A stopped watch, a big red symbol, and some unique monsters are just a few of the ways HBO is letting
fans of "The Last of Us" know their show will include plenty of familiar sights from the games.
It's set in a devastated post-apocalyptic world, but "The Last of Us" isn't all doom
and gloom. The game does have its brief and beautiful moments of hope,
often shared between Joel and Ellie on their long road together, with one in particular
having major significance for fans. As the end of the first game approaches, Joel and
Ellie come across a pair of wild giraffes who have been roaming free. It's a totally new experience
for Ellie, beautifully captured in the game. It strengthens the bond between these two strangers.
"It's got its ups and downs. But, you can't deny the view, though."
There is a moment near the end of the trailer for the HBO series that shows the two looking
at something out of shot, with Joel observing Ellie's reaction rather than looking ahead.
It's entirely possible this is the live-action recreation of the giraffe moment. If it is,
it'll undoubtedly make viewers, die-hard fans or not, sob uncontrollably.
Besides what look to be stunning shot-for-shot reenactments of major moments from the game,
the teaser also includes familiar and unfamiliar characters. There's a brief
but pretty intense first look at Nick Offerman as a shotgun-toting recluse,
Bill, who appears to have his sights on Joel after seemingly falling into a trap. Regardless of how
things look, these two are on reasonably decent terms, with Bill being a supply man for Joel.
Bill's just paranoid and doubtful of anyone that isn't him or his loving partner, Frank.
Another character, played by Melanie Lynskey, also makes a brief appearance. Lynskey's name
has been absent on the cast list, with the actress herself even proclaiming it
as a surprise on Twitter. Might she be an all-new character in this well-known
story? More importantly, just which side of Joe and Ellie's journey will she end up on?
It's clear that HBO's take on "The Last of Us" has tried to
be as faithful to the game and its characters as possible. One of the
trailer's first shots lingers upon Joel as he sits silently. His quiet,
contemplative mood lets the camera linger on his signature wristwatch. As fans of the game know,
the timepiece is a gift from Joel's late daughter, Sarah. She gives it to him for his birthday,
and he wears it during their fatal escape from Austin. From that point on, the watch becomes a
symbol of Joel's guilt over his survival, and how his life stopped, frozen, at that very moment.
Fans of the series will notice that the watch on Joel's wrist is set to the exact
time when it was stopped forever during Joel and Sarah's desperate escape attempt.
Part enraged zombie, part mushroom, a Clicker is what happens when an
infected person has mutated from the fungal infection after ab﻿out a year.
Clickers use echolocation to track their victims, hence their name.
Shown near the tail end of the trailer, these monsters are absolute nightmare fuel
in the games. The best tactic to avoid an encounter with a Clicker is to stay
quiet and distract them if you can. But some encounters are unavoidable, and we're likely
going to see Joel and Ellie have some very intense altercations with these creatures.
One of the first images shown in the trailer is two people painting over a big red logo. Fans
of the video games will immediately recognize this as the Firefly logo.
The Fireflies are an important group in both "The Last of Us" and "The
Last of Us Part II." They were a militia group that rose up against the military
occupation of numerous cities in the United States. After the outbreak,
the United States government sent troops to most of the biggest cities in the country in
an attempt to restore government control, but the Fireflies refused to give in. As a result,
many cities became the sites of battles between the military and the Fireflies.
In the HBO series, the Fireflies' presence can be felt in the quarantine zone we see
Joel roaming around. Not only have they already set up in the area,
but their deeds have become so infamous that people need to cover up any evidence of them.
At one point in the trailer, Ellie is chained up, with a restraint around her ankle. While
normally this would be considered an abusive act, "The Last of Us" fans know this is for
a good reason. In the video game, Ellie was bitten by an infected weeks earlier,
and we find out she's immune to the usually fast-acting Cordyceps infection.
"Look at this!"
"I don't care how you got infected."
"It's three weeks old."
This suggests she could provide a cure that the crumbling world is desperate for. But the
smugglers are better safe than sorry when it comes to risking a brain-eating virus.
Obviously, Ellie doesn't stay restrained for long. And her immunity to the virus is why
she needs to get across the country, but things somehow only get worse for Ellie,
Joel, and Tess as they make their way to the Fireflies.
While Joel's friends might be scattered throughout the post-apocalyptic world,
one person that stands beside him, for a while at least, is his brother,
Tommy. Seen for a split second, looking through a fire at his brother, this take on the character
is played by Gabriel Luna, who has appeared in as many big franchises as Pedro Pascal,
who plays Joel. The former Ghost Rider from "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" and one-time
Terminator is fighting for his life just like everyone else in HBO's upcoming show;
it's just a question of how that will impact his relationship with his on-screen big brother.
In the game, Tommy is seen at the start of the virus before dipping off the radar and forcing
Joel to reunite with him. Their meet-up is a tense one for complicated reasons,
so it'll be interesting to see just how much he'll be present
in the series and how long it'll be before he and Joel team up again.