The Infected Explained | The Last of Us (HBO)

the last of us has finally dropped after years of development and we thought it would be a nice change here at the channel to start covering this series starting with one of the largest parts of a lore the monsters the infected within the world of the last of us have many different subtypes and they're all pretty much terrifying hellish Nightmares come to life and today's video is all about these horrendous creatures we're going to cover the background of what exactly they are how they're formed how they hunt and interact the different types of them some random lore from the games and even how they fall in love okay not that last one but you know quick a history lesson The Last of Us is a new HBO television series based off the award-winning video game series of the same name and if the show is half as good as the games it's poised to be one of the largest and most talked about shows in HBO history with a budget reportedly larger than even Game of Thrones and an award-winning writing team and cast this show is Simply Built different if this was stock it would absolutely be blue chip invest now back to the infected the world of The Last of Us is predicated by an event in the year 2003 a mutant outbreak of a cordyceps fungus breaks out across the globe the events of the show follow the world many years later in the game it's about 23 years after patient zero began infecting others in the show it's exactly 20 years Nick you're a fun guy why don't you explain to us exactly what is a cordyceps fungus sorry I'm reading my own script back and these jokes suck but uh I'm gonna do a comedy Workshop or something as my 2023 new year's resolution a cordyceps fungus is a type of fungi that is parasitic in nature meaning it lives in close association with a host and at the host's expense usually resulting in the host's death now there are hundreds of different types of this fungus but typically they only affect insects and plants within the world of The Last of Us a mutated strain of the fungus breaks out and works its way into crops human beings then eat the crops and become infected with the spores of the fungus from there the fungus slowly begins to destroy the neurological functioning of the brain as the fungus takes over the body slowly but surely the human being is no more and all that's left is a walking clicking fungus-controlled stalking death mushroom person while fungus may not typically terrify you anybody who's either experienced athlete's foot or played The Last of Us series will realize that these are some of the scariest creatures in fiction period the country and the planet spin into absolute chaos the cordyceps fungus not only transforms human beings into these essentially brainless monsters controlled by a fungus but the cordyceps also instills an instinct within the new being to hunt and kill basically any human it can after all the fungus is a living being who on a primal nature wants to continue to exist and repopulate in 2013 gamesbeat did an interview with the game's creative director Neil druckman where they mention the concept of the clicker the infected and the mutated cordyceps fungus and they were a byproduct of a nature documentary planet Earth from 2006. druckman and director Bruce Staley mentioned watching the series and noticing how ants became essentially zombies from a fungus taking over their bodies from there the two adapted the concept to human beings and thought it was particularly interesting how beautiful the fungus was as it infects every pore of the host creature eventually killing them and taking them over there are multiple ways to become infected by the cordyceps fungus the first way you could become infected is either by ingesting or breathing the fungus in primarily through the spores of the fungus that show up near places where infectant are present or make their dens the original outbreak was caused by contaminated crops and ingestion however as the infected grew so did the Spore population which became the second most plentiful way of becoming infected usually if you're around one if you have any hopes of surviving you need to wear a gas mask the last and by far most miserable way of becoming infected is coming into contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person whether that is by being bitten by someone who is infected scratched or I don't know they spit in your face or something regardless this concept is carried over from basically every zombie film Game or show it's just kind of par for the course when bitten or infected by the fungus you don't automatically become this monstrous Beast the process takes time as the fungus grows within the brain and affects every major organ first you develop a fever then you begin to lose motor function and eventually you are no longer you you are now the Mushroom Man next up let's discuss Loosely the different types of infected there are as not every fungi is created equal depending upon how interested everyone is in the content we're making here we may make a more detailed video breakdown pending you know how many different types of infected we see in the first season the first stage of infection is referred to as Runners they resemble your typical zombie as the mycelium forms in the brain and the human body slowly dies this occurs within roughly two days of first exposure Runners become incredibly aggressive and they basically run towards the nearest living thing and try to kill it their vision is poor but they're fast and they tend to exist in packs and often times within the games and even in the show as you've seen they can overwhelm you simply by having five of them in the same place at once the worst part of this stage is that it's believed that to some extent the person the fungus has taken over is still alive in there even though their motor functions are controlled by something else the next phase of infection are referred to as stalkers and this process usually takes anywhere between two weeks and a full year to achieve these creepy buggers usually like like to camp out inside poorly lit buildings as the infection within their brain usually bursts out of their skulls and eye sockets stalkers have Vision but it's extremely limited so they hunt within confined spaces using their Superior stealth and Agility they kind of pop out and try to snack on you stage three though is probably the most notable form that an infected takes referred to as the clicker this stage takes about a year to form they appear less Human Than runners or stalkers usually with a giant crown of fungus rupturing from their heads in various parts of their body clickers are completely blind but they hunt their prey using echolocation similar to bats they use various vocal clicks to pinpoint prey and hunt it hence the name clickers they have phenomenal hearing so in order to escape them you either need to misdirect them using noise or move so incredibly softly that they can't hear your movements they are fast and far stronger than the average human being if startled or hunting a clicker will flail their entire body around like my wife if a spider is within 10 feet the last stage of infection is referred to as a bloater this takes an unspecified amount of time usually years to achieve and the exact conditions that caused one to form aren't really known they are massive incredibly powerful durable and they have thick armor-like plating on their body made of fungus they also use echolocation but they are far less effective at it due to the thicker fungus covering their heads bloaters can also throw sacks of myotoxin that explodes spewing poisonous Mist there is a subspecies of bloater that can occur if the infected is around massive amounts of water called a shambler a shambler is effectively the same thing as a bloater but instead of poisonous sacks of mist a fire acid off of their bodies as a defense mechanism and a kill tactic the environment that the infected lives in after exposure determines not only how quickly the fungus advances throughout the stages but ultimately what final form the victim will become a lot of this information isn't directly known to the people of the world as heavy documentation is hard it requires a lot of Recon which puts people into very serious danger now the last thing I could think of is Nick you might be thinking to yourself if the infection needs time to grow what's stopping you from amputating a limb to save the entire host well first off that's disgusting I can't believe you thought of that but it is a good question and that option is entirely in play there is evidence in the DLC that at least one soldier tried saving another's Life by amputating their arm you later find the body of a soldier with an amputated arm and an air vent but there's simply too many questions to determine whether or not that's evidence enough that this was able to save his life like we don't know how much time had passed and that is everything I wanted to cover for the infection present within the world of The Last of Us I hope you enjoy this miserable journey into hell that we're all about to experience but trust me when I say that there is light at the end of the tunnel while the world may be Bleak and brutal this series shines a light on what it means to be human when humanity is Stripped Away thank you guys for watching this video I hope you found it informative and if you do feel free to give it a like And subscribe this has been Nick from Key issues thanks again for watching and remember the motto the last of us over everything [Music]

Channel: Key Issues

Views: 513,440

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Id: mIt04vOYiKY

Length: 9min 27sec (567 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 18 2023