Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in The Last of Us
Vitals
Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller, tough pandemic survivor and former contractor
Boston to Utah, Fall through winter 2023
Series: The Last of Us (Season 1)
Air Dates: January 15, 2023 – March 12, 2023
Created by: Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann
Costume Designer: Cynthia Ann Summers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
It was fascinating to see my distaste for mushrooms validated in such a distressing manner in one of the biggest shows of the year.
Based on Naughty Dog’s popular video game of the same name, The Last of Us concluded its acclaimed first season on Sunday night. The series was primarily set in a post-apocalyptic 2023 in the grim aftermath in a global pandemic (albeit far more dystopian than our current reality), caused by a mass fungal infection that transforms its human hosts into grotesque quasi-zombies (shroombies?) that still roam the tattered world two decades following the societal collapse.
After a brief prologue that introduces a viral epidemiologist (John Hannah) on a Dick Cavett-type talk show in 1968, outlining the threat of a fungally spread pandemic triggered by climate change, we jump ahead to the fateful Friday in late September 2003, when Texas contractor Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) and his sweet-natured daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) are celebrating his 36th birthday. Twenty years later, when Joel is asked how it all happened (other than that “the shitty government failed to prevent a pandemic”), he tries to sum up the situation to the best of his knowledge:
No one knows for sure, but best guess… cordyceps mutated, got into the food supply, probably a basic ingredient like flour or sugar. There were certain brands of food that were sold everywhere—all across the country, across the world. Bread, cereal… pancake mix. You eat enough of it, it’ll get you infected. So the tainted food all hits the store shelves around the same time Thursday. People bought it, ate some Thursday night or Friday morning. Day goes on. They started to get sick. Afternoon, evening, they got worse. Then they started bitin’. Friday night, September 26, 2003. By Monday, everything was gone.
After losing his daughter to a misguided military sentry’s rifle on the Friday night everything went to hell, we catch up with Joel twenty years later, now living among a large group of fellow haggard survivors in a federal-run quarantine zone in the ruins of Boston. Though he’s garnered a reputation for capability among people on all sides of what passes for law, Joel is forced to earn his rations through grim duties like disposing of infected corpses, maintaining sewers, and the occasional drug deal. He has developed a partnership—both personal and professional—with the equally apocalypse-hardened Tess (Anna Torv), which grows more complicated after they’re compelled by “Firefly” underground revolutionaries to spirit the fiery teenage survivor Ellie (Bella Ramsey) out of the QZ and into the ostensible hands of fellow revolutionaries at the overgrown Massachusetts state house.
Though Joel has been rendered cynical by hearing similar stories countless times before, the bitten-but-not-infected Ellie is told that her resilience may contain the secret to unlocking a cure. Their attempt to smuggle Ellie to a local band of Fireflies is stymied when they find the state house abandoned… aside from hordes of infected. It’s hardly the last of their unexpected troubles, marking only the beginning of a nightmarish journey across the ruined nation. (Though set across the United States, The Last of Us was almost entirely filmed in Alberta, Canada.)
Their cross-country journey features the varying effectiveness of community philosophies that emerged after societal collapse, ranging from isolated individualism and self-sustaining communism to self-destructive totalitarianism and cannibalistic theocracy. And, while the badass battle sequences to be expected of post-apocalyptic fiction certainly delivered thrills, what I found most compelling about The Last of Us was the series’ nuanced focus on humanity, survival, and love.
What’d He Wear?
“When you’re on the run or the road like Joel and Ellie, you only have what you can fit in your backpack [and] on your body,” costume designer Cynthia Ann Summers explained to Emma Fraser for The Daily Beast‘s Obsessed, also expressing her surprise that there has been so much interest in Joel’s costume. “I didn’t want him to look like he thought about what he chose to put on. He needed utilitarian wear.”
Waxed jackets have been popular on screen recently, particularly among hardy characters like James Bond (specifically Daniel Craig’s Barbour sports jacket in Skyfall and the Rogue Territory supply jacket in No Time to Die) and the Dutton family and ranch cowboys on Yellowstone. In the bleak world of 2023, Joel maintains his hard-wearing style by adding a waxed, blanket-lined trucker jacket to the trusty jeans and boots he had worn two decades earlier as a contractor, the type of job that would have prioritized rugged function over fashion.
Sturdy jackets and jeans serve Joel and Ellie well as they walk through the wasteland of post-apocalyptic America in “Long, Long Time” (Episode 1.03).
The Waxed Trucker Jacket
Arguably the most popular item from Joel’s wardrobe is his flannel-lined trucker jacket from the Los Angeles-based outfitter Flint and Tinder, made from a waxed 7-oz. sailcloth cotton in the “field tan” shade.
“We were making our own jacket, because the jacket in the game kind of looked like a Carhartt… Carhartts are very boxy, and they’re also super stuff, and even though we have these amazing breakdown people, they’re super hard to break in,” Summers explained to Caroline Reilly for GQ UK. “So we decided to make our own, but the oiled cotton is super hard to work with, and it’s hard to break down. So we built several, none of them worked for various reasons. We got to one that Pedro really liked, but it didn’t fly with everybody else, the producers. And that’s the name of the game. So at the 12th hour, I was like, ‘Okay, shoppers, just get me every jacket on the market that we can multiply by 30 or more at the end of the day. And just let’s get as many here as we can, and let’s just see what we can do.’ And there was another close contender, but we landed on this one, it just fit him well.”
After some alterations and artificial aging, Summers’ team was ready to go with an array of Flint and Tinder jackets for Joel. Though Flint and Tinder prides their jackets on the protective qualities of the Martexin wax applied to both sides of the shell, Summers reported that this waxing was actually removed to make the cloth more vulnerable to their aging process.
Even at the relative start of their journey in “Infected” (Episode 1.02), Joel’s Flint and Tinder trucker jacket has already clearly withstood considerable wear.
Joel’s jacket follows the general design that has evolved in the decades since Levi’s 1905 introduction of the waist-length, rivet-button “Type I” 506XX—now considered the first trucker jacket.
The jacket has six nickel “donut”-style tack buttons up the front from the straight waist hem to the neck. A horizontal yoke extends across the chest above the second button, with a similarly positioned yoke straight across the back. A pointed patch pocket is situation on the left side of the chest (just below the yoke), with a mitred flap that closes through a single button. Vertical welted pockets are set-in at hand level on each side. The set-in sleeves are finished with squared cuffs that close through a single button, and the waist also has short squared tabs to adjust the fit by closing through one of two buttons.
The polyester flannel “blanket lining” is stripes in two shades of blue, offset by golden yellow bar stripes through the darker blue stripes. A “media pocket” made from the same waxed cloth as the outer shell is sewn against the inside left of the lining, specifically designed so that right-handed users could easily slip their cell phones in and out of this pocket, though Joel often carries his flashlight in it.
Note the distinctive striped flannel lining, both while leading his group through the museum in “Infected” (Episode 1.02), with the flashlight visible in his pocket, and as Ellie hands the jacket back to him in the following episode, “Long, Long Time” (Episode 1.03).
Joel’s Shirts
For the first three episodes of scenes set in 2023, Joel wears an indigo-blue denim shirt chosen to specifically reflect his clothing in the early stages of the game. After testing many blue denim and chambray work shirts, Summers chose a Wrangler shirt that she favored for its simplicity, specifically its lack of the pointed Western-style chest yokes that often characterize these snap-front shirts. This was an important factor for Summers, who told GQ that “Joel’s style is that of an everyday man, paying little attention to personal style details,” elaborating to The Daily Beast that “he’s angry, so I didn’t want to diffuse that with anything fashionable.”
“It actually is a piece that Wrangler does exclusively for Walmart,” Summers shared with Caroline Reilly for GQ UK. “Which makes total sense, because that’s where these guys go to get their workwear.”
Made from a ringspun denim cotton, the long-sleeved shirt appears to have been through plenty by the time we find Joel in the Boston QZ, with considerable wear along the seams and edges, including around the spread collar. The front placket closes with seven simple brass-finished snaps that match those on the two pointed chest pocket flaps and on the single-snap cuffs, which Joel typically wears unsnapped and rolled up his forearms.
Even with a broken watch, Joel’s never off the clock while trying to make ends meet in the Boston QZ.
Wrangler must be a favorite brand in the Texan-born Miller family, as Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) also wears a dark blue denim Wrangler shirt when they reunite in Wyoming in “Kin” (Episode 1.06), though Tommy’s shirt features both the pointed yokes as well as the brand’s characteristic “W”-stitch on both chest pockets. By that point, Joel has already changed his shirt anyway.
When tasked with corpse disposal for the Boston QZ in “When You’re Lost in the Darkness” (Episode 1.01), Joel briefly supplements his garb with a red-striped beige neckerchief that covers his nose and mouth, though he presumably abandons this after leaving the QZ.
In “Long, Long Time” (Episode 1.03), Joel and Ellie arrive at the home of the recently departed Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett). After the two travelers freshen up themselves and their supplies—including Bill’s arsenal and “piece of shit Chevy S10″—Joel also helps himself to the green plaid flannel shirt we had previously seen Frank wearing in a 2010 flashback.
The handsome shirt was first identified by Rachael Griffiths in New York‘s The Strategist as the laurel-green Fjällglim shirt by Swedish outdoor outfitter Fjällräven. The pattern consists of a wide-scaled black shadowed plaid framing a light-red windowpane overcheck, all against a forest-green ground.
Frank’s sartorial legacy lives on through Joel taking his shirt on the next leg of his journey.
Made from a lightweight polyester flannel twill, the shirts were significantly restructured from their stock configuration to better resemble the game-worn shirt. The standard Fjällglim has a red-branded button-through patch pocket over the left breast, with a vertical zip-up pocket set-in behind it. “For this particular shirt, we needed it in multiples of 30 for Joel, Joel’s stunt double, Joel’s photo double, and Frank,” Summers explained to Griffiths. “We took the fronts off the shirts, removing the zip pocket and creating our breast pockets to mimic the game shirt.”
The resulting screen-ready shirts present two button-through chest pockets with mitred corners on the bottom. The sleeves also have standard button cuffs, with the mid-bicep buttons removed from each sleeve.
As the action following “Long, Long Time” (Episode 1.03) continues through the increasingly chilly weather of fall, Joel layers his new plaid flannel shirt over a simple ecru cotton undershirt. The long-sleeved T-shirt has a crew-neck with a V-notch, the functional feature often found on sweatshirts that was introduced to catch sweat and keep the neck shape intact. A thread at The RPF, which I consider to be an ultimate source for identifying screen-worn gear, strongly suggested that Joel wore the Todd Snyder x Champion Midweight Pocket Sweatshirt in “heather fog” cotton.
Joel wears the green flannel Fjällräven button-up shirt and the ecru undershirt until “When We Are in Need” (Episode 1.08), as it was damaged two episodes earlier at the end of “Kin” (Episode 1.06).
Following his recovery, Joel appears at the start of “Look for the Light” (Episode 1.09) wearing a new shirt, identified as the River Island Regular Fit Washed Denim Shirt. The solid color and snap-front design recalls his earlier Wrangler shirt from the first three episodes, though the River Island shirt notably features the pointed shoulder yokes that Summers had specifically tried to avoid for the Wrangler, perhaps reflecting Joel’s warmer nature as he seeks to be more playful with Ellie… even suggesting the two play Boggle!
Made from a washed gray 100% cotton denim twill, the shirt has a spread collar and a straight hem that would typically allow it be effectively worn untucked, though Joel may have benefited from a curved hem that would better suit the holstered revolver on his belt. There are seven black-finished snaps up the front placket, matching the single snaps on each cuff and gauntlet. There are two pointed-bottom chest pockets, each covered with a narrow pointed flap that closes through another single snap.
Joel and Ellie bond in Salt Lake City.
The Jeans
Ellie: Joel… did you know diarrhea is hereditary?
Joel: What?
Ellie: Yeah… it runs in your jeans.
Luckily, 20-year-old cans of Chef Boyardee don’t seem to have this effect on Joel, as he’d be literally shit out of luck given that he’s been wearing the same pair of jeans since 2003.
Despite the many trials that went into finding the right items for the rest of Joel’s wardrobe, Summers reported to Digital Spy that “we were lucky” with the jeans, as the Levi’s 505
Regular Fit were one of the first two pairs that Pedro Pascal tried on during initial costume tests.
The 505 Regular Fit was introduced in 1967, with a zip fly differentiating it from the button-fly 501 Original Fit. The roomier fit of the straight-leg 505 would likely be more comfortable for the long-traveling Joel than the straighter-fitting 501. Joel’s screen-worn denim appears to be the’s dark indigo “Flying Bird” wash, with the signature Levis “red tab” removed from the back-right patch pocket, though each back pocket retains the brand’s characteristic arcuate stitch.
“Jury’s still out, but man… you can’t deny that view.”
Joel holds up his jeans with a dark burgundy leather belt that closes through a hefty silver-toned single-prong buckle. He keeps his defensive gear in handy reach, attached to the right side of his belt. He carries his revolver in a brown leather Triple K outside-the-waistband (OWB) holster with a snap retention strap.
Just behind it, he carries his steel Buck 119 Special fixed-blade knife in a Buck-branded black leather sheath with a single-snap loop that attaches around his belt. This venerated hunting knife has a stainless 6″ clip-shaped blade and a black phenolic handle and aluminum guard and pommel.
After the events of “Endure and Survive” (Episode 1.05), Joel has started wearing the backpack he obtained from Henry Burrell (Lamar Johnson), though he still has his same Buck knife and holstered Taurus in the final episode of the first season (“Look for the Light”) as he did when first setting out from Boston at the start of the season.
The Boots
Heavy-duty boots are requisite footwear for the unexpected calamities of dystopian post-pandemic life, whether wading through thigh-high murky water in a bombed-out hotel lobby or hiking up the snowy Grand Tetons.
Throughout the show from the 2003 scenes through 2023, Joel wears only Irish Setter boots, a brand of purpose-built footwear “for work and hunt” that evolved from the introduction of the iconic russet Red Wing 854 boots in 1950. The “Elk Tracker” and “Trailblazer” models have both been suggested as the screen-worn Irish Setter boots, though discussion among The RPF members and on Gear Patrol generally concludes that Joel wears the the former—specifically the Elk Tracker, style #861.
Though both mentioned varieties of Irish Setters are generally similar from the ankles down, certain details like the side wing shapes, number of visible outsole lugs, and the Goodyear welt appearance more closely align with the Elk Tracker style than the Trailblazer.
These plain-toe hunting boots are comprised of waterproofed dark brown full-grain leather uppers that rise 10″ to mid-calf and are Goodyear-welted to black lugged carbon rubber Bulls-Eye® Air Bob Aggressive outsoles, reinforced by a steel shank for added stability. Though it would have been significantly tested through Joel’s years of heavy wear, Irish Setter treats the memory foam insoles with a proprietary ScentBan odor control technology, designed to kill bacteria and its associated odors.
The boots are derby-laced through four sets of gilt-finished eyelets, plus four more sets of speed hooks up the shaft, though the lowest pair of hooks are larger and positioned farther back on each side of the boot. Irish Setter typically characterized this specific boot style with kilted tongue extensions, though these were evidently removed from Joel’s boots.
Joel’s “new” Elk Trackers are already considerably worn by the time he’s rampaging through the Fireflies’ hospital in “Look for the Light” (Episode 1.09).
At the start of “Kin” (Episode 1.06), Joel’s boots begin falling apart as he needs to secure the outsole of his right boot by duct-taping it around the rest of the boot. After reaching his brother Tommy at a Wyoming commune, Joel attempts to mend the boot himself, but Tommy simply presents him with a nearly identical pair of Irish Setters… an impressive find in a camp that prides itself on a collective notion of property.
Joel accepts Tommy’s donated Irish Setters, which appear to be the same model of Elk Trackers that he had been wearing up to this point.
Constantly in a state of alertness to avoid being caught off-guard by raiders or the infected, Joel rarely has his boots off. In the rare occasion that he does, attempting to mend the separated outsoles in the safety of that Jackson Hole commune workshop in “Kin” (Episode 1.06), we see that he wears light-gray woolen boot socks with gold-woven toes.
The Watch
“Your watch is broken,” Ellie comments shortly after their first meeting. Joel’s daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) had taken his watch to get repaired for him as a 36th birthday gift. Indeed, the affable jeweler’s fix was one of the last actions seen under any shred of normalcy before society unraveled overnight. While trying to make their escape in the early morning hours the next day, both the watch and poor Sarah herself were shot by a soldier ordered to kill them. Though it hasn’t functioned in the two decades since, Joel continues wearing it as a memento of the beloved daughter he lost.
Joel keeps his broken watch dutifully strapped to his wrist.
The watch was custom-made for the production by Andrew Taylor, an instructor at South Plains College Video Production Technology. Taylor’s collection of military memorabilia had attracted the attention of an assistant prop master on The Last of Us, who then contacted Taylor to hire him to construct Joel’s wristwatch. As instructed, Taylor’s design followed the simple but sturdy A-17 watches worn by American pilots during World War II as well as the aesthetics of the Lüm-Tec Super Combat B2 watch that reportedly inspired the game-worn timepiece.
The result was a plain steel-cased field watch with an unguarded crown and straight lugs through which an olive-green nylon NATO-style strap passes through. The round black dial has luminous hands and Arabic numeral indices, with the 12, 3, and 9 particularly prominent while a white-ringed sub-register at the 6 o’clock position features a red hand.
Before disaster strikes, Joel looks over the long-neglected watch that Sarah had fixed for him on his 36th birthday.
Joel's watch was custom-made for the series, but the shape and style reminds me of the simple and affordable Timex Weekender:
- Timex Weekender T2N647 (Amazon,
$49$36.02)
Once you've got the watch, you can swap out the bracelet for an Army green NATO-style vinyl strap like Joel wears, with silver-toned buckle and keepers to match the watch metal:
- Benchmark Basics Nylon Watch Band in Army green (Amazon, $9.95)
Prices and availability current as of March 15, 2023.
Winter Gear
By the sixth episode (“Kin”), Joel and Ellie finally reach Wyoming, where he layers against the snow in a thigh-length shearling coat over his trucker jacket.
The cognac-brown leather shell has a dual closure with a full-length zipper as well as an extended storm fly with five dark brown buttons that extend up to the top of the funnel neck. The inside of the coat is finished in a darker brown oiled leather with an inset piled shearling-style fleece.
The coat has set-in sleeves, left plain at the end of each cuff though there a seam rings around each forearm. On the front, the shoulders are yoked with seams that slant upward toward the neck, with another seam crossing horizontally above the fourth button. The back is similarly divided with a horizontal seam across the upper back while two perpendicular seams below it divided the rest of the back into four quadrants. There are also two slanted welt-entry hand pockets.
To the best of my knowledge, the coat remains unidentified, though Paolo Sandoval almost definitively reported for Inside Hook that Pascal wears the Aston “Laredo Shearling Coat” while others, including BAMF Style reader Jimmy Peeler, made the case for the Overland “Lucas Merino Shearling Sheepskin Coat”. To my eye, neither appears to be a 100% match for the screen-worn outerwear, but both are fine coats!
“Kin” also introduces Joel’s russet-brown cowhide gloves, uniquely detailed with red leather-piped edges, outward-facing seams, and paracord wrist adjusters. These specific features aided its identification as the Wakayama retro-inspired ski gloves in the “cork and brown” colorway. The Wakayama gloves have removable wool terry liners and neoprene cuffs for comfort. Each elasticized cuff has a short tab with a gunmetal grommet, through which the red-and-olive paracord passes through to adjust the fit around the wrist.
T-Shirt and Jeans in 2003
Joel’s look was much simpler twenty years earlier, when dressing for work on his 36th birthday—September 26, 2003. He rolls into breakfast with Sarah wearing his navy blue T-shirt inside-out, until she points it out so he can correct it before work. “That outfit was super hard to get, which sounds nutty because it is literally a T-shirt, jeans, and boots,” Summers shared with The Daily Beast, explaining the specific challenge posed by showrunner Craig Mazin’s vision for its color palette.
The navy-blue T-shirt that Mazin favored for the scene was from the Italian knitwear brand Crossley, detailed with a narrow crew-neck and double-banded short sleeves. With only four of the discontinued shirts initially sourced, Summers and her team worked to collect the at least 30 needed to account for the hardships of the scene and needs of stunt and photo doubles. Once obtained, the shirts were put through the usual breakdown rigors to present as well-worn staples from a contractor’s closet.
Joel already showed a preference for his dark blue denim Levi’s 505 Regular Fit jeans and brown leather Irish Setter boots that he would still be wearing two decades later. As Summers had mentioned the Irish Setter “Trailblazer” as a model worn by Pascal on screen, it’s possible that the Trailblazers were Joel’s 2003 boots before they were replaced by the Elk Trackers by 2023.
Forest-Green Flannel in 2010
The only other time we see Joel between the initial outbreak and the present-day scenes are his 2010 visit with Tess to the survivalist Bill (Nick Offerman) and his gregarious partner Frank (Murray Barlett) in “Long, Long Time” (Episode 1.03), during which the paranoid Bill warily keeps his .45 trained on Joel for much of their dinner.
Joel wears a forest-green soft flannel long-sleeved work shirt with two button-through chest pockets, as well as his usual Levi’s jeans and Irish Setter work boots.
The Guns
Ellie: Can I have a gun?
Tess: No!
Joel: Absolutely not!
Ellie: Okay! Jesus… fine! I’ll just throw a fuckin’ sandwich at them.
Ellie asks the question after watching Joel pick up his rifle from the floor in the abandoned SuperClips where she just minutes earlier awakened to find him aiming it at her. Stepping out into the light of a bombed-out Boston, we see that he supplements the rifle with the same holstered revolver he had picked up from under the floorboards in the previous episode… and which Ellie spends much of the early part of the season begging to carry.
Joel digs up the 4″-barreled Taurus Model 66 revolver he keeps in a Triple K belt holster, stored under his floorboards.
Taurus Model 66
Following the example set in the game, Joel’s primary sidearm is a Taurus Model 66 service revolver, its once-blued finish considerably worn. Introduced by the Brazilian arms manufacturer Taurus in 1978, the Model 66 initially resembled many other medium-framed, traditional double-action service revolvers with its six-round cylinder until a new variant was introduced in 1999 with a unique seven-round cylinder. Despite the tactical advantage of an extra round, I believe Joel carries the more conventional six-shot model, holstered in a tan leather Triple K OWB holster on the right side of his belt.
The Model 66 is primarily chambered for .357 Magnum ammunition, though—like many other .357 revolvers—it can also fire the lower-powered .38 Special. As we see in “Infected” (Episode 1.02), he keeps the revolver’s spare rounds in his jacket’s right-hand pocket. The black rubber grips are detailed on each side with the familiar golden Taurus emblem at the bottom.
Standard barrel lengths are three, four, and six inches, with Joel’s four-inch model resulting in a total length of 10.5 inches and weighting just over two pounds with all six rounds loaded.
Joel keeps his trusty Taurus drawn while inspecting a Colorado college building in “Kin” (Episode 1.06).
M4A1
When Joel, Tess, and Ellie initially set out from the Boston QZ, they’re briefly stopped by the corrupt FEDRA soldier Lee (Max Montesi), whom Joel beats to death and relieves of his M4A1 carbine.
Joel primarily uses the M4A1 in combat when they’re attacked by a group of infected in the Bostonian Museum in “Infected” (Episode 1.02), then he stashes it with his backup supplies in the Cumberland Farms convenience store on the way to Bill and Frank’s compound in the following episode, “Long, Long Time” (Episode 1.03). “There’s not much ammo out there for this thing,” he rationalizes to a questioning Ellie, which “makes it mostly useless.”
Adapted from the AR-15 and M16 series of 5.56x45mm NATO battle rifles, the 14.5″-barreled M4A1 carbine served as the standard American military service rifle at the time of the show’s outbreak in 2003, so it makes sense that FEDRA soldiers would still be armed with it twenty years later, though—like many weapons in The Last of Us—the frames show considerable wear from years of usage and likely not much ability to properly clean or store it.
The M4A1 that Joel takes from Lee has a fore-end light but simple iron sights, likely configured to avoid needing to rely on battery-powered optics given the limited resources of The Last of Us‘ 2023. In addition to the standard triangular-shaped A2-style fixed post front sight, this particular M4A1 has an LMT fixed rear sight, a robust style designed to maintain zero during heavy combat usage by military and police.
Joel’s M4A1 also has duct tape over the fore-end of the collapsible stock, suggesting that Lee—or a previous user—made a simple field repair rather than swapping out for a different rifle.
During his rampage through the Firefly-controlled hospital in Salt Lake City in the finale, “Look for the Light” (Episode 1.09), Joel gets his hands on another M4A1 rifle after his commandeered Ruger Mini-14 is empty. This M4A1 also has iron sights, though it has carry handle rear sights affixed to the “flat top” A2-style upper.
In “Look for the Light” (Episode 1.09), Joel fights his way to Ellie through the hospital with a variety of high-powered weaponry like the M4A1.
Beretta Model 70
After Bill dies alongside Frank in “Long, Long Time”, Bill bequeaths all of his weaponry to Joel, stored in his basement bunker… but, even then, Joel doesn’t permit Ellie to arm herself. Luckily for her, she finds Frank’s Beretta Model 70 stashed in a desk drawer and figures that what Joel doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
In fact, it actually saves him only an episode later in “Please Hold to My Hand” (Episode 1.04) when she uses it to paralyze the twerpy Bryan (Juan Magana), one of the desperate aggressors they encounter in Kansas City. After realizing Ellie can handle herself—and that he wasn’t responsible for the first time she had to shoot someone, as she later discloses—he agrees to help her learn how to shoot it. His first step is to correct the technique she was taught by FEDRA: “thumb over your thumb, left hand squeezes down on right.”
Joel corrects Ellie’s grip on Frank’s Beretta Model 70 in “Please Hold to My Hand” (Episode 1.04).
Despite its nomenclature, Beretta actually introduced its semi-automatic Model 70 series in the late 1950s, intended to be an improvement on the World War II-era Model 1934 and 1935 pistols. Marketed as the “Puma”, the Model 70 was chambered for .32 ACP (7.65x17mm SR Browning), the same small but popular ammunition found in James Bond’s Walther PPK; in fact, continuity errors during the making of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) actually swapped in a Beretta Model 70 for 007’s usual PPK during a few scenes.
The Model 70 series also included the .22-caliber Model 71 Jaguar (famous for its use by the Mossad) that shared the Model 70’s compact dimensions of a 3.5-inch barrel, though there were also longer-barreled variations on full-sized and target frames.
Like Joel’s Taurus Model 66, the Beretta Model 70 was also Ellie’s handgun in The Last of Us game.
Winchester Model 70
From Bill’s collection, Joel helps himself to a Winchester Model 70 bolt-action rifle with black synthetic furniture that he ably uses to defend himself and Ellie against a pair of armed ambushers in Kansas City in “Please Hold to My Hand” (Episode 1.04).
Bill’s truck and rifle get Joel as far as Kansas City, where he’s forced to abandon both.
After he’s forced to abandon Bill’s blackened Model 70, Joel quickly arms himself with another after taking out an aging revolutionary sniper, Anthony (Ron J. Anderson), who had been sniping at Joel’s small group of survivors on their way out of Kansas City in “Endure and Survive” (Episode 1.05).
Anthony’s wooden-furniture Winchester Model 70 appears to have been a generally better-received pre-1964 version, operationally distinguished by a Mauser-type controlled round feed and cosmetically characterized by cut checkering. Anthony’s Model 70 also has a long-range scope, which Joel uses to battle Kathleen’s heavily armed revolutionary forces that chase after his band.
Remington Model 700 BDL
After Maria (Rutina Wesley) takes Joel’s pre-1964 Model 70 upon “welcoming” him into the protected Wyoming commune that used to be Jackson Hole, Joel borrows his brother Tommy’s “old 700”, presumably the same scoped Remington Model 700 BDL bolt-action rifle we had seen the brothers use during the outbreak scenes at the start of the series.
Remington has continuously produced the Model 700 since 1962, when it was introduced as an improvement on the earlier Model 721 and 722 sporting rifles. Available in over two dozen calibers and many different barrel lengths, finishes, and stock configurations, the Model 700 is typically fed from an internal tube magazine of between three to six rounds.
Tommy’s Model 700 “Better Deluxe” (BDL) variant is described by Remington as “American’s most popular bolt-action of all time,” with a high-gloss walnut stock capped with a black fore-end. The current lineup includes 6.5mm Creedmoor, .243 Winchester, .270 Winchester, .308 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, all with 22″ barrels and four-round internal tube magazines, in addition to 7mm Remington Magnum and .300 Winchester Magnum, with 24″ barrels but three-round tube magazines.
On their way to Colorado in “Kin” (Episode 1.06), Joel uses the Model 700 to teach Ellie how to shoot: “deep breath in, slow breath out… you squeeze the trigger like you love it. Gentle, steady… nice and slow.” “You gonna shoot this thing or get it pregnant?” she quips in response.
Both Joel and Ellie effectively use it as their preferred weapon through the next several episodes, until the Salt Lake City band of Fireflies take it from Joel in “Look for the Light” (Episode 1.09).
Ruger Mini-14 GB-F
Upon learning that the Fireflies intend to perform a fatal operation on Ellie’s brain in the hopes of extracting a potential cure, Joel overpowers the two Firefly guards escorting him out of the hospital, taking their Ruger Mini-14 GB-F and a spare magazine before charging back into the hospital to retrieve Ellie… and execute any Firefly in his path.
The Ruger Mini-14 was introduced in 1973 as a commercial evolution of the briefly issued M14 battle rifle, though the lightweight Mini-14 was chambered for the smaller 5.56×45 mm NATO cartridge used in the newer M16 series (rather than the larger 7.62×51 mm NATO round used in the M14) as well as the dimensionally equivalent .223 Remington caliber. It became popular as a sporting rifle, though—as described in The Complete World Encyclopedia of Guns—”as a select-fire rifle for military or police use, the Ruger Mini-14 proved to be just a bit too lightly constructed and not accurate enough.”
In the half-century since it was introduced, Ruger developed several variations of the Mini-14 like the “Government Barrel” (GB) and the GB-F, the latter fitted with a side-folding stock for additional portability.
Joel reloads his commandeered Ruger while battling Fireflies in the Salt Lake City hospital.
When he takes the Ruger Mini-14 GB-F from one downed Firefly, he also curiously appears to take a STANAG magazine from another Firefly that had been armed with an M4. While both rifles can fire 5.56×45 mm NATO ammunition, I don’t believe they have transferable magazines as the Mini-14 feeds from proprietary 20- and 30-round Ruger magazines.
Beretta 92FS
Finally, after his M4A1 runs out of ammunition, Joel picks up yet another discarded weapon—the Beretta 92FS. He performs a brass check to confirm one in the chamber and charges into the operating room.
The Beretta 92 pistol series consists of semi-automatic pistols with a traditional double-action/single-action trigger, chambered for the universal 9×19 mm Parabellum ammunition that feeds from double-stack magazines. Now almost universally recognizable following its role in movies like the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon series, Beretta had introduced the full-size 92F/92FS pistol in the 1980s as an improvement upon its earlier Model 92, also intended to compete in U.S. military trials to replace the aging M1911A1 service pistol.
With one fateful shot, Joel secures his and Ellie’s freedom for the moment… though at what potential cost for humanity?
Read more about the firearms in The Last of Us at IMFDB.
What to Imbibe
There are little opportunities for drinking in the world of The Last of Us, though the excellent third episode “Long, Long Time” depicts Joel and Tess spending an idyllic afternoon in 2010 with their new friends Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) on Bill’s fortified compound in Lincoln, Massachusetts, drinking some of the Caymus Vineyards red wine that we saw Bill liberating from their local liquor store during the initial outbreak. The label indicates that they’re enjoying the Cabernet Sauvignon variety, which the Napa Valley winery describes as characterized by “rich fruit and ripe tannins – as approachable in youth as in maturity.”
Bill only wants to serve his guests hot lead from his .45 while the far more genial Frank is willing to share their cabernet sauvignon with Joel and Tess.
When he has the choice, Joel seems to prefer whiskey, drinking from a sorry bottle in his apartment in the first episode and again pulling from a flask around the campfire with Ellie in “Kin” (Episode 1.06), reluctantly handing it over to her for a sip. Later in “Kin”, he joins his brother Tommy at the Jackson Hole bar—his first proper watering hole in decades—where Tommy pours them each a glass of homemade whiskey over ice.
The taped-on label suggests that Tommy’s commune had distilled the whiskey only months prior, in June 2023.
If you’re looking for a The Last of Us-approved meal to pair with your whiskey or wine, may I recommend 20-year-old cans of Chef Boyardee? As a one-time college student whose culinary skills left something to be desired, I’ve definitely subsisted on Beefaroni a few years past its expiration date, but I can attest that—as Joel admits—it was still pretty good.
Joel celebrates finding an untouched can of Beefaroni.
What to Listen to
Obviously:
How to Get the Look
Pedro Pascal on the set of The Last of Us (Sourced from @bellaramsey on Instagram)
Joel’s frayed yet functional fashions on The Last of Us are appropriate for both dystopian survival or a standard weekend adventure, built on timeless staples like a waxed trucker jacket, rugged work shirt, blue jeans, and hardy hiking boots.
- Tan waxed sailcloth cotton trucker jacket with 6 nickel “donut” tack buttons, horizontal chest and back yokes, patch chest pocket (with button-down flap), vertical welted hand pockets, button-tab waist adjusters, and squared single-button cuffs
- Flint and Tinder Flannel-Lined Waxed Trucker Jacket
- Blue or gray denim cotton snap-front long-sleeve shirt with spread collar, two chest pockets (with narrow pointed snap-down flaps), and single-snap cuffs
- Dark blue denim straight-leg jeans with belt loops, zip-fly, and five-pocket layout
- Levi’s 505
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Regular Fit
- Levi’s 505
- Dark burgundy leather belt with large silver-toned single-prong buckle
- Dark brown waterproofed leather 10″-high plain-toe work boots with four-eyelet derby-lacing, four sets of speed hooks, and Goodyear-welted black lugged outsoles
- Irish Setter Elk Tracker 861
- Light-gray woolen boot socks
- Stainless steel field watch with unguarded crown, straight lugs, and round black dial (with luminous Arabic numeral indices and 6:00 sub-dial) on olive-green nylon NATO strap
Wrangler Men's Premium Slim Fit Denim Shirt in dark wash (Walmart, $17.97) 
Fjällräven Fjällglim shirt in laurel green (Fjällräven, $110) 
River Island Regular Fit Washed Denim Shirt in gray cotton (River Island, £32) 
Levi's 505 Regular Fit in "Flying Bird" wash
- Amazon ($48.65)
- J.C. Penney ($59.99)
- Levi's ($59.99)
Irish Setter Elk Tracker boots
- Amazon ($152.93 and up)
- Cabela's ($204.99)
- Irish Setter ($239.99)
- Sportsman's Warehouse ($214.95)
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the series (one of my favorite new shows of the year), streaming on HBO Max.
To read more about The Last of Us, check out these sources for today’s post:
- The Daily Beast: “Finding Pedro Pascal’s Perfect ‘The Last of Us’ Jacket Was a Herculean Effort” by Emma Fraser
- Digital Spy: “The Last of Us costume designer reveals Pedro Pascal’s surprising reaction to Joel outfit” by Joe Anderton and Gabriella Geisinger
- Everything Lubbock: “South Plains instructor recreates watch featured in HBO TV show ‘The Last of Us'” by BrenShavia Jordan
- Gear Patrol: “These Are the Perfect Boots for Pedro Pascal in HBO’s ‘The Last of Us'” by Evan Malachosky
- GQ: “All of the Menswear We’ve Clocked on The Last of Us So Far” by Tyler Chin
- GQ: “The Best Part of The Last of Us Is Pedro Pascal’s Jacket” by Tyler Chin
- GQ: “Here’s Where to Buy Pedro Pascal’s The Last Of Us Denim Shirt” by Tyler Chin
- GQ UK: “Joel’s watch is The Last Of Us’s greatest and most confounding mystery” by Robert Leedham
- GQ UK: “On The Last of Us, costumes for the end of the world” by Caroline Reilly
- Huckberry: “Hey, Is Pedro Pascal Wearing a Huckberry Flannel-Lined Waxed Trucker Jacket in The Last of Us?”
- Inside Hook: “The Internet Wants to Know: Where Is Joel’s ‘The Last of Us’ Episode 6 Coat From?” by Paolo Sandoval
- The RPF: “The Last of Us HBO Joel Thread” (For my money, there are no better screen-sartorial detectives than The RPF community!)
- SEEK (Instagram Reel): “Brilliant @cynthiasummers breaks down Joel’s jacket from @thelastofus”
- The Strategist (New York): “We Found Pedro Pascal’s Flannel Shirt From The Last of Us” by Rachael Griffiths
The Quote
Sometimes things don’t work out the way we hope. You can feel like you’ve come to an end and you don’t know what to do next, but if you just keep going, you find something new to fight for.
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