You’ve probably noticed the fungus in HBOs The last of us Show works a bit differently than it does in games – especially in how they do Cordyceps Fungus, based on the real mushrooms of the same name, is spreading among people. The spores are out and the fungal network is in.
Spores in the games serve to set the atmosphere of the game: with the right light, you can see spores spurting out of cracked doors, a warning of the danger that lurks within. It’s the signal that, typically Joel, the characters must don their masks to avoid infection, although Ellie’s immunity means she only ever needs the mask to blend in. But there’s no way the gas masks could work on the show. You can’t hide your main characters’ faces behind a bulky mask; this is not The Mandalorianin the end.
“The show [is] a more realistic approach to the story and the world,” The last of us Author and creator Neil Druckmann said Polygon. “If we wanted to be realistic and there were spores around, characters would be wearing gas masks all the time. Then we lose so much, what is perhaps the most important part of the journey is what is going on behind her eyes, in her soul, in her being. For this logistical reason we thought: Let’s find another vector.”
The vector Druckmann u The last of us‘ Authors chose the fungal network. It’s a concept based on the real science of mushrooms: we see mushrooms when they burst through soil. The parts we see are the fruiting bodies of the whole organism, the rest is hidden beneath the surface of the earth. This part is called the myceliumthe threads that spread underground, connecting fungi and trees into what some mushroom experts call a “mycorrhizal network,” a natural network not unlike the internet “Wood Wide Web”. Trees, fungi, and other plants use these networks to carry water and other nutrients and “communicate” in various ways that often span miles and miles.
The mushroom networks, made up of sprawling tendrils, work in the same way The last of us on HBO, but instead of transmitting information about where the nutrients need to go, it alerts the network of infected people to a potential host: humans. Individual infected people join the “network” when scrawny tendrils grow into an opening in their body, often a bite. (In Episode 2, we see a more unique method of spread: an infected body leans into Tess for a kiss, tendrils sprouting from his mouth into hers.) The fungus spreads rapidly, taking on all functions except the urge to spread.
“[We wanted] feel like these things are connected. They can compete against us as a mass,” said Druckmann. “But also how they pass it from one person to another, it just got to this really disturbing thing that was like, Oh, that’s delicious. We have to use that.”
The switch from spores to vines and the fungal network adds another layer of tension to how the infected work. It’s no longer enough to simply remain stealthy and silent – one wrong move could mean activating a network of monsters moving en masse and knowing your exact location.
It’s a nice change of pace – in the video game, spores themselves aren’t a threat. You don’t get to choose when to put on a gas mask or when to take it off; Developers made that decision for you, and in that sense, the player is only in on it. Take away the gas masks and the game wouldn’t change much. Something just happens: gas masks on and then gas masks off.
There’s also consideration of framing the show around an airborne pandemic, like a gaming website Kotaku wrote after the premiere of the first episode. The last of us can be a harsh observation in this regard, and possibly a reason why the concept of spores has been dropped in favor of a fungal network. After all, there’s still the same sense of mystery with the vines, but with the added tension of communication between the infected. Mushrooms have a world map invisible to everyone else; Their only goal is to spread the fungus.
