Editor’s Note: The following incorporates spoilers from Season 1 of The Last of Us.Our neighbors to the north in Canada are recognized for a number of issues. Most of them are excellent, like maple syrup, Canadian Bacon, hockey, typically hospitable individuals, and among the greatest filming places of our favourite reveals. Well-known hit reveals like The Handmaid’s Tale, The Boys, Orphan Black, and Schitt’s Creek have all used places in Canada. And the preferred present on this planet proper now, HBO’s The Last of Us, is the newest entry on this checklist. The Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey-led drama primarily based on the massively profitable online game created by Naughty Dog concerning the trials and travels of Joel and Ellie as they attempt to make their manner throughout the United States to ship Ellie’s blood immunity and to search out Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) is definitely shot within the tax break-friendly province of Alberta. And all of the city scenes are shot within the cities of Calgary, Edmonton, and the smaller suburbs of Fort MacLeod, Canmore, Bragg Creek, and Waterton Park.
What is it About Alberta?
For a post-apocalyptic present like The Last of Us, it’s vital to have entry to each internal metropolis places the place the remnants of civilization are attempting to make a go of it, and extra rural settings that present the huge vacancy what has been left after the fungal mind an infection has devastated mankind. Alberta has that with the massive cities of Calgary and Edmonton whereas additionally having an unlimited and snowy wilderness that may double for many components of the Midwestern part of the United States. The first a number of episodes of the present occur inside what is meant to be the Boston QZ and the Kansas City QZ. The final a number of episodes have been filmed in additional bucolic settings as Joel and Ellie make their manner farther west on their journey to Wyoming to hunt out the fireflies.
A Very Texan City was Recreated North of the Border
According to The Calgary Herald, within the pilot episode after we see Joel, Tommy, and Sarah (Nico Parker) going about their day by day lives within the capital metropolis of Austin, Texas, simply earlier than the outbreak of the Cordyceps an infection, the set designers had been in a position to take the small cities of Fort Macleod, a couple of hours drive south of Calgary and close by High River and make them plausible places for one of many southernmost cities in all of America. The opening scenes that seize the three major characters as they’re casually interacting with their neighbors earlier than they’re instantly scrambling for his or her lives and weaving out and in of site visitors searching for an escape route are all shot within the quaint little burgs of Fort MacLeod and High River. It’s fairly outstanding that the scenes play as believably as they do contemplating how very far-off the 2 places are from each other. Making two western Canadian cities double for the Hill Country deep within the Heart of Texas is a reasonably spectacular accomplishment. The manufacturing crew altered a number of of the city’s storefronts to higher characterize the texture of Austin. The sterling Episode 3 entitled, “Long, Long Time” which tells the story of Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) was shot on so much on the Beachwood Estates in High River the place the crew may construct the whole lot in accordance with their specs.
The Boston and Kansas City QZs Were Shot in Calgary and Edmonton
The location managers and set designers do an amazing job of constructing these numerous Canadian cities and cities appear to be the American cities the place they’re alleged to happen. For the Boston QZ, the crew constructed a big set within the Inglewood neighborhood which may be very near Stampede Park in Calgary. According to the Calgary Herald, the dilapidated and ramshackle buildings of the Massachusetts hub and its Quarantined Zone had been truly shot in modified areas of the internal metropolis of the southwestern Alberta metropolis. In the scene the place Joel, Tess (Anna Torv), and Ellie are attempting to flee the outskirts of the Boston Quarantined Zone, an space known as Rice Howard Way in downtown Edmonton was used as Joel assaults and kills the FEDRA agent who had purchased medicine from him earlier within the first episode earlier than the three scurry by the fencing lastly escaping. Edmonton was additionally used because the backdrop for the Kansas City QZ whereas an enormous lot was used for the free for all maelstrom of the contaminated and the enormous Bloater that emerges from the large, fiery crater.
Jackson, Wyoming is Actually Canmore, Alberta
In Episode 6 entitled, “Kin” Joel and Ellie lastly attain Tommy in Jackson, Wyoming after a three-month time bounce. We see them crossing “The River of Death”. These pictures had been captured within the small city of Canmore which is situated in Kananaskis, a stupendous valley of the Canadian Rockies, only a few hours west of Calgary and on the fringe of Banff National Park. The bridge that Joel and Ellie cross is the gorgeous Canmore Engine Bridge. When Joel is lastly reunited along with his brother, the small city the place they reside can also be shot in Canmore. Marlon (Graham Green) and Florence’s (Elaine Miles) small cabin featured within the opening of Episode 6 is ready proper on the banks of Bragg Creek, a small city only a few miles southwest of Calgary. And because the duo continues west after leaving Jackson, they arrive upon the University of East Colorado simply earlier than Joel is accosted and stabbed by one in every of David’s cult members, location managers used two separate Canadian campuses together with Mount Royal University and SAIT, each of that are situated in Calgary. The standalone backstory of Ellie and Riley (Storm Reid) in Episode 7 known as “Left Behind” was primarily shot in Calgary’s Northland Village Mall.
Episode 8 “When We Are In Need”
In the penultimate episode of the primary season when Joel and Ellie have the misfortune of working into David (Scott Shepherd) and his band of cannibalistic hunters and followers, the shoot ended up within the cozy lakeside city of Waterton, Alberta in the midst of Waterton Lakes National Park. The scenes of David’s cult, the snowy forests, and the Silver Lake dwelling, together with the dramatic and fiery last scenes of the episode had been shot at a spot known as Bayshore Inn. Travelers from throughout flock to Waterton and Bayshore to do some climbing and snowshoeing. During the summer time months, it’s a standard lodging spot for vacationers trying to benefit from the lovely and serene areas of the small resort city. If you have an interest to find out extra concerning the places used for the HBO present, the Travel Alberta web site is a really helpful information to discovering your favourite filming places. It additionally affords up information about The Last of Us, together with how it’s the largest undertaking ever filmed there.