Superficially, The Last of Us may be another show that set in the zombie apocalypse – just a bit different than what you know from The Walking Dead and Co. In truth, however, the HBO series is a kind of TV experiment: how much fluid can you lose by crying before you pass out on the couch?
Even the acclaimed game template for the series knew how to not only scare fans a lot, but also emotionally destroy them. And no scene illustrates that better than the most shocking moment of The Last of Us episode one, the since January 16 at Sky or WOW is available. The good thing is that we as viewers are not alone in our pain. One of the actors also had a hard time struggling with the moment, as he revealed in an interview with Moviepilot.
The following are spoilers for The Last of Us Season 1 Episode 1.
From game to HBO series, this is what makes The Last of Us scene so shocking
HBO Entertainment
Sarah and Joel in The Last of Us
Gabriel Luna plays Tommy, the brother of protagonist Joel (who is played by Pedro Pascal) in the dystopian horror drama. A role that is not only very important to him, but for which he was also well prepared, because: “I have [2013]when the game came out, played the first 30 minutes.” The actor later caught up on the entire game. But in exactly this first half hour of the game, what happens now even makes non-gamers sob in front of the TV.
After the outbreak of the fatal (zombie) fungal infection, Joel and Tommy try to flee the city with Joel’s daughter Sarah (Nico Parker). The brothers are separated and Joel, who is carrying his daughter in his arms, is stopped by an armed soldier. He thinks the injured Sarah is infected and shoots father and daughter. Tommy walks up and takes out the soldier, but Sarah is hit. She dies in the arms of a crying Joel.
A shocking, highly emotional scene for everyone involved – and the audience. In video games, gamers play Sarah first. In the series, the girl is also the first character through which we see the world of The Last of Us. Her death is all the more surprising and hits right in the heart.
The Last of Us star Gabriel Luna was forced into his ‘survival mode’ during emotional filming
The Last of Us: 5 gameplay moments that need to be in the series
In the first The Last of Us game, the scene ends the prologue. The screen goes black and the opening credits follow. Only then does the game really get going, but the shock of the emotionally destructive start remains. No wonder that Gabriel Luna when asked which game scene he was most afraid of when shooting the serieshas only one answer:
The scene in which we [Sarah] lose. Where our family, our very close-knit family, tragically dwindles in the blink of an eye. If I had been there just a split second earlier, it might not have happened. Or? The actor has previously appeared in Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and Terminator: Dark Fate, among others. In this one scene from The Last of Us, however, there is one for Gabriel Luna “Expectation that has been building for 10 years”: 10 years between the moment he first played the action-adventure and the release of the series. I was really looking forward to the scene, I marked it on my calendar. But I was also afraid of it. I function best when I’m in a survival mode where I feel some level of fear. […] I think that’s why I was looking forward to this scene, both in anticipation of what I could contribute and as well because of the emotional depth that the scene needs. And of course because I’m a fan of the game and I know how badly it affects you.
By the way, Sarah’s death scene didn’t just take the series cast with it. The shooting was also intense for the actors of the video game template.
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Troy Baker, who plays Joel in the games, said in the YouTube documentary about the making of the first game: “I have Neil [Druckmann, Schöpfer des Spiels und auch beteiligt an der Serienadaption] said: When the day comes when we shoot this, you have to let me know in advance. […] Because I knew that to do that I had to go somewhere that as an actor I really don’t want to go.”
More in the podcast: How good is The Last of Us season 1?
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With The Last of Us, the long-awaited series adaptation of Naughty Dog’s video game series of the same name has finally started on Sky and WOW. Max Wieseler and Lisa Ludwig were able to do all of that View 9 episodes of the first season in advance and reveal in the podcast (spoiler-free) whether and for whom the horror drama with Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal is worthwhile.
Which scene did you like the most in the first episode of The Last of Us?