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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 Battle, 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 would possibly miss the latter for the previous in all of the hubbub, however episode 7, “Left Behind,” definitely 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 buddy 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 essential. But additionally essential 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 completely 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 improvement at Naughty Canine again within the late 2000s, the largest “dumb teen film” on the planet would have been the Twilight franchise. And the movie sequence’ closing installment, Breaking Daybreak – Half 2, opened in theaters in 2012, the yr 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 forth. — it’s definitely 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 look ahead to. The movie franchise is a wealthy textual content of every little thing from younger, everlasting and chaste like to werewolves carrying pants round for once 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 virtually each component of The Final of Us: To Ellie, it means little or no, a relic from a bygone period she’ll by no means have the ability to 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 simple 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 ebook wouldn’t be launched till 2005, at the very 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 means 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?
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