The highly anticipated horror flick 28 Years Later was shot entirely on the iPhone 15, Wired claimed in a report on Thursday, noting that with a budget of $75 million, it’s is the biggest movie yet to use a smartphone for filming.
The main filming for the Danny Boyle movie finished up last month and the final product is expected to land in theaters in June 2025. Those working on the set had reportedly been instructed to sign a nondisclosure agreement to ensure news didn’t leak about the use of the iPhone. It’s possible that Apple and the moviemakers had been planning a big reveal to highlight the powerful capabilities of the iPhone when it comes to capturing moving pictures, but Wired’s report may impact that plan.
It was first suggested that Boyle was using a smartphone for at least some of the shots for 28 Years Later after a photo of the movie set taken by a paparazzi in July revealed, on close inspection, a protective cage holding something that was most definitely not a regular movie camera, but instead, quite possibly, a high-end smartphone.
Wired investigated further and received confirmation from several people linked to the movie that Boyle had indeed been using a number of iPhone 15 Pro Max handsets — connected to elaborate rigs — to film scenes for 28 Years Later.
Having a prominent moviemaker like Boyle use an iPhone for a big-budget movie is a real boon for Apple, which sells a lot of its smartphones off the back of the handset’s strong reputation for producing excellent imagery.
Apple itself also showed off the phone’s ability to record footage for elaborate productions during its Scary Fast event last October in which iitntroduced the new MacBook Pro and iMac with M3 chips. All of the presenters, locations, and drone footage in the online presentation were filmed using the iPhone 15 Pro Max, though as many reports noted at the time — and that also applies to 28 Years Later — the phone was supported by a plethora of advanced moviemaking equipment such as lighting, dollies, and cranes, and also had a highly experienced post-production team to craft the footage into something compelling. The results are astonishing for such a tiny device, so we’re eager to see what Boyle has managed to do with it.
