While we wait patiently for HBO’s upcoming The Last Of Us TV series, we’ve been lucky enough to have a spate of excellent fan-made film projects emerge from the shadows. From the insanely realistic Project Spores to a handful of well-edited movie concept trailers, Joel and Ellie’s gritty post-apocalyptic world is certainly rich with dramatic and dark storytelling ideas.
And speaking of which, a brand new fan-made short film inspired by The Last Of Us just released on Youtube (H/T Kotaku) earlier this week called Stay, and it’s seriously very well done indeed. Feel free to check out said short film down below:
Clocking in at just over seven minutes, writer-director Joshua Toonen’s Stay thankfully doesn’t overstay its welcome (pun unintended). Instead, Stay is a well executed vignette of terrifying moments balanced with some heartwarming and heartbreaking emotional poignancy as well.
In other words, at just over seven minutes, Stay captures much of the emotional warmth, depth and potency that Naughty Dog’s critically acclaimed video game franchise is so well known for. Unfortunately, however, the iconic duo – Ellie and Joel – don’t make much of an appearance in this short film bar an opening and closing shot of Ellie in the first and final few moments.
Still, the characters in Stay – whom we must assume are other survivors on the periphery of The Last Of Us’s dilapidated and decaying world – are absolutely spot on and the tone is fittingly authentic as well.
If you want more information, here’s the official description from Stay’s Youtube video:
Stay is the story of two survivors whose hope for the Santa Monica Pier lights their path through the ruthless, dying world of The Last of Us.
It was made by a team of filmmakers, VFX artists, and fans of the game to tell an original story in the world of The Last of Us. I’m extremely grateful for everyone who worked so hard to bring this story to life.
If you enjoyed the short, please share with any The Last of Us fan you know!
