28 Years Later fans floored after hidden message in trailer leads them to secret website - and solves mystery they've been asking for two decades

Daily Mail​

01-05-2025

28 Years Later fans have been floored by a hidden message in the trailer which leads them to a secret website - solving a mystery they have been asking about for two decades.
The post-apocalyptic horror film, set for release in June, will be the third in the series, after 2002's 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later in 2007.
Nearly three decades after the so-called 'rage virus' escaped a biological weapons laboratory in the UK, decimating human civilisation on the British Isles, a small group have survived hidden away on a tiny island.
But when one of them goes out to explore the mainland, they find some real horrors awaiting them among the infected population.
The follow-up, coming 18 years after the last instalment with Jeremy Renner, got some much-needed hype when fans thought they spotted Cillian Murphy 's character return as a zombie in the trailer - which has since been disproven.
Starring Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes, with original writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle returning, it is now one of the most anticipated releases on the film calendar.
Movie buffs have now been gripped by the latest move in the film's increasingly impressive marketing campaign, as reported by Ladbible.
The most recent trailer saw mysterious symbols flash up throughout, on-screen for just a single frame.
Eagle-eyed fans spotted these symbols stood for a secret message, which could be decrypted using the so-called pigpen cypher, a set of geometric shapes which can be used to represent letters.
The message turned out to read 'memento mori', a Latin phrase which means 'remember you must die'.
But keen fans also spotted it was the the password to a secret website they had amazingly managed to find, called RageLeaks.net.
After entering the password, they found two links. The first leads to a short message, reading: 'The virus brought us more than the rage.
'The sorrow, for our lost home. The guilt, for the ones we left behind. The righteous indignation for the secrets being kept from us.
'It's been almost 28 years since the outbreak. And still, not a single shred of truth about what's really going on. They say it's to protect us. It's for our own good. After all this time, what are they still hiding?
But keen fans also spotted it was the the password to a secret website they had amazingly managed to find, called RageLeaks.net (pictured). After entering the password, they found two links
The first leads to a short message (pictured), reading: 'The virus brought us more than the rage. 'The sorrow, for our lost home. The guilt, for the ones we left behind. The righteous indignation for the secrets being kept from us'
A third link, uploaded to the website later, is titled 'Life on Patrol' and shows, once clicked on, an Instagram post (pictured) from a made-up user called 'samiexlovexann' of a selfie of a couple on a boat
'They classify satellite images. They forbid any communication with survivor communities. They suppress rumors and discredit reports that somehow, the infected have adapted.
'They don't want us to see. But we must bear witness. All of us.'
The second shows a 'surveillance report' on the infection threat level posed by the 'Lindisfarne Commune', the small quarantined island the protagonists live on, along with pictures of the community.
A third link, uploaded to the website later, is titled 'Life on Patrol' and shows, once clicked on, an Instagram post from a made-up user called 'samiexlovexann' of a selfie of a couple on a boat.
It is captioned in Swedish - and fans' translation reveals that it reads: 'Carsten was supposed to be back a couple of days ago. Trying not to overthink things, I just miss him so much.'
The made-up Instagram post has two comments on it, also in Swedish.
The first, from a user named 'alexjoman028', says: 'Don't stress, ships have to be quiet all the time. He'll be in touch soon.'
The second comment, from 'mattttingen06', reads: 'It doesn't exactly look like there's a lot of activity there. But sure, let's continue to put resources into the mission.'
Though the exact meaning of the post and its comments remains mysterious, fans have realised that considered more broadly, it gives a big hint about the upcoming film.
Instagram was created in 2010 - and so if the version of the world represented in the film also has the social media app, fans worked out it means that at least part of Earth's human population must have survived the apocalypse to be able to create it.
This has been a major question for fans of the series up to this point - in the previous two films, the viral outbreak has been seen to mostly affect the UK alone, with the extent of its spread across the planet unknown.
But huge questions were raised when at the end of the last film, 28 Weeks Later, a post-credit scene showed zombies having reached Paris.
Screenwriter Alex Garland has recently weighed in on the fan debate, saying earlier this year that the upcoming film is not 'in conflict' with 2007's 28 Weeks Later.
But he caveated this by saying '"canon" is not a very Danny Boyle word'.
It means Danny, also known for Trainspotting, may deviate from the Parisian references made in the last film in the series, which had a different director, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.
So, how far the virus has spread across the planet really still remains to be seen - though this secret website has dropped some serious hints that parts of the Earth have remained unaffected.
One fan on Reddit (pictured) said the idea that social media exists in the version of the world represented in the film brought quite an amusing thought to mind for them
The most recent trailer saw mysterious symbols flash up throughout, on-screen for just a single frame. Pictured: Trailer for 28 Years Later
One fan on Reddit said the idea that social media exists in the version of the world represented in the film brought quite an amusing thought to mind for them.
They said: 'The part I'm finding interesting is that in this alternate world of the UK being quarantined, Instagram exists, meaning Facebook/YouTube and all other social media will exist too by proxy.
'I'd love to know what conspiracies the Facebook boomers are all spreading and sharing.'
But whatever the secret website's hints really mean remains to be seen - and it will only make fans more excited for the film to release this summer.
The new trailer for 28 Years Later dropped last month - but Cillian Murphy was nowhere to be seen in a major curveball despite the actor being 'teased' for a return.
Speculation was rife about his role in the new movie after he starred as Jim in the 2002 sequel film 28 Days Later, well before he shot to Oscar success.
In March, Danny teased that viewers may get to see Cillian, 48, return after all, in one of the films in the trilogy.
Speaking during Sony's presentation at 2025 CinemaCon, the filmmaker hinted: 'Like all good things in life, you may have to wait a little while for [Cillian] to make his appearance'.
When the first trailer for the highly-anticipated film was released in December, fans went wild over one unexpected moment that saw a zombie rise up in a field behind Jodie Comer's character.
The clip sparked worldwide speculation amongst fans, believing it to be the zombified form of Cillian's character from the first film.
But this theory was quickly shut down when a London art dealer and model revealed he was the one playing the zombie character.
Earlier this year, movie producer Andrew Macdonald confirmed Cillian would not be appearing in 28 Years Later - but suggested he could return for a future film.
He told Empire: '[On] this, we wanted him to be involved and he wanted to be involved. He is not in the first film, but I'm hoping there will be some Jim somewhere along the line.'
He added: 'He's involved at the moment as an executive producer, and I would hope we can work with him in some way in the future in the trilogy.'