The Last of Us takes place in an alternate future where the military and mutated humans known as the infected are at odds. The plot focuses on an arms dealer by the name of Joel, who agrees to transport a young girl named Ellie in the hope of keeping her out of harm’s way.
The game tells a harrowing tale that compels you to keep playing, even when things are at their worst. For this week’s Spoiler Alert, we dive right into the story of The Last of Us. As always, there are major spoilers, so we implore you to play the game first before reading.
Warning: spoilers ahead.
The game begins at the start of the outbreak, and focuses on single father Joel and his daughter Sarah. That fateful night, Sarah discovers her father isn’t home and begins to worry. He soon rushes in and tells her to take cover. Some sort of plague overtook the city and turned people into ruthless monsters. One breaks into the house, and the pair escape with the help of Joel’s brother Tommy. They drive through the city, only to get into an accident and run on foot.
Sarah gets injured, but Joel carries her towards a safe point at a nearby bridge. They soon run into a soldier who radios to his superior officer that he’s stumbled upon survivors. He receives a response and immediately fires upon the pair. Tommy runs in and kills him, but not before Sarah is hit and dies from her wounds.
Twenty years later, Joel lives in Boston running an arms dealer business alongside his partner, Tess. It turns out that a local gangster named Robert screwed them over with a shipment of weapons so they invade his compound. After killing his men, he explains he sold the shipment to the Fireflies, a local group of insurgents. Upon killing him, the two confront Firefly Marlene, who explains that she’ll happily give the shipment back if they transport a young teenage girl named Ellie out of the city, where a group of Fireflies await her arrival.
The three sneak out later in the evening and Tess discovers an Infected bite wound on Ellie’s arm. She didn’t turn, and appears to have some sort of immunity. They fight their way to a drop off point, only to discover the military slaughtered the Fireflies. The group gets away, but Tess is somehow bitten by the Infected and offers to sacrifice herself by staying behind, allowing Joel and Ellie to escape.
With the Fireflies dead, Joel goes in search of his brother Tommy. They receive help from allies, and later in the year, finally catch up to him in Colorado, where he’s built a settlement near a hydroelectric dam. Ellie learns more about Joel while he contemplates leaving her at the encampment. He opts to stay after taking down some bandits. From there, the pair head to the University of Eastern Colorado, where the rest of the Fireflies are reportedly hiding. They get there, only to find they’ve moved on to Salt Lake City. They barely escape an attack by looters and Joel gets injured in the process.
The two find a house in the mountains. Joel is just about ready to die, but Ellie manages to kill an animal and trade up for medicine with a pair of stragglers, one of whom is named David. They fight off a few Infected, and it’s here that David learns that Joel, along with Ellie, killed some of his friends back at the University. He lets her go and opts to have a tracking party find her the next day. They catch up to Ellie, who distracts them from learning of Joel’s location. She’s captured but manages to temporarily escape.
Ellie learns that David and his men aren’t just stragglers, but cannibals feasting on human survivors. Joel reawakens, healthy again, and tracks down David’s men to learn of his location. He finds gets there just in time to see Ellie kill him.
The pair reach Salt Lake City the following year and have to cross through the rapids, where Ellie almost drowns. Later, a Firefly patrol captures them. Shortly thereafter, Joel awakens in a hospital where he finds Marlene. She explains that they had to transport Ellie to a safe area, where they could remove her brain and study it for clues to the fungal immunity.
Joel manages to escape and fights into the surgery room, taking out several Fireflies in the process. He takes Ellie down to the basement, where he confronts Marlene over her actions. He kills her and escapes from the rest of the Fireflies, then manages to help her out of the city. In the process, he lies to Ellie, explaining that the Fireflies had already tried and failed to find a cure with other subjects.
The game concludes with Joel and Ellie finally making it to Tommy’s settlement, and Ellie is overcome with survivor’s guilt. Like a good father always would, Joel consoles her, and the screen fades to black.
The Last of Us is available for PlayStation 3.
More Features for The Last of Us
The Last of Us Beginner’s Mini eGuide
The Last of Us Intermediate Mini eGuide
The Last of Us Advanced Mini eGuide
The Last of Us: Top 10 Tips for Surviving the Infected
The Last of Us Multiplayer Tips
