What Makes the Prologue from ‘The Last of Us’ So Effective

Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video essay that explores the terrifying prologue HBO’s The Last of Us.

I don’t know if y’all have heard, but this The Last of Us show is getting some prrrrretty good reviews. So much for that whole “live-action video game adaptation curse,” huh?

Like Naughty Dog’s 2013 video game of the same name, the TV show follows Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as they make their way through the United States, now an overgrown wasteland in the wake of a fungal infection that has turned much of humanity into violent husks of their former selves, piloted by fungal hosts.

One of the aspects of the HBO show that folks have latched onto is its grim cold open. Rather than launching us into the tragic 2003 outbreak, which is seared into the minds of fans of the game, the show takes us back to a talk show in the 1960s. There, a panel of scientists responds to the possibility of a viral pandemic. One of their number (John Hannah) clarifies that his real fear is the possibility of a fungal pandemic that wouldn’t just lay out humanity but alter what it means to be human.

For a closer look at what makes the cold open in The Last of Us so good, sneak a peek at the video essay below.

Watch “THE LAST OF US: The Scariest Scene Isn’t The One You Think”

Who made this?

This video essay on why the scariest scene in HBO’s “The Last of Us” is by Adam Tinius, who runs the YouTube channel Entertain the Elk. They are based in Pasadena, California. You can follow them on YouTube here. And you can follow them on Twitter here.

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Related Topics: HBO Max, The Last of Us, The Queue

Meg Shields is the humble farm boy of your dreams and a senior contributor at Film School Rejects. She currently runs three columns at FSR: The Queue, How’d They Do That?, and Horrorscope. She is also a curator for One Perfect Shot and a freelance writer for hire. Meg can be found screaming about John Boorman’s ‘Excalibur’ on Twitter here: @TheWorstNun. (She/Her).