‘The Last of Us’ Is More Like ‘Big Daddy’ Than ‘The Walking Dead’

Recently, filmmaker Alex Garland sat down with Neil Druckmann, the braintrust behind The Last of Us (both for the video games and television series), for Sony’s Creator to Creator podcast.

Garland is well versed in the zombie apocalyptic genre, since he’s the writer behind the critically acclaimed 28 Days Later. In the conversation, Garland told Druckmann that “The Last of Us is better than 28 Days Later” and “much more sophisticated.”

The compliment caught Druckmann off guard, but it’s a sentiment that a lot of people may share with Garland. There’s something about The Last of Us that sets it apart from other “zombie” media, and that’s the heartfelt relationship between Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). While a show like The Walking Dead tried to emphasize the human drama over the brain-eating mayhem, it still doesn’t have the deftness of The Last of Us, which actually shares a lot more in common with the 1999 Adam Sandler comedy Big Daddy.

Forget ‘The Mandalorian’ and look at ‘Big Daddy’

Due to Pedro Pascal’s presence, it’s easy to compare The Last of Us to The Mandalorian. After all, it would be the second time he plays a protagonist who ends up developing a bond with a child and takes them under his wing. However, the biggest difference between The Last of Us and The Mandalorian is that Joel is no hero like Din Djarin. He doesn’t want the responsibility of a child, especially after what happened to his daughter, Sarah.

In many ways, Joel is similar to Adam Sandler’s Sonny Koufax in Big Daddy. When the audience meets Sonny, he’s unmotivated and doesn’t want a shred of responsibility in his life. He goes through the motions. Sonny’s life gets turned upside down when five-year-old Julian McGrath arrives on the doorstep of his apartment. Julian’s mother has fallen ill and can no longer look after him, so she leaves a note for his father to look after him. Julian isn’t Sonny’s son; he’s actually Sonny’s roommate Kevin Gerrity’s (Jon Stewart) boy. However, Kevin is on a business trip to China, so Sonny agrees to look after Julian until Kevin comes back.

Sonny struggles with Julian at first due to his own selfishness and past issues. However, he starts to bond and form a special relationship with the boy. Sure, he passes on questionable values and behavior to Julian, but his heart is in the right place. What ultimately occurs is that Julian turns out to be the spark in Sonny’s life to change it for the better. While Julian’s father, Kevin, takes full responsibility for him in the end, Julian still maintains a close relationship with Sonny, who also takes back control of his life. 

Joel and Ellie are Sonny and Julian

Joel was never meant to form a bond with Ellie in The Last of Us. He was hired to take her across the country, so it was supposed to be a short-term deal. Even from the get-go, it’s clear that Joel doesn’t want to leave a door open to any kind of relationship here. He doesn’t talk much, nor show emotion, even though she continues to push her way into his life – like Julian from Big Daddy.

Despite Joel’s reluctance, Ellie melts the cold away from his heart. She tells him dad jokes that get him to crack up and never misses an opportunity to get to know him. Like Sonny in Big Daddy, Joel can’t help but become a father figure to Ellie either. After a while, he cares and worries for her as if she’s his own daughter – even if he won’t admit it.

For Joel, he’s willing to see the world burn rather than allow any harm to Ellie. He refuses to let the Fireflies operate on her to potentially find the cure to stop the rampant infection across the globe. He kills everyone and saves Ellie, because he can’t bear to sacrifice her for any greater good. If that isn’t the ultimate show of love, what is?

‘The Last of Us’ is better than ‘Big Daddy’

Even though 28 Days Later came out before The Last of Us, Alex Garland has no problem admitting that Neil Druckmann and the team made a better story. Similarly, it would be interesting to hear what Big Daddy screenwriters Steve Franks, Tim Herlihy, and Adam Sandler think about the post-apocalyptic story. Although, you might be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t think The Last of Us is superior to Big Daddy. If we were talking about Happy Gilmore, though…