14 DAY TRIAL // Last night, the acting cast of Naughty Dog's brilliant PlayStation 3 action adventure video game The Last of Us put on a one-time show, re-enacting some of the most important events of the game in a live theatrical performance.
Apart from seeing some of the most tense and heart-wrenching moments from The Last of Us being played live, the audience was also treated to a previously unseen epilogue scene, written by the game's director, Neil Druckman.
The sequence was initially scripted, but then deleted from the game's final cut, according to the developers.
In case you haven't played the game and don't want anything from the story spoiled for you, consider this your warning.
The scene is set some time after the game's ending, showing Ellie and Joel living at Tommy's dam, with some members of the audience reporting having heard that it takes place four years after the events in the game, and others stating that it was the number of years Druckmann spent writing the game.
Joel is now dating Esther, a woman from the camp, and Ellie is still acting a little distant. Joel meets up with Ellie, and reveals that he has gotten her a present, a guitar, and he plays her a song and promises to teach her how to play it.
The two tell a joke, and then Joel leaves, as Ellie is trying out her new guitar. Those in attendance noted that it was a slightly happier note for the story to end on than the way it ends in the final version of the game.
"Neil said that this will never ever be released, and asked that no one film it. It was pretty cool," one attendee said on NeoGAF.
"From the context of the dialogue as well as the song, it sounded to me that Joel initially began writing the song for Sarah, but now it is for Ellie. If I remember correctly Joel says something along the lines of 'I was writing this before.... Nevermind that.' Neil also said before the scene [that it was] is a goodbye to Joel and Ellie," another member of the audience chimed in.
In case you're interested in seeing how a live theatrical performance of the events in a video game might go down, complete with the original orchestral soundtrack played live, you can watch the entire The Last of Us: One Night Live performance in the video below.
Sadly, the recorded footage does not include the scrapped epilogue scene, but it's definitely an interesting watch, showing the game's cast of actors returning to their roles to perform key sections of the script.
The show was put on in order to celebrate the relaunch of the game, in an enhanced edition titled The Last of Us Remastered, for Sony's next-gen computer entertainment system, the PlayStation 4.
