97 Fun Facts About The Last of Us

What is Joel's task when he first escorts Ellie in The Last of Us?

To deliver her to the Fireflies was only a job at first: in the game, their leader Marlene promises Joel double his stolen weapons cache for smuggling Ellie across Boston.

Which infected stage in The Last of Us has a face split open by fungal plates?

Clickers are long-infected hosts: the growth that splits the face has destroyed their eyes, so they find prey by sound alone.

Which Canadian province was the primary filming location for the first season of HBO's The Last of Us?

Alberta doubled for nearly all of the American journey: Edmonton's legislature was draped in vines to play ruined Boston, on a shoot billed as the largest TV production in Canadian history.

Which animals do Joel and Ellie stop to watch near the end of the original The Last of Us?

Giraffes graze among the overgrown city ruins; the artists designed the scene to rekindle Ellie's lust for life when she has gone quiet before the final hospital chapter.

What is the name of Joel's daughter, shot by a soldier in the prologue of The Last of Us?

Sarah dies in Joel's arms on outbreak night, and the broken watch she gave him stays on his wrist for the rest of the story.

What is the name of Ellie's horse in The Last of Us Part II?

Shimmer carries Ellie to Seattle and earns a page in her journal: looking out over a downtown street, she stops to sketch the horse.

Which faction fights the Washington Liberation Front for Seattle in The Last of Us Part II?

The Seraphites, whom the WLF derisively call 'Scars' for their ritual facial cuts, fight the militia for Seattle and are the group Lev and Yara flee.

Who voices and performs Joel in The Last of Us games?

Troy Baker plays Joel in the games, then turns up in the HBO series as James, one of the winter cannibals hunting Ellie.

The original The Last of Us launched in 2013 as an exclusive for which PlayStation console?

PS3 owners were teased first: ahead of the 2011 reveal, a Times Square billboard promised a PlayStation 3 exclusive 'you won't believe', without naming the game.

In the HBO episode 'Long, Long Time', what does Frank secretly grow to surprise Bill?

Strawberries are the surprise: Frank has quietly traded one of Bill's guns for the seeds, and the two men share the first fruit in the patch he planted.

Which infected stage wears fungal armor and lobs corrosive spore sacs?

Bloaters are the rare late stage, years in the making; their fungal plates soak up bullets like armour, which is why players reach for fire instead.

Who portrays Ellie in the HBO television adaptation of The Last of Us?

Bella Ramsey was told to keep away from the game after the first audition so as not to copy the original Ellie, and watched gameplay clips online instead.

What is the name of Ellie's best friend, who is featured in the Left Behind downloadable content?

Riley has run away to join the Fireflies and sneaks Ellie into an abandoned mall for one last night together; both girls are bitten there, and only Ellie lives.

The Cordyceps fungus behind the infection in The Last of Us is inspired by a real fungus that affects what organisms?

Insects are the real hosts: one Cordyceps relative makes an ant climb a plant and clamp its jaws to a leaf, then kills it and grows a stalk from its head to shed spores.

Which settlement led by Joel's brother do Joel and Ellie settle in?

Jackson, Wyoming draws its power from a hydroelectric dam the townsfolk get running again, so the walled town has electric light and something close to normal life.

Neil Druckmann's student pitch that became The Last of Us borrowed the gameplay of which 2001 PlayStation 2 game?

ICO's bond between a boy and the girl he leads by the hand shaped a 2004 class pitch made to zombie-film director George A. Romero; the idea resurfaced years later at Naughty Dog.

Which character is Joel's smuggling partner in the Boston quarantine zone in The Last of Us?

Tess is bitten on the way to the Capitol building and stays behind as soldiers close in, buying Joel and Ellie time and making him promise to finish the job.

What is Ellie's signature melee weapon in the original The Last of Us?

Switchblade: unlike the shivs Joel crafts, it never breaks, so Ellie can make silent kills without spending one; she still carries it in Part II.

Where does Joel take Ellie for her sixteenth birthday in The Last of Us Part II?

Museum exhibits are the gift: Ellie climbs a dinosaur statue, then sits in a space capsule while a tape of a real launch lets her imagine lift-off.

What one-word reply from Ellie ends the first The Last of Us game after Joel swears his story is true?

Okay is all she says: Joel has just sworn the Fireflies gave up on a cure, and the cut to black leaves players to decide whether she believes him.

Which platform got The Last of Us Part I in 2023, after its PlayStation 5 debut?

Windows PC got the remake of the first game in March 2023, after a delay meant to ensure it arrived 'in the best shape possible'; it launched with crashes anyway, and Naughty Dog promised patches within a day.

Where in Seattle is the WLF's main base in The Last of Us Part II?

A football stadium houses the WLF: crops and livestock cover the pitch and classrooms fill the concourses, while the aquarium is only a hideout for a few of Abby's friends.

Which animal does Ellie hunt and then trade for medicine in the winter chapter of The Last of Us?

Deer meat is her bargaining chip: she tracks the wounded animal's blood trail to two strangers, who want the carcass, and holds out for medicine for the injured Joel.

Who composed the scores for The Last of Us video games and the HBO adaptation?

Gustavo Santaolalla also slips into the story himself: a banjo player modelled on him appears in Part II, and he sits in with the band in the season-two premiere.

In The Last of Us Part II, which WLF member and former Firefly is Abby's ex-boyfriend?

Owen, Abby's ex, has deserted the WLF and holed up in an aquarium, where he plans to sail to Santa Barbara in search of the regrouping Fireflies.

Which infected, found in wetter climates, bursts into acidic spores when killed?

Shamblers, introduced in Part II, appear mostly in the damp Pacific Northwest; they spray acid clouds in combat and burst into a final corrosive cloud when killed.

The January 2023 premiere of The Last of Us was HBO's biggest debut in over a decade behind which series?

House of the Dragon alone had opened bigger since Boardwalk Empire in 2010; 4.7 million watched The Last of Us on its first night, and the finale drew 8.2 million.

Which cannibal leader does Ellie encounter during winter in The Last of Us Part I?

David leads the winter chapter's cannibals; Ellie hacks him to death with his own machete inside a burning restaurant, and Joel finds her moments later.

What does The Last of Us call the earliest stage of Cordyceps infection?

Runners are the freshly infected, still human-looking and fast, and they swarm in packs; the longer the fungus has a host, the slower and tougher it gets.

Which actor plays Joel in HBO's The Last of Us?

Pedro Pascal plays Joel; no gamer, he handed the controller to his nephew within minutes, then kept a deliberate distance from the game so he would not imitate the original.

With what does Abby beat Joel to death in The Last of Us Part II?

A golf club: Abby is avenging her father, the surgeon Joel killed to save Ellie, and the murder is what sends Ellie to Seattle after her.

Which part of The Last of Us Part II does the second season of the HBO series adapt?

The first half of the story fills season two, which stops at the point where the game rewinds three days to replay events from Abby's side.

Which infected in The Last of Us Part II formed from many hosts fused together over decades?

Rat King is the nickname for a mass of Stalkers, Clickers and a Bloater sealed in a Seattle hospital basement since the outbreak's first days; Abby has to fight it alone.

Who played Marlene in the games and again in the HBO series?

Merle Dandridge voiced the Fireflies' leader in both games; on screen her Marlene gets a harrowing new scene, in which a bitten friend begs her to end it and take the newborn Ellie.

In the HBO series, what does Joel tell Ellie he did for a living before the outbreak?

Contractor is his answer on the ride to Colorado, where he also teaches Ellie to handle a scoped rifle, a rare glimpse of the man he was before the outbreak.

In the HBO series' 1968 cold open, a scientist warns that what could let fungi take over human hosts?

A warming climate is his fear: fungi cannot survive human body heat, he says, but a hotter world could push them to adapt, and then there would be no cure.

What is the name of Joel's brother?

Tommy is a former Firefly who quit the cause, married, and helped build a walled town around a working hydroelectric dam, where Joel finds him years later.

What is the name of the WLF dog Ellie kills at the aquarium in Part II?

Alice attacks when Ellie breaks into the aquarium and is stabbed; the game then replays the same three days as Abby, so you meet the dog alive after killing her.

Which military organization keeps authoritarian order in the quarantine zones of The Last of Us?

FEDRA, the Federal Disaster Response Agency, absorbed what was left of the army and rules the quarantine zones under martial law, the regime the Fireflies rise against.

Which Firefly surgeon, Abby's father, does Joel kill at the end of the first The Last of Us game?

Jerry Anderson faces Joel with only a scalpel to protect the operation; his death is what sends his daughter hunting Joel four years later.

Which feature was new in 2014's The Last of Us Remastered?

Photo Mode let players freeze the action and frame their own shots; fan Grant Voegtle cut a cinematic trailer with it, and Naughty Dog later hired him as a video editor.

What fear of Abby's does The Last of Us Part II repeatedly play on?

Abby has a fear of heights, which the game plays up when Lev leads her across the sky bridges between Seattle high-rises on the way to the hospital.

In the original game's Factions multiplayer, players pick one of which two groups?

Hunters or Fireflies was the choice in Factions, where each match counted as one day and a clan had to be kept alive through twelve in-game weeks.

Who plays Tess in the HBO series?

Anna Torv's Tess dies differently from the game's: instead of falling as soldiers storm in, she lights a room of gasoline and grenades as the infected close around her.

In the opening of The Last of Us, from which city's suburbs does Joel's family try to flee the outbreak?

Austin, Texas is where the game begins, and not with Joel: the first character you control is his twelve-year-old daughter, exploring the house as the news turns grim.

Who voices and performs Ellie in The Last of Us games, and appears on the HBO show as Ellie's mother Anna?

Ashley Johnson voices and performs Ellie in both games and plays Ellie's mother Anna in the HBO season-one finale, bitten by an infected while giving birth.

What is the name of Dina's baby son in The Last of Us Part II?

Dina's baby boy is JJ, born after Jesse's death; Ellie helps raise him on a quiet farm before leaving to hunt Abby in Santa Barbara.

Which BBC nature documentary's Cordyceps segment inspired the infected of The Last of Us?

Planet Earth showed the fungus sprouting from its host in its 2006 Jungles episode; Neil Druckmann imagined the same infection jumping to humans on a mass scale.

While one Naughty Dog team made The Last of Us, the other was developing which game?

Naughty Dog split into two teams for the first time: one finished Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception for 2011 while the other began The Last of Us.

Who was game director of 2013's The Last of Us alongside creative director Neil Druckmann?

Bruce Straley co-directed the game with Druckmann but did not return for Part II; he left the studio in 2017 after 18 years, and two new co-game directors took over.

The Last of Us was first announced in December 2011 at which event?

Spike VGAs viewers saw the debut trailer on December 10, 2011, weeks after a Times Square billboard had teased a Sony exclusive 'you won't believe'.

Why did Naughty Dog push The Last of Us back from its planned May 2013 release?

Extra polishing time was the stated reason: the studio said it would not cut corners on a journey that had grown massive, and launch slipped five weeks to June 14.

What fills the book Ellie reads aloud to Joel during their journey in The Last of Us?

Puns fill 'No Pun Intended: Volume Too', the joke book Ellie pulls out to lighten the mood; in the HBO series one of its groaners earns Joel's first laugh.

Which original multiplayer game type had teams race to capture the enemy's lockbox?

Interrogation had teams interrogate downed enemies to reveal the location of the other side's lockbox, then capture it; Supply Raid and Survivors were team deathmatch variants.

Which episode title ends season one of HBO's The Last of Us?

Look for the Light completes the Fireflies' slogan, split across the season's first and last titles: when you're lost in the darkness, look for the light.

The Last of Us's best-known infected sound was inspired by a 20/20 report about what?

A 20/20 segment on blind children clicking to navigate by echolocation gave Druckmann the infected's sound; he liked attaching a benign noise to something frightening.

Robert Polidori's photographs of which disaster guided the flooded city areas of The Last of Us?

Robert Polidori's photographs of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina guided the flooded areas; the team prized them for showing a human world rather than grey post-apocalyptic rot.

Which publisher released the 2013 prequel comic The Last of Us: American Dreams?

Dark Horse Comics published the four-issue American Dreams in 2013, written by Druckmann and Faith Erin Hicks with Hicks on art, introducing Ellie's friend from Left Behind.

Season one of The Last of Us had a bigger budget than each of the first five seasons of which HBO series?

Game of Thrones also supplied both of the show's leads, who had each made their name in it yet had never met before filming on the new series began.

In Left Behind, Ellie and her best friend dance to an Etta James recording of which song?

I Got You Babe, in Etta James's cover, blasts from a store's sound system once the girls plug in Ellie's Walkman; they dance on a counter until the noise draws the infected.

The Last of Us: Left Behind was released as downloadable content on which holiday in 2014?

Valentine's Day 2014 suited an add-on that builds to Ellie's first kiss; from May 2015 it was sold on its own, with no copy of the main game required.

In Left Behind's Colorado mall, Ellie finds a medical kit inside what?

A crashed military helicopter has smashed through the mall roof; Ellie reaches it after finding the pharmacy picked clean, then must fight her way back to the unconscious Joel.

What does Ellie show Joel in The Last of Us to prove she is immune?

Old bite: when a soldier's scanner flags her as infected, Ellie rolls up her sleeve to show a mark that is three weeks old, and she still has not turned.

In The Last of Us Remastered, what does the DualShock 4 light bar signal?

Player health shows on the light bar, sliding to orange and then red as Joel takes damage; the controller's speaker also plays found recordings, which once kept you stuck in a menu.

In the original The Last of Us game, Ellie meets the brothers Henry and Sam in which city?

Ellie and Joel meet Henry and Sam in Pittsburgh, a city overrun by Hunters who stage fake injured civilians to ambush passing vehicles.

Ellie cannot swim in the original The Last of Us, so how does Joel get her across deep water?

On a floating pallet: Joel swims off to fetch one and pushes her across each time; in the years before Part II he finally teaches her to swim.

Which band's song 'Never Let Me Down Again' closes the first episode of HBO's The Last of Us?

Depeche Mode's 1987 single matters because of a smugglers' radio code: songs from the 1960s mean nothing new, the 1970s new stock, and anything from the 1980s trouble.

Which Society of Champions collectibles does Ellie gather across The Last of Us Part II?

Trading cards from the fictional Society of Champions game are Ellie's alone: when the story switches to Abby, the collectibles on offer change to coins.

Series co-creator Neil Druckmann was born in which city?

Tel Aviv was his birthplace in 1978, and he grew up in the West Bank before moving to Miami at ten; he has said the violence in the news there shaped Part II's revenge story.

Along with Pearl Jam's 'Future Days', which 1980s hit did Naughty Dog license for Part II?

Take On Me is the song Ellie plays for Dina in a Seattle music shop; the licence came through co-writer Halley Gross's friendship with the wife of A-ha's guitarist.

The composer of the score for The Last of Us comes from which country?

The composer comes from Argentina, born in El Palomar outside Buenos Aires; approached early in development, he was told only the story and themes, not given specific directions.

Where is the final chapter of the first The Last of Us game, at a Firefly hospital, set?

The finale takes place at the Fireflies' hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah; Ellie returns there in a Part II flashback and learns what Joel really did.

Who plays Jesse in the HBO series?

Young Mazino, who broke out in Beef, plays Jesse, the loyal friend who follows Ellie to Seattle and is shot dead the moment Abby finds them.

How does Sam, Henry's young brother, differ in the HBO series from The Last of Us game?

He is deaf in the show and signs with Henry in ASL; the casting call for a deaf Black boy who could sign drew only about five auditions, among them Keivonn Woodard's.

The Last of Us Part II won The Game Awards' new 2020 prize for innovation in what?

Accessibility won because Naughty Dog had worked with advocates on about 60 options so that every player could finish the story; it was one of seven wins that night.

Which game first surpassed Part II's record tally of Game of the Year awards?

Elden Ring passed Part II's tally of more than 320 Game of the Year awards; the running count is kept by forum volunteers who add up outlets' and readers' picks, not by any official body.

The Last of Us Part II sold four million copies in three days, beating which Sony-published PlayStation 4 exclusive's launch record?

Marvel's Spider-Man had opened with 3.3 million in the same span; Part II passed it in the very weekend its Metacritic user score was being review-bombed.

What can Ellie no longer do after Part II's final fight?

Play guitar: Abby bites off two of her fingers, so back at the empty farmhouse Ellie struggles through a few notes on Joel's guitar, then leaves it behind and walks away.

Which actress plays Gail, the therapist in season two of HBO's The Last of Us?

Catherine O'Hara plays Gail, a character created for the show; she counsels Joel while resenting him for killing her infected husband, Eugene.

Which roguelike survival mode did The Last of Us Part II Remastered add in 2024?

No Return throws randomised fights at a roster that makes Dina, Jesse and Lev playable for the first time; owners of the original could upgrade to the remaster for $10.

A July 2025 Part II Remastered update added skins for Joel and Tommy based on which game?

The skins dress Joel as Nathan Drake and Tommy as Sam Drake from Uncharted 4: A Thief's End; the same July 2025 update added a chronological story mode.

Which museum inducted the original The Last of Us into its World Video Game Hall of Fame?

The Strong in Rochester chose it for its storytelling: its citation praised a character-centred journey that showed players and critics the emotional depths a game could reach.

What creature is Ellie's forearm tattoo in Part II?

A moth among ferns covers the chemical burn Ellie made to hide her bite mark; tattoo artist Natalie Hall drew the design on a developer's arm so the team could judge it.

The Last of Us prosthetics designers had worked with its co-creator on which earlier series?

Chernobyl came first; on The Last of Us, Mazin wanted the creatures built as physical prosthetics, feeling visual effects would lessen their impact, and the Gowers' work won an Emmy.

Which actress won Best Performance at The Game Awards 2020 for Part II?

Laura Bailey won Best Performance for Abby; Druckmann had initially resisted casting her because she was in so many games and had first considered her for Dina.

Which Westworld actress voices Dina in The Last of Us Part II?

Shannon Woodward voices Dina; co-writer Halley Gross, who had worked with her on Westworld, introduced her to Druckmann.

Which actor plays WLF leader Isaac in both Part II and the HBO series?

Jeffrey Wright voices Isaac in Part II and returns on screen, where the show adds a past the game never gave him: a government sergeant who turned on his own squad to join the rebels.

Which of Kathleen's rebels in the HBO series is played by Jeffrey Pierce, a lead voice actor from the games?

Perry, Kathleen's second-in-command, is played by Jeffrey Pierce, the voice of Joel's brother in both games; he dies in the infected swarm of episode five.

In HBO's The Last of Us, where does Melanie Lynskey's Kathleen lead a revolutionary movement?

Kansas City falls to Kathleen's rebels, who overthrow its rulers and then hunt the man she blames for her brother's death; she has no counterpart in the game.

Why did HBO's The Last of Us move the outbreak from 2013 back to 2003?

To set the story in 2023: the creators felt a collapse that had already happened by the year of broadcast would feel more real than one set twenty years ahead.

In season one of HBO's The Last of Us, what replaced the games' spores as a carrier of infection?

Season one replaced spores with tendrils, inspired by mycelium networks, so characters could go without gas masks; spores returned in a limited way in season two.

The episode 'Long, Long Time' is named for a 1970 song by which singer?

Linda Ronstadt recorded 'Long Long Time' in 1970; Frank plays it on the piano when he and Bill first meet, and it plays on cassette as Joel and Ellie drive away.

Who directed 'Long, Long Time', winning the Directors Guild award for it?

Peter Hoar had played the first game and dreamed of joining the series before he was approached; his episode drew 6.4 million first-day viewers and an Emmy nomination for directing.

Nick Offerman's Emmy win for The Last of Us came in which category?

Guest Actor in a Drama Series was the fit because his character's whole story plays out inside one episode; his co-star in it was nominated for the same award.

Who plays Frank in the HBO series' third episode?

Murray Bartlett plays Frank, who in the game is only a body and a bitter farewell note; the show turns him into half of a love story that ends with the two men choosing to die together.

Which slave-keeping group captures Abby and Lev in Part II's Santa Barbara chapter?

The Rattlers, a slaver gang based in Santa Barbara, leave Abby and Lev strung up on the beach; Ellie cuts them down before forcing Abby into their final fight.

In the HBO series' second episode, a mycologist urges which government to bomb its capital?

Indonesia's capital Jakarta hosts the cold open: Christine Hakim's mycologist Ratna Pertiwi examines an infected factory worker and tells officials the only option is to bomb the city.