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Speaker 1: game designer. She discovers that the game she created has
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Speaker 1: Warning this podcast could take spoilers for the video game
Speaker 1: The Last of Us parts one and two, but mostly one,
Speaker 1: a minor spoiler for The Food by Cormack McCarthy, which
Speaker 1: came out in two thousand and six. Get your get
Speaker 1: to your local library and read that, plus a potential
Speaker 1: spoiler for Ant Man and the Wasp Quantumnia that was
Speaker 1: revealed in the latest trailer Be careful. Hello, my name
Speaker 1: is Jason Concepcion and I'm Rosy Night, and welcome to
Speaker 1: x ray Vision, the Crooked media podcast where we dive
Speaker 1: deep into your favorite shows, movies, comics, and pop culture.
Speaker 2: In this episode we got previously on The Ant Man
Speaker 2: in the Wasp, Pontomania, Tree.
Speaker 1: Law, and in the Airlock We're gonna be. We're visiting
Speaker 1: the Last of Us video game, the masterpiece video game
Speaker 1: from Naughty Dog, recently remastered on the Sony PlayStation platform,
Speaker 1: So get that if you're interested in getting involved in
Speaker 1: the Last of Us stuff.
Speaker 2: And as always, if you want to jump around, check
Speaker 2: the show notes for timestamp so you don't get spoiled.
Speaker 2: Or you want to hair off theories again and again,
Speaker 2: you can just jump back.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into it. First up, a little
Speaker 1: bit of news. This trailer dropped Monday evening after we
Speaker 1: had recorded our first episode of the week. It is
Speaker 1: the ant Man Quantumedia trailer. The movie comes out February seventeenth,
Speaker 1: directed by Peyton Reed, written by Jeff Loveness, Paul Rudd Is,
Speaker 1: Scott Lang, Evangeline Lily is the Wasp, Jonathan Majors, of
Speaker 1: course spotlighted as King the Conqueror New Edition, Catherine Newton
Speaker 1: as the new Cassie Lang, and William Jackson Harper potentially Quasar.
Speaker 1: We're getting this from imdby Listen, here's I'm a mark.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to tell you. I thought this
Speaker 1: trailer looked great, and I'm very excited.
Speaker 2: It looks so good. I mean, look, one, you got
Speaker 2: Kang and they fully committed. They didn't give him some
Speaker 2: weird military backstory. We didn't have to see something strange.
Speaker 2: He's wearing purple, he's wearing green, he's wearing boots, he's
Speaker 2: wearing a cape. Is he wearing a mini skirt? I
Speaker 2: hope to see it. So currently he's in shadow, but
Speaker 2: it looks like a classic costume. And then not only that,
Speaker 2: but it's this super weird Cosmic Tale and yeah, that
Speaker 2: pr The email they sent out was really interesting because
Speaker 2: it confirmed that William Jackson Harp is playing this character
Speaker 2: called Quas, which a lot of people are saying it's Quasar. Also,
Speaker 2: we got David Dashmalion who is gonna come back, but
Speaker 2: not as Kurt. He's playing character called Verb. I think
Speaker 2: we see Verb and Quas. And then this other character
Speaker 2: that they announced called Gentra. I think we see them
Speaker 2: in the first trailer. They're three people that kind of
Speaker 2: stand there. Veb I think has this glowing head that's
Speaker 2: my guest. So you're getting really weird stuff. You're getting
Speaker 2: great returning cast members. And that's before we even get
Speaker 2: to Modoc, who you know, the mental organism designed only
Speaker 2: for killing. He's here and it looked like I thought
Speaker 2: for a minute, I was like, is that Paul shit,
Speaker 2: But it wasn't. It was Corey Stall. It was Corey
Speaker 2: Stall's giant head.
Speaker 1: I love that wrinkle. Little surprised they left the maskless
Speaker 1: frame in the Yeah, trailer is a reveal, but I
Speaker 1: love the fact that Corey Stall, sucked into the quantum
Speaker 1: realm is still there, still around, still doing evil story
Speaker 1: station shit.
Speaker 2: That's definitely what it is. I think a lot of
Speaker 2: people were wondering when the rumor started going, Oh, it's
Speaker 2: Corey Stahl. He's going to be playing Modoc. You know,
Speaker 2: his alter ego in the comics is George Tarlton. People
Speaker 2: were like, oh, they must be recasting him. He's a
Speaker 2: great actor. It's kind of like Jemma Chan going from
Speaker 2: Captain Marvel to Eternals and being a new character. But no,
Speaker 2: I think you are correct. I wrote a piece of
Speaker 2: IGN yesterday about it. I think that yellowjacket, as we
Speaker 2: saw at the end of ant Man, get sucked in
Speaker 2: and kind of mangled to this subatomic size, and I
Speaker 2: think that's likely why his head is this giant size.
Speaker 2: I think it might be part of one of the
Speaker 2: only parts of his body that's left. And we see
Speaker 2: him sitting in the famous Modoc chair, and then they
Speaker 2: get that shot that we'd kind of had teased from
Speaker 2: some toy leaks. Of course, the ultimate score location of
Speaker 2: Modoc in some kind of battle armor, which is very
Speaker 2: interesting because that doesn't really exist in the comics. But yeah,
Speaker 2: this is this movie is going to be absolutely wild.
Speaker 2: It's going to be absolutely wild.
Speaker 1: Here is what I think is pretty easily gleaned from
Speaker 1: the trailer, seems like. So Scott obviously disappeared in the Snap,
Speaker 1: returned in the Blip five years later, save the world
Speaker 1: as a part of the battle against Thanas, but lost
Speaker 1: five years raising Cassie, who we see being released from
Speaker 1: prison and is gone maybe on a on a kind
Speaker 1: of darker, more criminal minded path. I wonder where she
Speaker 1: gets that from Scott. Okay, and so Scott probably thinking, God,
Speaker 1: I need I wish I had that time back. I
Speaker 1: could have raised Cassie right, I could have done a
Speaker 1: better job by her. Then comes this message from the
Speaker 1: Quantum Realm. They get sucked in there, and my guess
Speaker 1: is Kang Kan just wants out. Kang has been trapped
Speaker 1: in there for this version of Kang, you know, the
Speaker 1: conqueror has been trapped in the Quantum Realm and can't
Speaker 1: get out and needs Scott's help getting out, and in
Speaker 1: return for him getting out, he will, I guess, returns
Speaker 1: Scott to a to a timeline happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's unclear. What is very clear is that, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, Janet van Dey, played by the icon Michelle Pfeiffer,
Speaker 2: has a She has a history with Kang. I like
Speaker 2: to imagine that they had a romantic and quantum entanglement
Speaker 2: while she was there. But we see her, you know,
Speaker 2: she's talking about as she kept the secret, and we
Speaker 2: see her hiding something that looks a lot like the
Speaker 2: rings that we saw Fastos making in Eternals and the
Speaker 2: ten Rings from Shangchi. So it's gonna be some kind
Speaker 2: of artifact. It could be connected to the Ten Rings,
Speaker 2: it could be a different version of them that it
Speaker 2: seems like Janet hid in the quantum realm while she
Speaker 2: was there. And we're going to see that classic ant
Speaker 2: man heist story coming in again, which is always the
Speaker 2: way every anamo you're going to do a heist, and
Speaker 2: I think it's very fun to imagine where that would go.
Speaker 2: I I'm interested to see how they sell the emotional
Speaker 2: journey of Scott being willing to do something terrible to
Speaker 2: get this time back, because I don't know if it
Speaker 2: aligns with how I see him. But maybe that darker
Speaker 2: road that Cassi went down, maybe that's the thing that
Speaker 2: he wants to change, and that would be a believable arc.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, this thing looks bonn because and
Speaker 2: one of the weirdest things about it is they're pulling
Speaker 2: all these characters Jenra, Kryla, that Krayla had like one appearance,
Speaker 2: and they're pulling these characters from really weird, Incredible Hulk storylines.
Speaker 2: So I'm very interested to see if that's something that's
Speaker 2: gonna come up.
Speaker 1: That's what I was gonna say. This really is the
Speaker 1: Incredible Hulk enters the Microverse exactly. Basically, it's the Hulk
Speaker 1: gets sucked into the micro Verse where he falls deeply
Speaker 1: in love as always as all as he always does
Speaker 1: when he goes to another relm and gets you know,
Speaker 1: ensnared in this microverse war that he then has to
Speaker 1: fight in YadA, YadA, YadA. But it feels like that's.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean they're doing here. There's a direct
Speaker 2: connection to that because Kryla his first appearance was during
Speaker 2: that Microverse event in a Hulk one hundred and fifty six.
Speaker 2: And Gentra, who we know is going to be played
Speaker 2: by Katie O'Brien thanks to the pr blast that came
Speaker 2: with this trailer. That's that's Jorella's niece. Jorella is the
Speaker 2: person the Hulk fell in love with. So it's very
Speaker 2: interesting to see them Yeah, Like, it's very interesting to
Speaker 2: see them pulling from this Microverse stuff, which is also
Speaker 2: like this very interesting controversial stuff because later on the
Speaker 2: Microverse would be connected to the Micronats, which Marvel no
Speaker 2: longer has the rights to, so it becomes this very
Speaker 2: kind of fun, weird, deep cut history moment. But I'm
Speaker 2: interested to see. There is actually an issue during that
Speaker 2: Microverse arc in Hulk one hundred and fifty four where
Speaker 2: Hulk is Microverse size and he crosses over with ant
Speaker 2: Man and it has like a really cool cover where
Speaker 2: like he's like fighting a rat and Man's like flying
Speaker 2: over the top of him. So I do I look, Hulk,
Speaker 2: we saw you know, Mark Ruffalo loves this character. That's
Speaker 2: so many cool things they could do with it. I
Speaker 2: don't necessarily know if we're going to get our Ulk cameo,
Speaker 2: but I do feel like he's one of the characters
Speaker 2: that they're really interested in placing into these stories, like
Speaker 2: they did with She Hulk, you know, like his role
Speaker 2: in Infinity War especially, So yeah, I'll be intrigued to see.
Speaker 2: But I love that they're taking from these weird kind
Speaker 2: of eras. I wonder if that's Peyton read and Jeff
Speaker 2: Loveness too, because they're around our age, and I feel
Speaker 2: like the Microverse stuff, if you're just a little bit
Speaker 2: older than us or you're around our age and you
Speaker 2: were digging in the back issues, that is probably something
Speaker 2: that's like close to your heart. That's like a weird arc.
Speaker 2: So I'd be really interested to know if this was
Speaker 2: more of like a personal look back, kind of like
Speaker 2: how Jessica Gow was bringing a lot of the stuff
Speaker 2: she loved from She Hulk to that story. Yeah, looks
Speaker 2: absolutely bonkers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if anybody has a Marvel Unlimited plan or access
Speaker 1: to old comics, check out that Hulk in the Microverse run.
Speaker 1: First of all, that is, you know, it was a
Speaker 1: very influential story line. That romance is very influential. Hulk
Speaker 1: fans still talk about it, and you'll see also the
Speaker 1: kind of template that uh, you know was later followed
Speaker 1: in some of the great you know, Hulk crossovers like
Speaker 1: Planet Hulk. I think Planet Hulk is like, yeah, is
Speaker 1: built on the bones of the Hulk in the micro version.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Hulk as a as a fish out of water,
Speaker 2: not being able to be that huge, looming, kind of
Speaker 2: singular beast that he's always been that's been able to help,
Speaker 2: and that definitely very much travels through those other Hulk events.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's really fun. It starts in Avengers e.
Speaker 2: E eight. I've just been rereading it all today after
Speaker 2: getting the after watching the trailer, So it begins in
Speaker 2: AE eight and then it's basically like random issues from
Speaker 2: Hulk one forty to Hulk two o three. So great
Speaker 2: thing to check out, Like Jason said, if you have
Speaker 2: an unlimited account, or if you're just going through and
Speaker 2: doing some back issue digging, because trust me, those are
Speaker 2: some weird issues. I'm sure you can just still find
Speaker 2: them around and about.
Speaker 1: Next up, let's talk about the Last of Us. This
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Speaker 1: and discover the versatility of Vori clothing. Okay, we're stepping
Speaker 1: out of the airlock and into the year twenty thirteen
Speaker 1: to discuss the video game phenomenon that was and that
Speaker 1: is the last of us The Last of Us released
Speaker 1: on PS three in June of twenty thirteen. Developed by
Speaker 1: Naughty Dog. This is there kind of like they had
Speaker 1: already made a name for themselves in the kind of
Speaker 1: like cinematic third person action space with the Uncharted series.
Speaker 1: Absolutely wonderful story about in Indiana Jones knockoff who kills
Speaker 1: eight hundred guys in order to heist you know, various
Speaker 1: like gold objects from around the world, and then they
Speaker 1: come with the Last of Us, which just seemed to
Speaker 1: knit together, you know, a bunch of strands of things
Speaker 1: that were kind of like in the air at the time.
Speaker 1: This is like post the banking collapse, still like you know,
Speaker 1: post nine to eleven era, this kind of post the Road,
Speaker 1: This kind of dystopian story about the middle aged guy
Speaker 1: and a teenage girl who he has to escort across
Speaker 1: the post apocalyptic wasteland and the kind of the troubles
Speaker 1: they get in and the relationship they have. It was
Speaker 1: written by and developed by Neil Truckman, who kind of
Speaker 1: led the development of game, that directed it and then
Speaker 1: kind of designed the writing direction. And I remember this
Speaker 1: was one of I was an Xbox person and so
Speaker 1: this game was one of the reasons that I saved
Speaker 1: up money in order to get a PlayStation because I
Speaker 1: was watching you know, gameplay of it, and particularly the
Speaker 1: multiplayer gameplay, which I was very into at the time.
Speaker 1: I was like a big Call of Duty Black Ops
Speaker 1: person and it just looked it just looked absolutely mesmerizing.
Speaker 1: It was grittier and like more in air quotes realistic
Speaker 1: than anything I'd seen before then. And then you know,
Speaker 1: playing it for the first time, you kind of never
Speaker 1: there's just it's an indelible experience. It's one of those
Speaker 1: games where kind of like Resident Evil but very different,
Speaker 1: where your care or the character whoever you're controlling, whether
Speaker 1: it's Jrol Er Ellie, feels so vulnerable, and that just
Speaker 1: affects the way that you play the game. It creates
Speaker 1: an enormous amount of tens just game I really love,
Speaker 1: and I think it's one of the best stories told
Speaker 1: in a video game of all time. Was your experience?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I totally agree. Like this game and God of War,
Speaker 2: those were like two big game changes for me. I'd
Speaker 2: always been predominantly into fighting games and platformers, and I
Speaker 2: really remember both of these games feeling like, oh, this
Speaker 2: is if a platform game was three D and had
Speaker 2: puzzles like tomb Raider, but was also a fighting game
Speaker 2: and you have to learn different combos and different ways
Speaker 2: to disarm people, and you can stealthily creep up on people,
Speaker 2: and it was kind of I think about The Last
Speaker 2: of Us a lot because it is this really interesting
Speaker 2: cyclical thing, and as we cover this in the show,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be just talking about this all the
Speaker 2: time because it kind of blows my mind. So Last
Speaker 2: of Us is develop in two thousand and nine, which
Speaker 2: is six years after the Walking Dead comic comes out,
Speaker 2: and the influence of The Walking Dead on the kind
Speaker 2: of conception of this game and the tone of this game.
Speaker 2: When you think of the comics, it can't really be erased,
Speaker 2: you know, because it's such an unbelievable kind of change
Speaker 2: in the way we approach zombie storytelling. But the thing
Speaker 2: that blows my mind is the game was in development
Speaker 2: a year before the Walking Dead TV show started, which
Speaker 2: to me is just so wild because this establishes so
Speaker 2: much of the tone and the vibe and the emotions
Speaker 2: that then would go on to become a big part
Speaker 2: of The Walking Dead. So I kind of see the
Speaker 2: Last of Us in The Walking Dead as this really
Speaker 2: interesting cyclical constantly inspiring each other and taking inspiration from
Speaker 2: each other.
Speaker 1: I see it very I see a lot of the
Speaker 1: Road in it. To the Road, I think, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to say it was published in two thousand
Speaker 1: and six.
Speaker 2: Yeah, coffee, I mean that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, first of all, it's in that story
Speaker 1: you're talking about the relationshipsween a father and son. But
Speaker 1: very similarly, it's like, you know, the father is the
Speaker 1: protector of this teenage boy and and the kid is
Speaker 1: so innocent in a way. We'll talk about the way
Speaker 1: Elie is depicted in this. In this story, it's very
Speaker 1: much similar, so innocent and kid like in a way
Speaker 1: that feels dangerous in that world. And I think the
Speaker 1: other thing that that really hit, you know, above and
Speaker 1: beyond the fact that you're talking about this you know,
Speaker 1: parent child kind of construction is, you know, in the road,
Speaker 1: there's a moment where they get cornered by you know,
Speaker 1: one of the cannibals that's that's roaming spoiler spoiler sorry,
Speaker 1: and the dad shoots the guy. He had one bullet
Speaker 1: in a revolver and then would carved to look like
Speaker 1: bullets and painted black. That he so that he put
Speaker 1: in the barrel so it would look like he had
Speaker 1: a full barrel. And that kind of like lack of resources.
Speaker 1: We've only got one of these, I've only got one
Speaker 1: lighter and barely like it is is absolutely integral to
Speaker 1: the experience of playing The Last of Us, in which
Speaker 1: you're just scrounging around for every for like pieces of
Speaker 1: things to make knives, to make band aids out of it,
Speaker 1: to make health potions out of top grade.
Speaker 2: You're gone, you know, like all different things.
Speaker 1: One thing that also I wanted to mention is that
Speaker 1: while you know Druckman is led the development of the game,
Speaker 1: there's you know, there's like hundreds of artisans and crafts
Speaker 1: people that you know were worked on this game. Below
Speaker 1: the line. You can look up the Last of Us
Speaker 1: credits and there's pages and pages of them too, and
Speaker 1: they were while you know, Druckman's gonna be the headline name,
Speaker 1: a lot of people worked on this game and they
Speaker 1: created an absolute masterpiece. So let's talk about let's quick,
Speaker 1: let's recap the game. We're going to cover the prologue
Speaker 1: through the chapter the Cargo, and this game opens with
Speaker 1: I think one of the most effective cold open prologus
Speaker 1: ever in games, because it has to do several things.
Speaker 1: One nest to launch your characters, make you care about them,
Speaker 1: set up the world too. It has to teach you
Speaker 1: how to play the game on some level. It has
Speaker 1: to teach you how to move around, what the buttons do,
Speaker 1: how to interact with objects. Has to teach you how
Speaker 1: you know, how you move, what the movement speed is,
Speaker 1: what the things you are going to interact with are,
Speaker 1: and it does all those things in a really pulse
Speaker 1: pounding way. The year is twenty thirteen. We're in Austin, Texas. Joel,
Speaker 1: blue collar guy and a kind of like hobbyish guitar player,
Speaker 1: is at home fielding phone calls about work, talking about work,
Speaker 1: and it appears he's in the construction business and somehow
Speaker 1: some form of fashion, he's talking about a contractor that
Speaker 1: is either not doing what they're supposed to do or
Speaker 1: has some kind of gripe. Meanwhile, his daughter Sarah is
Speaker 1: asleep on the couch. It's just a regular night in that, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Just a normal night that in no way kind of
Speaker 2: hints towards the bleakness of what is to come.
Speaker 1: Absolutely not, Joel is we discover on the phone with
Speaker 1: his brother Tommy, who also is in business with him somehow,
Speaker 1: and Joel's like, listen, we can We'll talk about this
Speaker 1: stuff in the morning. It can wait. Sarah is out
Speaker 1: of bed, way past her bedtime. And the reason she's
Speaker 1: out of bed, you know, wearing pajama pants and a
Speaker 1: T shirt and sleeping on the couch. The reason she's
Speaker 1: doing this is because she wants to give her dad
Speaker 1: a birthday gift. It is a new watch, and you
Speaker 1: can be using this watch all throughout the game. It's
Speaker 1: a new watch with like a military style field strap,
Speaker 1: a replacement for an old his older broken watch. And
Speaker 1: here we get some of the really wonderful voice acting
Speaker 1: and dialogue with Troy Baker playing Joel, Ashley Johnson playing
Speaker 1: Ellie Ashley Johnson. By the way, fun fact in Marvels
Speaker 1: The Avengers, she is the waitress during the Battle of
Speaker 1: New York YEP who runs out and is like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, are the Tatari you gonna kill us all? No,
Speaker 1: Captain Eric is here, that is Ashley Johnson. Joel says,
Speaker 1: where'd you get the money for this? Drugs? I sell
Speaker 1: hardcore drugs. Oh good, you can start helping with the mortgage.
Speaker 1: Then funny shit. Then there is some plaintive acoustic guitar music,
Speaker 1: which we're gonna get a lot of over the course
Speaker 1: of this movie, and Sarah's fallen asleep. Joel carries her
Speaker 1: to bed. Much much later, dead of night, Sarah's awoken
Speaker 1: by the ringing telephone and it's Tommy and he sounds desperate.
Speaker 1: He needs to talk to Joel, but before Sarah can
Speaker 1: get any kind of information in the line goes dead,
Speaker 1: and Sarah rises from bed really kind of groggy and confused.
Speaker 1: And it's at this moment that the player takes control.
Speaker 1: It's like it's a it's a pretty it's a jarring
Speaker 1: moment because I think you're not expecting. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: like you're you're hardwired at least I am that, like, oh,
Speaker 1: at some point I'm gonna playing Chowl.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like the fact that the first person that you work
Speaker 1: that you are playing as is Sarah. Uh. Lets you
Speaker 1: know how this game is going to really interestingly subvert
Speaker 1: your expectations of video games.
Speaker 2: I totally agree because also, like when I was first
Speaker 2: playing it, I remember kind of thinking like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: I haven't heard his name yet. Maybe This is actually
Speaker 2: like Ellie's origin, and I didn't know about the time
Speaker 2: job for anything, so I'm like, where could he be?
Speaker 2: What's going on? And what I love about this is
Speaker 2: like it has to do, like you said, a really
Speaker 2: hard job. It essentially has to teach you what you
Speaker 2: need to know about how to use the buttons, how
Speaker 2: to move, how to interact, but in a way that
Speaker 2: isn't an exposition dump and it doesn't have the it
Speaker 2: doesn't have the kind of get out of like a
Speaker 2: I remember with God of War. They'll just kind of
Speaker 2: be like hit this button, hit this button, hit this
Speaker 2: but y you can do it because you're like fighting
Speaker 2: a demogrgan or a Titan or something, so it doesn't
Speaker 2: feel odd because you're in that fighting game mood. But
Speaker 2: here they're still building up to that big horrific reveal
Speaker 2: and that big kind of tragic cold open, so it's
Speaker 2: really interesting to kind of be walking around and they
Speaker 2: want you to explore the room. That's one of my
Speaker 2: favorite things about this game is it has that puzzle
Speaker 2: element to it, like, yeah, this time I definitely found
Speaker 2: different things. There's all different things you can interact with,
Speaker 2: but this was the first time I think when I
Speaker 2: was replaying it for the for the pod, where in
Speaker 2: the bathroom there's a newspaper and when you pick up
Speaker 2: the newspaper, the newspaper talks about how all these people
Speaker 2: are getting sick and there's this bar, and you're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: so this is a world where something weird has been
Speaker 2: going on, but they never really saw it going this
Speaker 2: way because you don't, right, we've lived it. Now it's
Speaker 2: like you think it's gonna be okay, and uh yeah.
Speaker 2: It's just such an immersive and interesting situation. And it's
Speaker 2: very smart foreshadowing because immedia, it is immediately like, oh,
Speaker 2: you won't just be playing as Joel. Get ready to
Speaker 2: play and see this world through a kid's eyes, because
Speaker 2: that's like a large pot of what you're going to
Speaker 2: need to do.
Speaker 1: It also subverts your concept, or at least my concept,
Speaker 1: of what playing a video game means, because I think
Speaker 1: in for much of the Last of Us, for like,
Speaker 1: you know, I would say seventy percent of the game,
Speaker 1: you're barely playing a video game. What I mean by
Speaker 1: that is, you know, a video game is interactive, you're
Speaker 1: playing as a character, right, But I think the way
Speaker 1: most of us think of that is you're controlling this
Speaker 1: you know, set of pixels, but you're making the decisions.
Speaker 1: You're doing all the things. The last of us is
Speaker 1: not that you are on rails. You are making certain
Speaker 1: decisions in moments of action when you're taking on you know,
Speaker 1: or fireflies are infected about how to move through the world,
Speaker 1: about you know, like what to craft and how and
Speaker 1: whether to either kill an enemy or sneak by them.
Speaker 1: But Joel is going where he's going. Yeah, and you
Speaker 1: can do nothing about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it's one of the most interesting things
Speaker 2: on this replay is like I understand in hindsight and
Speaker 2: this is like on this is like knowing the lottery
Speaker 2: numbers after you've already won. So this is not some
Speaker 2: deep insight, but like I can see how part of
Speaker 2: the reason that people loved this and how it got
Speaker 2: so many new people into Triple A Gaming is this
Speaker 2: is essentially a movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a movie.
Speaker 2: It feels like you're walking through a movie. Yeah, It's
Speaker 2: like what if you were in a movie and you
Speaker 2: could look at some things on the wall, or you
Speaker 2: could occasionally feel like you're making a moral decision for
Speaker 2: your character. But especially in this early stuff, you know
Speaker 2: you will have people there guiding you where you need
Speaker 2: to go. Even if you try and go in a
Speaker 2: different direction and explore something, you will end up back
Speaker 2: on the path that you need to be on because
Speaker 2: there is a story that the creators wanted to tell.
Speaker 2: And that might sound like it's constricting or you know,
Speaker 2: it keeps you from exploring the world, but that's not
Speaker 2: how it feels at all. And also the reason that
Speaker 2: in this case I can definitely say that putting you
Speaker 2: on those rails is right is because the story that
Speaker 2: it tells is just so great and it has like
Speaker 2: one of the best payoffs kind of.
Speaker 1: All incredibly compelling. So, as Rosie mentioned, now the game
Speaker 1: is asking us as Sarah to kind of explore the
Speaker 1: world for the first time. And then the first piece
Speaker 1: of this world that we can explore is Sarah's room,
Speaker 1: and it is a typical teenage girls room, posters, magazine covers,
Speaker 1: tacks to the wall as a boombox, lots of CDs,
Speaker 1: it is twenty thirteen, there's a little TV, there's a
Speaker 1: dresser with lots of little personal knickknacks and items and things,
Speaker 1: and on top of the dresser we see a triangle
Speaker 1: symbol draws us forward, and now all of a sudden
Speaker 1: we understand, Okay, this is how we read things in
Speaker 1: this world, so you can press it to read it.
Speaker 1: And it's Sarah's birthday card for Joel, which she forgot
Speaker 1: to give him. She says, I forgot to give him this.
Speaker 1: And the cover is a green dinosaur, which is really
Speaker 1: wonderful in retrospect, as I was kind of replaying, because
Speaker 1: it's this first suggestion of one of the game's kind
Speaker 1: of deep themes, which is extinction and life continuing. You know,
Speaker 1: here's this image of a dinosaur, this creature that ruled
Speaker 1: the earth for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions
Speaker 1: of years and died out, and now life goes on,
Speaker 1: but in a different form. And it almost leads you
Speaker 1: to wonder if Joel, you know, long after Joel and
Speaker 1: Ellie and Tommy and Marlene and everybody have died out,
Speaker 1: if the infected create some kind of world of their own, maybe,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe there will be something else, some kind
Speaker 1: of other thing that arises thousands and millions of years
Speaker 1: after this.
Speaker 2: I think that's one of the most prescient questions that
Speaker 2: this game raises, And there's a really brilliant book by
Speaker 2: Mike Kerrey called The Girl with All the Gifts, which
Speaker 2: is very funny because the plotline and arcs of the
Speaker 2: characters are very similar to the Last of Us. And
Speaker 2: it came out like kind of just almost a year afterwards,
Speaker 2: but obviously the book had been being written for a
Speaker 2: long time. Mike Kerry's an X Men writer, just a
Speaker 2: great guy, and that book basically takes that question and
Speaker 2: adds this lens of who gets to choose who lives
Speaker 2: and dies in those situations and what does it mean?
Speaker 2: And it's so profound and I just cannot recommend that
Speaker 2: book enough as a companion to the game and the show.
Speaker 2: When you start watching it, and it's one of those
Speaker 2: it's like Deep Impact and and Volcano and Dante's Peak,
Speaker 2: but in this way, it happened with a video game
Speaker 2: in a book, and it's I love that you pointed out,
Speaker 2: because I think that's such a good get and kind
Speaker 2: of that interesting notion as well of dinosaurs were terrifying
Speaker 2: and they were all conquering, they ran the earth, and
Speaker 2: now years later they are on a birthday card.
Speaker 1: Yeah. A little cartoons and little.
Speaker 2: Cute birthday card like and to imagine how far you'd
Speaker 2: have to go into the future for the infected to
Speaker 2: become something that was less scary and more of just
Speaker 2: like a story people tell is really interesting to think about.
Speaker 1: The overt theme, of course, of the game is love,
Speaker 1: what you would do for someone you love. How love
Speaker 1: and selfishness can kind of be the same thing. And
Speaker 1: here we get a taste of how much Sarah loves
Speaker 1: her dad. She's written in the card, Dear dad, Let's
Speaker 1: see you're never around. You hate the music I'm into.
Speaker 1: You practically despise the music I like, and yet somehow
Speaker 1: you still manage to be the best dad year. How
Speaker 1: do you do that? Heavy birthday pops? Love Sarah? Sarah,
Speaker 1: Now you can do you can linger in the room,
Speaker 1: you can do anything. But here we go into the
Speaker 1: darkened house and Sarah's looking for a dad. She's calling
Speaker 1: out for him as you move her through the through
Speaker 1: the empty house, you go into the bedroom. Jol's bedroom
Speaker 1: is empty. But here and this game is so good
Speaker 1: at delivering exposition and little dribs and drabs, and at
Speaker 1: just the right time, here his TV is on and
Speaker 1: you get a local news report where the reporter is
Speaker 1: standing on a local street in Austin and is delivering
Speaker 1: terrifying news. There's some kind of infection on the loose.
Speaker 1: Those who are stricken are apparently, you know, overcome by
Speaker 1: aggressive and violent instincts. Behind the reporter, you see soldiers
Speaker 1: patrolling scenes of destruction. There's buildings on fire behind them
Speaker 1: that Sarah clearly, you know, seems to recognize that place.
Speaker 1: She says, oh that, you know, I know where that is.
Speaker 1: And you see the time, it's one forty seven am.
Speaker 1: And then before anything else can happen, there's an explosion.
Speaker 1: The building behind them explodes, and the news cuts short.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, there's dogs barking outside, which perfectly
Speaker 1: leads you to turn Sarah towards the window, and you
Speaker 1: look out the window, which has this view of some
Speaker 1: woods and then the downtown Austin skyline behind it, and
Speaker 1: there's just starting to be fires blooming behind those trees
Speaker 1: somewhere in the city, and things are starting to get scary.
Speaker 1: At this point, if you're playing this for the first time,
Speaker 1: the hair is on the back of your neck. They're
Speaker 1: just starting to stand up because this is a totally
Speaker 1: darkened house, and that feeling of vulnerability is one that
Speaker 1: this game will absolutely weaponize, and you're feeling it right
Speaker 1: now for sure, for the first time.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Sarah goes pilot Sarah downstairs. Now there's police cars racing
Speaker 1: down the street. You see Joel's phone on the kitchen counter,
Speaker 1: another triangle, you can pick it up. Sarah goes to
Speaker 1: pick it up. Eight missed calls, a bunch of texts
Speaker 1: from Tommy. No. Also clearly that just happened. The cell
Speaker 1: phone towers just went down. It's happening fast, whatever is happening,
Speaker 1: and you can see if the text that Tommy is
Speaker 1: racing towards the house. There's a note on the fridge
Speaker 1: for Sarah on the stationary of Sarah's youth soccer team.
Speaker 1: It says, I'm going to be home late tonight. Go
Speaker 1: ahead and order fruit. See you in the morning, dad.
Speaker 1: Another nice character note. Just contrast the kind of like
Speaker 1: loving and warm writing style of Sarah with Joel's very
Speaker 1: utilitarian note here, no love, just see you in the morning, Dad,
Speaker 1: and it leads you to imagine the regret that Joel
Speaker 1: surely feels. As the rest of this story picks up
Speaker 1: decades later, there's a light on in the study, and
Speaker 1: this game uses light so well because that draws our attention. Again,
Speaker 1: Sarah walks towards the light, which is again Joel's office,
Speaker 1: and you walk by these sliding doors and you hear
Speaker 1: there's like a strangled sound. I don't know how you
Speaker 1: would describe it. Yeah, but it's kind of like half
Speaker 1: a bark.
Speaker 2: It's a kind of doctor roll strangled. It's horrible. It's
Speaker 2: the kind of noise where where if you were in
Speaker 2: a horror movie, you would say, I'm not going in there.
Speaker 2: It's the nope noise. You're like, no. But she needs
Speaker 2: to find her dad. She's worried. She's a kid. And
Speaker 2: that's another thing that's very smart about this game, because
Speaker 2: it puts you in vulnerable positions, but that take you
Speaker 2: out of your own comfort zone. Everyone can remember being
Speaker 2: a kid and creeping around your house and oh there's
Speaker 2: a power cart, or you don't know where your parents are,
Speaker 2: if you're woken up after a nightmare, and this opening
Speaker 2: very much invokes that, so much so that I'm sure
Speaker 2: there were players who were like, oh, I don't want
Speaker 2: to play as a little girl. But I think by
Speaker 2: the time you get to this and you're creeping slowly
Speaker 2: into that room and you've heard that noise. I think
Speaker 2: everyone at that point is in You're starting to feel
Speaker 2: the fear, so that.
Speaker 1: Noise happens, and you know, if you're a player like me,
Speaker 1: you have Sarah look outside because you're standing right next
Speaker 1: to a sliding glass door and the outside of the
Speaker 1: backyard is completely dark, but very ominously like there's this
Speaker 1: tire swing back there and it's moving and not like
Speaker 1: the wind moved it, but moved, like moving like something
Speaker 1: ran by it. Just as you enter the study, there's
Speaker 1: another sliding guest glass door in there. It's open, and
Speaker 1: Joel comes running and he's fucking panicked and he's like,
Speaker 1: did anyone come in here? He's immediately goes over, gets
Speaker 1: his gun from the jor he's loading it. He's telling
Speaker 1: Sarah to stay away from the doors. Sarah's like, what's
Speaker 1: going on? Joel says, the neighbors, the Cooper's they're sick.
Speaker 1: Something's not right with them. And then before anything more
Speaker 1: can happen, and here is like a scene that feels
Speaker 1: ripped from twenty eight days later. Jimmy, who we am
Speaker 1: me at? Who I believe to be Jimmy Cooper, that neighbor,
Speaker 1: but now infect it. Yeah, just crashes through the glass
Speaker 1: door and Joel has to shoot him. Joel has to
Speaker 1: shoot him dead. Now Sarah is in a state of
Speaker 1: absolute shock. Joel takes Sarah to the driveway. Tommy's there
Speaker 1: just in the nick of time. Everybody jumps in and
Speaker 1: now it's a race. The idea is it seems to
Speaker 1: be take Highway seventy one kind of out of town
Speaker 1: because the army is setting up roadblocks in order to
Speaker 1: quarantine the area, probably wisely, so no one can get
Speaker 1: I don't want the infection to spread, but they want
Speaker 1: to be on the other side of that. But because clearly,
Speaker 1: like the infected, it's not like they're just sick in
Speaker 1: their bedrooms. They're running around doing really bad shit. This
Speaker 1: is haro. This is when you're just like, oh fuck.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this does and another great exposition. They're in
Speaker 2: the car. What does that mean. That means they can
Speaker 2: listen to the radio, so you're getting this information. And
Speaker 2: what I loved about this that I was doing the
Speaker 2: whole time, when I was playing at this time, you
Speaker 2: mentioned the you know this lighting glass doors and the
Speaker 2: ability to look out of windows. That's something that blows
Speaker 2: my mind in this game because there is constantly things
Speaker 2: going on, whether it's the wind blowing something or building
Speaker 2: blowing up. And when you're in the car, you can
Speaker 2: in the backseat as Sarah just constantly turn around and
Speaker 2: the look and I was getting so scared, like I
Speaker 2: would see something and I was sure that somebody was
Speaker 2: going to come and get me. And you can really
Speaker 2: build up that tension as they're kind of leading you
Speaker 2: through like oh this is bad, but you're there and
Speaker 2: you can hear them talking, and you can really just
Speaker 2: be looking at the You see people packing up their cars,
Speaker 2: you see things like exploding in the background, you see
Speaker 2: things running across the road. It's wonderful.
Speaker 1: About that exposition. We get some more of it now
Speaker 1: where Tommy is. You know, Tommy's super excited. He is
Speaker 1: saying that whatever's happening here, this outbreak, they thought it
Speaker 1: was just happening in the Southwest, but appears to be
Speaker 1: happening all over the country, and that leads you to wonder,
Speaker 1: like is it happening all around the world. Sarah asks
Speaker 1: the question that I think anyone would ask, which is like,
Speaker 1: are we sick? Is it us? And then Joel and
Speaker 1: you can feel his that that kind of like fatherly
Speaker 1: impulse to like shield his child from anything troubling or
Speaker 1: dangerous or worrying. He's like, no, no, no, no, we're fine. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's just the people in the city that are sick.
Speaker 1: Now we're fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Jimmy Cooper worked in the city. He's he mentions.
Speaker 1: So now it's letting you know where Joel's head is at.
Speaker 2: They established Joel's in this moment. They're like, don't get
Speaker 2: it twisted. This is who this man is.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So there's a family on the road with kids
Speaker 1: and they look scared, and Tommy's like, oh, we should stop,
Speaker 1: and Joel's like, no, no, no, no, you keep going. We're
Speaker 1: not stopping. Somebody will come for them. You haven't seen
Speaker 1: what I've seen. And we keep going, and here you
Speaker 1: get you know again, this is who Joel is. When
Speaker 1: Joel is with the people he cares about, everybody else
Speaker 1: can go fuck off. He doesn't care.
Speaker 2: There's a great line that I love where Tommy's like,
Speaker 2: but they have kids, and he said so do yeah,
Speaker 2: And you know, Sarah is very hurt by this moment.
Speaker 2: Kind of for a couple of minutes. Afterwards she will
Speaker 2: say like, we should have helped them, We should have
Speaker 2: helped them, alas probably bad for that family they didn't
Speaker 2: get in the car. Honestly, I mean, there's no there's
Speaker 2: no good version.
Speaker 1: There's no good version. There's zero good version. Right yeah, yeah, Uh.
Speaker 1: Tommy runs into the back of a gigantic traffic jam.
Speaker 1: Everybody who is awake at this time has been listening
Speaker 1: to the news is trying to do the exact same
Speaker 1: thing they're doing, which a nightmak at a time, it's
Speaker 1: a nightmare. And then right in front of them, as
Speaker 1: they're wondering, okay, what do we do, somebody gets out
Speaker 1: of their car to yell, hey, like, what's the hold up?
Speaker 1: And they're just immediately set upon by infected. It's horrific.
Speaker 1: They get out of there, Tommy accelerates, They take a
Speaker 1: turn and end up like on a on the streets
Speaker 1: of like a town that looks like like a a village,
Speaker 1: like on the outskirts of Austin somewhere. There's people running everywhere,
Speaker 1: and then they get t boned by another vehicle and
Speaker 1: everything goes black.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I just also want to say, before this, there's
Speaker 2: another really great Joel is like sucks moment, which is
Speaker 2: like they're they're outside like a movie theater and all
Speaker 2: these people are running like you said, and they're kind
Speaker 2: of stuck and and and he's just like he's just
Speaker 2: like driving them. He's like running over and Tommy's like, no,
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna do that, Like I can't do that.
Speaker 2: There's and He's like, there's people behind us too, and
Speaker 2: Joel's like, I don't care, just reverse, like just kill them.
Speaker 2: Like you said, it's a tunnel vision of protecting the
Speaker 2: people that he loves to the point where he's built
Speaker 2: up these walls towards everyone else, and everyone else, like
Speaker 2: you said, can just go get fucked. But yeah, they
Speaker 2: t boned. It's all going badly for them.
Speaker 1: And by the way, this is where you know we're
Speaker 1: gonna be talking about this all throughout. I'm sure the
Speaker 1: show are coverage of the show and are continuing coverage
Speaker 1: of the game, because it's the central question of this
Speaker 1: story is if you had to give up someone you
Speaker 1: love to allow everyone else to have everyone they love
Speaker 1: cured free of the dangers of this terrible cordyceps fungus
Speaker 1: that's out there to basically save the world. Would you
Speaker 1: do it? And the answer for Joel, and you know
Speaker 1: it from the first minutes you play this game, before
Speaker 1: you even start playing, as in, what you're about to
Speaker 1: do is no. So after we wake up from this
Speaker 1: car crash, we're now Joel. We've the players taking control
Speaker 1: of Joel, and we crawl out of the wreck and
Speaker 1: are immediately attacked by an infected And here again comes
Speaker 1: the tutorial portion of this cold open. You're told you
Speaker 1: can hit the square button to kind of like get
Speaker 1: the infected off you. You kind of like hammer that
Speaker 1: square button. This is another of like a thing that
Speaker 1: people who played the Uncharted games would be familiar with
Speaker 1: this kind of mechanic. And again I'll point out, like
Speaker 1: this is barely interactive. This is not you know, you're
Speaker 1: not like you're just like button mashing. This is like
Speaker 1: barely barely a game. And I mean that in the
Speaker 1: most complimentary way, because it just it keeps you invested
Speaker 1: by letting you do the most efficient and like simple thing.
Speaker 1: So we realize now it's Pandemoni on the streets. Joel
Speaker 1: gets Sarah out of the car. She's hurt her legs
Speaker 1: probably broken. Joel gives Tommy the gun, picks up Sarah,
Speaker 1: and now we're running. And at this point I don't
Speaker 1: know about you, Rosie, but at this point, as you're
Speaker 1: kind of maneuvering through danger and picking away through the
Speaker 1: crowds with Tommy covering us, and you're trying to kind
Speaker 1: of dodging infected and dodging other people, I'm this is
Speaker 1: when the first time I played I started to think, Oh,
Speaker 1: I think this is kind of what the game is
Speaker 1: going to be. Yeah, this is the game.
Speaker 2: It's right and evil. You have to submit. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: kind of like the Walking Dead O g out of
Speaker 2: the city, but you're going to keep coming up against
Speaker 2: different infected communities. But right now, it's like you're in
Speaker 2: that town. It's very Raccoon city, Like you have to
Speaker 2: get out, you have to survive.
Speaker 1: Oh, how wrong we are, Uh, extremely wrong. There are
Speaker 1: lots of horrors to be seen here on this kind
Speaker 1: of like run to safety wherever safety could be. There
Speaker 1: is like a gas station that explodes, there's people on fire. Uh. Joel,
Speaker 1: Sarah and Tommy end up in an alleyway. Tommy has
Speaker 1: to shoot an infected uh, and then Tommy ends up.
Speaker 1: They end up cutting through like a bar with Tommy
Speaker 1: holding the door against the infected Hodor style so that
Speaker 1: Joel and Sarah can escape, and you end up piloting
Speaker 1: Joel to a wooded path. There's a bunch of crash
Speaker 1: cars here, and at the top of the path there
Speaker 1: is a soldier who helpfully mows down the infected that
Speaker 1: have been chasing you and Sarah. But something isn't and
Speaker 1: you could tell that something is right because the soldier
Speaker 1: is like, don't hold on, you stay right there, and
Speaker 1: then confers with someone over the radio to be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what are we doing here, I've got like two people? Yeah,
Speaker 1: got it, and Joel knows what's coming. The soldier opens fire,
Speaker 1: everybody falls down the hill. Tommy shoots the soldier, putting
Speaker 1: that thread out, but heartbreakingly, Joel crawls over to Sarah
Speaker 1: and she's hit in the stomach and she dies in
Speaker 1: really one of the most realistic video game deaths in
Speaker 1: the sense that there's no fucking music, there's no you know,
Speaker 1: there's no text on the screen. She doesn't even finish
Speaker 1: what she's saying. She just dies, and the voice acting
Speaker 1: is incredible. The graphics are just troublingly real, and it's
Speaker 1: a brutal moment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I I I mean, there's there's so there's so
Speaker 3: many brilliant little choices that happen for this when he's
Speaker 3: on when the soldier is on the radio.
Speaker 2: In case you are not as cynical as Joel and
Speaker 2: you don't understand what's going on, he says, but one
Speaker 2: of them's a little girl. And that's when you know.
Speaker 2: I love this choice. Like obviously, irp Sarah like I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't love their little kid died. In fact, as
Speaker 2: a as I'm growing older, my my capacity for violence
Speaker 2: is sim is lowering, and I found the replay of
Speaker 2: the game is incredibly violent. But I love this choice
Speaker 2: so much. I think it's the strongest choice until the end,
Speaker 2: which has like one of my favorite kind of moral
Speaker 2: quandary endings that I love. But I think that the
Speaker 2: choice to have Sarah killed by the soldiers is like
Speaker 2: the smartest choice that this game makes because it would
Speaker 2: have been so easy for her to just die from
Speaker 2: being killed by one of the infected. That's the nature
Speaker 2: of zombie games. It gives them a reason to hate zombies.
Speaker 2: Or the infected. The clickers' is like, oh, this is
Speaker 2: really terrible, but instead it's that horror of humanity. It's like,
Speaker 2: this is what people will do when they're put in
Speaker 2: this situation. They won't help you, they'll follow orders and
Speaker 2: they'll just kill a child. And it sets up how
Speaker 2: angry Joel is. And when you're killing many many soldiers
Speaker 2: as you do throughout the game, you're like, you know
Speaker 2: what they shot Sarah, You're like, this is okay.
Speaker 1: Not to mention it's all like really trenching points, and
Speaker 1: not to mention that the soldier from a different perspective
Speaker 1: is doing exactly what Joel does at the end of
Speaker 1: this fucking game, which is kill the thing that is
Speaker 1: the danger because in making that choice to take lives
Speaker 1: because this is for the greater good. Now, in terms
Speaker 1: of Joel, the greater good is the personal relationship that
Speaker 1: he is going to develop with Ellie and everything else
Speaker 1: and everybody else in the world can fuck off. For
Speaker 1: the soldier, it's if this infection gets out, we're fucked. Like,
Speaker 1: it's terrible for all these people. I Like, I'm not
Speaker 1: saying it's this isn't horrible, but this infection can't get out.
Speaker 2: No. I love that take because you know what else
Speaker 2: that is incredibly smart that you've kind of just given
Speaker 2: me a light bulb moment about, is like, you, we
Speaker 2: kill so many people in this game, especially in the
Speaker 2: Believing You are Trust Me, you kill barely any infected.
Speaker 2: In the opening chapters of this game. You just kill
Speaker 2: a lot of people. And it's kind of unbelievably smart
Speaker 2: and surprisingly empathetic for a game like this, in like
Speaker 2: a post kind of Call of Juty world to begin
Speaker 2: with the death that is so emotionally hammering and then
Speaker 2: be like, oh, you have to kill a lot of people,
Speaker 2: and every time you kill someone, what the game really
Speaker 2: wants you to be doing is thinking about Sarah dying
Speaker 2: and how much that ruined you, and who would be
Speaker 2: ruined by these people's deaths that you're just so casually causing.
Speaker 2: It's very smart storytelling, and it just sets up the
Speaker 2: kind of bleak tone, and obviously on a narrative level,
Speaker 2: it establishes like a really really great conflict and an
Speaker 2: arc for Joe that will go on, especially when he
Speaker 2: meets Ellie. But yeah, I just I think it's such
Speaker 2: a good, brave decision to have it be a soldier,
Speaker 2: a human who kills her. That's always the most heartbreaking
Speaker 2: version of these kind of things. There's a brilliant Walking
Speaker 2: Dead spin off show that was like a ya spin
Speaker 2: off show. I think it was called Walking Dead World Beyond,
Speaker 2: but it has a very It definitely took a lot
Speaker 2: from this because there's a really great storyline about one
Speaker 2: of the kids coming to terms with killing a zombie
Speaker 2: killing walker, but the reality is that they killed a
Speaker 2: human and that's really what they're coming to terms within it.
Speaker 2: I just think that is the most interesting area to
Speaker 2: explore in these zombie stories. Nobody. Look, we've seen so
Speaker 2: many zombie stories in our in our lifetime, but what
Speaker 2: really catches people about this about the Walking Dead, that
Speaker 2: nature of humanity and how it responds in that circumstance.
Speaker 2: That is the story that we want to see. And
Speaker 2: I think that's why The walk that's why The Last
Speaker 2: of Us was so affecting because of little choices like this.
Speaker 1: It's maybe the best, most effective, most impactful for me
Speaker 1: version of like the classic zombie story theme, which is
Speaker 1: actually were the monsters? Yeah the zombies are doing yeah
Speaker 1: the zombie Yeah, it's us. The zombies are doing what
Speaker 1: they do. Uh, they're a state of nature, you know.
Speaker 1: But we are the ones making the choice to torture
Speaker 1: each other, to exploit each other for our things, for
Speaker 1: our resources, to sell things and sell people to survive.
Speaker 1: We are the ones choosing to do that. The infect
Speaker 1: that are living out there in a very in a
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Speaker 1: one meal kit. And we're back. We cut to twenty
Speaker 1: years later and we meet Joel. Now he's waking up.
Speaker 1: He is grayer, obviously hardened by the years that have
Speaker 1: passed and the loss that he has suffered. He wakes
Speaker 1: up at a secure safe quarantine zone in what is
Speaker 1: still called Boston, to pounding on the door, and the
Speaker 1: person at his door is Tess is hard drinking partner
Speaker 1: and smuggling and also lover. We can love that, evenly.
Speaker 2: It's sulling here. These two are almost symbiotic in their
Speaker 2: ability to stealthily move around the city, kill people, and
Speaker 2: smuggle shit. They are survivors first and foremost, and at
Speaker 2: the moment they survive by relying on each other. But
Speaker 2: it is clear from the outset that that is not
Speaker 2: some kind of deep seated, trusting, loving relationship. That is
Speaker 2: the nature of the world that we live in. They
Speaker 2: have to survive, and at the moment they are useful
Speaker 2: to each other to do that.
Speaker 1: Tess enters. She's got a big new black eye, and
Speaker 1: she's yelling about some kind of smuggling meet up that
Speaker 1: Joel missed. Joel Joel kind of like fucked her on
Speaker 1: this deal. It had to do with pills, ration cards,
Speaker 1: whatever it was. Test took care of it. But on
Speaker 1: the way back from the deal, she got jumped by
Speaker 1: four dudes who she doesn't say, but who we can
Speaker 1: guess are now dead them because Tess, we'll say it
Speaker 1: now for the first time, is a psychotic murderer.
Speaker 2: She is a mass murderer, and she will take you
Speaker 2: on a journey. Every point she's like, let's go do
Speaker 2: this thing, and it really turns out that you are
Speaker 2: gonna have to mass murder a lot of people to
Speaker 2: do it. Maybe that's just the nature of the world,
Speaker 2: but Tess has a tendency towards being as she will.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, she if if the thing that she wants
Speaker 1: is on the other side of a lot of people,
Speaker 1: Tests will take the path that takes her through the people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because that's just who Tests is.
Speaker 2: And that is something very interesting that the game does
Speaker 2: that I have begun to see on my replay because
Speaker 2: I'm coming at from this more critical perspective. I'm not
Speaker 2: just like high playing it and I'm like a teenager
Speaker 2: or whatever, you know, But like, the game sets you
Speaker 2: up on multiple missions where if you go Tests Root
Speaker 2: and you try and kill a bunch of people, when
Speaker 2: you get further in, you will never survive. But if
Speaker 2: you can stealthily get around and avoid killing people, you
Speaker 2: can get through it really easily. And it establishes and
Speaker 2: there are ways to get through with combat. You can
Speaker 2: be the badass, you can hit, you can pick, you
Speaker 2: can pick those things just really hard. But it's really hard.
Speaker 2: And I love that they kind of establish the rules
Speaker 2: of what you think the game are, Oh, you kill
Speaker 2: people because they're in our way and we need their things.
Speaker 2: But then they're like, oh, but actually, if you want
Speaker 2: to try not to kill people, maybe that will be easier.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's it's very interesting but yeah, they're after Robert,
Speaker 2: and that's going to go badly for Robert.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Robert. These dudes were that Tests probably killed,
Speaker 1: were sent by Robert, who is a former like smuggling
Speaker 1: partner in smuggling, maybe like a person they have dyne
Speaker 1: like an ally, and apparently Robert double crossed them on
Speaker 1: a deal for a bunch of guns, and Test wants
Speaker 1: the guns back and guess what she knows where Robert is.
Speaker 1: He's in a warehouse an area five. So she's like,
Speaker 1: you want to come fuck Robert up with me? And
Speaker 1: Joel's like, yeah, let's go on the way. We had
Speaker 1: some some of this again wonderfully delivered exposition where Tests
Speaker 1: is telling us that seems like more people from the
Speaker 1: quarantine zone have been getting infected by the cordyceps. Joel,
Speaker 1: I think rightly suggests that this is because people have
Speaker 1: been bringing quarantine people like Joel Adess have been sneaking out,
Speaker 1: probably to get stuff. It is suggested, though never really
Speaker 1: laid out in any kind of detailed way, that that
Speaker 1: the quarantine zone authorities are like it's like a dictatorship,
Speaker 1: Like it's atalitarian dictatorship. There's it's hard to understand like
Speaker 1: what shape that takes. Certainly because like Test and Joel
Speaker 1: have no problems walking around and it seems like they
Speaker 1: have no problems getting fake IDs to move through checkpoints.
Speaker 1: But you know, whatever shape that takes, life in the
Speaker 1: quarantine zone leaves people wanting, and certainly it drives people
Speaker 1: like Jol and Tests to you know, go outside the
Speaker 1: law in order to you know, get stuff, which leads
Speaker 1: me to think of, oh, I forget the name of
Speaker 1: the guy. He like is one of the philosophers who's
Speaker 1: responsible for the postmodernist of philosophy, but he said something
Speaker 1: like it's much easier to imagine the end of the
Speaker 1: world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism.
Speaker 1: And that is on display here because obviously testan Joel
Speaker 1: are out here looking for ration cards, which are today's currency.
Speaker 2: I think that's a really great point because again when
Speaker 2: we talk about the exposition, and also this is game
Speaker 2: that is very focused on character, there's a lot of
Speaker 2: great world building visually because of a video game, and
Speaker 2: it has an unbelievable amount of like you said, artisan's
Speaker 2: animat as people working on it, but a lot of
Speaker 2: the stuff that we come to glean about the world
Speaker 2: in general, is much more of that what is going
Speaker 2: on and that idea that there are definitely most of
Speaker 2: the economy within the zone of the quarantine area is
Speaker 2: a smuggling, bartering kind of culture which very much heavily
Speaker 2: leans into capitalism. And we get into those moments later on,
Speaker 2: especially and kind of just when we start to explore
Speaker 2: where there's these kind of brutal curfews and if you
Speaker 2: don't follow the curfew you're getting shot. So there's like
Speaker 2: we don't know at this point, like who is in charge?
Speaker 2: Why is this happening? But we it's not a good
Speaker 2: time to be alive.
Speaker 1: Nine a great time. Tess and Joel on their way
Speaker 1: to Robert try to go through a certain checkpoint, but
Speaker 1: on their way through the check point, the checkpoint gets
Speaker 1: hit by the Fireflies, who we have learned through the
Speaker 1: exposition dump during the credits are a extremist militia group
Speaker 1: who are dedicated to finding a cure for all this.
Speaker 1: Like they the suggestion and again not really laid out,
Speaker 1: but the suggestion is by their very existence is that
Speaker 1: the zone authorities are complacent, are happy enough to be
Speaker 1: ruling this little rump of civilization that's left over, whereas
Speaker 1: the Fireflies, you know, this ragtag collection of armed scientists
Speaker 1: and everyday people who just want to return to the
Speaker 1: world as it was, are actually interested in doing something
Speaker 1: in order to cure this fungus, to to stamp it out.
Speaker 1: So they've just attacked and Joel and Tests end up
Speaker 1: having to go a different way. They go through, you know,
Speaker 1: a building that is part of the smuggling network. We're
Speaker 1: looking for Robert here. Now we start to arm and
Speaker 1: you start to pick up the stuff that Joel and
Speaker 1: later on Ellie you're going to use in order to
Speaker 1: you know, navigate through this world. And for Joel right
Speaker 1: now and for the player right now, that's just a
Speaker 1: knapsack to hold scavenged items and a nine millimeters pistol.
Speaker 1: Eventually we end up outside the quarantine zone, where it
Speaker 1: is gorgeous. It's calls to mind Chernoyl. Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: this place where something horrendous has happened that has driven
Speaker 1: humanity away, but nature has reclaimed it. It's like beautiful greenery,
Speaker 1: destroyed buildings.
Speaker 2: It's my favorite thing about this game, and it's my
Speaker 2: favorite thing about the choices that they made to differentiate
Speaker 2: it from what we've seen before. It also fits in
Speaker 2: with the nature of what you were talking about, this
Speaker 2: idea of extinction and how the world continues on and
Speaker 2: life continues as you know, life will find a way
Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff. Because yeah, it's this horrific
Speaker 2: quarantine zone and the cops are there and the army
Speaker 2: is there, and you can't go through without your ideas,
Speaker 2: and they're basically keeping people prisoner in this space, but
Speaker 2: they can't stop the plants from going, they can't stop
Speaker 2: the ponds from bubbling up. That it's so beautiful and
Speaker 2: it is just such a nice change from the dark,
Speaker 2: darkly lit kind of tombs that we're used to in
Speaker 2: horror video games, and this does have some of that,
Speaker 2: like there is a lot of spoof and you've got
Speaker 2: and you've got a flashlight, and you're scenees of cool shit.
Speaker 2: But it these moments of beauty and these flashes they
Speaker 2: will as you play through the game and as we
Speaker 2: go to talk about it in future episodes, they lead
Speaker 2: to some of the most kind of emotionally stunning moments
Speaker 2: in the game. And I love this choice and it
Speaker 2: makes me, It just makes me really happy. And the
Speaker 2: remastered version is even more beautiful than beautiful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's beautiful. In one of these ruined buildings, we
Speaker 1: encounter the spores for the first time. Tests and Joel
Speaker 1: have gas masks which they put on in order to
Speaker 1: avoid being infected by these spores. I guess it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter if you get them on your clothes and stuff later,
Speaker 1: like I you know, like as long as you don't
Speaker 1: breathe them in. I'm not gonna question Joel. And they've
Speaker 1: been doing this a long time and they know what
Speaker 1: they're doing, okay, And if you'll fucked as we find out. Fuck,
Speaker 1: it'd be interesting to see, you know, when the show airs,
Speaker 1: how sciencey they make, because clearly, I think if you
Speaker 1: get the fungus, if you get the cordyceps on your
Speaker 1: fucking shirt and then you touch your shirt, you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to take it. Yeah, You're gonna have to like
Speaker 1: decontaminate anyway. So we encounter the spores and you see
Speaker 1: the source of the spores, which is like this person
Speaker 1: who has been you know, uh it suffer an advanced infection.
Speaker 1: It's his body seems almost like torn open by the
Speaker 1: spores with these like tentacle like things coming off of them.
Speaker 1: It's almost like a melding of plant and person in
Speaker 1: this kind of like body horror kind of way, very
Speaker 1: body horror.
Speaker 2: And they're sort of like it almost looks like fingers
Speaker 2: are growing out of random parts of the bodies, which
Speaker 2: I'm assuming are kind of these cordyceps like mushroom fungal
Speaker 2: kind of situations. It's really creepy, and in those moments
Speaker 2: you really invoke that resident evil kind of dead space, like, oh,
Speaker 2: what's coming around the corner. But it's very funny because
Speaker 2: they don't. They let you have it, they let you fight,
Speaker 2: they give you a taste, but really you're here to
Speaker 2: get Robert, and that means killing humans. That means that's
Speaker 2: that's the bleakness of what you have to do to
Speaker 2: survive and to get to the part of the story
Speaker 2: that is so important.
Speaker 1: Well you get to do that. Shortly after seeing the
Speaker 1: source of the spores in this building. You find it,
Speaker 1: you know, some other scavenger who is out here, a
Speaker 1: very very heavy apparently like a file cabinet and piece
Speaker 1: of the wall I think has fallen on this person
Speaker 1: and now they are infected and they beg Joel and
Speaker 1: Test to just put him out of his misery. Just
Speaker 1: do it. And now you are given the choice. You
Speaker 1: are Joel, and you can either kill him or leave him.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I put him out
Speaker 1: of his again, yeah, because like you know, it's not
Speaker 1: the other way. It's a terrible choice, but the other
Speaker 1: way is worse. And this gives you again of the
Speaker 1: taste of the kind of moral bleakness that you're going
Speaker 1: to be faced with as Joel. But Test is going
Speaker 1: to be faced with a similar choice later. And unlike Joel,
Speaker 1: who is us, she has no hesitation and does not
Speaker 1: think about it at all. She just does the kill
Speaker 1: him thing. Eventually, Tests and Joel arrive at like some
Speaker 1: squalid camp, you know, bird into these like narrow city streets,
Speaker 1: and it is fucking bleak there. There's like there's like
Speaker 1: bare knuckle fighting.
Speaker 2: People are trying to fight you, like if you get
Speaker 2: too close to people that are gonna push you. Nobody
Speaker 2: knows Joel, nobody has but they know Tests.
Speaker 1: Yeah. They Test has a lot of respect here.
Speaker 2: Maybe all makes boyfriends too. She calls some of them
Speaker 2: like an ex headache and on my own. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So as we move through here, Test kind of gets
Speaker 1: gets a further pinpoint on where Robert is going to be.
Speaker 1: They move around the corner. Test bribes a local with
Speaker 1: some ration cards to get that pinpoint, a location for Robert,
Speaker 1: and just as we head off around the corner, here
Speaker 1: come three dudes, Robert's good muscle, apparently Robert. Whatever Robert
Speaker 1: is doing out here in the in the wasteland, he
Speaker 1: is managing to accrue power. People are following him and
Speaker 1: you see that in this moment, and they're like, you
Speaker 1: can't go any further, YadA, YadA, YadA, what do you want?
Speaker 1: Test is like, oh really, and just shoots the first guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: flat out, just like cold blooded executes the first guy.
Speaker 1: And now you get your first taste of real combat
Speaker 1: in this game.
Speaker 2: You are in trouble because now you have to be
Speaker 2: shooting some people because these men.
Speaker 1: And this is and this is like the kind you've
Speaker 1: got and you've got like nine bullets. Yeah. So Joel
Speaker 1: and Test work together to take care of the other two,
Speaker 1: and then as you move past this, you encounter the
Speaker 1: rest of Robert's men. They apparently didn't hear what just
Speaker 1: happened some ways away to their compatriots and they're just
Speaker 1: kind of walking around and you have to sneak past them,
Speaker 1: maybe choke them out, if you want to bash them
Speaker 1: over the head, whatever the case might be. But as
Speaker 1: you're moving through this world again with this great exposition,
Speaker 1: you're getting these little you're overhearing, these little snippets of
Speaker 1: conversation that paint you know what the world is. You hear,
Speaker 1: for instance, one of Robert's people talking about the fireflies, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and how they're seem to be gathering people to them
Speaker 1: as well, just in the same way that that Robert
Speaker 1: are doing. And as you move through this world, the
Speaker 1: only thing that you are struck by is one how
Speaker 1: dangerous and how exposed you feel all the time. And
Speaker 1: the second is Tess is a fucking psycho. Yeah, she
Speaker 1: is a cycle.
Speaker 2: She is she is past the place of being a
Speaker 2: broken survivor. She is forever changed. There is no going
Speaker 2: back to.
Speaker 1: Whatever happened to her is that she.
Speaker 2: Will kill anyone that is her first, you are given
Speaker 2: the choice. This is when you start to learn how
Speaker 2: to be stealthy. How to they say, strangle someone? You
Speaker 2: can say, maybe you're just choking them out till they
Speaker 2: go unconscious. I believe you're probably killing them, but and
Speaker 2: you start, you can you can pick up bottles that
Speaker 2: you can throw to distract people. You can kill people
Speaker 2: with bricks. You can there's that you can get. You
Speaker 2: get a ship at this point, which is very dramatic, right,
Speaker 2: but Test will always shoot fast, not both to ask
Speaker 2: questions later.
Speaker 1: She's been through it. Yes, Finally we get moving through this, uh,
Speaker 1: this thicket of enemies. We get eyes on Robert, that
Speaker 1: cocky son of a bitch, Test says. And then after
Speaker 1: several other like about three other very very bloody fights,
Speaker 1: and then a squirrely footchase through the alley, we corner Robert.
Speaker 1: Guns are gone, he says, they're gone. He sold them
Speaker 1: to the fireflies. Test is like, yeah, well I want
Speaker 1: him back, and Robert's like Robert now again this excellent
Speaker 1: voice acting. Robert realizes that because he's of no value
Speaker 1: anymore to Tests, he doesn't have the guns, he's probably
Speaker 1: gonna fucking die.
Speaker 2: He knows it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: It's gonna happen. Right now. He's gone from this guy
Speaker 1: who is like a udding warlord, you know, like gathering strength,
Speaker 1: to about to get fucking done on the ground in
Speaker 1: an alley, and so he's desperately begging for his life
Speaker 1: by basically pitching like this crazy adventure. Hey, here's what
Speaker 1: we do. You know us three. I'll get you in
Speaker 1: to meet the fireflies and you kill him and then
Speaker 1: you take the guns back and we're good, right, And
Speaker 1: then Test is like no, and she just fucking shoots
Speaker 1: him in the head. He's done, uh tests, and Joel
Speaker 1: really more tests. But Joel's Joe Joel for the ride.
Speaker 1: Joel's along for the ride. Now this is interesting. So
Speaker 1: Test is like, I still want the guns, and Joel
Speaker 1: goes along with it. My read on this is Joel
Speaker 1: died twenty years ago and he doesn't care if he dies. Now.
Speaker 1: I think it's dangerous.
Speaker 2: I think every day for Joel, every day for Joel
Speaker 2: is the worst day of his life. Yeah, but he's
Speaker 2: also absolutely numb to it. I think it's very interesting
Speaker 2: how they have him missed that drap because it opens
Speaker 2: up so many questions the first time you play what
Speaker 2: we liked? Yeah, well, like, was this especially bad dave him?
Speaker 2: Was this an anniversary? Was he just wasted? Like? Was
Speaker 2: he so out of it? And he doesn't care?
Speaker 1: And I think he doesn't care.
Speaker 2: It's every day. Is like, if this is the lost day,
Speaker 2: then fine.
Speaker 1: Fine, okay, you want to do some crazy shit. We're
Speaker 1: going to take on the fireflies we just saw launch
Speaker 1: a devastating attack on like armed soldiers in the zone. Yeah. Sure,
Speaker 1: like yeah. So, as they're discussing having to meet up
Speaker 1: with the fireflies some way, somehow, you know, in a
Speaker 1: wonderful stroke of luck, the firefly leader in the quarantine zone, Marlene,
Speaker 1: who has been wounded in one of the fights that
Speaker 1: took place, you know, a couple of minutes ago, uh
Speaker 1: staggers up and she says, I can get you your
Speaker 1: guns back, but you have to do a job for me.
Speaker 1: And Tessa's like, okay, you know how many ration cars
Speaker 1: you need? What do you need moved? And she's like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: a smuggling job. Mar He needs them apparently, tests and Joel,
Speaker 1: because one, all the people they were going to use
Speaker 1: they just killed. And two, despite the fact that the
Speaker 1: fireflies look pretty punchy in that recent attack on the checkpoint,
Speaker 1: they're getting ground down. At least in the quarantineszone. The
Speaker 1: fireflies are you know, almost used up. She says that
Speaker 1: the zone authorities apparently needing a scapegoat for how shitty
Speaker 1: things are in the zone, Like they just want to
Speaker 1: take people's mind off of how shitty things are in
Speaker 1: the zone. And therefore they launched this attack on the
Speaker 1: Fireflies to just kind of like have an enemy that's
Speaker 1: out there that they can the people can blame things on.
Speaker 1: They initiated the hostilities against the fireflies, and the Fireflies
Speaker 1: are on the losing end of this. We're trying to
Speaker 1: defend ourselves, Marlene says. So now it's Joel, Marlene and
Speaker 1: psychotests sneaking their way past very very heavily armed soldiers.
Speaker 1: And again that you're getting this. The game is introducing
Speaker 1: you to the various enemies in a really, really wonderful
Speaker 1: fashion to get to the firefight holdout base. Marlene is gutshot,
Speaker 1: she's barely on her feet, and she leads them and
Speaker 1: tests to it looks like a schoolroom or what do
Speaker 1: you think? Yeah, I'm not sure what this is.
Speaker 2: It's very unusual. And the fact that she needs Joel
Speaker 2: to help her open the door, not just to help us,
Speaker 2: you know, test that we can open a door with
Speaker 2: a triangle. It's a very heavy door. I wonder if
Speaker 2: it's some kind of locker or cooler or it's something,
Speaker 2: but but it does look like at one point there
Speaker 2: was some kind of classroom or or base there that
Speaker 2: people we were teaching in. It's very interesting. And obviously
Speaker 2: this is like a huge moment because this is this
Speaker 2: is where we meet Ellie, right.
Speaker 1: So this is this is the cargo to be smuggled.
Speaker 1: We meet Ellie. She is behind this door. Ellie seeing
Speaker 1: that what a bad state Marlene is in, is concerned.
Speaker 1: She's like, oh my god, are you okay? And it's
Speaker 1: a jarring moment because it's the first time since Sarah.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, you know, your mileage may vary,
Speaker 1: but for me maybe like three hours of gameplay or
Speaker 1: something like that, three and a half hours. It's the
Speaker 1: first time in three and a half hours of gameplay
Speaker 1: that you've met a character who cares about someone else. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in a way that is not toxic, a person that
Speaker 1: is not related to them, just a person just showing
Speaker 1: kind of like care for a person who's hurt, not
Speaker 1: a thing that Joel or test traffic in at all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's it's such a good moment as well,
Speaker 2: because like it's not. It doesn't. The moment that we
Speaker 2: meet Ellie is so well established because the first thing
Speaker 2: she does when she sees Marlene coming through the door,
Speaker 2: she like pulls out a knife and is like she's
Speaker 2: a Joel and Test She's like, get the fuck away
Speaker 2: from her, Like this isn't someone that she's even particularly
Speaker 2: that close to. But she sees someone's injured who she knows,
Speaker 2: and she sees two strangers, and she's ready to fight.
Speaker 2: But that doesn't take away any of her empathy or
Speaker 2: compassion for Marlene. She's just trying to protect that. It's
Speaker 2: the opposite of what we've seen from Test and Joel,
Speaker 2: and it's a It's a really great moment where you
Speaker 2: kind of get to learn so much about this kid,
Speaker 2: and it opens up this intriguing mystery of how would
Speaker 2: they know each other, why would the cargo be a
Speaker 2: little girl? What's going on.
Speaker 1: It's also a very interesting moment from the perspective of
Speaker 1: Joel considering like where this story goes. You, I guess,
Speaker 1: because you know, I'm so familiar with the game, and
Speaker 1: you know, I've recently played the last of US two
Speaker 1: sequel that had come out like like a year and
Speaker 1: a half ago or something. I kind of expected it
Speaker 1: to be more of a moment that lands, and they
Speaker 1: really just kind of throw it away. It's almost like
Speaker 1: a nothing Like. Ellie shows up and it's.
Speaker 2: Almost like no reaction to it.
Speaker 1: He's no reaction to it. He doesn't give a shit.
Speaker 1: He's completely dead inside. And Marlene is like, Okay, here's
Speaker 1: the job. You take Ellie to a group of fireflies
Speaker 1: that are waiting at the state house. State House is
Speaker 1: in back Bay. They're currently like in the north End,
Speaker 1: so like basically across the city. Uh. And Ellie's like what,
Speaker 1: I'm not going Who the fuck?
Speaker 2: Who is this guy?
Speaker 1: Yeah? What? What?
Speaker 3: Tests?
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, is not about to do jack fucking shit until
Speaker 1: she sees the guns. Do they exist? I thought you
Speaker 1: were taking me to see them. Where are they? And
Speaker 1: now they don't exist? And I have to do this
Speaker 1: thing and now you can't. So Marlene's like, yeah, I'll
Speaker 1: show you the guns tests there at the firefly base,
Speaker 1: but we can't all go there because it's too dangerous
Speaker 1: for Ellie to be on the streets. We will eventually
Speaker 1: find out why Ellie is so prized, but it's too
Speaker 1: dangerous a trip for her to make what we will go,
Speaker 1: You and I will go, and Joel you will stay
Speaker 1: with Ellie and watch over her. And Ellie's like and
Speaker 1: take her to the to the Fireflies. And Ellie's like
Speaker 1: that's crazy, Like she's I'm not.
Speaker 2: Going to How do you range job?
Speaker 1: How do you know these people? And then we find
Speaker 1: out how Tommy brother, Tommy, Joel's brother, Tommy, is apparently
Speaker 1: a former Firefly, his whereabouts currently unknown, and clearly he
Speaker 1: vouched for Joel once upon a time, and also very
Speaker 1: clearly his word and that vouching carried a lot of
Speaker 1: weight with Marlene considering again how how much hinges on
Speaker 1: Ellie surviving? And I had I wondered in this moment,
Speaker 1: like did Tommy tell Marlene about Sarah? Because why else
Speaker 1: would Marlene do this? Yes?
Speaker 2: I think they in this moment, there's so much tension
Speaker 2: and frustration and history in Tommy joining the Fireflies. You know,
Speaker 2: Joel is horrified that he joined this militia group. Well,
Speaker 2: he's upset, he feels rejected. He mentions it to Mollne.
Speaker 2: Molene and Tommy were obviously close enough that she TRIEDIM.
Speaker 2: I believe Tommy told her and I don't believe that
Speaker 2: Molline is coming into this with some like he had
Speaker 2: a daughter, he'll care. I think it is. She probably
Speaker 2: hopes that's the case, but I think it's a more
Speaker 2: cynical approach of well, I know his loss, so perhaps
Speaker 2: this is like something I can explain it, I can
Speaker 2: exploit it, and maybe he'll do something good for a
Speaker 2: change because of it. I think I think Tommy told
Speaker 2: Marlene right.
Speaker 1: I think he said something to the effect of, Hey,
Speaker 1: I know somebody who doesn't care whether he lives or
Speaker 1: dies and is a really badass person moving through this world,
Speaker 1: who I think would react in a deeply loyal and
Speaker 1: emotional way to this girl, Ellie. I think he said
Speaker 1: something like that to her. Ellie, of course, is unsure,
Speaker 1: and we can understand from the way she talks and
Speaker 1: the way she's responding now that she's not scared of
Speaker 1: anything in a way that I think because of her age,
Speaker 1: you are like, that's dangerous for you to not be
Speaker 1: scared of anything like But she's fierce and very wisely
Speaker 1: she you know, she would say like, I don't know
Speaker 1: this fucking guy, Who the fuck is this guy? You're
Speaker 1: gonna send me off alone? With this fucking guy.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: But Tess is like, hey, Joel clearly is not wild
Speaker 1: about it either, Like I think he sees Ellie in
Speaker 1: this moment as like a weight.
Speaker 2: That would, yeah, but just around his neck. He doesn't
Speaker 2: need that, he doesn't need the emotional connection, he doesn't
Speaker 2: need a kid. It's I find it very interesting too,
Speaker 2: because when you think about the time jump, what you're
Speaker 2: talking about with Ellie is somebody who grew up only
Speaker 2: knowing this world.
Speaker 1: Only knowing this Yes, that's such a great point.
Speaker 2: I find that so interesting and I can't wait to
Speaker 2: see how they explore that in the show. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it's very intriguing, and neither of them are that interested.
Speaker 2: But of course the game goes where the game goes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and of course Tess wants those fucking guns back.
Speaker 1: She needs him back and she wants to see him.
Speaker 1: So she's like, you, just, Joel, just fucking do it.
Speaker 1: Take her to the North Tunnel and wait for me.
Speaker 1: How hard could it be? And Joel and Ellie head off,
Speaker 1: and thus begins that part of the tale, which we
Speaker 1: will pick up at a later date. Incredible game, wonderful game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a.
Speaker 1: Lot of great things to read if you want to
Speaker 1: read more about this game that were written in the
Speaker 1: time that it came out. I think of Tom Bissell's
Speaker 1: Truish grit on Grantland, which is a place that I
Speaker 1: used to write for. Here's a quote from that. I
Speaker 1: played through a chunk of The Last of Us in
Speaker 1: the company of a talented professional level designer. It was instructive.
Speaker 1: The game opens in a little girls room mind A
Speaker 1: level designer friend walked around the space, impressed first foremost
Speaker 1: by the convincingness of his character's sleepy head animation set.
Speaker 1: Then he began to point out art assets that seemed
Speaker 1: to him particularly well made that he said at one
Speaker 1: point is an amazing fucking bean bag. It's just, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just an incredibly immersive game. The New Yorker wrote
Speaker 1: a really cool piece about whether The Last of Us
Speaker 1: can become really the first high quality video game adaptation
Speaker 1: in history, in either film or the television space. I guess,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know how people feel about, you know,
Speaker 1: the fucking Assassin's Creed or some of these other adaptations
Speaker 1: stay out there.
Speaker 2: It's the cultural agreement that we have made, is that
Speaker 2: video game adaptations rarely live up to the video game.
Speaker 1: And I'm excited to cover the television show Rosie and
Speaker 1: to see how tightly or loosely it hues to the
Speaker 1: story and arc of the original game. I think you'll
Speaker 1: find some for those of you who end up reading
Speaker 1: the New York article, there's some cool tidbits in there
Speaker 1: about how Craig Mason, showrunner, kind of designed the shows
Speaker 1: episodes as kind of video game levels, where it's like
Speaker 1: you go to a place, you meet some characters, and
Speaker 1: then you go to another place in another episode, and
Speaker 1: you kind of leave those characters and places behind, fascinated
Speaker 1: to watch the show. I can't wait. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, we're in a really interesting place because this
Speaker 2: show currently has ninety seven percent on Rotten Tomatoes, damn,
Speaker 2: and that is reviews from everywhere, from IGN, you know,
Speaker 2: which gave it an almost perfect score, to like the
Speaker 2: Hollywood Reporter, all these different kinds of people who are
Speaker 2: enjoying this adaptation. I saw lots of kind of things
Speaker 2: that could have sounded hyperbolic, the idea that this is
Speaker 2: going to be the first smash hit of the year
Speaker 2: for HBO, but from people's responses, it really sounds like
Speaker 2: they've managed to capture something about the game that was
Speaker 2: so special while still making it accessible to people who
Speaker 2: haven't played it. So we could be getting this could
Speaker 2: be our first widely recognized prestige video game adaptation made
Speaker 2: in America. So I'm very excited and i can't wait
Speaker 2: to talk to you about it more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll be continuing our coverage of the Last of Us,
Speaker 1: both the game and the show here on x ray Vision.
Speaker 1: And that's it for us this week. Rosie, anything to.
Speaker 2: Plug, plug, plug, plug plug plug, you can find me
Speaker 2: the usual places, Instagram, letterboxed. I'm Rosie Marx if you're
Speaker 2: interested in IM and the Waspontumania. I had a big
Speaker 2: modoc explainer go up on IgM which was so fun,
Speaker 2: and I put a little theory in there, kind of
Speaker 2: building more on what me and Jason were talking about
Speaker 2: today about Yellowjacket and his role in the movie. I've
Speaker 2: got some cool stuff coming out at other places primetimer
Speaker 2: nerdiced the usual spots Den of Geek. I have a
Speaker 2: big Den of Geek cover story coming out soon I
Speaker 2: can't talk about, but it will be out soon. I
Speaker 2: did some cool coverage of Willow the final episode is
Speaker 2: out today. That's a lot of fun. So yeah, just
Speaker 2: all good stuff. And I love all bad video game movies,
Speaker 2: so I've written quite extensively about many of them.
Speaker 1: Catch the next episode of Extra Vision Wednesday, January eighteenth,
Speaker 1: because I remember, we're now dropping episodes two times a week.
Speaker 1: That's twice the Deep Dives Wednesday and Friday in your
Speaker 1: podcast feeds. Also, if any of you caught the Golden Globes, yes,
Speaker 1: that's right. The Golden Globes are back. They're not racist anymore,
Speaker 1: and they've solved all their problems. They are back, and
Speaker 1: you saw Kahi Kwan's heartfelt speech. And maybe you have
Speaker 1: or have not seen Everything Everywhere, All at Once. First
Speaker 1: point of order, watch Everything Everywhere, All at once if
Speaker 1: you haven't seen it, and then listen to our episode
Speaker 1: featuring an interview with the film's directors, the Daniels, because
Speaker 1: they are so creative and that movie is just really,
Speaker 1: really great.
Speaker 2: It's really incredible. Michelle yo one too. I'm hoping that
Speaker 2: this is going to continue through Awards season, and that
Speaker 2: was just such a delightful chat. I'm ready to see it.
Speaker 2: Angela Bassett one for Black Panther, so we get so
Speaker 2: some of our fabes have been an don't forget. Subscribe
Speaker 2: to the show on YouTube, follow xrvpod on Twitter where
Speaker 2: we are always retweeting cool stuff. Responding to your amazing tattoos.
Speaker 2: That was something cool that we got to do recently.
Speaker 2: And of course check out our discord to meet and
Speaker 2: hang out with a bunch of our rad listeners. We've
Speaker 2: got really great mods in there. It's just a ton
Speaker 2: of fun, and me and Jason are in there inactive too. Also.
Speaker 2: We love hearing your nerd outs. They're one of our
Speaker 2: favorite things. But we also know that you have a
Speaker 2: lot of great theories, so if you want to share them,
Speaker 2: nerd outs will now also be a place for you
Speaker 2: to share your theories favorite shows, movies, comic books, books,
Speaker 2: any theory you've got, send them to us. Send your
Speaker 2: tinfoiliest fan theories in a two minute or less voice
Speaker 2: memode to x Ray at crooked dot com and we
Speaker 2: will discuss the ones that really spark our imagination on
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't matter if it's a show that's not
Speaker 1: on the ear right now. Yeah, if it's at a
Speaker 1: season's House of the Dragon, we're passibly you know we're waiting.
Speaker 1: You could be anything that you want. If you very
Speaker 1: want to hear have we want to hear it. Five
Speaker 1: star reviews. We love them, we need them, we gotta
Speaker 1: have them. Leave us the five star reviews wherever you
Speaker 1: can leave reviews. Here's one from music My Refuge look
Speaker 1: forward to listening every Friday. Jason and Rosie are the best,
Speaker 1: super knowledgeable on all on things us nerds love, but
Speaker 1: they're able to talk about it in a fun, personable
Speaker 1: and inclusive way. Thank you, Thank you much, My Refuge.
Speaker 1: That is what we try to do and we'll see
Speaker 1: you next week. X ray Vision is a Crooked Media production.
Speaker 1: The show is produced by Chris Lord and Soul Rubin.
Speaker 1: The show is executive produced by myself and Sandy rhard
Speaker 1: Are Editing and sound designs by Vascillias Photopoulos. Dilon Villanueva
Speaker 1: and Matt de Group provide video production support. Alex Rella
Speaker 1: for handle social media. Thank you Brian Vesquez for a
Speaker 1: theme music, Goodbye Bye.