The Last of Us: A Hope for Video-Game-to-Film Adaptations?

On January 15, 2023, the premiere of the video game adaption, The Last of Us aired on HBO Max, starring Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie. Based on the 2013 video game of the same name, The Last of Us follows the protagonists, Joel and Ellie, through an apocalyptic America as a deadly, widespread pandemic changes civilization for the worst. This article includes spoilers for the first three episodes of The Last of Us.

Many fans were skeptical when the news of the adaptation was first announced due to the fact that many prior video game-to-movie/show adaptations have had a history of belligerently flopping in the past, a poor track record of in-tanked box office results and failed feedback from audiences. In addition to the fact that the 2013 game had meant so much to long-time fans, with a large fandom following online and IRL, expectations had been set expeditiously high for the video game adaptation including everyone involved.

The first episode titled When You’re Lost in the Darkness opens with a flashback to 1968 of a talk show interview with Dr. Neuman, played by John Hannah. He discusses the threat of a self-evolving fungus that may lead to a global pandemic and its consequences to the total damnation of humanity.

Flash forward to September 23rd, 2003 in Austin, Texas, we’re introduced to Sara, Joel, and Tommy. The scene opens with Sara waking up and prepping breakfast for Tommy, her uncle, and her father, Joel’s, birthday. Throughout the first half of the episode, we follow the family of three as they go about their days as strange anomalies begin to occur.

  After school, Sara goes to a clock repair shop to fix Joel’s old watch as police cars, a fire truck, and a SWAT van pass by, when she is rushed out of the shop by the owners for an unknown reason and told to go home. 

Later, Joel gets a call from Tommy from jail for getting in a fight, so he leaves in the middle of the night to bail him out, leaving Sara home alone. Sara wakes up to an empty house and heads over to the neighbors. She is shaken to see Nana tearing up a body on the floor, rushing out to see Joel and Tommy pulling up with the truck. Joel attacks the Nana-clicker mutant and the three rush into the truck to find a safe base from the unknown disease. 

Sara opens her eyes to see a scene of death and destruction out on the streets. She discovers her ankle broken and Joel lifts her as the two head to the river for safety, splitting up with Tommy. 

As the two cut through an alleyway, they find a pile of bodies mutating with the virus and one starts to chase after them but is then shot by an officer. Sara and Joel are stopped, with the assumption they’re both infected. The officer tries to shoot at them as they fall down, but Tommy kills him beforehand. Tommy and Joel both look at Sara to see her bleeding out on the ground. As Joel tries to save her, she sadly dies in his arms. 

Flash to 2023, 20 years after the start of the infection and Sara’s death, Joel is shown in Boston, throwing corpses that had fallen victim to the disease. Then, we meet our female protagonist, Ellie, a sarcastic, witty, 14-year-old girl who grew up during the time of the post-apocalyptic society.

Later in the episode, the two characters meet and, to their dismay, must travel with one another.

The second episode, The Infected, opens with a flashback to September 23, 2003, in Indonesia, where we learn more insight into the origins of the disease, such as how its spread and where it comes from.

Then, cut to the present, with Ellie, Tess, and Joel. Joel and Tess, watch Ellie, in fear of her possibly being infected. Ellie reveals her own importance is due to the fact that she is said to be the key to discovering a vaccine for the outbreak.

As the three make their way through the destroyed city, they cut through a museum as a shortcut, filled with dried, infected corpses and fungus, where a group of clickers chase after them.

At the end of the episode, it is revealed Tess has been infected and it is now up to Joel to take care of Ellie and bring her to safety on his own. As the two leave, Tess lights up the building, killing herself and the clickers inside it.

The third episode, titled, A Long Long Time, opens with Joel, mourning the death of Tess, and Ellie on their way to meet Bill and Frank, just as Tess had advised them to do and they make a pit stop at Cumberland Farms as a pit stop for supplies.

Flashback to September 23, 2003, we follow Bill and his life through the apocalypse. One day, he meets Frank, a man on his way to Boston. The two develop feelings for one another and end up moving in together. Frank becomes friends with Tess through the radio and they meet.

Frank and Bill live together for 13 years, and through those years, Frank starts to get sick from cancer and old age. On his last day, Frank tells Bill his last wishes before he goes. The two get married in the living room and spend their last moments with one another. Bill also takes the sleeping pills that had originally been for Frank, with the two going out together.

Back to the present, Joel and Ellie show up at the residence with no one in sight, with a letter from Frank declaring their death and a key to the car. They gather supplies from the house and the episode ends with the two driving away in the car with the song Bill and Frank had sung on the piano earlier on.

One of my favorite parts of the show, so far, is how much they had incorporated shot-for-shot scenes from the game into the show, staying true to the source material while still making it its own. It was very interesting to see how the actors had taken those scenes and portrayed them. Also, one of my favorite scenes was the scene of the three- Joel, Tommy, and Sara- in the truck driving toward a safe base, since I think the way they shot it was very exhilarating to watch. 

I think my favorite episode so far, both to me and to many fans, is the third episode. I was shocked to see how much emotion and depth they had put into it. It was very emotional to watch and I think the actors’ portrayal of Bill and Frank and the overture they had added throughout the episode altogether, was just brilliant. 

Central English Teacher, Teacher Choi, a four-year fan of The Last of Us video game, had thought some things the show had done well as their ability to expand as a whole. “I think the great thing is that it’s a TV show so they have the time to expand on certain things. Whereas, in the game, for the sake of moving the game along. In the TV show, there are more things like how the disease gets transmitted, how it grows.”

The show had given the other plotlines to be expanded and dug into more, such as the origin of the virus and getting to know the characters more. “The change they’re making is necessary but also helps flesh out the story to make it feel like, yeah this is a show, we’re seeing these characters grow and change. Where the game is already set in stone.” Choi explains.

Central Freshman, Kara Ficek, had said she likes the way the show has turned out so far and she has high hopes for the future of the show. 

“I think the CGI was very well done,” says Giulia Bedini-Jacobini, “I have high hopes for the show and I’m excited to see where they’ll take the rest of the season.”

In hopes for the show, Choi says, “I hope for little cameos from the original actors and expanded on plotlines.”