In part two of my series of looking at The Last of Us film adaption from a film perspective, I get into the nitty-gritty of it: the characters and moments that are essential for the film to work and what can be cut from it. On YouTube there is a 6-hour edit of the game that includes all the cinematics and the moments of gameplay that are necessary for the story. For obvious reasons you can’t have a film that is 6 hours long. So I started looking at what can be cut from the film and what needs to stay in to make sense of the story and still keep the essence of the story intact. I’m going to go through each part of the story in detail from beginning to end, so…
Again, Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead!
The prologue is still one of the best openings to a game I’ve ever seen. It presents a look at modern life; with everyday man Joel coming home late one night worrying about work. We also meet his daughter, Sarah, who has stayed up to give her father his birthday gift: a watch. The scene is filled with realistic banter. There is a very natural dynamic between the two and showcases a very normal life. Then the phone rings. In a matter of seconds, the world we know is flipped upside down. Strange noises, explosions and speeding police cars echo throughout the house. After Joel is forced to kill his neighbour, his brother Tommy picks up Joel and Sarah and tries to get them out of town. It’s along this journey that we start to see the fall of Man. Rabid human beings start attacking others, massive gas explosions, car crashes, and no sign of a way out. After Tommy holds off a horde of infected, Joel and Sarah try to escape the town, but are chased by infected.
Thankfully, a soldier guns down the infected, but he isn’t there to help Joel and Sarah. He begins firing at them, sending them down a hill. Just as Joel is about to be shot, Tommy arrives to put down the soldier. While Joel is fine, Sarah is not. She has been shot, severely. What follows is one of the most heartbreaking scenes ever as Joel watches his daughter die in front of him. This is a very emotional scene and difficult to watch, and this is only 10 minutes into the game. The Prologue is like gaming’s equivalent of the opening of Up. It is essential that the prologue is included in the film, it shows the beginning of the infection, and sets up the sort of person Joel becomes and makes you understand his relationship with Ellie.
After the emotional rollercoaster of The Prologue, we are transported 20 years later into a Boston quarantine zone to an older Joel showing his age, which must be late 40s, and his friend/love interest Tess, who is not one to take lightly. We are shown how the world has deteriorated, we learn about the sort of person Joel has turned into (a black market trader) and we are introduced to the driving force of the story. To get their guns back from an anti-military rebel group called The Fireflies, Joel and Tess must do a favour for the head of The Fireflies, Marlene: transport a 14-year old girl called Ellie to a meet point in the middle of Boston. Although reluctant at first, Joel and Tess agree, until they learn something about Ellie, she’s infected, but hasn’t turned. Ellie is believed to be the cure for the Cordyceps virus. Against Joel’s best wishes, they carry on through Boston to the meet point. This section needs to stay in the film. A lot of the gameplay elements can be taken out for time saving, but the main story elements need to be in there to set up the rest of the story.
Downtown Boston
Venturing into downtown Boston gives everyone the first look into the fall of civilisation, derelict buildings, nature reclaiming the streets and our first encounters with the infected. While there many great encounters with the infected in this section, including an intense walk through the subway, one encounter that must stay is when Joel is separated from Tess and Ellie in a museum and joins up with them later. This is an important moment that will become clear later. After escaping the museum, there is a moment of calm reflection, almost like the calm before the storm. When our trio reaches the meeting point, they find the contacts died, killed by the military. This sends Tess into a panic and reveals what has happened, Tess was bitten in the museum. Her bite is much worse than Ellie’s and convinces Joel that Ellie being the cure is real and he needs to get her to The Fireflies’ lab. To make matters worse, the rest of the military turn up to tie up any loose ends. Tess stays behind to give Joel and Ellie time to escape. This scene is one of my favourites in the entire game. You’ve been with Tess near enough since the beginning and she’s an incredibly important person to Joel. The scene shows Tess in her best light, strong and independent, and defiant to the end. The scene also showcases the brilliant writing that The Last of Us has. To try and convince Joel to take Ellie, she uses their feelings towards each other. But instead of saying “Do this because you love me” and some crap like that, she says, “There’s enough here that you must some sort of obligation to me.” It’s a very subtle line and also tells you everything you need to know about Joel and Tess’ relationship. She has one of the best death scenes ever, one of the best last words ever (“Just f**king go.”) and is one of the best characters in the entire game and because of that this scene has to be in the film.
Pittsburgh is an interesting section of the game. It is one of the longest sections but also one of the most telling. After being ambushed by some hunters who have cordoned off and taken over Pittsburgh, Joel and Ellie start to explore what the Cordyceps virus has done to humanity. The hunters believe in survival of the fittest meaning there are no women and children around. During this section Joel begins to trust Ellie and starts to give her some responsibilities. This is a very long section and is something that can be cut down to 5-10 minutes through the right writing. Also in Pittsburgh, Joel and Ellie meet Sam and Henry, a brother duo who have come into Pittsburgh looking for supplies and are trying to get back out to their own group. This is a great opportunity for Ellie to interact with someone her own age, Sam, and tells another story about the struggles of living in this world. The escape is simple enough and the betrayal of Sam and Henry is great and the jump off the bridge works well. Apart from those long moments of gameplay, there isn’t really a lot that can be cut from this section.
The Sewers
If the makers of the film adaption are going to do The Last of Us justice, they have to keep in one of the most terrifying moments in the entire game. After Joel and Ellie meet up with Sam and Henry and forgives them later on, they all trek through a sewer system to reach the meeting point that Sam and Henry are suppose to go to. This is the section that had me so nervous going through, you find small memories of people who had lived down the sewers to escape the infection, learn a little about their lives and begin to wonder why they aren’t there anymore. Then comes the section where I tell every person I talk to about this section to do, RUN! After being cut off from Henry and Ellie, Joel and Sam must make their way through a hoard of infected including runners and clickers. It’s so scary because you hear these voices that echo throughout the sewers, you don’t really know where to run to and the infected just keep coming and coming. When you do find Henry and Ellie there’s no let up, you have to battle waves of infected while you desperately try to claw your way out of the door and when you get out there’s a nice reminder on the door that’s says to don’t go in. It’s an incredible section that comes out of nowhere, it’s terrifying and has you glued to the screen. That is something that the film needs and this is the perfect chance to give audiences a better understanding of the world these characters live in and a perfect moment to scare the living shit out of them too.
This section is in reference to what happens at the end of the summer section of the game. Our band of four has made it to the meeting point but no one’s there. It’s a quiet moment where they can all relax after the chaos that has happened. There is also a great scene between Ellie and Sam, where Sam is having trouble dealing with the world. Ellie reassures him by telling him what she’s scared of, mainly being alone. But when Ellie leaves, we see what is really troubling Sam, who has been bitten. Where as in the game, Sam is bitten unknowingly in the suburbs; he could have just as easily been bitten in the sewers and this way it cuts out some more time that isn’t essential. Anyway, the next morning, Ellie wakes up to smell of Henry cooking; it’s a beautiful day and the start of something new. Ellie goes to wake up Sam, but Sam is already up and no longer Sam. Sam, who has turned, attacks Ellie. Joel goes to grab his gun, but Henry stops him and shoots Sam himself. Henry, having killed his own brother, struggles to deal with what he’s done and kills himself. There’s a gasp of shock from Joel and… the screen cuts to black, thus bringing summer to an end. This is a section no one sees coming. The writing is brilliant, the acting is great and it’s a moment that stays with not only the audience but the characters too. It’s a shocking moment and tells the audience that not everyone has the mental strength to survive in this world. The whole of summer gives you a great introduction into the bleak existence that Joel and Ellie live in and shows that there is always something bad behind the good.
Because there is so much to talk about when it comes to characters and moments in The Last of Us, I will cover the autumn and winter months, the ending and the moments I think should be left out of the film in the next part.