science

The Last of Us

The Last of Us is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Last of Us rather than just read about it. In short: The Last of Us is an action-adventure video game series and media franchise created by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The series is set in a post-apocalyptic United States ravaged by cannibalistic humans infected by a mutated fungus in the genus Cordyceps.

Key takeaways

The Last of Us belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Last of Us to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Last of Us from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Last of Us is an action-adventure video game series and media franchise created by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The series is set in a post-apocalyptic United States ravaged by cannibalistic humans infected by a mutated fungus in the genus Cordyceps. It follows several survivors, including Joel, a smuggler who lost his daughter during the outbreak; Ellie, a young girl who is immune to the infection; and Abby, a soldier who becomes involved in a conflict between her militia and a religious cult. The games use a third-person perspective in which the player fights against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures with firearms, improvised weapons, and stealth. Game director Bruce Straley and creative director Neil Druckmann led development of the first game, The Last of Us, which was released for the PlayStation 3 in June 2013 and PlayStation 4 in July 2014. A downloadable content expansion, The Last of Us: Left Behind, was released in February 2014 and follows Ellie and her best friend Riley. Druckmann continued to lead development of the sequel, The Last of Us Part II, which was released for the PlayStation 4 in June 2020, PlayStation 5 in January 2024, and Windows in April 2025. A remake of the first game, titled The Last of Us Part I, was released for the PlayStation 5 in September 2022 and Windows in March 2023. The series has received critical acclaim and has won numerous awards, including several Game of the Year recognitions; the first game has been ranked as one of the greatest video games ever made, and the second won more than 320 Game of the Year awards. Games in the series are among the best-selling PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 games. The franchise has sold over 37 million games as of January 2023. Strong sales and support of the series led to the franchise's expansion into other media, including a comic book in 2013, live show in 2014, television adaptation for HBO and haunted house for Universal Studios in 2023, and tabletop game by Themeborne in 2024.

Media

Video games

The Last of Us was released for the PlayStation 3 on June 14, 2013. A remastered version, titled The Last of Us Remastered, was released for the PlayStation 4 in July 2014. Twenty years after losing his daughter Sarah during the outbreak of the mutant Cordyceps fungus, Joel is tasked with escorting Ellie, a teenage girl who is immune to the infection, across a post-apocalyptic United States so the revolutionary group Fireflies can potentially create a cure. Throughout their journey, the two become closer after experiencing several traumatic events. After arriving in Salt Lake City, Ellie is prepared for surgery, which will involve killing her. Unwilling to let her die, Joel battles his way to the operating room, kills the lead surgeon, and carries the unconscious Ellie to safety. When Ellie wakes up, Joel lies to her, stating the attempts to create a cure had failed. The Last of Us: Left Behind was released for the PlayStation 3 on February 14, 2014. A downloadable expansion pack of The Last of Us, Left Behind was included in Remastered for the PlayStation 4 in 2014, and was released as a stand-alone expansion pack for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 on May 12, 2015. It is set three weeks before the events of the main game, following Ellie as she spends time with her best friend Riley in an abandoned mall in Boston. Riley reveals she has been assigned to a group of Fireflies in a different city. Ellie tearfully begs Riley not to leave; Riley agrees and rips her Firefly pendant off, prompting Ellie to kiss her. They are overrun by Infected and both bitten. They briefly consider shooting themselves to prevent the infection taking over them, but instead choose to spend their final hours together. The Last of Us Part II was released for the PlayStation 4 on June 19, 2020. A remastered version, titled The Last of Us Part II Remastered, was released for the PlayStation 5 in January 2024 and Windows in April 2025. Four years after the events of the first game, Abby Anderson tracks down and kills Joel as revenge for murdering her father, the head Firefly surgeon. Ellie and her girlfriend Dina set out for Seattle to track down Abby. Over the course of three days, Ellie kills several of Abby's friends, while Abby befriends Lev, who has been branded an apostate after defying the traditions of the religious cult Seraphites. After Abby discovers her friends dead, she tracks down Ellie and overpowers her, but spares them at Lev's insistence. Several months later, Ellie and Dina are living on a farm. Ellie sets out to find Abby again in Santa Barbara; she discovers Abby and Lev captured and forces Abby to fight. Ellie overpowers her but has a change of heart and lets her live. Abby and Lev sail to the Fireflies, while Ellie returns to the farmhouse and finds it empty. The Last of Us Part I was released for the PlayStation 5 on September 2, 2022, and for Windows on March 28, 2023. It is a remake of the first game, featuring revised gameplay, overhauled artificial intelligence, improved performance, and expanded accessibility options.

Other media

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Last of Us

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Last of Us claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Last of Us before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Last of Us ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Last of Us

In research: The Last of Us appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Last of Us in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Last of Us is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cordyceps, Horror mass media franchises, Mutants in fiction, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Last of Us outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Last of Us in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Last of Us means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Last of Us out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Last of Us in simple terms?

Why does The Last of Us matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Last of Us?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Last of Us.