THE LAST OF US Explained | Every Clue On How The Infection Started And Real Life Zombie Inspiration

THE LAST OF US Explained | How The Infection Started And Real Life Zombie Town Inspiration. We breakdown and explain the origins of where the infection started off at in The Last Of Us based on theories, clues and hidden details in episode 1.

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Ok so The Last Of Us centres around a deadly infection caused by funghi known as the Cordyseps. These real world parasites can be found in nature and what's most terrifying about the Last Of Us is that there is basis in science for something like this to happen.

Episode 1 of the HBO show opens with a scientist theorising the rise of them all the way back in the 60s and like he says, there's no cure.

But where did the infection originate from and how did it spread so quickly?

Well throughout this video we're gonna be breaking down everything we know about how it began and the theories about how it spread so quickly. If you enjoy the video then please hit the thumbs up button and don't forget to subscribe for videos like this every day. With that out the way, thanks for clicking this, now let's get into The Last Of Us.

Now when looking at where it all started I think that the first place to go to is the game. The playstation classic doesn't give us too much of a backstory on where it originated from but there are teases found in documents. When looking through newspapers we come across the Texas Herald which reported on the infection. On September 26th it reported that admittance at hospitals was up 300% due to the infection.

The FDA also released a statement about contaminated crops and that massive recalls were expected. This of couse didn't happen but the statement did give us a clue about what was happening. It said:

So there are clues that it's coming from countries with a hotter climate. This was teased at in the initial science report at the start and 2003 is listed as being one of the hottest years on record.

Now though it's not in South America, we do hear a report in episode 1 that there is something strange going on in Jakarta. This indonesian city is located in Asia and they might have changed this from South America for us to explore it in a later episode. During filming of the show people from Jakarta posted that things were being filmed in the city so we could possibly see this coming down the line at some point.

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[sentientmustache]

The Last of Us: Want to see me break your heart in the first 30 minutes?
*10 years later*
The Last of Us: Want to see me do it again?

[nicholasmetrano]

The other thing is that the people with twitch’s (first sign of infection) were people with comprised immune systems . The classmate with a medical bracelet, the elderly woman.

[keanwi]

They mentioned that the chance of being infected is much higher if you've been in the city. They also said that the neighbor had just been to the city to get her meds. In the truck, when they are talking about whether they could be infected, Joel says that they probably aren't infected because none of them have been to the city recently and while his daughter says she hasn't, she looks worried because that's where she just got his watch fixed.

[masamune]

It’s especially cool knowing that alongside Cordyceps in nature, there has also evolved an anti-Cordyceps parasite, that prevents Cordyceps from taking over hosts by preying on the parasitic fungus itself as it tries to take over a host. Interesting if Ellie somehow is the first human to have been infected by an evolved version of this “good” parasitic fungus. 😊

[MathewAGTales]

Sarah’s face after the lady says it’s raisin cookies is my fave part of the first episode

[DtheMan]

X-Files had a horrifying episode based on the Cordyceps fungus. Apart of me always wonders if Neal saw that episode as a kid and was just as traumatized as I was lol

[timothytorigian]

Cool breakdown, I never would have noticed how they avoided flour products the whole episode but it's definitely laced throughout the intro.

[HotDogTimeMachine]

"Deadly infection caused by a fun guy known as Cordy Ceps"
The true villain of the story. The final boss of TLoU 3

[Ebizzill]

Sarah's silent disgusted face at the oatmeal cookies had me wheezing of laughter.

[TheGDunkulific]

I’m seriously impressed Paul! Catching the link to the fungi, Jakarta, and the central characters not eating bread and wheat products … that’s genius!

[pyroAdapt]

The most terrifying part about the last Of us was when I found out that most of the infected are still in their minds and are aware of what's happening that just as an entire new horror to the entire situation imagine being in your mind trapped inside of an infected body and not having any control over your faquaties and just force to linger around in an abandoned buithing waiting for something alive to come in and trying to eat it against your will. For years no less

[timothytorigian]

Cmon Paul, we all know you're the real Fungi.

[cmdrjanjalani]

The TLOU podcast also mentioned that they put a lot of "breadcrumbs" in the first episode on what caused the infection. So there you go.

[Jerseymad]

Tommy looking for pancakes at their breakfast shows how close they all were to getting infected, great writing. You see the Addlers feed the grandmother that biscuit, as Sarah and Joel head to school and work, that was the moment the old lady was infected.

Edit: they didn’t have pancakes because joel forgot to get the pancake mix, which really ties in with how consuming his job was because he had to work on his birthday and couldn’t even get home by the time he promised Sarah.

[MrSoldierpants]

Aren't the biscuits also equally important as she refused to eat food. She was already infected. And once infected the fungi doesn't need food itself as it is feeding off of your body and controlling your brain function so you would no longer feel the need to eat. It is connected to crops in the story as well but I feel like her not eating was another take way there.

[LewisB]

Seeing the grandma behind Joel’s daughter freak out while she grabbed the movie was creepy

[CameoAmalthea]

In real life Cordyceps is mostly found in Asia. The genus has a worldwide distribution and most of the approximately 600 species[3] that have been described are from Asia (notably Nepal, China, Japan, Bhutan, Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand). Cordyceps species are particularly abundant and diverse in humid temperate and tropical jungles. So it makes sense for the outbreak to start in Indonesia.

Apparently, they don't want it spreading by spores in the TV show because they don't want to cover the actor's faces with gas masks (despite the fact Pedro Pascal has shown he can act with his face fully covered). So it makes sense that they change the initial infection happening due to spores to happening due via ingestion like ergot. (Real-life Cordyceps spreads to insects via spores and unlike ergot and other poison fungi Cordyceps is edible by people and actually has health benefits).

The scientist in 60s talks about ergot and other poisonous fungi that cause hallucination, hinting that this fictional cordyceps is like ergot (makes you sick via ingestion) so it makes sense that the original outbreak was spread by bread. The scientist also mentioned human immune systems being able to fight infections (notably fever). This is silly if you think about it since real-life cordyceps are from the jungle and jungles are hot and real-life fungi like coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) can infect people just fine. But suspending our disbelief, it makes sense that the first person we see infected is an old woman. Maybe many people ate contaminated wheat but only those with weaker immune systems became infected that way, but they in turn can infect more people through bites which might have a higher risk of infection?

[ynnosredd]

I always see John Hannah (the scientist who explained the fungi) as Quintis Lentulus Batiatus from Spartacus series.

[agentcooper]

It's funny that people put more effort into understanding how a fictional pandemic started than a real one.