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Before You Watch The Bone Temple, Catch Up on Who Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal Is in the New 28 Years Later Sequel
With 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (review) now hitting theaters, audience members might be scratching their heads regarding the character known as Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal. Played by Sinners' Jack O'Connell, Jimmy leads a gang known as, well, The Jimmys... and he is not to be trifled with.
After showing up briefly in the previous film, last summer's 28 Years Later, Jimmy and his band of "Fingers" take center stage in The Bone Temple, along with Ralph Fiennes' Dr. Ian Kelson, who also returns from that earlier film. Other Jimmys include Erin Kellyman as Jimmy Ink and Alfie Williams as newcomer to the gang Spike, also back from 28 Years Later.
But why does O'Connell's character dress the way he does, and who is Jimmy Savile, the real-world and highly controversial British celebrity who he's based his identity on? We've got the lowdown right here...
Note that the following does NOT include spoilers for The Bone Temple!
If you’re not from the UK, 28 Years Later's bizzare final sequence probably (and understandably) meant very little to you. But anyone who does call the island kingdom home will instantly recognise who O’Connell and his pals are cosplaying as: Jimmy Savile, one of Britain's most prolific sexual predators. During the 60s, 70s, and 80s, Savile was a household name, having hosted some of the country’s most-watched TV shows, Jim’ll Fix It and Top of the Pops. The former saw him work extensively with children for nearly two decades. Savile’s crimes only became widespread public knowledge after his death in 2011. Extensive investigation by both the police and BBC reporters led to hundreds of allegations of abuse, involving both children and the elderly. There have since been multiple documentaries about his criminal activities, including the Netflix show Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story.
O’Connell’s character is the grown-up version of Jimmy, the little Scottish boy who had a quite terrifying ordeal while trying to enjoy an episode of the Teletubbies during 28 Years Later’s opening sequence (he still wears the crucifix pendant that his dad gave him before being attacked by the infected). The credits of that film reveal that as an adult he goes by the name Sir Jimmy Crystal, and interviews from around the time of the film's release explained that he’s a cult leader with a dark past. The cast list also notes that every member of his cult is named after Savile in one way or another. There’s Jimmy Jimmy, Jimmy Ink, Jimmy Jones, Jimmy Fox, Jimmima… you get the idea.
Very little is revealed about the Jimmys in their first appearance in 28 Years Later, but it's clear that they’ve been causing chaos in England. There are multiple occasions on which the word “Jimmy” can be seen in the environment. The most prominent comes during the film’s first act, when Spike and Jamie discover an infected man hanging upside down inside a house; “Jimmy” has been carved into his chest. At another point, the camera lingers on a house with an exterior wall bearing the message “Behold, he is coming with the clouds” – beside that lettering is another piece of graffiti, simply stating “Jimmy.”
With so little concrete evidence to work with, there are many ways you could interpret the Jimmys. Regardless of your theory, it’s worth considering that the Rage virus outbreak began in 2002, and so the widespread allegations against Savile had not yet begun when the apocalypse kicked off. As such, the Jimmys may see Savile as something of a heroic or comedy character, just as he was to thousands of real people before the truth was revealed. Taking inspiration from his Jim’ll Fix It TV show (which, along with the Teletubbies, Jimmy may have watched in his youth), the cult may be going around “fixing” Britain.
We'll have more on 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple over the weekend, including a chat with O'Connell and director Nia DaCosta about how Jimmy wound up this way, so be sure to check back then!
