'The infected' were inspired by an episode of the BBC Documentary Planet Erde (2006) which featured Cordyceps - killer fungi that invades the body of an insect to grow and diminish the insect population. It was featured in the episode titled, "Jungles" (Planet Erde: Jungles (2006)).

Ellie uses the word Fuck more than any other character in the game. Excluding optional/random dialog, she uses the word Fuck 53 times the word itself is said 143 times.

In the photograph of Joel and his daughter she is wearing an Argentina coloured football shirt. A nod to Gustavo Santaolalla who wrote the score and was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The game's scenery setting was partially influenced by Alan Weisman's book "The World Without Us".

One of the reasons for the game's development was that creative director, Neil Druckmann, had believed that story telling as a whole had become lazy in the game industry and set out to create a rich narrative in The Last of Us.

In the early designs, Ellie bore an extremely close resemblance to Ellen Page who, coincidentally, was starring in another video game, Beyond: Two Souls. Ellie was later redesigned to accurately portray her age and VMO actress, Ashley Johnson. Page later joked that she didn't appreciate her likeness being "ripped off".

The 'Ish' subplot discovered through a multitude of notes in 'The Suburbs' chapter of the game is inspired by George R. Stewart's 1949 novel, 'Earth Abides.' In it, Isherwood Williams, AKA Ish, returns to civilization after spending an extended time at his remote archaeological camp to find that almost all of humanity has been wiped out by a virus. He meets a light-skinned African American woman named Emma, and they decide to raise a family together and found a community. But, after the death of Ish's son, Joey, Ish gives up all hope of reestablishing a society that he fondly remembers before the virus outbreak.

According to the Japanese game manual, Joel and Sarah's last name is Miller.

Giraffes are a recurring theme throughout. Seemingly representing innocence, almost every time they are seen, it is in the presence of a child or relating to children. The locations where they appear go as follows:

• Behind the door in Sarah's bedroom, in the prologue.
• The movie theater in the prologue has a marquee saying the movie "Girrafic Park" is playing there.
• A little girl is seen playing with one in the Boston QZ, just before the first encounter with Robert's men.
• A giraffe picture in a house in Bill's Town, just beyond the doggy door.
• Outside the school, also in Bill's Town.
• In the room where you first encounter Henry and Sam, on the side of a picture of a dog.
• There are several of them in the toy store in Pittsburgh.
• In the children's playroom in the sewer.
• In the bedroom in the Ranch House.
• Advertisements in Salt Lake.
• The herd in Salt Lake.
• Painted on the walls in the pediatrics unit of the hospital.

During the main game, the only character whose last name who is revealed is Jimmy Cooper (not counting the Firefly pendants), but if you get the Left Behind DLC, Riley's last name is revealed as Abel.

While shooting the climax of the game, Troy Baker (Joel) kept dropping his prop gun and having to have the scene be re-shot several times before director Neil Druckmann instructing him to continue with the scene no matter what and also told Merle Dandridge (Marlene) to randomly start singing her dialogue. While Troy Baker was told not to stop, he went along with it and started singing as well, and went through the entire scene singing their dialogue. Troy Baker ended the scene by picking up Ellie and going "dun dun dun dun dun dun dun".

The surprise reveal of The Last of Us was almost completely ruined. Naughty Dog originally planned for The Last of Us to be announced before Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception was released but the announcement was pushed back. This led to the developers of Uncharted 3 accidentally leaving an easter egg in Uncharted 3 for The Last of Us. The easter egg can be found in a newspaper article that states 'Scientists are still struggling to understand deadly fungus'. Fortunately, nobody realized that Naughty Dog was teasing their new game and The Last of Us's surprise reveal went as planned.

When Sam and Ellie are finished playing darts, Sam remarks to Ellie how she "clearly got destroyed", while she says it was "practically a tie." If you look at the board afterwards, you'll notice that, relative to the center, their darts are in the exact same positions.

Some inspirations for the game were the films True Grit, 28 Days Later, and the comic and T.V. series of The Walking Dead.

In the game, there is a bar that you can go into that's called O'Sullivan's Irish Pub. The bar's name is a reference to Victor Sullivan, a character in Naughty Dog's Uncharted games, and the bar in Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, which contained an easter egg for The Last of Us.

At PAX Prime 2013, Naughty Dog showed off enemy characters that never made it into the game. One type of enemy appeared to be bald, fanged beats with stringy fungus growing off of their backs. Other early concepts looked like generic zombies with fungi like groups scattered across their bodies. The developers felt that these iterations didn't feel like still-living infected humans, which is why they were scrapped. Another enemy that was cut from the final game is an infected elephant. It had tendrils of fungus grow from it's legs and blooming mushrooms on it's head. A scenario in the game would have had this creature chasing Joel as he desperately scrambled away. Instead the team decided early on that they wanted to have zoo animals to roam freely in the game. This led to the giraffe scene.

During the game, several Easter Eggs of Uncharted can be seen in hidden places. For example, when Joel, Ellie, Sam and Henry pass through a toy store, Uncharted: The Board Game can be seen on one of the shelves. Neil Druckmann, creative director for The Last Of Us, would go on to be the creative director for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.

The Fall section was originally going to be a bit longer, but due to budget & time restraints it was cut down. The Left Behind DLC fills in some of the gaps.

Naughty Dog worked on the game in secret for two full years. After completing Uncharted 2: Among Thieves in 2009, the company split their staff into two teams. One to work on The Last of Us, and the other to work on Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. When Naughty Dog first split into two teams, the second team wasn't sure what to make. They considered doing another game in the Jak and Daxter series but the developers felt they had to work on a new IP to justify making a second team.

The eye charts in the hospital near the end of the game read "RUN YOU R NEARLY THERE DON'T QUIT!!"

As well as movies, literature, and other video games, The Last of Us directors, Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley, took inspiration from real life events, one of which was The 1918 Spanish Influenza. Druckmann also considered the lengths he'd go to protect his family drawing inspiration from his newly found fatherhood. In an interview, he stated "All of a sudden I realized just how far I'd go to protect my kid, things I've never ever thought about before. It's become a huge inspiration."

Joel was named after director Joel Coen, who directed No Country For Old Men and True Grit (re-make).

The story changed considerably over the course of development, with the character Tess initially being the main antagonist who pursues Joel and Ellie across the country due to the former accidentally causing the death of her brother after saving Ellie from execution by a group of soldiers. Tess was initially meant to capture Joel and killed by Ellie though this was scrapped as the developers felt it was unrealistic for Tess to pursue Joel with her gang of smugglers for an entire year.

Ashley Johnson won two BAFTA awards for her role in The Last of Us and Left Behind DLC.

This is the highest rated video game on IMDb [Feb 2015].

Joel's birth date is presumably September 26, as it was the date seen in the newspaper at the beginning of the game.

In Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, there were collaborative gameplay segments with Nathan Drake and his Tibetan ally, Tenzin. The interactions between these two characters was an interesting way to tell the game's story. This gave Naughty Dog the idea to develop Joel and Ellie's characters through similar mechanics.

WILHELM SCREAM: Heard when Sarah and Her Dad trying to Escape from the City.

The character David is played by Nolan North who also plays Nathan Drake in the Uncharted franchise which is another Naughty Dog game.

Otep Shamaya, lead singer for the nu metal band Otep, provided voice work for a variety of the female infected characters in the game.

This is the first widely-publicised video game released in Australia with the R18+ certificate, however it is not the first to receive the certificate. The first R18+ game in Australia was Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge Previously, all video games were released with the lower MA15+ (persons under 15 must be accompanied, but not restricted to 15 and older) maximum certificate, and anything exceeding this certification was banned.

The second game in which Troy Baker plays a morally ambiguous man acting as guardian over a young woman. Also, the second game in which Merle Dandrige plays a character in a leadership position within a rebellion.

After meeting Henry and Sam, before reaching their safe house, one of the apartments you can investigate has a child's bedroom that has two plush dolls of Jak and Daxter on the dresser. This is a nod to Naughty Dog's previous work.

The comic books that Ellie reads, and that are collected by Joel throughout the game, are created by DarkHorse. This is a real comic/graphic novel company. If you turn the comics around and zoom in, you will find their web address, darkhorse.com, on the bottom under the barcode.

This is the third zombie game Troy Baker is in following Resident evil 6 and The walking dead: survival instinct

The song that Joel and Ellie listen to on the way to Pittsburgh is "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" by Hank Williams.

In one mission, when the main characters are in a toy store, you can see board games and toys depicting other Naughty Dog franchises, such as "Uncharted" and "Jak and Daxter."

Marlene was originally a doctor who knew of Ellie's infection before being changed into the leader of the Fireflies.

The Last of Us was originally released for the PlayStation 3 on June 14th, 2013, and was later released for the PlayStation 4 on July 29th, 2014. Titled The Last of Us: Remastered, this version features a resolution bump to 1080p, some improved and new textures, a photo mode, audio setup customization, all of the DLC released at the time including the Left Behind story DLC, and allows the user to either play the game at 60 frames per second or 30 frames per second with higher quality shadows. The remaster later received a patch for HDR support and another for PlayStation 4 Pro support. On PS4 Pro the game renders at a native 4K resolution when playing in the 30 frames per second mode, and renders at 3200x1800p while on the 60 frames per second mode. If you have the PS4 Pro output at 1080p though the only improvement is that the high quality shadows are enabled in the 60 frames per second mode.

While there is at least a 35-year age difference between Joel and Ellie, their actors, Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, are only seven years apart in age.

According to the marquee on the Armadillo Theater in the prologue, the theater is showing Damocles Rising, Tales of Cimarron, Ghost of the Mojave, Under Your Skin, Fever Dream, The Lost Kingdom and La Casita (The Little House). Additionally, they are advertising the upcoming release of Blood Samurai. They also offer free popcorn.

The ending was subsequently changed; Joel and Ellie initially travelled to a safe zone in San Francisco but this was scrapped as the developers felt it was too ideal.

The Infected were originally all going to be women, but Naughty Dog nixed the idea when female staff members criticized the idea as sexist.

Voice actor Troy Baker who plays Joel also plays Booker in Bioshock Infinite

It's possible that the running physique was inspired by the remake of Dawn of the dead (2004) being that the zombies run at full speed rather than just walking slowly.

Initial sketches for the likeness of Tess were based on Jennifer Lawrence, Kaya Scodelario, Penélope Cruz and Michelle Rodriguez.

On July 28, 2014, at the live performance of The Last of Us, game director Neil Druckmann introduced a special, unrecorded scene that takes place after the ending of the game. The scene was performed live on stage by principal actors Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson. Druckmann requested that nobody film during the scene, and stressed that it will never be released or revealed in any other form. The scene was reportedly written by Druckmann as a "goodbye" to Joel and Ellie, and takes place at Tommy's dam one night after the closing events of the game. Some reports put it at four years later, but the general consensus is broadly "after". Joel is talking to Ellie in her room at Tommy's, explaining that Tommy is trying to set him up to marry a girl named Esther. According to various accounts of the scene, Ellie is acting distant and reserved, until Joel pulls out a guitar and sings a song (which Joel's voice actor Troy Baker performed live). Joel tells Ellie a joke, and the pair laugh together, the tension broken. Joel leaves the guitar with Ellie as a gift, and the scene ends with Ellie alone on her bed, strumming a chord. Then over two years later in 2016, the first trailer for The Last of Us: Part II was revealed. It's opening shot has Ellie alone on a bed, strumming a guitar.

During The Last of Us's marketing, Naughty Dog outright lied to gamers and the press about playing as Ellie. They stated in interviews that you would never play as Ellie. This was done to leave some surprise in the game after it's release.

In the Firefly stronghold near the end of the game, there is a recording left behind by the surgeon who will perform the procedure on Ellie that can be found. It is for the most part, ambiguous, and it overall states how Ellie can be used for a cure. However, he does mention "As we've seen in all past cases" and, near the end, he states "All the sacrifices of those men and women or worse, will not be in vain." hinting that there may have been more people like Ellie, and their surgeries went wrong resulting in their deaths. This changes the point of view of the epilogue: Joel's statement to Ellie may very well be a lie if the player didn't listen to the recordings while playing the game. But Joel's statement to Ellie may very well be a half-truth if the player did listen to them.

Neil Druckmann stated in an interview that it was intentional for the opening shot to begin with Sarah, and the ending shot to end with Ellie.

During the Winter segment as Ellie the player can look at the items in her backpack some of which she will comment on when viewed.

At the 2016 PlayStation Experience (PSX) a sequel titled The Last of Us: Part II was announced. In its reveal trailer Joel discovers Ellie singing and playing a guitar in a house full of dead people, who appear to possibly be Fireflies, that Ellie has presumably killed. Shortly after its reveal the trailer was confirmed to have been running in real time on actual PlayStation 4 Pro hardware rather than being a prerecorded video. It was also confirmed that players would primarily be playing as the now 19 years old Ellie, which also confirms that this sequel takes place five years after the first game. Writer and creative director of the first game, Neil Druckmann, is confirmed to be directing this sequel, and Gustavo Santaolalla has also returned to compose the game's score.

In the winter segment when Joel is searching for Ellie, he encounters two men and takes them down for interrogation. The man (Scully) he stabs in the knee is played by Nolan North, the same actor who plays David in the winter segment.

Joel and David never actually meet. Only Ellie gets to meet David.

The ending is somewhat similar to the beginning of the game, albeit reversed. In the prologue, Joel and Sarah start off at home, and then use the car to escape the infected which eventually crashes, forcing Joel to carry Sarah, who is eventually shot by the soldier. Sarah then dies in Joel's arms. Near the end of the game, an unconscious Ellie (reminiscent of the dying Sarah) is carried by Joel out of the hospital away from humans and into a car. The duo then drives 'home'; home being Tommy's settlement.

An unused element in the game was Ellie's puppy. Early concept art shows Ellie carrying her dog after it was injured. The idea of Joel and Ellie adopting a puppy was ultimately cut entirely. It was also planned for Ellie to use her fungal immunity to cross spore filled areas. This would have allowed players to control her during it.

Troy Baker (Joel) plays the older brother of Jeffrey Pierce (Tommy), even though Pierce is, in real life, six years older than Baker.