The Last Of Us Part 2's Most Disturbing Moment Was Inspired By Real Life
For those who haven't played Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part 2, you might want to turn back now. For those who loved the long-awaited sequel to the 2013 survival horror, you might be interested to know the game's most disturbing moment was inspired by a real-life incident involving Director Neil Druckmann. Seriously though, you've been warned. If you haven't played yet, you should probably stop reading now.
If you're still with us, you'll remember The Last of Us Part 2 once again picked up the story of Ellie and Joel from the first game. With a major time jump between games, we shifted focus to a more mature Ellie, her romance, and trying to survive the apocalypse. In the run-up to The Last of Us Part 2's release, there were rumours that Joel wouldn't be making it to the end credits alive, and true to form, he kicked the bucket in epic style. It turns out, the way in which Joel was killed was inspired by Druckmann's past.
How was The Last of Us' most disturbing moment inspired by real life?
In an interview with the Washington Post, Druckmann explained why a very specific weapon was chosen for Joel's demise. In the game, the antagonistic Abby took revenge on Joel for killing her father and beat him to death with a golf club. It's all very The Walking Dead, but in the interview, Druckmann revealed it was inspired by an incident when a friend accidentally hit him with a golf club at the age of 16. As well as requiring 30 stitches, it left Druckmann with a permanent dent in his skull.
“Ha. No one asked me about it", said Druckmann. “My friend was into it. He invited me to go to a driving range. He was showing me the ropes. I stood behind him, and got smacked on the back swing. Blood everywhere". Of course, the decision to have Abby kill off one of the franchise leads was one that polarised critics and cemented The Last of Us Part 2 as game that had no holds barred.
Despite having no interest in golf, Druckmann went on to explain the reason he picked a golf club to off Joel. "For a long time, Abby stabbed Joel in the back then twisted the knife to paralyze him", he added. "But knife felt more like an Ellie thing. We wanted something different". Back in the first game, a knife was Ellie's go-to weapon of choice, so it makes sense that the writers wanted to differentiate between the two women.
Despite critics slamming The Last of Us Part 2 for the gratuitous violence of Joel's death, Druckmann has embraced both his real-life golf club incident and Joel's fictional demise. In the aftermath of the game, Druckmann was known for replying to tweets with gifs of people using golf clubs. At least he's turned his own childhood trauma into something. Love it loathe it, the golf club scene is one of The Last of Us' most iconic from both games.
Whatever you think of Joel's golf club death, The Last of Us Part 2 was a verified hit in 2020 and won over 280 awards. It was also the sixth best-selling game of the year, which isn't bad considering it was a PlayStation exclusive. With Druckmann recently teasing exciting news about a number of Naughty Dog projects, there are hopes he could provide an update on The Last of Us Part 2's multiplayer or possibly even tease a potential third game. We'll have to wait and see whether a golf club remains Abby's weapon of choice. Personally, we'd like to see a Bruce Campbell-inspired character that tears through the Infected with a chainsaw.
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