Based on the video game of the same name, HBO’s “The Last of Us” is a post-apocalyptic story about a population that has been decimated by a pandemic. Instead of a COVID-like virus, the culprit is a parasitic fungus that turns people into zombies, spreading the sickness and its long, fibrous mutations with just a bite.
Life is either dreary, precarious and haphazard in urban militarized zones, or people are making do on their own in rural pockets of the United States. Society has collapsed and it’s every person for themself. Don’t trust anyone.
Amid all this uncertainty, a grizzled smuggler (Pedro Pascal) is tasked with looking after a mouthy 14-year-old girl (Bella Ramsey) and transporting her across the country to a research lab. She’s immune to the fungus and she might be the key to developing a cure or a vaccine or something.
