Loneliness, isolation, and survival: it's a narrative many have lived and experienced on a personal level. It feels all too familiar to what humankind has had to watch in recent years. Adaptations such as The Last of Us and shows such as Invasion have taken these concepts and helped people not only comprehend these experiences, but also identify with characters in fictional worlds where preserving humanity is frequently denied to those who strive to achieve that cause.
While attempting to exist in a post-apocalyptic civilization, whether threatened by a Cordyceps virus or a sentient extraterrestrial species, each individual must confront tough decisions as they become further separated from morality. Each show depicts a developing schism between nations and factions, resulting in alienation among their own people and social division.
What is The Last of Us about?
The Last of Us has this permeating, unsettling tone that abounds within the world that abounds its characters. Yet despite its disquieting nature, Neil Druckmann has created a sense of beauty in this isolated post-apocalyptic world teeming with nature's overgrowth and infectious creatures. It's a combination of this Cordyceps infection and this untamed landscape that gives depth and nuance to the universe that Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) must survive and endure. Yet, from this world of pain and suffering, each births new perspectives from this uncharted territory and gains new understandings of themselves as the show progresses.
Ellie and Joel have been dealt terrible hands in life. What makes this worse is that nothing within this world gives them comfort or offers them solace. The Last of Us shows the raw vulnerability of a human being when survival is the only thing that matters. Where infection, murdering, and torture are widespread, and the people they kill become a secondary consideration to the preservation, The Last of Us demonstrates that survival comes at a cost of humanity, identity, and mental wellness.
In this post-apocalyptic world filled with loss and grief, Joel and Ellie come together by chance, but their relationship changes. In the first episodes, Ellie is nothing more than a means to an end to find a cure for the virus, and Joel is nothing more than a person to carry out that mission. As time passes, however, their bond deepens. Both have experienced loss before their meeting, making their connection deeper.
Joel and Ellie not only grow their father-daughter dynamic during their period of isolated existence, but they learn to adapt to the difficult situations that this cruel and complicated world has dealt them. In turn, they inspire growth within each other. Joel is a hardened survivor, having done things most would not be proud of. Ellie, meanwhile, makes up for what she lacks in age with her wit and panache. However, her innocence plays a critical part in her growth, as she has not been through the level of cold-hearted malice this world has dealt her. Despite this, she finds ways to trust others compared to Joel, who remains wary of people's actions.
Towards the end of this journey, Ellie has learned a great deal from Joel, the only person that has truly cared for her, and Joel becomes humanized by Ellie's light in her presence. With new enlightened ideas on themselves, they learn to survive in a world that does not guarantee their safety.
What Is Invasion About?
Like The Last of Us, Invasion revolves around the concepts of survival, isolation, adaption, and loneliness in a world threatened by a sentient extraterrestrial civilization threatening humankind. The story encompasses several crucial character arcs that merge as Invasion's story progresses. Like Ellie, Caspar (Billy Barratt) plays an essential part. A class trip with Jamila (India Brown) and other classmates is interrupted by an alien attack. During this attack, Caspar discovers that his seizures are psychic abilities that can reveal the future, and can even play a part in stopping the attacks on Earth.
Along the way, a U.S. Marine, Trevante (Shamier Anderson), has gone through a horrible encounter with the aliens in Kandahar. Like Joel, his experiences as a soldier have hardened him. Trevante assists Caspar and Jamila in their quest to use Caspar's skills and stop the aliens. Meanwhile, in the ruins of New York, The Malik Family (Golshifteh Farahani, Firas Nassar, Tara Moayedi, Azhy Robertson) attempts to survive a militia hunt before coming across an enigmatic alien weapon. In Japan, a woman named Miyuki (Shioli Kutsuna) tries to contact her missing partner, Hinata, only to make contact with the aliens that hold her love hostage. Miyuki must embark on a difficult, introspective journey of imagining life without the only person she has ever loved.
Within Invasion's nerve-wracking twist and turns and global significance, it proves akin to The Last of Us in that the problem is far greater than its people or the social gaps combined. The characters' lives are tangible and vulnerable to something much bigger than themselves.
Caspar is an outcast who is constantly bullied by other children. Separated from others, he has to cope with his seizures on his own, which serves as a terrible trigger for the revelation in which he learns how he communicates with the extraterrestrial species. Jamila is the only one who tries to respect and understand his painful ordeal. Like Ellie, they both play a vital part in saving humanity, but at the cost of their own lives. Ellie with Riley from The Last of Us and Caspar with Jamila are friendships that demonstrate genuine love and sympathy for each other, even in their worst moments. While the conclusion of these friendships is less than ideal, Jamila and Ellie both develop from their experiences when love and sympathy are rarely returned.
In the end, Japan and the United States military claim triumph in putting an end to the attacks, although it was Caspar that saved the planet. This effort kills him, leaving Jamila to mourn his death. Trevante is left in a state of disbelief. Free to go home and resume his regular life, these experiences with Caspar and Jamila have changed him. In a world where his life as a soldier has not left much space for grieving, Trevante mourns Caspar. Similarly, Joel from The Last of Us never had time to mourn the loss of his daughter Sarah. Yet, his time with Ellie humanized him. While Ellie did not replace Sarah, she did provide a secure environment for Joel to grieve and eventually find joy again.
However, Caspar's body is depicted in a morgue, where they show him tapping into an alien hive mind. One can surmise that the victory was in vain and that the aliens are still present as more alien crafts return to Earth, showing that season 2 will have another ongoing battle between the alien race, and that the unanswered question of Caspar's death still hangs in the balance.
Both Invasion and The Last of Us explore loneliness, morality, and survival. How far is one willing to save the lives of others for the price of one person's life? While both shows answer those questions differently, they both depict raw human reaction to the world around them and how one would react, whether falling prey to a zombie-like virus or suddenly being invaded by an alien race.
Watch the latest sci-fi sensation Invasion on Apple TV +.