‘The Last of Us’ Somehow Made That Death Scene Even More Gutting Than the Game

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First, the differences.

In 2013’s The Last of Us, playable characters Joel and Ellie first meet NPCs Henry and Sam in Pittsburgh. The main duo is ambushed by the two brothers, who are hiding out in the city while hunting for supplies. The two pairs of characters then join up to escape the city, avoiding the “hunters”—a group of militarized civilians also looking for supplies, as well as Joel and Ellie who have killed their men.

In HBO’s The Last of Us—cowritten by the game’s Neil Druckmann—Joel and Ellie are ambushed in Kansas City by the two brothers, who are avoiding the vengeance of Kathleen, the leader of the series version of the “hunters.” That mercenary group is looking for both pairs, Joel and Ellie because they killed some of their men and Henry and Sam because they cooperated with Kansas City's fascist chapter of FEDRA before the coup. (In the series, Sam is about four years younger than his 13-year-old video game counterpart; he is also deaf in the series.)

In both the series and the game, the hunters have deposed military rule. In the series, they’re given an additional storyline centered on their leader, Kathleen, who is vindictively searching for Henry and Sam. (In the game, no such plotline exists; Henry and Sam are simply trying to pass through town, just like Joel and Ellie.)

In the game, Joel/Ellie and Henry/Sam manage to follow underground tunnels to avoid the hunters’ checkpoint, at one point being separated and forcing Joel and Sam to work together. Some serious shit goes down, however, when they try and cross a bridge together: the hunters attack, and Henry and Sam, looking to save themselves, abandon Joel and Ellie who are forced to jump and swim. Henry ends up saving them and the two pairs reunite and continue on through a village.

The events after the village are in near lockstep with the series.

What happens to Henry and Sam in The Last of Us video game?

They die.

As in the series, the pair take refuge one night after a sniper incident. Ellie joins Sam in his room, hoping to cheer him up. After she leaves, the cutscene stays with Sam, who rolls up his pant leg to reveal bite marks.

Unlike in the series, Sam does not show Ellie the bite mark. Ellie, therefore, does not try and intervene, smearing her blood on his wound. The events the next morning, however, unfold much the same way as the game: Sam oversleeps and emerges into the main room infected, attacking Ellie and forcing Henry to shoot, killing Sam and leading Henry to immediate suicide. (You can watch the moment in the game here, at the 6:20:43 mark.)

While the outcomes are the same, the series adds an important complication: Ellie’s knowledge of the bite. Her inability to stop further infection makes her somewhat responsible for the next morning’s outcome—Henry’s surprise, his reaction to shoot Sam, and then his turning the gun on himself.

One of the video game’s many strengths is its implication of the player with the heinous acts of its characters; we sin as they sin. This implication is more difficult cinematically, as viewers aren’t active participants in the story. Druckmann and co-showrunner Craig Mazin find a workaround by deploying dramatic irony, giving the viewer knowledge only one character possesses. The outcome is a similar discomfort: we feel Ellie should have done more, and so does she.

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