The so-called “sniper” scene is present both in the series and in the video game The Last of Us. But the adaptation departs from this in its approach. Craig Mazin, the showrunner, explains why.
Episode 5 of The Last of Us was filled with standout scenes straight from the game, like an important line from Ellie, and even the very brutal ending. One sequence in particular, that of the sniper, however, varies widely in its approach.
Each week, the series team comments on the episodes in the podcast offered by HBO. It turns out that Craig Mazin, co-showrunner with Neil Druckmann, explains the creative choice behind this change.
SPOILERS on episode 5 of The Last of Us and on the video game.
“What if there was sadness in all of this?” »
In the game, the “sniper sequence” begins with the arrival in an abandoned residential area, consisting in particular of a large main avenue. Ellie, Joel, Henry and Sam are quickly shot by a sniper. The whole game then consists of getting closer to the building while avoiding the sniper’s bullets – which is all the more difficult since these bullets cause a lot of health to be lost – in order to go and kill the soldier.
Conversely, in the series, it is not very difficult for Joel to reach the building. And the sniper is nothing like a seasoned soldier: rather old, visibly tired and tired, he goes so far as to cause his own death. As Joel tells him he doesn’t want to kill him, he just has to put his gun down and wait, the sniper eventually gestures to shoot, leading Joel to kill him.
For Craig Mazin, it was not possible to adapt the same tension that the game offered in this sequence, when it comes to dodging bullets. There would have been lots of dodging and shooting “, again and again. ” It just ain’t… it ain’t the show he says. But one thing is certain: his obsession » for this principle of the cul-de-sac and by the sniper. An idea then came to mind: (…) And if there was sadness in all this? »
“ Then we were like, ‘What if he sucks? What if the sniper was really bad and all Joel had to do was move around and get in there?’ “says Craig Mazin. A way also to insert a personal story in this character who, in the game, is only an NPC (non-player character) to be killed among others. ” They are not trained soldiers, they are people. And this guy… has seen a lot of things because… let’s say he’s, what, 80 years old. This means that for 60 years of his life he lived in a perfectly normal world and the last 20 years have become shitty. And the sadness is there. God alone knows all the sorrow he bears. »
Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann had already mentioned, in previous interviews, their desire to humanize each character that we meet and that no death is really trivial – even that each represents a weight for the characters. ” When you play a section [du jeu], you kill people, and when you die, you are sent back to the checkpoint. All these people are back, moving the same way “, explained Craig Mazin to the New Yorker before the broadcast. ” Seeing a person die, I think, should be a lot different than seeing pixels die. »
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