Director Nia DaCosta and star Jack O’Connell break down the wild and crazy pyrotechnic-fueled sequence.

Inside The Bone Temple’s rip-roaring Iron Maiden spectacular and Ralph Fiennes’ lip sync for his life

Director Nia DaCosta and star Jack O'Connell break down the wild and crazy pyrotechnic-fueled sequence.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in *Vanity Fair*, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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January 17, 2026 8:00 a.m. ET

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Ralph Fiennes as Dr. Kelson in '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple' Iron Maiden scene. Credit:

Miya Mizuno/Sony

- From Ralph Fiennes' lip sync to the fire performer inside the flame-proof suit, director Nia DaCosta and star Jack O'Connell break down the Iron Maiden scene.

- "We were told to go for it," O'Connell, playing cult leader Jimmy Crystal, shares of his experience.

- Otto, the Italian fire performer who doubles for Fiennes, was found on Instagram through his work with I Piromanti. Learn all about him.

**This article contains spoilers from *28 Years Later: The Bone Temple*.**

In *28 Years Later: The Bone Temple*, Ralph Fiennes' Dr. Ian Kelson literally lip syncs for his life.

Jimmy Crystal (Jack O'Connell), leader to his cult of satanic Jimmies, needs Kelson to convincingly pretend to be the Devil himself, or his followers will tear the flesh from his bones. So he puts on a show. Kelson hooks up an Iron Maiden record to his stereo in his torch-lit bone yard, dons a black trench coat and makeup, gets the Jimmies high on drugs, and then they all proceed to mosh in a frenzied lip sync to "The Number of the Beast," full of pyrotechnics.

RuPaul should be proud.

"The most important things to me were that it was scary and epic and fun, but also that we're seeing [the Jimmies] as kids," director Nia DaCosta tells ** in a deep-dive conversation about the sequence. "I want it to feel like their first time moshing at a concert because for all of them, except for Jack, it's their first time hearing projected music. What does that do to your f---ing body if you're basically an adult and you've never heard that before?"

"There was a ring of actual fire, so there were safety experts present," O'Connell, who moshed among the Jimmies, adds in a separate interview. "We were told to go for it. Over the course of the two nights that it took to shoot that sequence, it was wild. It felt hallucinogenic and, God, I hope that's how it's received, as well."

Becoming the Devil

Ralph Fiennes as Dr. Ian Kelson in '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple'.

Sony Pictures Releasing

On the script page that Alex Garland wrote, it felt to DaCosta like "the most epic thing you've ever seen." So how do you actually realize it? "We just slowly built it," she says. "My production designers are amazing. They come from stage and fashion, live events, and live performance. So I knew they were the perfect people to help me figure this out."

The entire sequence hinges on Fiennes, who sets the bar high for the best movie scenes of the entire year. The three-time Oscar winner fully embraced the chaotic energy required of such a performance, even climbing as high as he safely could atop the spire of bones on set to really sell himself as this heavy-metal Satan.

'Sinners' alum Jack O'Connell on what he finds 'really haunting' about his 'Bone Temple' villain

Ralph Fiennes on what to expect in '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple'

"He's so down," DaCosta says of the *Harry Potter* and *Schindler's List* veteran. "He was shirtless in the middle of the night, doing it again and again and again. I was like, 'Do you want a break?' He's like, 'No, let's go again!' ... I think he knows if you don't commit, you look bad. This whole movie, if you read the script, no part of you decides to do it and then goes, 'Well, I'm not gonna go all the way.'"

O'Connell shares his reaction to watching Fiennes on set: "I just had my mind utterly blown because he turned up with it already mapped out. From the get-go, we are just bearing witness to cinema history. And he's a highly respected, highly regarded actor — and rightfully so. So to see him really go there in this quite outlandish moment, even more respect."**

Light it up!

Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O'Connell) and his cult of Jimmies in '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple'.

Miya Mizuno/Sony

The Iron Maiden scene was one of the more complicated pieces of *The Bone Temple* by virtue of all the various elements involved.

The ring of fire: DaCosta and the team went back and forth before deciding to dig an above-ground trench during pre-production to create the ring of fire. There was no time to make it happen during the shoot itself. "We realized we had to dig it out during prep and then cover it with grass when we're shooting any other scene," she says.

Fire safety: "We had to get stunts involved and then the fire department," DaCosta notes. "Those skulls in the spire are all — not styrofoam, but they're basically highly flammable. So we're wetting that down between every take."

When asked how much coverage she ultimately captured, the filmmaker behind *Candyman*, *The Marvels*, and this year's *Hedda* simply exclaims, "Woo!"

DaCosta calls herself a "single-camera girly," but the team also utilized what is nicknamed "the Simone," an altered TRINITY camera rig. She runs down the list: "We had to shoot all the Jimmies for each section. We had to shoot different sizes for Ralph on the table. We had a drone overhead for the ring of fire. We had a crane for when [Fiennes is] up on the spire and getting the POV down. We had a three-camera setup for the fire performance because we could only do that, I think, three times or four times."

Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) lip syncs to Iron Maiden in '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple'.

Columbia Pictures

One shot within the chaotic number depicts Kelson dressed in head-to-toe gear. He twirls about a long black rod with two canisters at either end, out of which pour flames and sparks in a dazzling display of pyrotechnics.

The man actually in the suit is an Italian fire performer going by the name of Otto, whom DaCosta found on Instagram. (His handle is @ott8mix.) The team flew him into the U.K. to film just a few takes for this piece of the sequence that, during early fan screenings in December, elicited the loudest audience reactions.

"Otto, for me, is a name without a face," O'Connell remarks. "Never saw him. He was in his full protective wear. He came and did that and then was out of there. He's a bit of a myth. He could be sat in this room. I wouldn't know."

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"Otto" Nicola Giacona, as he's credited in the film, is a member of I Piromanti, which translates as "the pyromancers." The organization puts on "fire and sparkle" and "medieval and fantasy" shows, per their social media.

"He's so specific, it's scientific what he does, but basically it's embers that come off of charcoal and burning wood," DaCosta explains. "It's a bit over the top, but this could actually happen in this world. We just thought he was breathtaking. This is the hat on the hat that we need to really make the sequence go to the next level."**

Thinking of the whole Iron Maiden sequence, O'Connell remarks, "When you turn up to shoot these scenes, you have no idea what it's gonna be. There's a certain amount on the page, but you just gotta turn up in good faith and openness. And when you've got Ralph Fiennes pushing the pedal to the metal like that, you just hop on board. But throughout, all involved in that performance, we all just went for it, man."

*28 Years Later: The Bone Temple* is playing now in theaters.

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