The first season of HBO’s The Last of Us reached its heart-wrenching conclusion, leaving viewers in awe of the present’s appearing, storyline and particular results.
And whereas Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey’s characters, Joel and Ellie, steal the highlight in every episode whereas making an attempt to evade lethal fungus-ridden creatures, cannibals and rogue gangs, there’s been a whole lot of consideration given to the gorgeous Alberta backdrops, which fill in as post-apocalyptic U.S. cities and states.
The present was shot completely in Alberta beginning in 2021 and used an astonishing 180 areas across the province, from Grande Prairie all the best way right down to Waterton Lakes National Park.
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The present is a thrill trip by itself — the storyline intently follows the online game on which it was primarily based — however for Albertans it’s been additional thrilling to identify a few of the province’s most recognizable streetscapes, buildings, mountains and parks.
Sure, there’s been loads of CGI and particular results to masks most of the Alberta landmarks, however in lots of situations the areas are very clear.
Episode by episode, listed below are a few of the Alberta areas and landmarks that stood in for Boston, Kansas City, Austin, Texas, Jackson, Wyo., and extra.
** NOTE: Mild spoilers forward for the complete first season of The Last of Us. **
Episode 1: When You’re Lost within the Darkness
The collection premiere of The Last of Us units the stage for a post-apocalyptic journey, introducing viewers to characters Joel (Pascal) and Tess (Anna Torv), who’re tasked with the damaging mission of maneuvering teenage Ellie (Ramsey) throughout a ravaged U.S. within the hopes of discovering a remedy for the fungus outbreak that has the flexibility to take maintain in people, turning them into creatures intent on infecting others.
When You’re Lost within the Darkness makes use of Calgary’s downtown as a stand-in for Boston, and a specifically designed set located within the industrial space behind the Calgary Stampede grounds serves on the present’s Boston Quarantine Zone (QZ.)
Viewers additionally catch glimpses of Calgary’s historic Inglewood neighbourhood, inside pictures of a pair Calgary excessive colleges, in addition to pictures of the Bow River because it runs via town’s Beaver Dam Flats.
Meanwhile, the historic Southern Alberta city of Fort McLeod doubles as downtown Austin, Texas, within the early days of the outbreak.
Episode 2: Infected
The cold-open for the present’s second episode units a chilling scene for simply how dangerous this outbreak goes to be. In it, viewers see professor Ibu Ratna (Christine Hakim) recommend only one phrase on how Jakarta ought to reply to the outbreak of the cordyceps fungus in people: “Bomb.”
The scene was filmed in a employees lounge within the Senator Burns constructing on the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT).
Eagle-eyed college students of the polytechnic will even discover the constructing’s essential ground lounge in an ensuing scene, and that the basement of the constructing, with its distinct floor-to-ceiling blue tiles, serves as a part of a Jakarta hospital.
As the present flashes ahead to modern-day, there’s loads of different acquainted landmarks to be noticed. Joel, Tess and Ellie are noticed climbing over the 4th Avenue flyover that leads into downtown Calgary, and enter a historic constructing within the metropolis’s core that serves because the Boston Museum.
A view of Calgary’s Fourth Avenue flyover because it appeared in “The Last of Us.”
Screengrab / HBO
Perhaps no landmark within the episode is as recognizable as Alberta’s legislature constructing.
It serves as a really acceptable stand-in for the Massachusetts State House and one of many present’s most unforgettable scenes.
Scenes for this episode have been additionally filmed on downtown Edmonton’s Rice Howard Way.
The Alberta Legislature Building is seen on this nonetheless from “The Last of Us.”
Screengrab / HBO
Episode 3: Long, Long Time
One of the extra subdued episodes of the primary season, Long, Long Time provides viewers an intimate look into a young and heartbreaking love story that blossoms within the years following the cordyceps outbreak.
The episode largely takes place across the house of Bill (Nick Offerman), a solitary survivalist who’s doing simply wonderful on his personal, till one other particular person stumbles right into a lure on his compound. The pair bond over a love of music, wine and good meals and develop previous collectively because the episode progresses.
Bill’s bucolic hamlet was shot within the High River neighbourhood of Beachwood — an space not resistant to its personal real-life catastrophe.
The neighbourhood was deserted in 2013 when the Highwood River breached its banks through the province’s devastating flood occasion.
The Alberta authorities purchased out the householders after the floods and returned the realm again to its pure state of floodway.
A flooded neighborhood in High River, Alta., Saturday, June 29, 2013.
Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press
During the episode viewers see Bill, who had been hiding whereas his neighbours have been trucked away by officers, go to the real-life Mezzapa Gas Plant east of High River to show the utility again on.
He then travels to a Home Depot to top off on provides, which was truly shot inside a Lowes Home Improvement location in Calgary.
Strangely, an actual Home Depot was situated just some blocks away from the Lowes retailer the place the scene was shot; no phrase on why the present selected the Lowes.
Episode 4: Please Hold My Hand
The opening scenes of the present’s fourth episode function a number of scenic pictures close to Strathmore, together with a scene the place, because of CGI, a practice will be seen dangling from a damaged High Level Bridge/Viaduct close to Lethbridge.
The High Level Bridge close to Lethbridge acquired a little bit of CGI remedy in “The Last of Us.”
Screengrab / HBO
Ellie and Joel are on their strategy to Kansas City, however as they strategy town limits they’re stopped by a blocked freeway tunnel, which was designed round Calgary’s Airport Tunnel within the metropolis’s northeast.
Calgary’s Airport Tunnel, sans blockade.
@yyctransportation / Twitter
The motion picks up as they manoeuvre across the tunnel and are funnelled into Kansas City, with a number of alleys in Calgary’s downtown core serving as a backdrop for a very vicious and vendetta-fuelled gang of freedom fighters.
As our protagonists struggle to evade each menacing people and the contaminated, their bond grows deeper.
They’re seen passing by Calgary’s Globe Cinema, whose signal was stored within the present, as they head to an workplace tower to cover out for some time.
The Globe Cinema in downtown Calgary, because it seems in “The Last of Us.”
Screengrab / HBO
Episode 5: Endure and Survive
In the fifth episode, viewers meet one other pair of supporting characters — two brothers, Henry (Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivonn Woodard), who’re additionally making an attempt to make their method out of Kansas City. The brothers pitch an escape path to Joel and Ellie in trade for defense.
Much of the episode takes place in underground tunnels, which have been offered by real-life tunnels in Calgary’s brewery district.
The Calgary Courts Centre, the biggest courtroom constructing in Canada, additionally makes an look, taking part in a U.S. Post Office constructing in addition to a backdrop for a resistance group’s rebellion in opposition to federal officers.
The episode culminates in an enormous battle, and the units have been constructed from scratch outdoors the Calgary Film Centre.
The huge movie studio is provided with every little thing wanted to make on-screen magic, making it the proper place to observe the present’s wholesome and contaminated battle it out.
The last, and most heartbreaking, shot was filmed on the Ranchland Inn in Nanton, situated about 45 minutes south of Calgary.
Episode 6: Kin
In the sixth episode, viewers meet up with Joel and Ellie three months into their journey and study they’ve made it safely to Wyoming.
But regardless of being secure, it’s the lifeless of winter and so they’re hopelessly misplaced.
They come throughout a pair of two odd homesteaders who level them within the course they should go, however are warned to not cross the “River of Death.”
The bridge that crosses stated river is the picturesque Canmore Engine Bridge, a well-recognized sight to anybody who’s visited the mountain city, which is situated about an hour from Calgary on the mouth of the Canadian Rockies.
An previous railway bridge used as a strolling and biking path in Canmore, Alta., Saturday, May 29, 2021.
Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press
Joel’s on a mission to seek out his brother, Tommy, and the search leads them to the walled-in metropolis of Jackson, Wyo., performed by a shabby-looking Main Street in Canmore.
Main Street in Canmore is remodeled into Jackson for “The Last of Us.”
Screegrab / HBO
While in Jackson, Joel and Tommy reunite and catch up over a drink at an Old West-style bar which was recreated, considerably satirically, on the Wainwright Hotel at Calgary’s Heritage Park, which is its personal old-timey duplicate city.
Viewers additionally see Ellie and Joel share a meal on the Willow Lane Barn in Olds, which normally serves as a particular occasions venue, standard for weddings and fundraisers.
Willow Lane Barn in Olds, Alta. was remodeled right into a post-apocalyptic bar.
Liane Hentscher / HBO
As their journey continues, Joel and Ellie make their strategy to a compound that’s new to them, however a well-recognized capturing location for the present.
This time, SAIT doubles because the fictional University of Eastern Colorado, with the stately sandstone Heritage Hall dressed down with ominous-looking particles.
Episode 7: Left Behind
Left Behind opens with each Ellie and Joel in a dire state of affairs and a flashback brings us again to the Boston QZ and a time earlier in Ellie’s life.
But it’s a mall in northwest Calgary that steals the highlight in Episode 7.
Calgary’s Northland Village Mall has been closed since December 2021 because it undergoes a redevelopment into an open-air procuring centre, giving set designers a clear slate to recreate a dilapidated mall that might not have been used because the onset of the outbreak within the early 2000s.
The gutted Northland Village Mall briefly noticed the return of its unique carousel for the manufacturing of “Left Behind.”.
Courtesy / Warner Bros.
The designers needed to rebuild a lot of the gutted mall, together with all of the storefronts.
They additionally introduced again a retired merry-go-round from one other mall, which had been moved to Calgary’s horse leaping match facility, Spruce Meadows.
Episode 8: When We Are in Need
In the penultimate episode, viewers are taken about as far south as one can go in Alberta, to the attractive backdrop of Waterton Lakes National Park.
However, what occurs within the park, which serves because the city of Silver Lake, Colo., is downright creepy.
The episode was filmed within the winter, when most of Waterton is boarded up for the season, making it the proper setting for the disturbing and twisted occasions that go down.
Episode 9: Look for the Light
In the ultimate episode of the season, with out giving freely an excessive amount of, Ellie and Joel arrive in Salt Lake City and shortly after arriving, Ellie finds herself regaining consciousness in an deserted hospital, which was filmed on the Queen Elizabeth II Ambulatory Care Centre (town’s former hospital that was changed with a brand new facility two years in the past) in Grande Prairie.
The last battle of the season ensues, and as Ellie and Joel escape and start making their method again to Wyoming, their automotive breaks down, overlooking Barrier Lake in Kananaskis.
There’s additionally an episode-stealing scene the place Ellie has a joyful encounter with an animal she’s by no means seen earlier than.
The logistics of the shoot came about on-site on the Calgary Zoo, with the assistance of loads of particular results, and have one of many zoo’s most beloved (and tallest) animals.
There is certainly no scarcity of locations to go to in Alberta in case you’re a TLOU fan.
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Season 1 of The Last of Us is streaming in its entirety on Crave.