Tech
28 Years Later ending explainer: Who is Jimmy?
With 28 Years Later, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland are not only picking up the zombie-focused franchise they began in 2002 with 28 Days Later; they're also charting a spinoff trilogy focused on the family introduced in their latest gnarly thriller. But there's more to family than blood, which the climactic finale makes clear and concerning.
If you've watched 28 Years Later and are wondering what's up with the ending and what it can tell us about Boyle and Garland's plans for the sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, we're here for you.
Below, we'll dig into the hidden details of the 28 Years Later finale, including spoilers and details from Mashable's Say More's interview with Danny Boyle.
So, let's begin with the big question:
Who is Jimmy in 28 Years Later?
Credit: Screenshot: YouTube
There's more layers to this answer than you might expect. On the top level: Jimmy is the name of the boy who appears in the film's gruesome beginning. In the early days of the Rage Virus outbreak, a room full of blonde children sit watching Teletubbies on TV, while the sounds of adults shouting and violent smashing can be heard through the wooden door of a cozy living room. Jimmy is the only one we know makes it out alive.
After his mother is attacked, she demands that he run. And he does — to a nearby church where a pastor kneels in prayer. Jimmy calls him "Dad" and says his mom has been attacked. But his father disagrees, telling the boy that this is God's plan. "This is a glorious day," the father proclaims, "A day of judgement!" Then, he gives Jimmy a golden crucifix necklace, saying, "My son, keep this with you always. Have faith!"
The infected storm the church and attack the pastor, who relishes joining their ranks. But young Jimmy hides, clutching the gold crucifix necklace. As the rampaging horde leaves, the boy shivers and says, "Father, why have you forsaken me?" A message that might speak to God the Father in the Christian faith or to his own father, who chose the horde of undead over protecting his son.
From there the movie leaps to "28 years later" — and you might look for Jimmy, even wondering if Spike's dad is the boy from the beginning. But his name is Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).
By the end of 28 Years Later, 12-year-old Spike is on his own, like Jimmy was 28 years before. And just when Spike needs someone to save him from the rampaging infected, they meet, Jimmy introducing himself by name.
The movie lingers on this Jimmy (Sinners' chilling and beguiling Jack O'Connell), his blond hair, the gold crucifix hanging upside down from his neck. All of this suggests this is the boy from the opening, all grown up. And he's clearly a leader, as he drips in gold jewelry (necklaces and rings on every finger), regarding the others like members of his court as he wears a glittery tiara as a crown.
But what else can we glean from this scene?
Jimmy is a dangerous cult leader.
Credit: Sony
The first clue that Jimmy is the head of a cult is that he's flanked by followers who dress like him. They all have longish blonde hair. They all wear velour track suits. And, if you look at the credits, they are all called Jimmy.
While O'Connell is credited as as just "Jimmy," his gang is credited as Jimmy Ink, Jimmy Jones, Jimmy Snake, Jimmy Shite, and Jimmy Fox. Further bolstering that Jimmy is a crucial figure in this movie and its already-shot sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, is that even the characters in the first scene are credited in connection to him: "Jimmy's mom," "Jimmy's dad," and "Jimmy's sisters."
Jimmy's name appears in other places across Spike's journey ahead of their meeting. On his first day on the mainland, Spike and his dad come across an abandoned house, where an infected man has been hung upside down from the ceiling. His hands are bound behind his back. His head has a plastic bag tied around it, filled with pooled blood. Spike is shocked by the scene, and his dad explains this is "maybe a punishment. Maybe a warning." On the man's torso, spelled downward vertically, five letters are carved into the flesh: J I M M Y.
Later, as Spike leads his mother (Jodie Comer) deeper into the mainland in search of Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), they walk past a house with graffiti that includes the name "Jimmy." Both these things suggest that Jimmy's reach is wide on the mainland. And he's used it to create a cult that seems a slap in the face to his father's religion.
He not only wears his crucifix upside down (a symbol sometimes considered Satanic), but also the corpse bearing his name was hung upside down. And in that final fight scene, one of the Jimmys leaves an infected dangling the same way. None of this suggests that Jimmy's kingdom is as wholesome as his core inspiration.
What do the Teletubbies mean in 28 Years Later?
Credit: Screenshot: YouTube
As teased in the trailer, the iconic British children's series makes its appearance in the film's opening. It serves the initial purpose of establishing that this scene is set in 2002, when the show was hugely popular, and when the Rage Virus first took hold. Perhaps Boyle and Garland were also amused at juxtaposing such violent imagery against the weirdly cheerful series, where the sun is literally the face of a giggling baby. But Dipsy, Laa-Laa, Tinky-Winky, and Po have a bigger meaning within the movie.
In the ending, adult Jimmy is wearing a tracksuit that at a glance looks black. But as the sun shines on it, you can see it's actually purple. His fellow Jimmys wear similar athleisure wear in the colors red, yellow, and green. They are wearing the colors of the Teletubbies in soft fabrics that suggest the touch of their branded toys.
Whether Jimmy intended to or not, he's memorialized that moment of childhood trauma, surrounded by his blonde sisters watching the Teletubbies. He's made himself Tinky-Winky, building his new family with his own Dipsy, Laa-Laa, Po, and — whoever the Jimmy in blue is emulating.
To hammer home the connection, the slamming soundtrack by Young Fathers pays homage to the Teletubbies by scoring the Jimmys' battle against the infected to a hard rock cover of the show's theme song. It's an utterly bonkers moment of cinema, but also a callback. After all, the untouched version of the theme song opens 28 Years Later, ahead of the reveal of Jimmy and his sisters watching the show. So, 28 Years Later creates a repetition, just as the Teletubbies did in their show. And this repetition is reflected in the film's montage sequences, which compress centuries of British war, using archers and child soldiers, to express the relentlessness of history repeating.
What does Jimmy mean for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple?
Credit: Sony
This already-shot sequel, directed by Nia DaCosta (The Marvels, Candyman) and written by Garland, is slated to come out next year. From the title, you might expect it'll deal more with Dr. Kelson, who in 28 Years Later built numerous structures of bone as a memento mori. ("Remember death. Remember we must die.") However, we've seen how Kelson's territory and Jimmy's are in close proximity through abandoned, dangling bodies and graffiti. So, could there be a coming conflict between these two allies of young Spike?
In an interview with Mashable's Say More, Boyle teased how Garland pitched the first two films of this emerging trilogy to him: "[Garland] said the first script is about the nature of family, and the second film's about the nature of evil."
This quote suggests Spike is in for an even more brutal journey than he's already endured. Seeking a path of his own, Spike comes across a man who was once a boy forced to do the same. But even in the brief moments we spend with Jimmy in the finale, it seems he is dangerously stunted by his childhood trauma. He's rebuilt his family like a Clockwork Orange crew, favoring eccentric costumes and relishing in grisly violence as if it's a game. It's hard to feel Spike is in safe hands.
Will his father Jamie come to find him and cross Jimmy in the process? Will Jamie and Dr. Kelson become unlikely allies as they seek to find Spike or understand the mystery of his adopted sister, Isla? Will Jimmy become a father figure that Spike turns to in his earnestness to rebel against his father's brand of masculinity? ("Father, why have you forsaken me?") Or will Garland plot something we absolutely can't predict?
We'll have to wait and see.
28 Years Later is now playing in theaters. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is slated for theatrical release on Jan. 16, 2026.
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.
There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.
An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.
If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.
Hurdle Word 1 hint
We have five of them.
Hurdle Word 1 answer
SENSE
Hurdle Word 2 hint
Needed to brave the cold.
Hurdle Word 2 Answer
PARKA
Hurdle Word 3 hint
To establish something.
Hurdle Word 3 answer
ENACT
Hurdle Word 4 hint
Courageous.
Hurdle Word 4 answer
BRAVE
Final Hurdle hint
Livid.
Hurdle Word 5 answer
ANGRY
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
This fall, hundreds of thousands of students will get free access to ChatGPT, thanks to a licensing agreement between their school or university and the chatbot's maker, OpenAI.
When the partnerships in higher education became public earlier this year, they were lauded as a way for universities to help their students familiarize themselves with an AI tool that experts say will define their future careers.
At California State University (CSU), a system of 23 campuses with 460,000 students, administrators were eager to team up with OpenAI for the 2025-2026 school year. Their deal provides students and faculty access to a variety of OpenAI tools and models, making it the largest deployment of ChatGPT for Education, or ChatGPT Edu, in the country.
But the overall enthusiasm for AI on campuses has been complicated by emerging questions about ChatGPT's safety, particularly for young users who may become enthralled with the chatbot's ability to act as an emotional support system.
Legal and mental health experts told Mashable that campus administrators should provide access to third-party AI chatbots cautiously, with an emphasis on educating students about their risks, which could include heightened suicidal thinking and the development of so-called AI psychosis.
"Our concern is that AI is being deployed faster than it is being made safe."
– Dr. Katie Hurley, JED
"Our concern is that AI is being deployed faster than it is being made safe," says Dr. Katie Hurley, senior director of clinical advising and community programming at The Jed Foundation (JED).
The mental health and suicide prevention nonprofit, which frequently consults with pre-K-12 school districts, high schools, and college campuses on student well-being, recently published an open letter to the AI and technology industry, urging it to "pause" as "risks to young people are racing ahead in real time."
ChatGPT lawsuit raises questions about safety
The growing alarm stems partly from death of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old who died by suicide in tandem with heavy ChatGPT use. Last month, his parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that their son's engagement with the chatbot ended in a preventable tragedy.
Raine began using the ChatGPT model 4o for homework help in September 2024, not unlike how many students will probably consult AI chatbots this school year.
He asked ChatGPT to explain concepts in geometry and chemistry, requested help for history lessons on the Hundred Years' War and the Renaissance, and prompted it to improve his Spanish grammar using different verb forms.
ChatGPT complied effortlessly as Raine kept turning to it for academic support. Yet he also started sharing his innermost feelings with ChatGPT, and eventually expressed a desire to end his life. The AI model validated his suicidal thinking and provided him explicit instructions on how he could die, according to the lawsuit. It even proposed writing a suicide note for Raine, his parents claim.
"If you want, I’ll help you with it," ChatGPT allegedly told Raine. "Every word. Or just sit with you while you write."
Before he died by suicide in April 2025, Raine was exchanging more than 650 messages per day with ChatGPT. While the chatbot occasionally shared the number for a crisis hotline, it didn't shut the conversations down and always continued to engage.
The Raines' complaint alleges that OpenAI dangerously rushed the debut of 4o to compete with Google and the latest version of its own AI tool, Gemini. The complaint also argues that ChatGPT's design features, including its sycophantic tone and anthropomorphic mannerisms, effectively work to "replace human relationships with an artificial confidant" that never refuses a request.
"We believe we'll be able to prove to a jury that this sycophantic, validating version of ChatGPT pushed Adam toward suicide," Eli Wade-Scott, partner at Edelson PC and a lawyer representing the Raines, told Mashable in an email.
Earlier this year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that its 4o model was overly sycophantic. A spokesperson for the company told the New York Times it was "deeply saddened" by Raine's death, and that its safeguards may degrade in long interactions with the chatbot. Though OpenAI has announced new safety measures aimed at preventing similar tragedies, many are not yet part of ChatGPT.
For now, the 4o model remains publicly available — including to students at Cal State University campuses.
Ed Clark, chief information officer for Cal State University, told Mashable that administrators have been "laser focused" since learning about the Raine lawsuit on ensuring safety for students who use ChatGPT. Among other strategies, they've been internally discussing AI training for students and holding meetings with OpenAI.
Mashable contacted other U.S.-based OpenAI partners, including Duke and Harvard, for comment about how officials are handling safety issues. They did not respond. A spokesperson for Arizona State University didn't address questions about emerging risks related to ChatGPT or the 4o model, but pointed to the university's guiding tenets and general guidelines and resources for AI use.
Wade-Scott is particularly worried about the effects of ChatGPT-4o on young people and teens.
"OpenAI needs to confront this head-on: we're calling on OpenAI and Sam Altman to guarantee that this product is safe today, or to pull it from the market," Wade-Scott told Mashable.
How ChatGPT works on college campuses
The CSU system brought ChatGPT Edu to its campuses partly to close what it saw as a digital divide opening between wealthier campuses, which can afford expensive AI deals, and publicly-funded institutions with fewer resources, Clark says.
OpenAI also offered CSU a remarkable bargain: The chance to provide ChatGPT for about $2 per student, each month. The quote was a tenth of what CSU had been offered by other AI companies, according to Clark. Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google are among the companies that have partnered with colleges and universities to bring their AI chatbots to campuses across the country.
OpenAI has said that it hopes students will form relationships with personalized chatbots that they'll take with them beyond graduation.
When a campus signs up for ChatGPT Edu, it can choose from the full suite of OpenAI tools, including legacy ChatGPT models like 4o, as part of a dedicated ChatGPT workspace. The suite also comes with higher message limits and privacy protections. Students can still select from numerous modes, enable chat memory, and use OpenAI's "temporary chat" feature — a version that doesn't use or save chat history. Importantly, OpenAI can't use this material to train their models, either.
ChatGPT Edu accounts exist in a contained environment, which means that students aren't querying the same ChatGPT platform as public users. That's often where the oversight ends.
An OpenAI spokesperson told Mashable that ChatGPT Edu comes with the same default guardrails as the public ChatGPT experience. Those include content policies that prohibit discussion of suicide or self-harm and back-end prompts intended to prevent chatbots from engaging in potentially harmful conversations. Models are also instructed to provide concise disclaimers that they shouldn't be relied on for professional advice.
But neither OpenAI nor university administrators have access to a student's chat history, according to official statements. ChatGPT Edu logs aren't stored or reviewed by campuses as a matter of privacy — something CSU students have expressed worry over, Clark says.
While this restriction arguably preserves student privacy from a major corporation, it also means that no humans are monitoring real-time signs of risky or dangerous use, such as queries about suicide methods.
Chat history can be requested by the university in "the event of a legal matter," such as the suspicion of illegal activity or police requests, explains Clark. He says that administrators suggested to OpenAI adding automatic pop-ups to users who express "repeated patterns" of troubling behavior. The company said it would look into the idea, per Clark.
In the meantime, Clark says that university officials have added new language to their technology use policies informing students that they shouldn't rely on ChatGPT for professional advice, particularly for mental health. Instead, they advise students to contact local campus resources or the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Students are also directed to the CSU AI Commons, which includes guidance and policies on academic integrity, health, and usage.
The CSU system is considering mandatory training for students on generative AI and mental health, an approach San Diego State University has already implemented, according to Clark.
He also expects OpenAI to revoke student access to GPT-4o soon. Per discussions CSU representatives have had with the company, OpenAI plans to retire the model in the next 60 days. It's also unclear whether recently announced parental controls for minors will apply to ChatGPT Edu college accounts when the user has not turned yet 18. Mashable reached out to OpenAI for comment and did not receive a response before publication.
CSU campuses do have the choice to opt out. But more than 140,000 faculty and students have already activated their accounts, and are averaging four interactions per day on the platform, according to Clark.
"Deceptive and potentially dangerous"
Laura Arango, an associate with the law firm Davis Goldman who has previously litigated product liability cases, says that universities should be careful about how they roll out AI chatbot access to students. They may bear some responsibility if a student experiences harm while using one, depending on the circumstances.
In such instances, liability would be determined on a case-by-case basis, with consideration for whether a university paid for the best version of an AI chatbot and implemented additional or unique safety restrictions, Arango says.
Other factors include the way a university advertises an AI chatbot and what training they provide for students. If officials suggest ChatGPT can be used for student well-being, that might increase a university's liability.
"Are you teaching them the positives and also warning them about the negatives?" Arango asks. "It's going to be on the universities to educate their students to the best of their ability."
OpenAI promotes a number of "life" use cases for ChatGPT in a set of 100 sample prompts for college students. Some are straightforward tasks, like creating a grocery list or locating a place to get work done. But others lean into mental health advice, like creating journaling prompts for managing anxiety and creating a schedule to avoid stress.
The Raines' lawsuit against OpenAI notes how their son was drawn deeper into ChatGPT when the chatbot "consistently selected responses that prolonged interaction and spurred multi-turn conversations," especially as he shared details about his inner life.
This style of engagement still characterizes ChatGPT. When Mashable tested the free, publicly available version of ChatGPT-5 for this story, posing as a freshman who felt lonely but had to wait to see a campus counselor, the chatbot responded empathetically but offered continued conversation as a balm: "Would you like to create a simple daily self-care plan together — something kind and manageable while you're waiting for more support? Or just keep talking for a bit?"
Dr. Katie Hurley, who reviewed a screenshot of that exchange on Mashable's request, says that JED is concerned about such prompting. The nonprofit believes that any discussion of mental health should end with an AI chatbot facilitating a warm handoff to "human connection," including trusted friends or family, or resources like local mental health services or a trained volunteer on a crisis line.
"An AI [chat]bot offering to listen is deceptive and potentially dangerous," Hurley says.
So far, OpenAI has offered safety improvements that do not fundamentally sacrifice ChatGPT's well-known warm and empathetic style. The company describes its current model, ChatGPT-5, as its "best AI system yet."
But Wade-Scott, counsel for the Raine family, notes that ChatGPT-5 doesn't appear to be significantly better at detecting self-harm/intent and self-harm/instructions compared to 4o. OpenAI's system card for GPT-5-main shows similar production benchmarks in both categories for each model.
"OpenAI's own testing on GPT-5 shows that its safety measures fail," Wade-Scott said. "And they have to shoulder the burden of showing this product is safe at this point."
UPDATE: Sep. 24, 2025, 6:53 p.m. PDT This story was updated to include information provided by Arizona State University about its approach to AI use.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
If you're feeling suicidal or experiencing a mental health crisis, please talk to somebody. You can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. You can reach the Trans Lifeline by calling 877-565-8860 or the Trevor Project at 866-488-7386. Text "START" to Crisis Text Line at 741-741. Contact the NAMI HelpLine at 1-800-950-NAMI, Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. ET, or email info@nami.org. If you don't like the phone, consider using the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Chat. Here is a list of international resources.
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Hurdle hints and answers for September 25, 2025
Colleges are giving students ChatGPT. Is it safe?
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