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00:00Hello? We just want to talk. Any sudden moves and I put one right between your eyes. Ditto for buddy
00:06boy over there. What do you want? Welcome to MojoPlays and today we're looking at hidden
00:12secrets in one of my favourite games of all time. Whether there's an interesting fact about the
00:16development or a hidden secret in the actual game, we're talking about 20 The Last of Us facts
00:20you didn't know. Let's do it. Before we continue, we publish content all week long,
00:25so be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to get notified of our latest videos.
00:31Eye Chart
00:36Right at the climax of the game before the emotional damage is about to be delivered,
00:40The Last of Us slips in a tiny detail that's easy to miss if you're too busy sprinting,
00:44panicking and having a menti bee. As Joel storms through the Firefly Hospital in full No Time
00:49for Ethics mode, keen-eyed players might notice a set of eye test charts hanging around the level.
00:54One of them isn't testing vision so much as motivation, spelling out run, you're nearly
00:58there, don't quit. Depending on your mood, this message can read as a surprising, heartfelt and
01:03accidental pep talk, urging you onwards in one of the game's most intense moments, or as a cheeky
01:08bit of developer humour, quietly confirming that yes, you're in the home stretch now,
01:12please stop searching every room for supplies.
01:17Ends where it starts
01:22While we're talking about this section of the game, a popular reading of The Last of Us suggests the
01:27game is basically bookended like an emotional sandwich, except the filling is trauma and tears
01:32and more trauma. The opening hours establish the pattern. Chaos erupts, Joel escapes by car,
01:37the world collapses outside the windows, and his daughter Sarah ends up cradled in his arms as
01:41gunfire brings everything to a crashing end. Fast forward to the finale, and the same ingredients
01:46are present, just rearranged. Joel is once again fleeing in a vehicle, the danger is once again
01:50human, and this time he's carrying Ellie while he does the shooting instead of desperately hoping
01:54no one pulls the trigger. Even Marlene fills the role of the final obstacle, but this time,
01:59Joel gets his gun out first.
02:01There's a little girl. But... Yes, sir. Somebody, we've just been through hell. Okay, we just need...
02:14Note from Ellie's mum.
02:20This won't last very long. People credited the show for acknowledging that Ellie had a mum outside of Marlene's
02:27single line about promising Ellie's mum she'd watch over her, but proper fans of the game still have
02:31to fight to point out that we did get more from Ellie's mum than a single line. Poke around Ellie's
02:36backpack when you play as her, and flip over to the artifacts section and she'll casually explain
02:41what she's carrying, revealing a mix of items you expected, and a few you don't. The standout,
02:46and the one that tends to stop players in their tracks, is a letter from Ellie's mum, something the
02:50game never forces you to read, but absolutely dares you to. It's quietly devastating. Pause the game and
02:56stare at the wall for a bit. It's going to be okay.
03:04Gustavo Santalea's Creative Freedom
03:09The number of confirmed deaths has passed 200. The governor has called a state of emergency.
03:15Video game scoring is incredibly important to establish a game's vibe. What would Metal Gear
03:19Solid be without its music, or Final Fantasy? The Last of Us, however, took an unusually hands-off
03:24approach to its music, and somehow didn't regret it. In a behind-the-scenes video,
03:29fans discovered that the development team essentially told composer Gustavo Santalea
03:33what the story was about, and then stepped out of the room backwards, leaving food, water,
03:38and a guitar. No temp tracks, no reference music, no make it sound more epic, but sad,
03:43but hopeful, but marketable. Just vibes, trauma, and trust. Gustavo built the score entirely from the
03:48game's themes rather than its gameplay, which explains why it sounds less like a traditional
03:52video game soundtrack, and more like a feeling that you can't shake. Side fun fact, his guitar,
03:57throughout most of the score, is intentionally slightly out of tune, only a teeny tiny bit,
04:01just enough to make the guitar sound as emotionally exhausted as us.
04:10Look, we're almost done. Stay focused.
04:13Yes, ma'am.
04:16Real-life phone numbers.
04:23Did you know that in Pittsburgh, a battered billboard advertises pest control,
04:27complete with a couple of reassuring 555-style phone numbers, exactly the sort of fake contact
04:32info players are trained to ignore. Except, these weren't fake. The developers accidentally
04:37put in a real number. Please, please just be a dead landline, or a pizza hut, or some, oh god,
04:43it's a phone sex hotline. That's right, Naughty Dog accidentally put the number for an adult hotline
04:48in their game. The studio owned up to the slip shortly after, with Neil Druckmann confirming that it
04:53was a genuine oversight, rather than an extremely dirty Easter egg. An Easter plug, whatever.
04:59Tommy, Tommy, listen to me. He is the contractor. He's the contractor, okay? I can't lose this job.
05:06I understand. Let's talk about this in the morning, okay? Bill's reaction.
05:17What the hell's Frank? He was my partner. Bill's sexuality is never announced with a flashing sign
05:30or a dramatic pause. Instead, it's conveyed through environmental storytelling so subtle,
05:34it feels almost conspiratorial. The debate on Bill's sexuality continues to this day for some reason,
05:40with a fraction of straight Bill fans apparently covering their ears and eyes and screaming,
05:44la la la la la la. So, here are all the hints you might have missed. A lone mattress where
05:48two might
05:49be expected. Paired deck chairs sitting abandoned like a paused conversation. A chessboard mid-match
05:54that Bill snaps at Ellie for touching. And yes, that magazine Ellie steals like a tiny covert
06:00pervert. None of these moments shout, but together they paint a very deliberate picture. The most
06:05devastating confirmation, however, is optional and cruel in that uniquely Naughty Dog way. If players
06:10stumble upon the hanging body of Frank, they can recover his note, a bitter farewell that makes
06:15it painfully clear their relationship ended in resentment.
06:18I'll be missing this tonight. It's light on the reading, but it's got some interesting photos.
06:24Ellie, that ain't for kids. Whoa! How the hell would he even walk around with that thing?
06:31Their last names weren't considered canon.
06:40With one notable exception, Riley Abel, surnames are optional in the apocalypse, right up there with
06:46electricity and functional mental health. Even the game's two leads go through the entire journey,
06:50identified only by first names, as if last names were lost somewhere between society collapsing and
06:56everyone learning how to craft shivs. That mystery, however, quietly cracks if you look in one place
07:01most players never think to check, the Japanese manual. In that version, the paperwork casually
07:06reveals that Joel is listed as Miller, while Ellie shows up as Williams. Officially though,
07:11the surnames at the time weren't considered canon. PS3 consoles.
07:31Rather than slapping a logo on a menu screen, Naughty Dog chose a far more subtle way to show its
07:36undying allegiance to Sony, quietly sneaking PlayStation hardware into the apocalypse.
07:42And they don't just hide one console in the game, or even two. Turns out there are three PS3 consoles
07:47hidden throughout the world. The first sighting comes right at the beginning, when you're playing
07:50as Sarah, and the world hasn't ended yet. Look under the TV in Joel's living room, there it is.
07:56Later as Joel, you can stumble across another PS3 deep inside the university, tucked away in a basement
08:01room that's already hosting Clickers. The final appearance comes during Ellie's escape from David,
08:05where you can spot yet another PS3 perched on a shop shelf. Still intact, still recognizable,
08:10and somehow survive in the apocalypse better than most of humanity. My PS3 is harder to find than
08:15these ones. My brother took it. Bastard.
08:24The Infected Elephant
08:31Concept art gives us some of the coolest alternative reality
08:34Peaks, with games revealing things that could have gone different directions, or even things that were
08:38cut entirely. One of the wildest cuts from The Last of Us was some infected animals, including
08:44an infected elephant. We can only assume this was going to show up in the same location we found the
08:49giraffe, with many of the zoo creatures having been infected. There's even a newspaper found early in
08:53the game showing a headline about animals becoming more aggressive, with, you guessed it, a giant elephant
08:59taking the most real estate on that front page.
09:15Elliot Page
09:17Not long after The Last of Us stepped into the spotlight, a completely different conversation
09:22began running alongside the hype, one focused less on cordyceps and more on DNA. Players quickly noticed
09:28that Ellie bore a striking resemblance to Elliot Page, and once that comparison lodged itself online,
09:34it refused to leave. Page eventually addressed the situation publicly, making it clear that he wasn't
09:39thrilled with the resemblance, and called out Naughty Dog for what he felt was an uncomfortable close
09:43borrowing of his likeness. The controversy eventually cooled, Ellie's design evolved over time, and the
09:48internet moved on to its next big argument. Who was at fault, the little boy or Harambe?
09:53Back in Boston, back when I was bitten, I wasn't alone.
10:01The Last of Jak and Daxter
10:04Don't tell me! Instead of heeding my wisdom, the two of you went mucking around at the only place that
10:10I told you not to go! Misty Island! And Daxter, you finally took a much needed bath, but in a
10:18bathtub
10:18filled with dark ego. As it turns out, after wrapping up Uncharted 2 Among Thieves, Naughty Dog split its
10:25development team in two, and one half, led by Neil Druckmann, was assigned to not The Last of Us, but
10:31to
10:31the task of reviving Jak and Daxter. The pitch was to take a more grounded, realistic approach, inspired by
10:37darker reboots happening in DC Comics at the time, but we all know how those turned out. The concepts
10:42during this period started drifting further and further away from what Jak and Daxter actually was,
10:47and killing Daxter at the start of the game just doesn't feel right. Realising they'd wandered too
10:51far from the source, Druckmann took the rare and terrifying step of going upstairs to management and
10:57admitting the project had become something else entirely. Instead of shutting it down, the higher-ups
11:01gave them a creative green light. Abandon the reboot and make whatever game they actually wanted.
11:06Thank. God.
11:18Nathan Drake is in the game.
11:20Hello? We just want to talk. Any sudden moves and I put one right between your eyes. Ditto for
11:27buddy boy over there. What do you want? Name's David. This here's my friend James.
11:35During a PlayStation behind-the-scenes interview, fans discovered that the voice behind David,
11:39the unsettlingly polite survivor Ellie encounters, belonged to Nolan North. This revelation caught a lot
11:45of people off-guard, mostly because North's vocal resume had conditioned audiences to expect charm,
11:50confidence, and light-hearted heroics, not quiet menace wrapped in a friendly tone that absolutely
11:56should not be trusted. North dials everything back, no bravado, no jokes, replacing them with soft-spoken
12:02manipulation and an unsettling calm that makes every conversation feel like a trap slowly closing.
12:07This antagonist is unforgettable. For reals.
12:09I still have nightmares about him and anytime I'm playing golf with my friends and they crack a real
12:13good drive, I'll say, you're a better shot with that thing than I am.
12:16You weren't kidding. You're a better shot with that thing than I am. Give me a head with this.
12:20Wolves and Giraffes.
12:22Come on, hurry up.
12:24Before the game even lets you think about controlling Joel or Ellie, The Last of Us pulls a quiet bait
12:28and
12:29switch by putting you in the shoes of Sarah. At face value, it's just environmental flavor, but once you
12:34finish the game, every object in that room radiates with intention and cuteness. While navigating
12:38Pittsburgh later in the game, Joel casually mentions having seen a movie called Dawn of the Wolf before
12:43the outbreak. Go back to Sarah's room and there it is, a poster on her wall, quietly confirming who
12:48he saw it with. The same goes for the framed photo of Joel and Sarah that reappears later in the
12:53story.
12:53It's been sitting there the whole time, waiting patiently to hurt you on your second playthrough.
12:58And then there's the Giraffe, just a stuffed animal at first, easily dismissed as background clutter
13:03until the game delivers that scene. You know the one. I'll be right back. Need to cry.
13:08Here, come on, let's go. Slow down, kiddo. Come on.
13:13Too much swearing. I am none of your goddamn business and we're here because you all
13:17Joel some favors and you can start by taking these off. Ellie is a bit of a potty mouth. Over
13:22the course
13:22of the game, Ellie drops the F word a grand total of 53 times, officially crowning her the undisputed
13:29heavyweight champion of Swearing in the Apocalypse. Some players found this endlessly amusing,
13:33treating each outburst like a collectible, while others quietly wondered if Naughty Dog had a bulk
13:38discount on profanity. These F-bombs come during cutscenes and gameplay. The game takes 14 hours
13:43to beat. This is three to four f**ks an hour. Nice work, Elle.
13:47This is not one of mine. Oh, s**t. What happened?
13:51Don't worry, this is fixable. Tess was originally a villain.
14:01How was your morning?
14:08Want one? No, I don't want one.
14:11In the finished version of The Last of Us, Tess is introduced as the kind of ally you immediately
14:16trust. She helps move the plot forward, keeps Joel grounded, and ultimately bows out in a blaze of
14:21glory. But as it turns out, Tess almost became something entirely different. Early drafts of the
14:26story painted her not as a fallen companion, but as the game's primary antagonist, someone Joel had
14:32wronged before the story even began. Doesn't sound like Joel. In that version, the narrative would
14:37have built toward a direct confrontation between the two, ending with Ellie killing Tess to save Joel.
14:42This would have been her first human kill, front and center, delivered against someone the player
14:47once trusted. It's effective on paper, but also very loud about what kind of story it wants to be.
14:53Give me your arm. This was three weeks. I was bitten an hour ago and it's already worse.
15:01This is f***ing real, Joel.
15:03Ellie saves a plot hole.
15:07Oh, all the serious talk. I almost forgot.
15:11One of the sneakier bits of character work in The Last of Us happens when the game assumes you're not
15:16looking, and Ellie takes full advantage of that trust. Scattered throughout the game are moments where she
15:20quietly helps herself to items she absolutely has not been given permission to touch. You've already
15:26got the infamous example of bills, definitely not for Miners magazine, but she doesn't stop there.
15:30Later on, when Henry tells Sam to leave a toy behind, Ellie very politely ignores that rule and
15:35pockets it for him anyway. She later whips it out in the cutscene making us say, wait, when did she
15:41get
15:41that? We saw him put it down and we had eyes on her the whole time, right? As it turns
15:46out,
15:47Ellie's AI is deliberately coded so she won't grab these items while the player is watching her.
15:52She waits until the camera shifts away, then makes her move. Most players never catch it because
15:57the game assumes you're too busy surviving the apocalypse to micromanage teenage sidequests,
16:01but if you're quick and a little suspicious, you can snap the camera back at just the right moment
16:06and actually see her in the act. Gotcha! Now give me the robot, it looks fun.
16:21I wish this entry would give a definitive answer, but instead I'm just telling you all about an
16:26online debate in case you missed it. Tucked away in the quiet ruins of The Last of Us is a
16:31house that
16:31feels oddly familiar. It has all the suspicious ingredients, a backyard swimming pool, a treehouse
16:37perched nearby, and enough environmental hints to suggest a child once lived there before the
16:42apocalypse did what it does best. For some players, this immediately rang alarm bells because if you've
16:47played Telltale's The Walking Dead, you might recognise the layout as eerily similar to Clementine's home
16:52from that game's opening moments. This resemblance has quietly split the fanbase into two camps.
16:58One side argues the similarities are too specific to be accidental, and the other side insists it's just
17:04a coincidence, chalking it all up to a limited number of ways you can design a suburban house
17:08before they start looking the same. I however think it's the backyard at The Simpsons, because I think
17:13that'd be hilarious. Same bar. Jumping over to Naughty Dog's other single player gem, Uncharted 3 Drake's
17:33deception kicks things off with Nathan Drake throwing hands in a bar after a deal goes south. Classic
17:38Drake. Sharp-eyed players notice something curious. That bar looks suspiciously like a location you'll
17:44later trudge through in The Last of Us. The similarities aren't subtle set dressing vibes, they're,
17:49wait, haven't I been punched here before? Levels are familiar. The overlap gets juicier. In The Last of
17:54Us, that same bar named O'Sullivan's Irish Pub feels like a wink. O'Sullivan reads like a direct nod to
18:00Victor Sullivan, aka Sully. I mean, come on, surely. It's all there. Now let's see it.
18:10The Newspaper.
18:16I could have included this in the last entry, but it's so infamous it deserves its own spot.
18:20Remember earlier in this list, when I said Naughty Dog split into two groups with one group working on
18:25relaunching Jack and Daxter, but instead making The Last of Us well, the other group pushed ahead with
18:30Uncharted 3 Drake's deception. The plan was to keep The Last of Us under wraps until the timing was
18:35right, but timing, much like surviving Cordyceps, did not fully cooperate. As it turns out, a small
18:40slip made its way into Uncharted 3 before The Last of Us had even been officially revealed. Sitting
18:46innocently on the bar counter is a newspaper whose headline reads,
18:50scientists are still struggling to understand deadly fungus. At the time, this was just a piece
18:55of environmental flavour. Or so it seemed. In hindsight, it's a neat little The Last of Us
19:00easter egg casually hanging out in a game about treasure hunting and bad bar fights. Funnily enough,
19:05the newspaper didn't actually do anything. In fact, it being there, and the realisation that it was there
19:10well before The Last of Us was announced came years later. The Cordyceps brain infections.
19:23The infection at the heart of The Last of Us feels wildly imaginative at first glance. Fungus turning
19:32people into monsters, cities collapse, fungus hats become fashion, but the idea didn't come from thin
19:38air or a particularly dark writer's room. Nature had already done the concept art. Neil Druckmann
19:44has explained that the spark came from an episode of the BBC documentary Planet Earth, which showed an
19:49ant infected by Cordyceps fungus. Its movements hijacked, its fate sealed, its dignity completely
19:55gone. The phrase zombie ant came up, and apparently that was all it took. Once that mental image lodged
20:02itself in the team's collective brain, the next step was inevitable. Ask the worst possible question.
20:08What if this didn't stop at insects? Gross!
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