That Horrific Poem in the ’28 Years Later’ Trailer Has a Deeper, Darker Meaning

When creating a trailer for a film or a show, nothing is more important to establishing its tone than the presence of music, which is precisely what makes the new teaser trailer for 28 Years Later so incredibly unique. Rather than a track from its own score or a licensed song, a simple poem is used instead, and the results make the teaser unforgettable. Not only does it perfectly capture the tone of the film and hint at the mental state of its new characters, but it has an extremely chilling backstory. More than a simple piece of poetry, it serves as a horrific cry of despair and madness, reflecting the raw feelings of those on the screen — along with actual people who experienced horror in real life.

What the Hell is That Poem in the ‘28 Years Later’ Trailer?

It’s easy to tell that the audio in the new teaser trailer is quite old, but the poem itself dates back more than one might expect. The poem is simply titled “Boots” and was initially written by British author Rudyard Kipling, perhaps most influential today for writing The Jungle Book in 1894. Kipling had been a correspondent during the Second Anglo-Boer War in 1902, where British troops emerged victorious but endured huge casualties, and the poem reflects the hellish experience of his life in wartime. Through maddening repetition and tedious pacing, it describes the sound of marching boots as worse than the flames of hell during a seemingly neverending conflict, led by soldiers totally unaware of where they are even marching towards.

The recording of the poem in the trailer, with its dramatic recitation, was made in 1915 by actor Taylor Holmes, just as World War I had begun to expand in Europe. Perhaps partially because of this timing, the words have become synonymous with the horrors of war, especially in that era. Even today, the poem still has major staying power, and the best proof of that can be seen in the military itself. When recruiting new soldiers, the US Navy uses a training program they call “Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape” to harden their endurance. For years, there have been reports of this single recording being played on repeat while soldiers are detained. The poem has been influential enough that the original recording has remained archived as a historical record piece by the Library of Congress, and is free to listen to online for the morbidly curious.

‘Boots’ Has Chilling Implications For ‘28 Years Later’

When knowing the backstory of this particular poem, its use in the teaser trailer is chilling enough on its own, as the sheer age of the recording means viewers are quite literally listening to the wailing of the dead. However, there are also more symbolic implications for the film itself, particularly one where the details are being kept under wraps. We know little about the new leading characters, for example, but the use of “Boots” gives a perfect hint at their likely mental state better than any narration or dialogue directly from the characters.

This especially makes sense when one remembers where the first two films had ended, with Jim (Cillian Murphy) having some small sense of hope and believing the zombies will eventually starve to death. Just before the poem begins, the trailer emphasizes the long passage of time, both as an homage to its predecessors and to prove just how wrong he was. The fact that the virus remains at large after 28 years would be enough to drive anyone to madness or despair, and the perfect use of tone suggests the film might be able to live up to the first two films, at least in their portrayal of darker moments.

In a post-apocalyptic story like this one, the focus on a broken outside world can make us forget that, for those who knew life before it, the outbreak is still the single defining event of their lives. Every day is wartime, yet the world is too mundane compared to what they once knew, just like a soldier in this poem. The trailer asks what will become of humanity, but also seems to answer its own question by suggesting a life that has been irretrievably lost, now inhabited by living zombies who almost tend to envy the dead ones they are fighting. Perhaps the tagline of the recent poster summarized it best with a remarkably simple but raw assessment: “Time didn’t heal anything.”

28 Years Later is scheduled for release in theaters on June 20, 2025.