The Last of Us Ending Explained and Why It's Brilliant

Many of us have finished the Last of Us by now, but why did it go down like that? Here's why it's amazing.

[badboy776]

"Spoiler"

My question is this. Didn't Joel know that once he returned Ellie to the Fireflys that they would most likely need to kill her in order to extract the cure?Because she was already infected and we are no strangers to these type of situations in movies.Also what would've really been EPIC is if after Joel rescued Ellie from the Hospital that pictures of his Daughters Face popped up on the screen.

[xPhearR3dx]

My guess is Joel figured they take blood samples and stuff and compare it to the infected and humans to diagnosis a cure. You can't really compare zombie movies to a game with it's own universe TBH.

As far as your last part, yeah actually. It would be sad, but also very touching.

[NewMonday]

if you were really in his place would you really care about the world or be selfish, Joel is not a hero, just simply human.

[xHeavYx]

If I recall correctly, there is an audio tape at the hospital where you hear that there are more people infected, so Joel didn't lie.
I also think that David wanted to help Ellie, but she was too stubborn and he got fed up

[Lovable]

@xHeavy

That's a false report. There is no such thing. This had been debated in many gaming website.

[showtimefolks]

like xPhearR3dx said he may have thought that they would take blood samples

i thought the ending fit the game because of the 15-18 hours journey the characters took together, in the end when ellie says swear by me what you said back there and in her eyes she wanted joel to swear even though she knew the truth

there is something single player dlc planned along with the fact game director said the if TLOU is successful they have future plans to make this into a series or atleast make a sequel, now many say this doesn't need a sequel what i say to that is its ND they won't just do it for money. They will only do it if it makes sense

its not like in the end everything is back to normal, so the last of us universe is very well developed and i can see a sequel doing very well to better explain the universe and to maybe find a happy ending by finding a cure

i am so glad developers stuck to their guts and made a ending they are satisfied with and not something that fans might have wanted or expected

[talisker]

It would make sense with different people in the same universe but I agree Ellie and Joel's story should be left where it is.

[CommonSense]

No, what would have been "epic" (and by epic, i mean average since that word is way over-used) is if you had a choice of how the game ends.

instead of killing the doctors, you can just walk up to ellie. then ellie wakes up just long enough to look at you and nod as a way of letting you know she's aware of what's happening and what needs to happen.

i didn't want to be forced to kill that first doctor, i stood there for a couple minutes looking for another option.

i get that they wanted it to be a story of how you learned to love this girl like she's your own daughter, but that's pretty cliche. if it was a more original story, i'd be fine with being forced to linearly follow that ONE Path.

Alternatively...It would have been a much better ending if you nearly escaped with ellie but then get into another car accident (a call back to what happened to his daughter). Then, while carrying Ellie away (and she's already dead), he finds that she has a note (read in her voice - and as she's reading the note, it cuts to all the people that helped you along the way) that says the surgery is really what she wanted, and she was grateful to have the time she had with him, and that she loves him. He realizes he may have ruined the future of humanity for his own selfish perspective, and then it goes to credits.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

The part with the doctor was really the point where Naughty Dog put their foot down and said this is OUR story. I didn't want to kill the doctor either but if I didn't then it would of contradicted the story. Joel becomes a man possessed towards the end and it's this transformation that tells us that we/Joel have become the bad guy. An that is what I loved about the ending. Nothing cliche about it.

[GribbleGrunger]

I'm so glad you had nothing to do with this game. Those ending are terrible to say the least. It's clear that you've never constructed a narrative or created a character in your life. That's Walt Disney level of exposition you're describing there. No thanks.

[NewMonday]

this wouldn't be the same game or same story or the same characters if we could change things, games like Mass Effect and the Witcher have their place and games like FF7 Shadow of the Colossus and Metal Gear have theirs

[legionsoup]

This isn't what you would do. This is what Joel would do.

Did you even read the article? It talks about how Ellie might not have even been the cure and he saved her from a meaningless death.

[CommonSense]

I did read it, doesn't make it a good ending. The ending sucked. and it was obvious.

I said that I wouldn't have minded a linear ending if it wasn't stupid.

You people are just embarrassingly up the ass of ND. It's been going on sine UC1. Sony fanboys are such a joke.

[bsquwhere]

Wow and he shows his true colors. You tried to criticize the game by offering your own opinion, which is fine, but I bet there's a reason your not a writer. Then when people tell you your ideas are bad...and they are..you blow up and call us Sony fanboys. You also complained about uncharted. I have a feeling you've never even played any Naughty Dog game.

[ShugaCane]

"Also what would've really been EPIC is if after Joel rescued Ellie from the Hospital that pictures of his Daughters Face popped up on the screen."

Sorry, I think that would have been cheesy and cliché as hell. Just my opinion, though.

Perfect ending the way it is. ND avoided every stereotype possible and gave a good thinking on human nature.

[Ashunderfire86]

Spoiler:

I think because of the death of Joel's daughter,he look at Ellie as his daughter. He didn't want Ellie to die like his daughter did, so he saved her. Another young girl dying is too much for him to deal with, so he turn on the Fireflies. I digress.

What I like about The Last of Us, is the antagonists are not really bad for the sake of being bad, they trying to survive like everyone else. If you think about it, they are not bad at all, especially the Fireflies that just wanted to cure the world. What Joel did some may question, but to lose someone that you look as your daughter, that is too much to lose again. It is a hard decision that you may regret.

[legionsoup]

Perfectly stated.

[Number-Nine]

"you expect joel to take the high road"

not really lol. i expected joel to save ellie.

[geekspodcast]

LoL, I suppose I did too. Thanks for reading the article though, I truly appreciate it :)

I meant that generally the stereotype in a lot of games and movies of this nature is that the hero makes some grand sacrifice. In this case, Ellie perhaps for the good of mankind. But, good on ND for not falling into cliches and telling a very memorable story with their handling of this point.

[die_fiend]

This ending doesn't need explaining at all....
There's nothing complex to misinterpret. Any surely we don't need to be told why its brilliant

[xPhearR3dx]

I think most people were upset (or frustrated) because they wanted to see more. Myself included. The whole damn game/story was so good I didn't want it to end. That and we all know it's going to be quite some time before we see another game, even if it doesn't include Joel or Ellie.

[die_fiend]

I think most people weren't either upset or frustrated. U seen the reviews? It's ridiculous that you need people to spell out exactly what's going to happen, they're leaving it kind of open ended. Clearly you're the type to need to be explicitly told something, otherwise you become upset or frustrated. How did you feel at the end of Bioshock Infinite? Reduced to tears?

[Dunpeal]

yeah but the interwebs loves to overanalyze EVERYTHING

[CommonSense]

If you need THAT ending explained, then it's no wonder you'd think it's "brilliant."

It wasn't an upsetting ending, or disappointing (in fact, the game dragged on and on), it was just completely straight forward.

[bsquwhere]

Stop trolling u asshat. U didn't even play the game. I just checked out your comments and your all over bashing Sony , Sony fans and any game that's not on Xbox. If you hate all things Sony I doubt you played this at all.

[Cam977]

I loved it, the simple ending was perfect.
Sadly this masterpiece will be stepped on by GTA: V but I will live knowing it's amazing.
I'd like a sequel in the form of ASSASSIN's Creed: Embers (ie: an animation), not a full game. I loved it how Joel slowly turned to things he did with his daughter with Ellie (such as calling we "baby girl" saying "scoot" and revealing himself). This game still has more to tell, we don't know much of Ellie's family or Joel's wife aside from her being a hooker.

Onto Silent Hill: Downpour now, I miss TLOU.

[ShugaCane]

Yeah... GTA and TLOU have so much in common.... Whatever, man...

[Sideras]

GTA V might be more fun, but as far as story goes we have a clear winner this generation in The Last of Us.
I'm not saying Rockstar can't write a story but it just won't be as tight as the story in TLoU.

[mmj]

I'm surprised they would risk killing her to find a cure, wouldn't there have been a good chance that her eventual offspring had the same immunity?

[Cam977]

If you found Marlene's audio recordings you would've found that there were dozens who underwent the same surgery and died to no avail. There were dozens of immune, as said by Joel.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

Yeah but Joel was lying about that.

[Lovable]

@Cam

No there isn't. Go check the recordings again. There was no mention of "other immune" besides Ellie.

[Inception]

To me, TloU, Shadow of the Collossus, Vagrant Story, FF X, Silent Hill 2/3, MGS 1-4, and Persona 3 had the best ending in video games ^^

[izumo_lee]

The beauty of TLOU ending is it's ambiguity. It is up to the players perspective on what they think the ending will be.

There is no right way or wrong way to describe the ending.

[SOLIDTROY77]

Just my wordy opinion but I like to analyze of it this way:

The worlds going to keep on spinning. It has been for the 20 years after the initial infection.

Along the journey, a few things kind of stood out to me. The first thing was that Ellie had spent most of her life learning of pre-infection culture. At several moments, if you took the time to follow her around for her conversations, she almost looks down on that culture almost to wonder why she was basing so much of herself on it.

One example was on the worlds view of women (pre-infection) when she stops at a poster of a fashion model (wondering why, with all the food they had readily available, she was so thin. Joel said it was a choice people made, seeming to baffle even him). Another example was seen at the ranch when she found a girls diary. Ellie found it a bit ridiculous that all the girl cared about was what skirt to wear. The more she learned how broken society was the more that "spark" in her faded. She had less to live for and more reasons to be consumed by pain.

Joel found several things from past society to be ridiculous also. He seemed to have found his own in the post-infection world as harsh as it was. He could hide his past and emotions easily here.

Ellie and Joel did share a love for the wonderful things in life though. Those were the things that were not so culturally bound and still existed in their society. Overall, I think the most important thing to every person in this game was a sense of needing each other for a reason to keep on fighting to survive.(Henry and Sam)

Things will never go back to the way they were (culture wise).
Joel taking Ellie was very symbolic to me. While people run around infected, the remains of their "great society" remain prevalent;Locking people in quarantine zones like animals, fighting corrupt authorities by becoming corrupt, etc; like Kyle (I think his name way). He became the leader of the "Hunters". What drove people to kill and eat each other and take what they had by brute and deadly force? The existing corrupting part of human nature. These people became desensitized by changing their standards and not making the preservation of all human life the priority.

However, in all of that darkness a very bright beam of light arose. A rebuilding of civilized society via a secluded hydroelectric dam. After all this, it is clear to me that they had stopped dwelling on the past and turned to look towards a new future (not involving a vaccine). People are still selfish and human. The rebuilding of this society most likely would not be open to all but it was a place where Joel and Ellie could have a somewhat peaceful life away from the broken world.

The blade on the edge of this was the fact that it took a lie to bring Ellie home without a fight, pointing to our inescapable selfish human nature once again. In the grand scheme of things this looks like a terrible thing, but honestly it was the right thing to do. Joel has something to live for again and that is worth fighting for selfishly. (Selfishness isn't always a bad thing as counterintuitive as that might sound.)

And besides, "Life will find a way".

Brilliant job NaughtyDog!

(And who says Ellie cant donate her body to science right? lol JK)

[dddinpumpkins]

To Ellie, it's extremely disappointing to find that after all that they have been through, almost a year of struggling with surviving (if I'm not wrong), they return to Tommy's after killing the fireflies and destroying that last hope of a vaccine. Remember she said in the giraffe scene, "after all we've been through, everything that I've done, it can't be for nothing."
To Joel, Ellie was just too dear to lose and he'd rather keep Ellie alive than have a chance at a cure. This is a guess though I'm not sure if Ellie knew she must die for a chance at the cure.

[Scoleman86]

I hate to tell you this but you are basically all wrong. Joel is a traditional hero and the ending is a cliche moral tale, about good and evil.
It's a necessary evil to kill Ellie, find a cure and save the human race, but as the story tells going back to the way things were is hardly saving the human race, a time when "food was plentiful and people still chose not to eat to look good".
In Joel's point of view, the view of a true hero, the death of one innocent girl is too high a price to save the world, and that a necessary evil is still evil and not in fact a good deed, it would be a different story if he was the key to the cure and sacrificed himself but this is not the case.
And although this story is a cliche I believe TLOU has told a unique version of this and done a very good job of it, but it is not a new or inventive concept.