The Last of Us has many strong, quiet moments, but arguably the most iconic scene in the game involves the protagonists and a herd of giraffes.
The Last of Us puts players through a roller coaster of emotions. As Joel, players escort a young Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States. Along the way, they see what happens when a Cordyceps-type fungus infects humanity and spreads throughout the population.
Compared to its previous work on games like Uncharted and the Jak and Daxter series, Naughty Dog's The Last of Us can be bleak. With a good chunk of humanity transformed into Infected, the remaining populace fights for survival. While some retain their humanity, others throw away diplomacy in favor of more violent methods. Joel and Ellie come across multiple human groups on their journey, each of which has its own way of surviving. Yet there are lighter moments that even out the narrative, with perhaps the most iconic of these moments having to do with Joel, Ellie, and a pack of wild giraffes. Spoilers for The Last of Us ahead.
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As players approach the game's finale, they see Ellie traumatized and exhausted from her and Joel's encounter with a man named David and his group of cannibals; the worst humanity has to offer. It is at this point where her doubt in their journey to reach the Fireflies hits an all-time low. Apart from the fact that every discovery she and Joel have made comes to mediocre results, Ellie starts to wonder if her immunity to the Cordyceps fungus will help humanity find a cure.
Then, after being boosted up a ledge by Joel, Ellie spots something that players can't see. She drops the ladder intended for Joel and runs toward the unknown anomaly. Players' minds likely immediately go to thoughts of Infected or Hunters thanks to the events of the previous season. As they catch up to Ellie, however, they discover a herd of wild giraffes walking through Salt Lake City. Due to the city's aged barriers and reclamation by nature, giraffes are now migrating through the once-populated city.
The discovery of the giraffes brings a spark of hope back into the two survivors. Joel eagerly tries to get close to a giraffe that is grazing off nearby leaves while Ellie brightens up. After a brief moment of hesitation, Ellie pets the giraffe, and the two watch as the herd makes its way through the city. This final moment of watching the giraffes can last forever so long as players choose not to leave the edge of the rooftop that Joel and Ellie are perched on. Once they've had their fill of the scene, they can take off and see Joel and Ellie continue on their journey with renewed vigor.
After a heavy winter season, entering the summer with the giraffe scene helps calm players down. There is no combat during the first part of the season, and Ellie's reluctance to open up to Joel causes relatively little dialogue to occur. This lull in the action inevitably brings about a reflective pause in both players and the pair of survivors as they think about what they have been through and what's yet to come.
The arrival of the giraffes helps break the tension that Joel, Ellie, and the players have been feeling. The animals bring a sense of wonder that many people feel when they were kids. Ellie, being cooped up in a F.E.D.R.A. quarantine zone her entire life, has most likely only seen giraffes in books. Joel, on the other hand, has probably never seen a giraffe up-close anywhere beyond a zoo. Their presence shows that life goes on even without humanity. A large portion of the animal kingdom isn't worried about the Infected or humans at large, so they simply continue living.
After Joel and Ellie watch the herd of giraffes, they start talking about what they will do once their journey is over. The pair think about going back to Jackson, and Joel plans on teaching Ellie how to play the guitar (both of which happen before the events of The Last of Us 2). They set their sights on continuing their lives the same way the giraffes are. There is still some doubt in Ellie's mind regarding the success of their quest, but the encounter with the giraffes helps her soldier through The Last of Us' final act.
The Last of Us Part 1 is scheduled to launch on September 2, 2022, on PS5, and a PC release is also in development.
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Zoto plays video games and (luckily) writes about them for a living. He also likes watching romantic anime and gets pissed whenever the girl he likes doesn't end up with the main character.