5 Most Shocking Moments In The Last Of Us

In the six years since its release, The Last of Us has garnered critical acclaim not only for its searing portrayal of a world ravaged by zombies, but also the brilliantly written relationship between its two main characters, Joel and Ellie. It’s rare that gamers are able to get so invested in the characters, especially with the prospect of them being torn to pieces at any conceivable moment.

So, with a sequel looming on the horizon like hordes of the undead, what better time to revisit this masterpiece and discuss its most shocking moments? Here are the five most shocking moments in The Last of Us that really took us off-guard.

 

5. The First Time You Encounter A ‘Clicker’

Nobody ever forgets their first time, so they say, and the first Clicker encounter is no exception. A neat twist on the somewhat tired and cumbersome ‘zombie’ as we know it, these mushroom-headed ghouls are legitimately terrifying. They stagger around blindly, moving as though their insides are trying to escape through their skin, using sound to navigate because even though they’re blind, their hearing is second to none.

Avid gamers may sigh and throw up their hands at the obligatory stealth portion of the game, but that sells it short. The very first time you encounter these creatures, you’re traversing a collapsed office block in the dead of night, and you hear the clicking sound that you’ll soon come to know and dread. It’s one of the most memorable parts of the game, and one you’ll inevitably find yourself looking back on, either with fondness or revulsion.

This all culminates in a terrifying game of corpse and mouse around a museum, each statue and suit of armour seemingly lurking to feast on your flesh the second you turn your back. It’s a genuinely nail-biting experience, and you’ll find yourself actually holding your breath as you sneak past something that sounds like a cross between a giant bat and a 90s modem on its last legs.

 

4. The Giraffes

Ah yes, the giraffes. It’s a completely surreal moment that’s important for being one of the few uplifting scenes in the entire game, though it’s wonderfully refreshing to be able to simply put the controller down and just take it all in for a few minutes. This also serves to underscore how far Joel and Ellie’s relationship has come since they began their journey.

They sit and watch, not a care in the world, and for the first time since they met, truly share this one special moment as, for all intents and purposes, father and daughter. And though it would have been interesting to witness the giraffes make mincemeat of a slew of zombies (and possibly witness the birth of pop culture’s very first zombie giraffe), it’s fantastically serene and very much welcomed, especially after how much the characters have been put through the emotional wringer.

 

3. Sarah’s Death

Nothing quite prepares you for this, the first truly shocking moment in the game’s story. It completely sets the sombre tone of the lead character and gives him much of his relatability. He isn’t some chiselled super man taking on hordes of enemies and coming out unscathed, he’s a regular Joe(l) whose had his entire world destroyed, shortly before the entire world is actually destroyed.

While fleeing the new zombie craze that’s sweeping the nation, Joel and Sarah are stopped by a soldier who has an order to kill anyone trying to escape. He shoots at them and fatally wounds Sarah, who then dies in Joel’s arms. Everything Joel does from this point on, he does for her/Ellie. And this all happens before the title credits roll, which is a hell of a sucker punch, but merely a taste of what’s to come. Nobody is safe in this game’s world.

 

2. The Deaths of Sam & Henry

This one is sudden, unexpected and brutal; the real narrative triple threat. Joel and Ellie meet Sam and Henry and at first strike up an uneasy relationship, as Joel is wary of others. But they soon discover that Sam and Henry are just like them, two lost souls trying to make the best of this whole mess.

This moment comes right on the heels of a big battle victory and just as Ellie and Sam were starting to develop a real friendship. Henry and Joel were even beginning to bond, so Joel was almost lulled into a false sense of security. This simply serves to show Ellie what Joel already knew, that the world is harsh and unforgiving.

Sam becomes infected and attacks Ellie, so Henry is forced to kill him before turning the gun on himself. The carrot of hope was tantalisingly dangled in the player’s faces in the form of meeting the Fireflies, before being snatched away and ground to an orange pulp. Also, TLoU already had the cojones to kill off one kid, who’d have thought they’d do it a second time? Not this hombre.

 

1. The Ending

Man, that ending. At first glance, it seems a little cliched, Hollywood even, especially for a game that doesn’t pull its punches. Joel kills the bad guy, rescues Ellie, and they both ride off into the metaphorical sunset to enjoy some zombie free bonding time. Sounds good, right?

But actually, it’s not a happy ending at all, more of a morally ambiguous one. Marlene, the leader of the Fireflies, explains that they need Ellie in order to extract the cure for that nasty case of cordyceps-itis that’s been going around. Unfortunately for Ellie, this means killing her, literally sacrificing her for the greater good. But Joel isn’t interested in saving humanity, he’s seen what we as a species are capable of. We’re looking at you, Corden. He’s a father who just wants his daughter back, no matter the cost.

In the end, the game takes an ambivalent stance, neither encouraging the player to judge or applaud him for his actions. He is simply a flawed human, and who among us can say we wouldn’t act the same way. As a parent myself, I certainly couldn’t even contemplate it. It definitely makes for an interesting talking point, whether or not it’s right to sacrifice the loved individual for the unknown collective.

The only thing Joel really does wrong is not tell Ellie the truth, instead opting to lie when she asks him about what went on. This is certainly something which I’d like to see explored further in the sequel, as it would make for an interesting dynamic between the two of them. Everything we learn about Ellie throughout the game seems to suggest that she would want to try and help save humanity any way she can. By making the decision on her behalf, Joel has robbed her of that opportunity, and it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out if and when it gets revealed in the sequel.

Which, by the way, I’m expecting big things from. The vast majority of the promotional material focuses on Ellie as the main player character with Joel appearing to take more of a backseat as the role of the grizzled mentor who’s ‘too old for this shit’.

What does this mean for the gameplay? Will it be more stealth-based, tactical, or able to better avoid conflict altogether? Will you get to play as other characters, will there be more delving into Ellie’s backstory a la Left Behind? I’d definitely like to see a greater variety of enemies and more characters (playable or not) as well as a relationship to rival that of Ellie and Joel’s in the original. But alas, we’ll have to wait until May next year for those questions and more to be answered. Until then, go back and revisit TLoU, happy zombie hunting, and watch out for Clickers.