The Final of Us: All the sport Easter eggs within the HBO present

HBO’s The Final of Us is a solution to revisit the enduring and beloved online game of the identical identify — to revel within the methods it’s each unchanged and completely totally different. For devoted followers of the sport, the attraction of The Final of Us isn’t essentially in being shocked by twists and turns of the story; moderately, it’s to see the franchise in a brand new mild, selecting out the little particulars that time again to the unique media.

There’s a lot to see in that regard. Video video games are recognized for his or her Easter eggs, the small and obscure references hidden as little surprises within the recreation. And so it is sensible that HBO’s The Final of Us would do the identical, to make delicate (and never so delicate) nods to all of the The Final of Us-heads on the market. The Final of Us Half 1 felt prefer it so badly needed to be a film or present, and now the TV present is switching that up — at the least in a technique.

Episode 2

Giraffe plush

There’s a grimy, run-down giraffe stuffed animal beneath a automotive’s tire as Ellie, Joel, and Tess escape by way of Boston. Anybody who has performed the sport will know instantly what this references: an iconic, touching second that comes late within the first recreation, probably probably the most talked-about scenes within the recreation.

Ellie can’t swim

When Ellie, Tess, and Joel enter the lodge in Boston, they’ve received to trudge by way of some cloudy water. It’s the place present viewers study that Ellie can’t swim — possibly not an enormous deal within the present, however that reality is crucial in making the video games’ environmental puzzles work. Ellie can’t swim within the first recreation, both — so to cross water, the participant has to resolve environmental puzzles to get her by way of, often by discovering a hidden floating pallet.

Locked doorways

Just like the floating pallets, locked doorways within the online game serve to set gamers up for environmental puzzles. You may’t go straight by way of the door, and as an alternative should discover a new method round. It’s within the recreation a lot that the present’s re-creation probably elicited a groan from those that’ve performed it. I can not overstate what number of occasions I’ve seen the animation for Joel lifting Ellie over a wall or right into a window to go unlock a door.

The Boston museum

The Final of Us Half 1’s Boston escape takes gamers by way of the Freedom Museum of Boston, and the present has a fairly dang good re-creation of it. It’s probably drawing inspiration from the real-life Bostonian Society Museum. The museum itself is inside a colonial or colonial-style house, and the quarters are quaint. There’s a number of busts of outdated males to knock over, and in the dead of night, it’s a creepy venue to lurk round — is that shadowed head a clicker or a statue? (Most likely a statue, until it’s clicking.)

Well being kits

Characters in a TV present don’t have to heal themselves, however gamers of the sport can be extraordinarily accustomed to the act of placing collectively well being kits with discovered alcohol and rags. However there are nods to this within the present — Joel offers Ellie a rag to cowl her chew wound, and he tapes up Tess’ harm foot utilizing duct tape, one other important useful resource within the recreation.

Tess’ goodbye

Tess doesn’t final lengthy in The Final of Us Half 1, and that’s the identical for the present — she lasts two episodes. However the way in which she goes is totally different from the sport. In each cases, she’s been bitten and will get left behind to carry off an oncoming horde. Within the recreation, she’s holding off people which can be coming after the group, conserving them busy sufficient to present Joel and Ellie a head begin for escape. However within the present, it’s a gaggle of contaminated which can be coming their method; she stops them from going after Ellie and Joel by blowing the entire place up after getting kissed (???) by a zombie.

Episode 1 Easter eggs

Halican Drops

Picture: Shane Harvey/HBO

Halican Drops is the identify of the band on the T-shirt that Joel’s daughter Sarah (performed by Nico Parker) is sporting at first of the present — and the sport. There’s no actual significance for the band within the recreation, apart from a couple of posters, however the again of the T-shirt does foreshadow how the sport performs out: Every tour cease is one other location that Ellie and Joel will go to all through their journey.

Except for Sarah’s T-shirt, there are Halican Drops stickers in home windows, too — at the least in response to set photos.

Again-seat driving

When Joel, Tommy, and Sarah are attempting to flee Austin, Texas, through the chaos of the preliminary outbreak, the present’s administrators make intelligent use of digital camera angles to make The Final of Us really feel just like the online game. It’s all within the third-person view, with the digital camera within the again seat. That is precisely how the sport is shot from the truck — you’re nonetheless taking part in as Sarah at that time, and she or he’s within the again seat. A number of of us famous immediately that it simply feels like a online game throughout these photographs, a trick that’s of a lot better use right here than in different TV variations of video games, like Halo, which tried the first-person view — together with participant UI.

Sarah waking up

Sarah wakes up in her bed room in the midst of the night time in each the sport and the TV present, stumbling round sleepily in the dead of night to see what’s happening. Each scenes present a bit extra context, however in several methods. Within the online game, you management Sarah, and she or he’s wanting by way of her home in the dead of night. You’re not on a set path, and you may choose up issues in the home, which offer some clues — one merchandise is a newspaper saying that admittance to native hospitals is up by greater than 300%. Within the online game, an contaminated individual comes busting by way of the glass door, however Joel shoots him, earlier than they run outdoors and Tommy exhibits up, proper on time.

The Final of Us TV present has Sarah waking up, alone, as a result of Joel went to bail Tommy out of jail. She finally ends up again on the neighbor’s home, bringing their scared canine house. That’s when she will get a really clear glimpse of what’s happening: The contaminated outdated woman is munching on her housemates. This scene units up the horrors of the contaminated otherwise, giving some extra context to point out viewers what’s happening.

However there’s additionally a small, touching reference to the sport’s waking up scene, that includes the birthday card Sarah received for Joel — it’s one of many issues you possibly can choose up and examine throughout this scene from the sport. The cardboard itself is on Sarah’s desk in a shot from the present, spotted by former Naughty Dog developer Alexandria Neonakis, the one that designed the cardboard within the recreation.

Joel’s wrench

Tommy and Joel pull as much as their neighbor’s home simply as Sarah is getting attacked by the contaminated outdated woman, however fortunately Joel has a formidable weapon: a wrench. The heavy wrench appears to be like to be of forearm’s size and doubtless fairly useful whereas they’re escaping town, however Joel drops it immediately.

Why not reserve it for later use? Toss it into the again of the pickup truck and also you don’t even have to carry it. Our greatest guess is that it is a nod to the online game — in The Final of Us Half 1 and The Final of Us Half 2, you get max three hits in your on a regular basis melee weapons. They break on a regular basis, and that’s by design. The Final of Us is a recreation about survival, and it’s important to scavenge for every thing, together with bullets and, sure, wrenches for hitting contaminated issues.

Marlene

Picture: Liane Hentscher/HBO

Does Marlene in The Final of Us TV present sound acquainted? That’s as a result of the identical actor performs each roles. Merle Dandridge performs Marlene in The Final of Us Half 1 and The Final of Us Half 2, taking the function on a 3rd time for the HBO adaptation.

Once you’re misplaced within the darkness

Picture: Liane Hentscher/HBO

The total phrase, Once you’re misplaced within the darkness, look to the sunshine, seems a number of occasions within the present, and it’s plastered all around the video games. The phrase is graffiti on partitions all through Boston (and certain elsewhere), an emblem and motto for the revolutionary group the Fireflies — the people who find themselves combating the oppressive army within the nation’s quarantine zones. Marlene’s one in all them, and an essential one at that: She’s the chief of the Boston faction, and the one that places Ellie in Joel and Tess’ care.

Curtis and the Viper 2

Curtis and the Viper 2 is the film that Sarah picks up from the neighbor’s home in The Final of Us, pulled from a shelf alongside the likes of Pink Panther and Murderball. Not like these two, Curtis and the Viper 2 isn’t an actual film, but it surely’s nonetheless an essential one. Individuals who have performed The Final of Us Half 2 will keep in mind it tearfully — it’s introduced up within the second recreation as a tacky ’80s film, however one which was going to imply lots to the 2 folks watching it.

“The Lengthy and Winding Street”

When Ellie and Joel are ready for Tess to scout for the escape from the Boston quarantine zone, Ellie picks up the e book of No. 1 music hits and flips by way of it. There’s one web page marked off with a chunk of paper — the radio code for Joel and Tess’ smuggling operation. The web page it opens to is simple to overlook, however could also be a nod to the franchise — The Beatles’ “The Lengthy and Winding Street.” This may very well be reference to the lengthy, winding street that may take Ellie and Joel throughout america, or possibly the lengthy and winding street it’s been since a The Final of Us film adaptation was introduced in 2014.

Bigwig’s daughter

In the identical scene the place Joel and Ellie are discussing the radio code, Joel begins to query Ellie on her personal life — why Marlene and the Fireflies are going by way of a lot bother to smuggle her out of Boston. Nobody is aware of but of Ellie’s true situation — that she’s immune — and she or he’s sworn to maintain it a secret. Joel asks if Ellie is a “bigwig’s daughter” or one thing, and Ellie responds that it’s “one thing like that.” These few strains are pulled straight from the sport, however in these scenes it’s Tess speaking to Ellie once they’re escaping the zone.

There are additionally different cases of dialogue straight from the present, like when Sarah tells Joel she received the cash for his birthday current — the mounted watch — by promoting “hardcore medicine.”

Escaping the quarantine zone

Picture: Liane Hentscher/HBO

Ellie, Joel, and Tess’ escape from the Boston quarantine zone has a couple of photographs which can be heavy references to the sport — the overgrown world is darkish and gnarled up with vehicles and buses to crawl beneath and thru. However there’s one scene specifically that stood out for its similarities to an iconic degree in The Final of Us Half 1: Chapter 3, “The Outskirts.” Crawling by way of tunnels and particles, the trio has to dodge spotlights and flashlights from the army guarding the quarantine zone wall — spots within the recreation the place it’s important to play the sport as stealthily as doable. Visually, the present does a intelligent job of mimicking that feeling.