Who was Sally Ride? Ellie’s love of space in The Last of Us explained
By Daniel Roman
The Last of Us Episode 6 was filled with easter eggs and references to the beloved video games by Naughty Dog. One of the best bits that made it into the episode was Joel and Ellie sharing what their dream jobs would have been if the cordyceps outbreak hadn’t happened.
While Joel initially tried to pass it off like he wouldn’t have cared much and would have just become a shepherd, he eventually reveals that his dream was always to be a singer. Conversely, Ellie shares that she would have wanted to be an astronaut. When she tells Joel that she read all the books in her FEDRA school library about the space program and astronauts, he correctly guesses that her favorite astronaut was Sally Ride.
These conversations go all the way back to the early days of development for The Last of Us Part II video game. Read on to find out how the game’s actors inspired their dream careers, and why Sally Ride is such an inspiration to Ellie.
What was Sally Ride known for?
Dr. Sally Ride lived from 1951 to 2012, spending around a decade doing intensive work with NASA. In 1983 she became the first American woman astronaut to fly in space (and the third woman overall, following Russians Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya). Ride was also the youngest American to ever fly into space as well, setting the record at only 32 years old when she was a part of Challenger’s STS-7 launch.
Ride served on several more shuttle launches in the following years, both returning to space as well tackling duties as a ground-based capsule communicator. She left NASA in 1987, but went on to do a range of work related to the space program, from teaching courses at Stanford University to briefly serving as the president of Space.com to serving on the investigation boards for the tragic crashes of the Challenger and Columbia shuttle launches. In 2008 she was approached by the Obama administration to rejoin NASA in an advisory role, but declined to continue forging her own path.
It’s easy to imagine how Ride would have been a role model for someone like Ellie.
Ellie’s dream of being an astronaut was a nod to game voice actor Ashley Johnson
“When I first started working with Neil [Druckmann] on this adaptation, it was before The Last of Us Part II had come out,” showrunner Craig Mazin recalled on the latest episode of The Last of Us Podcast. “And he showed me a sequence from the second game that touches on Ellie’s, you know, interest and fascination with being an astronaut and space travel. And it’s an incredibly beautiful moment. And that’s one of those times where I said, ‘Hey we have this opportunity that Neil didn’t have when he was making the first game, which is we know more now.'”
These’s a reason these characters have the dream careers they do. The Last of Us co-showrunner and video game creator Neil Druckmann revealed that these details were put in as a nod to the actors who played Ellie and Joel in the games, Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker (the latter is also the host of the podcast):
"To go even further back about the origins of why Ellie likes space so much. You know, these things are massive collaborations, and everybody puts a part of them into this thing. And over the course of making the game, I’ve gotten to know you, Troy, and Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie. And Ashley loves space, and astronauts, and knows everything about it. And I’m like “I want to make Ellie even more like Ashley.”And likewise, Joel, or Troy I should say, I knew your start was with music, and you play the guitar, and you sing. And that’s why Joel says, “I would have wanted to be a musician. A singer.” Yeah, there’s just something…I get a little emotional about this ’cause…we’ve all put, like so much of ourselves in this. And the combination of all that makes for something greater."
The Last of Us premieres new episodes Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
dark. Next. Beyond The Last of Us: 5 video games that would make great TV shows
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