How ‘the Last of Us’ created the iconic museum and the space capsule of the game
Spoiler alert: This story contains spoilers for season 2, episode 6 of HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’, which now streams at Max.
“The Last of Us” Production designer Don Macaulay reminds itself lively from looking at one Emotional Neil DruckmannDie Joel (Pedro Pascal) this week directed and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) Flashback episode, walk around the interior set of the Natural History Museum.
“It is interesting to see, because he has seen and lived these things digitally for so long, so long that he describes it as surreal,” says Macaulay Variety. “He sent photos to people who worked on the game, so it’s so worth it.”
For this episode, Macaulay and his team knew that strictly sticking to the game was crucial. Although season 2 has focused on dark cycles of violence and revenge, this episode gives a rare look at more tender moments between Joel and Ellie while they explore the Wyoming Natural History Museum, such as children with big eyes. All the other in their lives suddenly slips away.
Since filming took place in Vancouver, the first state of affairs was to find a forest clearance that could possibly endure for the Geography of Wyoming. While the crew was used to recording “Nature Takeout” at the new location of this season of Seattle, moving to Wyoming meant approaching things differently. “We assume that the roof has failed and that much growth has happened over the years,” he says.
The team brought an animatronic dinosaur from China, which had to be sustainable enough to use for stunts when Ellie climbs on top. The team also built in the bridge that crosses a nearby creek, while visual effects took over to create the actual outside of the museum.
When Ellie and Joel are the first step inside, they get into the darkness before the sparkling walls give the illusion to be lost in space. To evoke that feeling, the Macaulay department did countless light tests with different types of paint to see what would reflect well.
“Eventually we closed that whole course with Black Velvet,” he says. “And when just on a whim, one of my art directors went to a dollar shop and got a whole group of bedless fake diamonds. And so we literally stood that course with a million fake small diamonds.”
The room with the solar system was also done practically, with the planets moving in a circular movement when a curious Ellie checks it. “You probably don’t get it in the images, but all planets are appropriate, so that they turn around the sun and everything at the right speed,” says Macaulay.
The space capsule, explains Macaulay, turned out to be the biggest challenge to create again, with the interior on a completely different stage. In that scene, Ellie and Joel climb into the capsule and imagine that they go into space together.
“It became this incredibly complex puzzle, so we built a small 3D-printed version of it. We made changes to it and built up a full-scalo foam version in which people could place the seats and windows,” he says. “We even tested large LED screens outside the windows, so a lot has been learned from that process.” Instead, they used blue screens for the end product.
The most time -consuming part of that scene was the purchase of all panels, seats and lights in the capsule to give the illusion of a real ship. “Everything that takes an incredibly long time and planning, but the actual assembly comes together amazingly quickly,” says Macaulay.
Returning the image of Ellie and Joel who looked at the capsule with the ivy that came down through the roof window, as can be seen in the trailer of season 2, was a specific moment when Macaulay and his team wanted to play when illuminating each part of the museum series. “That was an image that we all tried to be as truthful as possible for the game,” he says.
Although the entire series usually remains loyal to the game, fans may notice an exhibition that is missing. Macaulay reveals that the dinosaur exhibition, with “moss and water drip and all types of greens”, was eventually cut.
“It was certainly not as big as the one in the game, but we had six or seven full-scale dinosaur skelets in their displays, all clearly overgrown, and we had a gift trolley that had fallen. That is where Ellie picked up the hat,” says Macaulay. “We have built up to about 20 feet high and the structure was all only painted blue for visual effects. But we did not finish it completely.”
The structure of episode 6 is especially important because he marks the last turn of Pascal as Joel in the series, which ultimately explained what led to the tense relationship of Ellie and Joel during the premiere -episode of season 2. And to effectively illustrate that point, Macaulay and Druckmann took the challenge to make these last moments in the museum. When Ellie and Joel go to space together for a last ride, they are forever tied together by this last moment of pure, unfiltered joy.
