28 years later: Truth behind the haunting 110-year-old World War I chant; how a soldier's breakdown became a modern horror anthem

Indian Express

5 hours ago

Danny Boyle's 2025 post-apocalyptic horror, 28 Years Later, features a spine-chilling chant that stirred buzz long before the film even dropped. When the first trailer starring Ralph Fiennes and Jodie Comer released, it had everything: eerie visuals, a broken world, the zombies, but the creepy voice in the background wasn't made specifically for the movie. That haunting cadence actually comes from a 100-year-old recording of 'Boots,' a 1903 poem by Rudyard Kipling. At first, it feels random. But with the chaos onscreen, it lands like a deranged war cry, unsettling and unforgettable.
According to Boyle, who spoke to Variety, Rudyard Kipling wrote the poem to show how brutally repetitive life was for British soldiers who marched across southern Africa for weeks during the Boer War. It was recorded during World War I. The version used in the trailer is from the year 1915, read out by actor Taylor Holmes. At first, the chant sounds like a usual military drill, but by the end, the voice sounds hysterical, like it's losing control. For Boyle, it was a perfect way to capture the essence of the trailer.
Also read: 28 Years Later Movie Review: Danny Boyle's legacy sequel leaves you hungry for what comes next
The lyrics go as: 'I—have—marched—six—weeks in hell and certify
It—is—not—fire—devils, dark, or anything,
But boots—boots—boots—boots—movin up and down again.'
'And there's no discharge in the war!
Try—try—try—try—to think of something different
Oh—my—God—keep—me from going lunatic!'
According to the Kipling Society, the poem has been used over and over for marches by various army units, and in some cases, given how disturbing it gets towards the end, it has also been used to assess psychological impact by the U.S. military in their schools. Sony's trailer ad team found the old clip and knew it was perfect. Boyle and writer Alex Garland heard it mixed over the zombie footage and said, 'Holy crap… that's it.' Then they modified their version and blended the recording with actual film, during a scene where the main character Spike and his father are walking to face off the enemies, just like a war-like situation.
'We had all these archives that we wanted to use to suggest the culture that the island was teaching its children,' Boyle told Variety. 'It was very much a regressive thing — they were looking back to a time when England was great.
Boyle had considered Shakespeare's famous Saint Crispin's Day speech from Henry V, but it felt too obvious. 'Boots', on the other hand, had him gripped in one go. The low bass music under the chant increases the unease. 'We tried it in our archive sequence, and it was like it was made for. It,' the director said. Boyle said it was like the poem had been waiting over 100 years for this moment. It still carries the raw emotional power it did back then—even in our TikTok age.