines Britain nearly three decades after the outbreak of the ‘Rage Virus’ which induces a permanent state of uncontrollable homicidal rage in the infected and leads to a rapid and total breakdown of society.
Filming in Cheddar took place in July 2024 with the help of Screen Somerset and involved the closure of the gorge road for an unprecedented five days so a crew of more than 100 could prepare, shoot and then return the site to its former state.
The scenes were shot just to the north and south of the famous Arch Rock, one of the most striking features of the gorge, and meant the crew building a fake rockfall across the road.
Weeks ahead of filming, a team made a detailed digital scan of that section of the gorge so a wood and fibreglass structure could be built off-site. A day before shooting started it was assembled on the road, piece-by-piece, and dressed by the production’s ‘greens’ team to become a convincing pile of moss-covered limestone. To make sure emergency vehicle access was possible at all times a central section of the ‘rockfall’ was mounted on the back of a transit van so that it could be immediately removed if needed.
The shoot itself lasted around two days, with the scenes featuring 12-year-old Alfie Williams and Jack O’Connell as Jimmy Crystal. It was largely shot using iPhones, harking back to the frenetic feel that was a signature of the original film.
While filming, Danny Boyle described the gorge as ‘extraordinary, amazing… one of the unique pieces of British landscape’: “It was a real honour to shoot here.”
At a time when many filmmakers lean heavily on technology, his production was geared to keeping things real.
“In a world where so much is done with blue screens and in studios it was such a privilege to be able to film in such an iconic location for real.” Camilla Stephenson, Supervising Location Manager.
