The most important differences between The Last of Us and the movie adaptation

When HBO first announced a TV adaptation of The Last of Us, fans expressed great dismay, which isn’t surprising given how many bad adaptations there are.

First released in 2013, the video game remains one of the most beloved narrative arcs in the gaming community (there’s also a sequel called The Last of Us Part II, released in 2020). Comparisons between the game and the series were inevitable, and success would require continued respect for the source material. And so it happened, and the fans of the game were delighted with the result, but still there were some differences.

Series creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann knew that to be successful in their adaptations, they had to strike a balance between honestly portraying the game’s creativity and understanding that television requires different kinds of storytelling. The release of the first episode in January surprised even the most ardent fans with how accurately they got it.

The first difference between HBO and the game is its setting: the series takes place 10 years before it takes place in the game. Mazin and Druckmann also changed the basic details of the start of the pandemic. The game has infectious sports in the air, but the TV show makes it go away. The changes were received quite positively online, with many arguing that sports would still be harder to believe in advanced TV settings (the physics of how spores get through doors and windows are easier to control in a video game). Instead, in the series, the pandemic begins with infection through direct contact, transmitted through bites and food sources.

The next difference is that the TV show explains the origin of the deadly Cordyceps in a way that the game doesn’t. The second part includes an introduction about an Indonesian mycologist who studies the early human sacrifice of a mutated fungus. The crime scene is dated September 24, 2003, and after examining the body, he tearfully advises government officials to bomb the town where the victim was found. The scene provides a useful backdrop to the many bombed-out cities Joel and Ellie see along the way in the US. The game doesn’t explain this in such detail.

The second series also includes Joel’s crushing farewell to his infected partner Tess. The scene in which she tells Joel about her illness is very similar to the play, but Tess’ death is noticeably different. Instead of simply attacking the approaching FEDRA soldiers to give Joel and Ellie time to escape, he sets the entire building on fire, then lets one of the infected runners kiss him and mutated branches of the fungus enter his mouth.

Also in the fourth episode, Ellie and Joel are ambushed, the scene of which is very similar to the game. In the show, the characters are forced to take a detour in Kansas City on their way to Wyoming. In the game, this ambush takes place in Pittsburgh, but much of the building’s decoration makes them look like the same city. In both cases, the area was destroyed first by the army, then by Kathleen and her resistance movement. Kathleen’s background is also much more detailed in the series.

In the show, the first ambush leads to Ellie being killed with a pistol for the first time, but in the game, she only prolongs the fight by injuring the man and then killing her during a longer fight.

Brothers Sam and Henry appear in the fifth episode, but the first of the series is younger and also mute. She speaks sign language with her brother Henry and communicates with Ellie using a whiteboard, a brand new addition to the television adaptation.

In the series, Sam, Henry, Joel and Ellie escape from Kansas City through several underground tunnels. In the game these are sewers. The Resistance and the ongoing war with the Infected unfolds somewhat differently, with the show’s first “blower” (a variation of the Infected) appearing.

In episode six, Joel is reunited with his brother Tommy after he and Ellie finally arrive in Wyoming. In the game, Tommy and his wife, Maria, appear at the hydroelectric dam that powers the nearby village, and players never see the town itself. And in the series, Tommy and Maria live in a village very similar to the space in the second episode of The Last of Us. Most of the details of their time there are taken from the plot played in the remastered video game, but are only mentioned in passing in the original. A movie night attended by Ellie and the horse named Shimmer from the second episode of the game, not the first episode of 2013.

Meanwhile, in the last episode of The Last of Us, fans noticed a mistake.