2003 was a helluva time, each for our world and the world of The Final of Us. Actuality bought The Return of the King, the Iraq Warfare, and the completion of the Human Genome Mission. The Final of Us-verse bought a zombie pandemic and the second installment in a Twilight ripoff. You may miss the latter for the previous in all of the hubbub, however episode 7, “Left Behind,” actually nods to the in-universe lore of the (we’re guessing) nice franchise Daybreak of the Wolf with a tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Easter egg.
As Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and her good friend and would-be paramour Riley (Storm Reid) go on their tipsy escapade that Riley has ready for them, there’s loads of particulars to admire across the Boston mall they’re wandering in. That features a film poster and marquee for Daybreak of the Wolf Half 2, a film that — like several piece of media referenced in nearly any piece of media — feels vital. But additionally vital to this story: It’s not an actual film.
Daybreak of the Wolf Half 2 (and possibly Half 1, if I needed to guess) is a very in-universe film for the world of The Final of Us, seen in glimpses of the poster or billboard. Within the recreation Ellie and Joel have a brief dialogue about one of many billboards, with Ellie skeptical of the film, and Joel waving it off as a “dumb teen film.”
When The Final of Us was in growth at Naughty Canine again within the late 2000s, the most important “dumb teen film” on the earth would have been the Twilight franchise. And the movie collection’ ultimate installment, Breaking Daybreak – Half 2, opened in theaters in 2012, the 12 months earlier than Sony launched The Final of Us. Although the connection doesn’t quantity to a lot — the title, a nod to the vampire/werewolf fever sweeping the nation; the implied YA melodrama; and so on. — it’s actually one followers latched onto on the time the sport got here out.
And who can blame them? Look, all of us miss the halcyon days of getting one other Twilight film to sit up for. The movie franchise is a wealthy textual content of the whole lot from younger, everlasting and chaste like to werewolves carrying pants round for after they remodel. Every new chapter is its personal manic masterpiece, and I, for one, would gladly absorb extra.
In a method, this Easter egg is simply one other small nod to a bigger universe past the bounds of this present. However in one other, it’s an extremely consultant one, one which tells us (as gamers or viewers) one thing about nearly each aspect of The Final of Us: To Ellie, it means little or no, a relic from a bygone period she’ll by no means be capable of know. To Joel, it’s a reminiscence of his time with Sarah (who, within the recreation, had a poster for the primary film in her room) and the life completely misplaced to him. Put collectively, that poster feels evocative of the ending arising on them actually quick.
Within the time interval of the sport, it’s each a straightforward potshot at a 2013-era heavy hitter and a visible nod to the bond between our protagonists. As a relic from HBO’s The Final of Us’ 2003 popular culture, it’s a little bit of an anomaly (the primary Twilight e book wouldn’t be launched till 2005, at the least barring a Cordyceps-driven zombie plague), however not outdoors the bounds of purpose. Like so many particulars on the present, it communicates a lot with so little. And in the end it’s all simply one other approach that normalcy — inside their world or ours — feels so off as to be unrecognizable.
Think about if we solely had the primary two Twilight motion pictures — who would play the Batman then?