The Last of Us – When you’re lost in the darkness…
Despite the ancient tales included in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Bible, and in the Dharmasastra; the golden age of the post-apocalyptic genre can be dated back to the end of World War II. With millions of people who have experienced a tragedy, that left a lot of them traumatized, an increasing number of writers started to create stories in which the biggest fears of the man in the street were portrayed and dissected.
The atomic bombs of Hiroshima & Nagasaki before, and the Chornobyl disaster then, are considered the milestones of this sci-fi niche; from the 1950s novels about a lone hero who tries to restore a sort of normality started to appear in a plethora of magazines revealing the capacity of humankind to destroy life on Earth. John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids and Terence Gross’ The Day the World Ended are the perfect examples of how a post-apocalyptic should be.
Endure and Survive!
As the years go by, even the fears changed; in the 60s & the 70s, the world was in the midst of an economic boom. With the beginning of mass consumption society, people started to be afraid of the “other”. If you have watched George Romero’s The Night of the Living Dead, you will see how a horde of “others” walks around us to destroy the order of our societies in a very destabilizing way.
Now that we all live in a sort of dystopian dimension, videogames like Fallout 4, DayZ, Horizon Zero Dawn, and above all The Last of Us show us the fall of contemporary civilization with a bunch of people who try to survive in a devastated world filled with ruins, leaning skyscrapers, rubble, and destroyed cars. In these post-apocalyptic landscapes, the end of the world hasn’t happened spectacularly, but it is the result of a long process that carried millions of people the face scarcity of food, medical cures, and the disintegration of the social fabric.
Something to fight for!
Released in June 2013 for PlayStation 3; The Last of Us sees a middle-aged man and a vulnerable girl survive in a wasteland populated by cannibal creatures who have been infected by a mutated Cordyceps fungus, and hostile humans who are ready for anything to exist just another day. Receiving more than 200 Game of the Year awards; this month the series abandoned the digital world to make its triumphant entrance into the TV drama universe. Universally acclaimed (and already renewed for season 2 just after three episodes), it is considered the best cinematic adaptation of a video game, and a new point of comparison for all the directors that will create a live-action series from an interactive opus.
Allowing us to live a very unforgettable post-apocalyptic adventure; The Last of Us sees Joel and Ellie join forces to survive a mysterious fungal infection that has decimated the global population in a few years. As any post-apocalyptic hero, even in this series, the “do-it-yourself” ethos has a primary role throughout the adventure. Wandering in an incredibly vivid wasteland, we, Ellie & Joel must use our brains to learn how to build useful tools, effective weapons, and healing items starting from recycled materials that are abandoned at the side of the roads.
This is not a simple adventure, both on game and on TV, The Last of Us is much more; it is a post-apocalyptic bildungsroman, that reveals to all of us that the best teacher is the experience. Enter Ellie & Joel’s microcosm; no matter who and what you will encounter. Endure, survive, and help to get the revenge they’re looking for!
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