When the news broke that top selling video game The Last of Us was going to be adapted into a film, I knew I needed to write something this. I decided to write about the film adaption from a film perspective, but the more and more I started working on it, the longer and longer it got. So to make it easier I’ve spilt my article into a four part series. Part 1 looks at the story and why it can work for Hollywood, parts 2 and 3 look at the characters and moments of the story that are essential and non-essential and part 4 looks at the ultimate question, can the film adaption work at all?
WARNING: Major Spoilers Ahead!
Speaking of which, if I’m going to be talking about the story, I have to bring up the ending. In the end, after getting Ellie to the lab, Joel learns that to make a vaccine and save humanity, Ellie would need to die. Joel isn’t too pleased with this plan and decides to save Ellie and not help humanity, essentially becoming the bad guy, only caring about himself and not thinking about others. While Joel’s decision is controversial, I completely agree with his decision. You go through the entire game seeing what the world has turned into and what that has done to the people. This world exposes the real human nature in everyone and shows a very bleak reality where people will do anything to survive, whether that’s killing people or even resorting to cannibalism. Humanity is at the point of no return and Joel sees that. Why should sick, twisted people like this deserve a second chance? But Joel is also only thinking of himself. Joel as lost nearly everyone important to him, Sarah, Tess and now Ellie? No way. He finally finds someone he can have that connection with, someone that he cares about and he’s not going to lose her. Much like the gaming community, when movie audiences see this ending, some will agree and disagree with Joel’s decision. This is good because it will get people talking about the film and help generate some more buzz about the film too.
What I really love about this story is how refreshing it is for this genre, how true and honest it is, if something like this was to happen, you could believe this is what would happen. But most of all, I love how brilliantly the story is written. You can sit back and watch the cinematics and enjoy them like a film, which I have done. It’s incredibly smart, no two characters are alike and best of all you feel for these characters, you want them to be safe, you want them to survive and it’s painful when those characters die. What other game does that? What other game makes you feel that sort of emotion? Actually scrap that, when was the last time you saw a film that made you feel that sort of emotion? The Last of Us is a masterpiece in gaming and shows what is really missing in the films of today. It’s not good enough nowadays to just have shit blow up and stick Marky Mark in it (Yes, Michael Bay I’m talking to you). The Last of Us has the one thing missing from the film industry today and it’s a big thing too, the perfect story.