Neil Druckman and Chernobyl's Craig Mazin's adaptation of The Last of Us has finally arrived, with its premiere scoring HBO's second-largest debut in 10 years, after House of the Dragon. The long-anticipated series is based on Naughty Dog's 2013 critically-acclaimed PlayStation exclusive and follows Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) as he is tasked with transporting Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across-country during a fungal zombie pandemic. The story quickly becomes that of a reluctant father who, having lost his own daughter during the outbreak, must learn to let Ellie into his heart despite his pain and attachment issues. Ring any bells? Of course. This theme is not exclusive to The Last of Us, having featured prominently in 2017's Logan and through the Hopper and Eleven relationship on Netflix's Stranger Things.
Joel Miller and The Mandalorian Aren't So Different
However, fans may remember yet another recent instance of this relationship on our screens in the form of The Mandalorian, which returns for its third season in March. The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal in much the same role as he takes on in The Last of Us, as the reluctant Din Djarin takes it upon himself to transport a child across the galaxy in spite of fatal threats. It's clear that Pascal has become a paradigm of this archetype. So, where and when did this career trend start for the Chilean-American actor? The earliest recognized example is Pascal's turn in yet another sci-fi epic in which a rough-around-the-edges anti-hero must set aside his morally-questionable past in order to protect a child in need, which fans of The Last of Us and The Mandalorian alike will be pleased to discover.
What Is 'Prospect' About?
Prospect is a 2018 movie starring Pascal as a space-age wild west bandit, in a period of planetary prospectors. Yellowjackets' Sophie Thatcher stars as Cee, the daughter of Jay Duplass' Damon, a pioneer. The father and daughter crash-land on a spore-ridden fungal land not dissimilar to the overgrown world of The Last of Us video game (though the show has decided to exclude spores in the adaptation). It's a forest moon with a mote-filled atmosphere so deadly that it requires air filtration pressure suits to explore. To make matters worse, the clock is ticking, and the pair have limited time to harvest organic gems from the surface before the interstellar gantry that brought them here will leave again. They have three "cycles" to extract the valuable substance from alien egg sacs, and it requires steady hands and surgical precision to do so.
Soon after, her father is mortally wounded when ambushed by rival prospectors including the shady Ezra (Pascal), who then takes it upon himself to grow a conscience in light of his new responsibility towards the girl. As Ezra tells her, “a good partnership is only made so by candid discourse." It could be speculated that the creative team behind The Mandalorian saw Prospect and that Pascal's ability to convey hard-boiled sympathy from under a helmet won him the titular Star Wars role. Sophie Thatcher also joined the franchise's TV world with a small role in The Book of Boba Fett, which largely crosses over with The Mandalorian, further supporting this case.
The Wild West of Space
Star Wars itself, with its seemingly-infinite deserts, themes of colonialism, and largely unexplored worlds, has always harkened back to the Western genre and frontier-based stories. It's understandable why the franchise and others like it (namely Firefly and Cowboy Bebop) relate the space exploration setting to a more familiar style that links it to the days of the wild west. Boba Fett befriends the native tribal people of Tatooine much like Dances with Wolves and Little Big Man. Din Djarin wanders from town to town, putting his own mission aside time after time in order to aid the helpless townsfolk, like a classic Western TV hero. The Western genre itself is often a retelling of stories surrounding Asian frontiers and Samurai warriors, with TheMagnificent Seven being a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. The Mandalorian itself was inspired largely by Lone Wolf and Cub, another story in which a warrior is tasked with caring for a child. It could be argued that even The Last of Us is a Western too, given its new-world exploration and re-wilded landscape.
Prospect takes the idea of the sci-fi planetary Western and takes it to the extreme. As would naturally occur with the advent of public space travel, Prospect sees ambitious and desperate people alike exploring the newly-discovered territories in search of riches. Much like the real-life gold rush of the Americas, this movie sees several prospectors taking their chances in brutal and unforgiving terrain, in the hopes of acquiring a fortune. Inevitably, this un-policed world gives way to bandits and robbers, desperate enough to take lives in order to survive and thrive. It's this morally-grey brand of anti-hero that Pascal portrays in Prospect, and his brilliant performance, that readied him to play Joel Miller and The Mandalorian. His skill is so well-established within these characters and unlike The Mandalorian, which covers his face for its majority (a feat in showcasing physical performance no less), Prospect puts all of Pascal on full display. It should be mentioned, too, that Sophie Thatcher is fantastic as Cee. She would go on to feature in Yellowjackets, another current series worth praising, as the teenage version of Juliette Lewis' Natalie.
A Gold Rush Both In Front of and Behind the Camera
Without having seen the movie, it might be hard to imagine that Prospect is in fact a low-budget film. When you watch it, however, its minimal sets, costumes, and props do make this fact clearer, but it makes the film no less impressive. In fact, it's the film's minuscule budget of less than $4m that elevated this film to even greater heights. Its reliance on natural wildlife and woodland landscapes become charming and ingenious, and its scope in spite of its limitations cannot be commended enough. The fact that this film, which predates both The Mandalorian and The Last of Us, can be compared to two of the biggest-budget and most anticipated series from two of the most successful companies is no small feat, and directors Zeek Earl and Chris Caldwell were able to achieve this with very few prior credits to their names.
The small production was able to make waves, having premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival and creating a convincing interplanetary environment with next to no money. This is largely due to the fact that in spite of its otherworldly setting, and clever world-building, it isn't a story about space or laser guns, but rather a story of a bad man and a young girl. The relationship between Ezra and Cee is wonderful to watch unfold. This reluctant father figure is only pushed into the responsibility of caring for this girl due to the repercussions of his own actions, calling into question everything that led him to be the man he has become by the time we meet him. It's precisely this kind of human story that allows alien settings and sci-fi action to work so well, and Prospect's writing and performances deserve praise for this achievement.
Fans of Pedro Pascal and his unique ability to portray endearing scoundrels in positions of parental responsibility should seek out this lesser-known gem, and support independent cinema in the process. This character's journey across a vast and un-tameable wasteland gives audiences a taste of what to expect from The Last of Us, and potentially The Mandalorian's upcoming third season, all the while showing us how Pascal mastered the art of playing the reluctant father figure. As the actor said in a recent Vanity Fair interview, "Daddy is a state of mind, you know what I'm saying?... I'm your Daddy."
