last of us road trip

The Last of Us Road Trip: Recreating Joel and Ellie's Route (with Map!)

The Last of Us is a vastly popular game and TV series and it is likely that you might have come across it one way or another. The characters of The Last of Us make an almost cross-country journey of epic proportions, and this got us thinking - why not create road trips that are inspired by Joel and Ellie's travels?

The Last of Us depicts a journey that covers a vast 3,770 miles from Boston to Jackson, Wyoming, The characters in HBO's hit series take months to get from one place to another, but you can cover this route in 63 hours of driving, without accounting for stops.

This article contains spoilers from both the game and the TV series. If you are not bothered by spoilers, or know the storyline, then read on to find out what is the best way to visit the locations featured in The Last of Us and the best road trips inspired by them.

The Last of Us Locations

The map we have created is inspired by the video game version of The Last of Us, which was produced by Naughty Dog and released in 2013. The television series released this year by HBO follows a similar path but with diversions.

The story of both the game and the TV series focuses on the mammoth journey undertaken by Joel and Ellie, a man and a young girl, as they travel in a post-apocalyptic world from the East Coast to Wyoming.

Parts of their trip make for great road trips and while you might not want to navigate from one coast to the other during a zombie apocalypse like Joel and Ellie, you can still follow their footsteps to an extent and create your own adventure inspired by the popular game and TV series.

The game starts in Austin, Texas, where Joel lives, but shortly after, the storyline fast forwards several years. This is why Boston, where Joel meets Ellie several years later, makes a good starting point for our list of road trips.

While the exact routes that Joel and Ellie follow are vague in parts, this is our take on their journey!

1. Boston to Lincoln

20 miles (30 minutes)

Why this route is significant: This trip is the shortest on our list and is the perfect adventure for a day trip to the charming and incredibly scenic town of Lincoln.

Lincoln is surrounded by beautiful natural scenery, which is maybe why Bill, Joel's old friend and the town's only resident during the time of Joel and Ellie's arrival, chose not to flee like the rest of the town's residents.

Why you should make this trip: This road trip is manageable as a day trip from Boston and Lincoln is dotted with historic buildings and unique landscapes, which include a national historic park and a sculpture park to keep you busy all day.

Real-life filming locations: In the TV series, the scenes that took place outside Massachusetts State House with its recognizable golden dome were actually filmed at the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton.

It isn't known for certain, but the small and cute towns of Okotoks and Olds in the Calgary region are potentially used as the filming location for Bill's hometown of Lincoln.

How to get there: Follow Interstate 93 (I-93) out of Boston and then follow MA-2 towards Lincoln.

Our highlights: If you have thought of Lincoln as remote a town as depicted on the HBO series, you might be pleasantly surprised when you arrive in Lincoln. You will find many unique attractions here like the stunning (and popular!) deCordova Sculpture Park, showcasing many artworks.

Thankfully, the battle that took place in Minute Man National Historical Park was not against zombies! Here you will see the opening battle of the Revolution come to life and learn through this important moment of American revolutionary history.

Located in the Minute Man National Historical Park, Hartwell Tavern is a beautiful 18th-century building is called a “witness house”. Maybe not cordyceps taking over humanity, but it witnessed the battle on April 19, 1775.

If you are like Joel, and enjoy your space and peace, visit Walden Pond State Reservation, which even inspired Henry David Thoreau's Walden.

Fun facts/trivia: The game and the TV series depict very different storylines in Lincoln.

The church in Lincoln as depicted in the game is entirely fictional, but if you want to visit a beautiful church, First Parish is a historic building in town that dates back to the 1700s!

Bill in the TV series is an obvious foodie, and while you cannot taste his delicious-looking cooking, you can head over to the neighboring town of Concord and sample the offerings at the upscale restaurant of 80 Thoreau.

When to visit: In The Last of Us, Joel and Ellie might not have visited Lincoln during the colder months, but if you visit Lincoln in February, you will get to enjoy the Lincoln Winter Carnival.

If you want to enjoy the great outdoors like Joel and Ellie (they did walk all the way to Lincoln, after all!) you might want to visit from mid-June to mid-September to enjoy warm weather activities in this historic town.

2. Lincoln to Pittsburgh

570 miles (9 hours 20 minutes)

Why this route is significant: This road trip marks the point where Joel and Ellie start driving as opposed to traveling on foot, which makes sense as this road trip covers a longer distance than the previous one.

While Joel and Ellie probably traveled on the fastest route to reach their destination in Pittsburgh on their quest to find the Fireflies, you will have the option to make detours to incredibly scenic Susquehannock and Sproul State Forests.

You can also make a detour to iconic New York City (which, unfortunately, isn't featured in The Last of Us, but hard to blame Joel and Ellie for not stopping here, thinking of how many zombies they might encounter in this dense city!).

Why you should make this trip: This road trip is a great one that takes you from the outskirts of Boston to the charming city of Pittsburgh with so many detour options. It is also easily manageable over a weekend or a long weekend if you want to put aside more time to retrace our duo's steps.

Real-life filming locations: It is good to note that the creators of the TV series swapped Pittsburgh with Kansas City. The episode features some shots filmed both in Kansas City and Canada.

How to get there: Take I-90 out of Lincoln and follow I-84 to merge with I-80 and then I-99 if not making a detour to New York. If you are, then follow I-91 through New Haven after reaching Hartford, which will take you to the Big Apple.

You will then drive through the charming Bethlehem and chocolate-central Hershey. After here, heading west on I-76 will take you to Pittsburgh.

Our highlights: As you enter the city in the game, it is hard not to notice the unique architecture of Fort Duquesne Bridge which is based on its real-life counterpart.

You will recognize the unique architecture of BNY Mellon Center, a majestic skyscraper from the game. It was also featured in Flashdance and Desperate Measures.

While impressed by some of these landmarks resembling their real versions, we wished that Joel and Ellie would have visited the beautiful Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens which would have been an impressive, overgrown jungle oasis in a zombie apocalypse.

Even though not featured in The Last of Us, PNC Park is an iconic stadium that is worth a visit while you are in Pittsburgh.

Where to stay: While the Grand Hotel in the game is a fictional place, we think it somehow resembles Omni William Penn Hotel . It is very likely that the game designers were influenced by this hotel's architecture.

This elegant and charming hotel's history goes way back. It once housed John F. Kennedy and Lawrence Welk and you will find an award-winning restaurant onsite.

The hotel is located in the heart of downtown (great if you aren't being chased by a clicker or two!), which is adjacent to the Cultural District.

While in Pittsburgh, you are never too far from one of its hundreds (a whopping 723!) of bridges, but we recommend crossing the Andy Warhol Bridge close by to visit the Andy Warhol Museum.

Alternatively, you can follow the storyline in the TV series, the Ranchland Motel featured in the Kansas City episode is actually Ranchland Inn , located in Nanton, Canada. If you are located in the vicinity, you can stop by and see where Joel, Ellie, Sam and Henry stayed.

Fun facts/trivia: The TV series swapped Pittsburgh with Kansas City allegedly because the filming location in Canada resembled Kansas City more. Pittsburgh's significance in the game is due to its unique and recognizable cityscape with its many bridges. Talking about being a unique city to visit!

While the TV series introduces Sam (who vastly became a beloved supporting character) and his older brother Henry in the Kansas City episodes, we first see them in Pittsburgh in the game version.

When to visit: While Joel and Ellie were likely in Pittsburgh in late summer, this city is lovely to visit year-round!

Visit during Christmas time (while making a stop at the festive town of Bethlehem, which comes alive during this period) to enjoy the incredible display of Light Up Night's Fireworks and the charming Christmas markets.

Useful information: If you are traveling through New York, be prepared for traffic and some possible delays, as this city is known for its traffic congestion.

3. Pittsburgh to Jackson

1,840 miles (28 hours)

Why this route is significant: There is no denying that this is a mammoth journey to undertake, and we don't know much about the exact routes Joel and Ellie follow to reach Jackson in their search for the Fireflies.

While it is safe to assume that they would stay away from most of the main cities (and out of the cordyceps-driven zombies' line of sight) we suggest you take a more varied and interesting route to reach your destination - in contrast to Joel and Ellie's journey.

Jackson is a beautiful mountainous city, just where you'd imagine a flourishing community of survivors might want to set base in, and the city in The Last of Us is based on its real-life counterpart.

Why you should make this trip: This is an epic journey of contrasts and choices (the latter is a very central theme in The Last of Us as well). There are two great alternatives, depending on how much time you have.

You can opt to drive through Kansas City to pay homage to the TV version's take on the story or travel north through Cleveland and Chicago.

Real-life filming locations: Located to the west of Calgary, Canmore was used as the filming location for Jackson, Wyoming scenes in the TV version of The Last of Us.

Horseshoe Dam in Alberta was used as the dam in the fictional dam in Jackson in the TV series.

How to get there: If going north, head to Cleveland on I-76, and then travel west to Chicago. When you reach Des Moines, switch to I-80. When you arrive in Rock Springs, follow US-191 northwest all the way to Jackson.

If heading south, you will travel through Columbus, Indianapolis, St Louis and Kansas City before joining up with I-80 like the above route.

Our highlights: We are sure Ellie would have enjoyed visiting National Elk Refuge, given how she enjoyed seeing a giraffe in the game version.

Antler Arches of Jackson are majestic arches made by naturally shed elk antlers that definitely have a post-apocalyptic vibe that could feature in a zombie TV series!

We think that Grand Teton National Park could have easily been a filming location for the series. Let your inner adventurer out and try one of the many scenic hikes here.

Antelope Flats is where you will find “Mormon Row” which consists of a few derelict buildings with grand views of the Grand Tetons. This is exactly what we imagine the Jackson Community in The Last of Us would have looked like if Tommy and his friends didn't take such good care to protect it.

Where to stay: You, unfortunately, cannot stay in the cozy (well, cozy, given the obvious zombie apocalypse going on!) houses of The Last of Us' Jackson community but Parkway Inn of Jackson Hole embodies the mountainous vibes you have seen on the screen very well.

A luxury Joel would only dream of, there is a fabulous indoor pool and a hot tub in the hotel, which are the perfect way to relax after such a long drive.

This hotel is a short drive from Grand Teton National Park and boasts a stellar location just a short walk from historic downtown Jackson, which features many fantastic restaurants and shops.

Fun facts/trivia: John Paino, the production designer of the TV series, wanted the fictional Jackson to display the innate charm of the Midwest. To achieve this, Paino's team constructed greenhouses and stables on vacant parking lots and embellished existing buildings in Canmore.

They also erected an actual 60-foot-tall log wall along a major street in the town, which had to be opened periodically to let traffic pass.

When to visit: The game depicts Joel and Ellie arriving in Jackson in autumn, whereas the TV series depicts the snowy and wintery side of Jackson. Jackson is gorgeous to visit in all of the four seasons, but we recommend visiting in winter to enjoy the famous ski resort near the city.

On the other hand, spring is arguably the best season for wildlife spotting in Jackson, and you will also get to enjoy gorgeous blossoms.

Useful information: If you are traveling in winter, keep in mind that Wyoming winters can be harsh, so bring winter chains for your tires and check weather warnings.

4. Jackson to Boulder

490 miles (8 hours 10 minutes)

Why this route is significant: Continuing on their quest for the Fireflies and leaving Joel's brother Tommy and his community behind, Joel and Ellie travel to Boulder to find the Fireflies in the fictional University of Eastern Colorado.

While on your search for the Fireflies, you will find plenty at this destination, as Boulder is located on the foothills of the Rocky Mountains which is home to Colorado's native species of fireflies!

Why you should make this trip: This is a short and manageable distance that would make a scenic weekend getaway. You will get to visit Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, Rocky Mountain National Park and Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests as well as Fort Collins on the way.

Real-life filming locations: The filming location for the University of Eastern Colorado in the TV series is the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology campus in Calgary.

How to get there: Follow US-191 out of Jackson and switch to I-80 past Rock Springs. Heading north on US-287 will get to your destination in Boulder.

Our highlights: The University of Eastern Colorado might not be real, but it is actually based on a real one that you can go visit! Colorado State University is the inspiration behind the fictional university and is located in Fort Collins, which lies directly on this road trip route.

You won't be able to visit the Colorado Mountain Plaza, which is a fictional mall in the game, but you can visit the popular Pearl Street Market for all your shopping needs.

When you aren't being chased by mushroom-laden zombies, head to Colorado Chautauqua Park for some inner peace and contemplation.

Striking rock formations described as “what makes Boulder Boulder”, you will find many trails in the vicinity of the Flatirons, ranging in length and difficulty.

Fun facts/trivia: The production company of the game version of The Last of Us, (allegedly) Naughty Dog created a website for the Colorado Mountain Plaza with three of the stores in the mall having their own websites. Talking about attention to detail!

Even though The Last of Us wasn't technically filmed there, Colorado is a favorite filming location for apocalypse-themed games and movies such as Wasteland 3, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Homefront, the Dead Rising series, Call of Duty: Ghosts and World War Z and Call of Duty: Ghosts.

When to visit: best time to visit Boulder is arguably spring or fall. Because the city is surrounded by incredibly scenic landscapes such as the Rocky Mountains, you will get to enjoy spectacular views of fall foliage or gorgeous spring blossoms.

Useful information: Boulder gets quite snowy during winter, so make sure your car is prepared and that you check the road conditions before setting off.

5. Boulder to Salt Lake City

520 miles (8 hours)

Why this route is significant: This is one of the most important sections in the storyline of The Last of Us and a lot of important events happen on the way from Boulder to Salt Lake City.

After learning that the Fireflies have relocated to Salt Lake City from the University of Eastern Colorado, Joel and Ellie head to the big city with a lot of obstacles to overcome.

Luckily, you won't have any obstacles on this journey as you will be traveling on safe interstates and major highways. This road trip will be just as action-packed (but in a good way, minus the zombies!).

Why you should make this trip: This is a varied road trip with outdoor opportunities for all seasons. Though these activities were not what was on Joel and Ellie's minds at the time, you can make a detour to visit Denver, go skiing in Breckenridge, Vail or Aspen, explore White River National Forest and admire the scenery that surrounds Provo.

Real-life filming locations: Most of the series was filmed in Alberta, Canada.

How to get there: Take US-36 out of Boulder to visit Denver, and then follow I-70 all the way to Green River in Utah. From here, head northwest US-191 and US-6 to reach Provo. I-15 will then take you to the heart of Salt Lake City

Our highlights: You won't see giraffes roaming the city as Joel and Ellie do in The Last of Us, but you can meet these fascinating creatures at the African Savannah exhibit at Utah's Hogle Zoo!

While playing the game, you might have spotted the unmistakable silhouette of the famous Salt Lake Temple in the background. This Mormon temple boasts beautiful and unique architecture and is well worth a visit.

It is impossible to miss the majestic mountains that surround SLC in the game (moved closer to the city than their real-life counterparts, possibly to make them look even more dramatic). To admire the Wasatch Mountains first-hand, head to Big Cottonwood Canyon for a hike or two.

Not featured in the game, but we think a curious mind like Ellie would have appreciated a tour of the Natural History Museum of Utah, which features skeletons of several dinosaurs!

Where to stay: Even though we didn't spot Grand America Hotel 's iconic building among the tall structures of SLC in the game, it still might be hidden in the background (let us know if you spot it!).

If you are lucky enough to stay on the higher levels, you will get to admire the cityscape from a great vantage point like Joel and Ellie did. Located in the heart of downtown, you will also be within easy reach of the magnificent Temple Square.

There are indoor and outdoor pools and a gym if you'd like to keep in top shape to outrun the zombies and a restaurant on-site that we highly recommend for refueling before you head out to brave the cordyceps once again!

Fun facts/trivia: Do you ever give your significant other chocolate or flowers to show them that you appreciate them?

The level designer in the game version, Peter Field took that one step further and named the baseball field featured in the foreground as Joel and Ellie enter Salt Lake City after his partner, calling it “Bethany Clare Field”.

When to visit: Joel and Ellie arrive in Salt Lake City in April, which is a great time to visit (obviously for different reasons as you hopefully won't be looking for a cure to heal humanity).

However, if you visit in winter, you can take a peek at the glamorous Sundance Film Festival's star-studded crowd. Who knows, maybe you will spot Pedro Pascal or Bella Ramsey!

Useful information: You can visit Temple Square, but can only admire this unique structure from the outside unless you belong to the Mormon religion.

6. Salt Lake City to Jackson

280 miles (5 hours)

Why this route is significant: We don't know much about what happens on Joel and Ellie's journey but now that their quest to find Fireflies and a cure is over, they choose to return to reunite with the Jackson community.

This would allow them to have as normal a life as it is possible, given the zombie apocalypse is still going on.

Though you are following in the footsteps of our duo, the road trip from Salt Lake City to Jackson has so many hidden gems that you don't need to hurry to reach your destination, unlike Joel and Ellie.

Why you should make this trip: This is a scenic and relatively short road trip, so it can be easily done over two days or a long weekend. There are also lovely hot spring towns, amazing geysers, scenic reservoirs and rugged mountains to admire on the way.

Real-life filming locations: As mentioned above, Canmore, which is located to the west of Calgary, was used as the filming location for Jackson in HBO's version of The Last of Us.

How to get there: Follow I-5 out of Salt Lake City and Malad City and Arimo before heading east to arrive at Lava Hot Springs. Head further west to Soda Springs and switch to ID-34, driving past Caribou Mountain to Alpine and then Palisades. Cross from Idaho to Wyoming to arrive in Jackson.

Our highlights: Taking a dip in hot spring pools might be a luxury out of Joel and Ellie's reach as they travel back to Jackson, but we definitely recommend taking a relaxing dip at Lava Hot Springs on this road trip.

Ellie would have been impressed by the famous geyser of Soda Springs, definitely worth a visit.

If the TV series hadn't chosen to film the episodes in Canada, we can imagine Alpine would have been an amazing option with its dramatic, mountainous backdrop and scenic landscape.

You don't need to be a survivalist or living through a zombie apocalypse to look for an excuse to whip out your fishing rod and show of your skills. Palisades Reservoir provides ample opportunity to catch cutthroat and brown trout, kokanee, and mackinaw lake trout.

When to visit: Warmer months are better to set off on this road trip, as this region gets quite a bit of snowfall. You will drive through beautiful scenery, so planning your trip in the spring will mean you can get to see nature come back to life through blossoms.

Similarly, traveling in the fall would mean that you can spot some gorgeous red-colored foliage on the mountain slopes as you drive past them.

It is likely that Joel and Ellie make this journey mid-year, and summer is definitely a great option as well. Traveling during the warmer months will allow you to enjoy outdoor activities to their fullest.

Useful information: Palisades Reservoir is open for fishing year-round and some of the best fishing happens in the spring and fall months due to the cooler waters keeping more active.

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The Last of Us episode 4 recap and review: Jokes, threats and mean Kathleen

The Last of Us episode 4 adds Melanie Lynskey to the cast

Just when gamers might think they know what The Last of Us episode 4 was going to do, the script flipped to Kansas City. The new episode, following the phenomenal third episode, was both a back-to-basics edition, and the introduction of a new villain.

So while this isn't the emotional powerhouse that The Last of Us episode 3 was, this episode reminded yours truly of one of the best TV shows of 2022 — Andor. I'll explain why below.

This is one of the four episodes I saw in advance of writing my The Last of Us review , and it's ... well, this is the spoiler-free section of the article. But don't scroll down before you watch The Last of Us episode 4 online . We're not joking when we say it's one of the best HBO Max shows in a while.

The below contains a detailed recap of The Last of Us episode 4, so there are spoilers. 

The Last of Us episode 4 recap and review: Joel and Ellie back on the road

The latest leg of Joel and Ellie's road trip through the chaos and toward destiny starts off with a bathroom break. Or at least that's what Ellie probably wants Joel to think, as she pretends to fire the handgun she took from Bill and Frank's house into a mirror. Satisfied with herself, but still a bit unsure, Ellie remains secretive. 

We then follow her outside where Joel's siphoning gas out of a car, and explaining how the gas they have is no good because it's degrading down to water. Ellie's inquisitiveness about life in the before-times comes up when she asks about where Joel would go. He admits "nowhere," before she calls him on being unable to explain the science behind a siphon.

These scenes, mixing the excellent banter of Joel and Ellie with the Americana of Williams and the degraded landscapes, seem to exist to bring us back into the bigger picture after last week's personal story.

And this is where The Last of Us' humorous bone reemerges, as Ellie's got a pun book she's going to torture Joel with. She also refuses to stop after Joel displays a disinterest in that specific vintage of jokes. The two get on the road, and Ellie finds a Hank Williams cassette tape in the car, and hands it to Joel. He says it's from before his time (it is), puts it on the car stereo ("Alone and Forsaken" plays) and she laughs his claim off.

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Then, Ellie finds a gay pornography magazine, and pretends to be shocked while Joel tries to be a dad for the first time in a while — and tells her to put it down. Soon enough, Ellie reveals she's been playing dumb and knows what's going on, before saying "bye-bye dudes," and chucking it out the window.

These scenes, mixing the excellent banter of Joel and Ellie with the Americana of Williams and the degraded landscapes, seem to exist to bring us back into the bigger picture after last week's personal story. As Joel and Ellie drive past tons of discarded military vehicles, Bella Ramsey shows a weary look that belies bad experiences, while we don't even see Joel's reaction. 

The Last of Us Episode 4 enters the darkness

As it gets dark out, Joel pulls the truck over and into a forest, so they can get some shuteye in peace. Before that, they bond over an appreciation of Chef Boyardee, and Joel tells Ellie that they can't warm themselves over a fire because of the likely-terrible people who will find them and have thoughts worse than murder. 

While Joel is trying to sleep, Ellie shouts to get his attention, before hitting him with a punny question — that he already knows the answer to. And that moment, with Joel meeting Ellie on a common level of bad jokes — is yet another good moment worth a smile or chuckle, and one that has you worried about how The Last of Us will break our hearts next. 

In the morning, Ellie reveals a distaste for Joel's kind of coffee, and the two get on the road, with Ellie providing directions. Talk turns to Joel's brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna), and how to pronounce Cheyenne. Ellie, intent on learning about Joel, annoys him enough to get Tommy's life story out of him. Turns out Tommy got Joel to join a group of travelers with him, where they met Tess. Then, Tommy met Marlene, and joined up (again) with the Fireflies. He's since left them. 

Joel tells Ellie she's just cargo, and not family. But everyone watching at home can already tell he's lying. Speaking of, Ellie passes out, revealing she was lying about being tired, before the pair drive into the traffic of deserted vehicles. They're in Kansas City, and Joel's gonna brute-force his way through, by driving around. 

We're not outside of Kansas City anymore

And in the city, we're in full-on humans hunting humans mode, one of the most traditional aspects of zombie show/movie storytelling. The Last of Us differentiates itself by having half of its squad be experienced (Joel) and the other half (Ellie) never having been in a car before yesterday. Attacks hit from all angles, including a road spikes trap. Our heroes crash into a laundromat I swear I've raided in the game, and are under fire. 

A gunshot rings out, and Brian's not talking. Ellie then helps Joel into that room, in the latest moment that reminds me of the game — clearing paths in front of a door.

Joel gives Ellie orders to hide, while he takes the baddies on with a rifle. But once the smoke is clear, a door pops open and another attacker surprises Joel, yelling "you're gonna f**king pay for what you did." So you may wonder if Joel's encountered them before. As the guy is choking Joel out, Ellie sneaks up and shoots him with that gun she (thankfully) stole. He begs to be let go, screams about his legs not working, offers trade and says his name is Brian. 

Joel looks at Ellie, she gives him the gun, and Brian desperately offers his own knife. Pleading, Brian says "You can have it, it's a good knife." And when Joel tells Ellie to get behind a wall, Brian freaks out more. A gunshot rings out, and Brian's not talking. Ellie then helps Joel into that room, in the latest moment that reminds me of the game — clearing paths in front of a door. 

The Last of Us' Kathleen is an understandable threat

Joel and Ellie escape as Brian's people are looking for him, and we cut to Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) interrogating an old man about missing persons — specifically, a Henry. They're in a FEDRA cell, and she demands to know the truth, before talking about how her brother was beaten to death. Kathleen, if you don't know, is a brand-new character.

And she calls the old man out on being OK with people dying before now, and only wanting it to end now. He claims he had to do what he did because he was threatened, so Kathleen puts a gun to his head. He reveals that he was the doctor who delivered her, and kept secrets about her brother. But Henry snitched about her brother, and she's upset about that.

Throughout this scene, I had flashbacks to Andor. There, we saw relatable characters — Dedra Meero and Syril Karn — in villainous roles. Then, Kathleen walks through a group of people to find Brian's dead body, she asks Perry (Jeffrey Pierce, the voice of Tommy in the games) about what happened. He thinks outsiders, having found Joel and Ellie's truck. Kathleen's concerned about this Henry person calling Joel and Ellie in. 

Kathleen walks off, angry, and shoots someone (probably the doctor) dead, before demanding that her men kill the interlopers. Trucks spray painted with "WE THE PEOPLE" and "RUN" roll out, and their soldiers break down every door they can. 

Ellie and Joel are hiding out in an abandoned bar, and Joel knows they're not going to be safe for long. She asks if he's OK, he says he is. He asks the same, and she says she's OK. Joel says Ellie shouldn't have had to shoot him, tries to offer her some kind of help, but fails to finish his sentence. And that's when Ellie dabs her eyes and admits to having shot someone before. Then, Joel finally gives Ellie the handgun training she's so desperately wanted.

For at least the second time in this episode, they've bonded. And Joel gives her the gun back, demanding that she keep it in her pack and not her pants, lest she shoot her behind off by accident. Disobedient as ever, Ellie tucks the gun in her jacket pocket. Cautiously, they leave, but not before Joel says "We'll get through this." He's talking about Kansas City, but one knows there's a greater meaning for survivors. 

Kathleen and Perry are searching for the interlopers, and come across a hiding space littered by cans and decorated with a child's drawings. She speaks of Henry and Sam as the people who were here. It all looks and sounds like Sam is Henry's kid. 

Perry seems less certain than Kathleen about hunting them, but something new and scary lurks in the floors of a storage room. Kathleen drops an F-bomb, the broken floor moves, and the two run out. Perry asks what they will tell the others, and Kathleen says this will have to wait, and that the building needs to be sealed off. 

Joel and Ellie, still on the run, get into a 45-floor building, and as they go upstairs, Joel admits that he, Tess and Tommy acted like the people who were hunting them. She asks if he's killed innocent people, and gets a silence that screams louder than a "yes" could. Then, the two find a room to hide out in, where Joel spreads glass across the floor. Ellie needs an explanation about this trap that will let them know someone's nearby. He then asks about the bad thing she's done, she doesn't want to talk about it. Then, Ellie delivers a fantastic pun that's a bathroom joke I don't want to make here. Joel, humanizing himself a little, laughs.

And the two eventually fall asleep, only to awaken … while being held up by a kid with a gun. So much for Joel's hearing. He's got an eye-mask drawn on his face that's reminiscent of the drawings at Henry and Sam's hideout, so I'm guessing he's Sam.

Outlook: The Last of Us episode 4 is another winner

In short, The Last of Us episode 4 is bringing people more of what they expected when they heard the heralded video game would be coming to TV. But by adding Kathleen, a brand-new character, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann are continuing to find more depth to the series.

We cannot wait to see what happens in The Last of Us episode 5 .

Read next: How to watch South Park season 26 online without cable

Henry is a managing editor at Tom’s Guide covering streaming media, laptops and all things Apple, reviewing devices and services for the past seven years. Prior to joining Tom's Guide, he reviewed software and hardware for TechRadar Pro, and interviewed artists for Patek Philippe International Magazine. He's also covered the wild world of professional wrestling for Cageside Seats, interviewing athletes and other industry veterans.

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Road-Tripping Through a Post-Apocalyptic America in “The Last of Us”

By Inkoo Kang

In the post-apocalyptic diseasescape of the new dramatic thriller “The Last of Us,” on HBO, survivors are offered the choice between a regimented existence in scattered quarantine zones under a repressive police state and near-certain death beyond their borders. Inside the government’s densely patrolled walls, it’s believed that only the nihilistic sort—slavers, marauders, terrorists—would risk infection by the creatures that wiped out civilization two decades ago: mutated parasitic fungi called cordyceps, which hijack their human hosts and turn them into zombies. The infected, who slowly hybridize with the parasites to become more impervious, may well be ineradicable as a species. When the mutation is first discovered, in Jakarta, a petrified mycologist advises, “Bomb this city and everyone in it.”

Cities were shelled in an effort to stamp out the cordyceps, and small towns were replaced by mass graves. A fascination with panicked brutality links “The Last of Us,” co-created by Craig Mazin, to his previous series, “ Chernobyl .” On the autumn night in 2003 that the cordyceps arrive in Austin, a construction worker named Joel (Pedro Pascal) attempts to flee in a truck with his teen-age daughter, Sarah (Nico Parker), and his younger brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna). He denies help to a young family stranded on the side of a road and is soon repaid exponentially for his hard-heartedness when a soldier is instructed via walkie-talkie, with no explanation, to execute Sarah. In the present day, Joel, now a skilled smuggler, plans to break out of a Massachusetts quarantine zone with his partner, Tess (a soulful Anna Torv), and head to Wyoming in search of Tommy. The pair are reluctantly convinced by the new order’s resistance movement—whose leader Tess scornfully calls “the Che Guevara of Boston”—to transport a fourteen-year-old girl, Ellie (Bella Ramsay), to a scientific base out West. Immune to the cordyceps, she may hold the key to a vaccine. (If such a breakthrough comes to pass, one can imagine a second season of the show that contends with the characters’ bafflement at the widespread mistrust of a lifesaving jab.)

Genre-savvy and satisfyingly tense, “The Last of Us” is adapted with affectionate but not deferential fidelity from the 2013 video game of the same name. Neil Druckmann, who wrote and co-directed the award-winning third-person shooter, created the TV series with Mazin. I have never played The Last of Us, and, for viewers justifiably leery of video-game adaptations, one of the highest compliments I can pay the show is that I wouldn’t have guessed that Joel and Ellie’s mordant, spiritedly macabre adventures first began in pixelated form. (Provocatively, a late sequence structured like a conventional shooter game makes us reconsider the morality of the gunman.) Audiences unfamiliar with the source material are more likely to be reminded of other popular series. “Game of Thrones” is an obvious influence, not just in the casting of the two leads, who played fan favorites on the medieval-fantasy juggernaut, but in its character-driven stakes and seductive evocations of brute force as a sometimes necessary evil. “ Station Eleven ,” the defiantly optimistic portrait of a Shakespearean theatre troupe wayfaring through a post-pandemic Midwest, is another precursor, in images if not in tone; the Ozymandian sights of nature’s reclamations in “The Last of Us”—ducks and frogs swimming blithely in a flooded hotel lobby, or a herd of roaming giraffes seemingly escaped from a zoo—conjure that same beauty of perseverance amid desolation.

Mazin and Druckmann eventually carve out their own niche between the relative sunniness of “Station Eleven” and the self-conscious grimness and shock-for-shock’s-sake violence of, say, “ The Walking Dead .” The show’s rough-hewn center is the surrogate father-daughter bond between Joel and Ellie, but the series works best as an anthropological travelogue of post-catastrophe subcultures, teasing out the disparate ways that survivors rebuild mini-societies and create new alignments of power.

Between the monomaniacal militias and the self-cannibalizing cults, a deserted preschool classroom, constructed underground, stands as a brightly muraled testament to the blind hope that many parents still nursed for their children, while a heavily guarded commune risks the messy ideals of equality and coöperation even in the face of existential peril. These long detours are often accompanied by rather moving vignettes centered on minor characters. An early highlight is Bill (Nick Offerman), a smugly paranoid, hyper-competent prepper who relishes the mostly unpestered solitude of near-extinction, until the arrival of a hungry trespasser (Murray Bartlett) forces him to grapple with the loneliness he’s tried to deny. Scott Shepherd is as terrifying as any of the spore-heads in his role as a soft-voiced pastor who preys on his followers’ need for solace and guidance. A peevish husband and wife in their silver years, isolated in a snowy hinterland, illustrate the inevitability that, in the end, nothing endures but cockroaches and bickering old couples.

The sole disappointment among these secondary figures is played by Melanie Lynskey, who turns in perhaps the first bad performance of her career as Kathleen, a rebel leader fixated on revenge. An underwritten character created for the series, Kathleen serves as a cautionary tale for Joel—grief transformed them both into stronger, sharper, and, in many ways, baser versions of themselves. With Ellie, Joel is offered a path toward redemption, as well as a chance to become more than the sum of his gruff heroics. He’s still the dutiful dad who sacrificed neighbors and strangers alike to protect his daughter. The series, like the game, asks when that patriarchal protectiveness—the subject not only of this story but of so many cinematic masculine fantasies—verges on something darker.

But “The Last of Us” does lightness just as well, and it is that willingness to embrace the full humanity of its characters, including their ardor for material comforts, that gives the series its earthy relatability, despite Joel’s laughable spryness as a fiftysomething roughneck and Ellie’s gothic childhood as an orphan in a post-apocalyptic military school. When Joel and Ellie pack provisions from a rare well-stocked home, she makes sure to prioritize toilet paper—a big improvement from the pages of old magazines. There’s a refreshing honesty to the show’s approach to menstrual needs, too, not least in the “Fuck yeah!” that Ellie exclaims, stumbling upon an ancient box of Tampax in an abandoned store. The show’s occasionally clunky dialogue hampers the formation of an organic through line for Joel and Ellie’s relationship, but the scenes of mutual teasing, or of Joel’s recollections of what the world was like before, feel as crucial as the ones in which they save each other’s life for the umpteenth time. Passing the shattered remains of a downed plane, Ellie marvels at the thought of human flight, an experience that Joel tells her felt far from miraculous. Later, seizing the opportunity to shape her ideas of the past, he reassures her about his own former line of work: “Everybody loved contractors.” Acting opposite an understated Pascal, the button-eyed Ramsay shines as the shrewd but sheltered Ellie, a snarky, friendless teen desperate to find a worthy target of her loving mockery.

The expansive imaginings of survivalist adaptations are matched by the production’s eerie visual allure, not least in the marine pulchritude of the cordyceps’ character design. Multicolored fungi bloom across the faces of the infected, leaving intact the mouths and teeth with which they attack, as they join a teeming, growing army that appears to know no natural death, and only lies dormant, waiting. For all the narrative’s graceful swerves and clever surprises, its greatest reveal may be that the characters find reasons to go on despite the immense evolutionary advantages of their predators and the realization of our most savage instincts. ♦

An earlier version of this article misattributed the description of a resistance leader as “the Che Guevara of Boston.”

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The Last of Us locations: where was the post-apocalypse TV show filmed?

The Last of Us locations — plan your own road trip.

If you've been enjoying the new HBO video game adaptation The Last of Us , then you may well be interested in finding out as much as you can about the show, including where it was filmed.

Well, if you've met The Last of Us cast, understood how the show's clickers work and read up on who the Fireflies are , you might also be interested in looking up The Last of Us' locations, to see where it was filmed.

While the majority of the show was filmed in Canada, there are plenty of locations used over the nine episodes. If you love the show, you may well want to plan your own The Last of Us road trip, or simply look at what the locations look like in real life.

To that end, this The Last of Us locations guide will bring you through some of the most important locations of the show, as well as where they were filmed. To help you avoid spoilers, this guide will be listed in episodical order.

The Last of Us locations in episode 1

High river & fort macleod.

The beginning of the first episode is set in Austin, the state capital of Texas. However, filming wasn't even done in the US.

Instead, two towns in Alberta, Canada were used. These are High River and Fort Macleod, the latter also being the birthplace of Joni Mitchell. Another town, Olds, was used for reshoots for certain shots.

Joel and Sarah are shown living in a cul-de-sac which is actually in High River. The intense driving sequence which is shown as one long take uses Fort Macleod, 

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Since the TV show takes place in the outskirts of Austin, pre-apocalypse, few changes were made to the sets, unlike for all the subsequent post-apocalypse locations...

Lots of the first episode takes place in the Boston Quarantine Zone, a small area of Boston that has been closed off from the infected to protect the remaining inhabitants. We see life going on in these areas, and for some people, it appears as though life is going on as normal.

These scenes weren't filmed in Boston though — instead, a whole bespoke area was created, to resemble a real area. Construction took multiple months to complete on this.

This was made in Calgary, in the Ramsay neighborhood of the city.

The Last of Us locations in episode 2

Calgary interiors.

The beginning of episode two is set in Jakarta, Indonesia, but as the distinct scarcity of establishing shots suggests, the team didn't fly all the way to Indonesia to shoot.

Instead, most of the interior scenes take place over Calgary.

Lots of the second episode of The Last of Us takes place in Boston, once Joel, Ellie and Tess have escaped the Quarantine Zone. It's a ruined and crumbling area that, before the apocalypse, would have served as the downtown area.

While the TV show wasn't filmed in downtown Boston, it was filmed in an equally metropolitan area — shooting took place in Edmonton, the capital of the Alberta province of Canada.

Lots of shots were done on Rice Howard Way, however to replicate Boston's brick- and tree-lined streets, the production crew had to manually add bricks and trees to the locations.

More filming was done in the downtown and Beltline areas of Calgary. To show the ruined skyline behind the streets in Edmonton and Calgary, green screens were used, and CGI was used at many other points to add ruins or vines.

Alberta Legislature Building

While Tess and Joel have to deliver Ellie to Fireflies waiting at Massachusetts State House, the Capitol Building of Massachusetts in Boston, the place they actually deliver her to is the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton.

This splendid building was partly decked out in vines to give it a more decrepit look, though it obviously wasn't blown up, like the State House was in the show.

As with most interior locations, the scenes set inside the State House were actually filmed on a sound stage, not inside the State House itself. 

Tom is the streaming and ecommerce writer at What to Watch, covering streaming services in the US and UK. His goal is to help you navigate the busy and confusing online video market, to help you find the TV, movies and sports that you're looking for without having to spend too much money.

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A handy map tracks just how much distance Joel and Ellie have covered so far in ‘The Last of Us’

If you’re a bit lost on keeping track of where Joel and Ellie are in The Last of Us , you’re not alone. And apparently, HBO anticipated this, especially for international viewers who are not familiar with US geography. And knowing that the USA has 50 states, it wouldn’t be a surprise if people are completely lost on where they are in the show in terms of location.

Throughout the entire The Last of Us journey, a map of where our two main characters are is shared on Instagram by @HBOMaxNordic, the official HBO Max account for nordic viewers like Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, just to name a few. This week, the map was updated to feature a new mark at Boulder, Colorado, where the two currently reside as Joel tries to recover from a recent attack.

The last time the map was updated was back two weeks ago when both Joel and Ellie were in Kansas during episodes four and five. So it’s a handy tool for those who want to visualize the journey of these two characters and why walking to each state would take forever.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by HBO Max Nordic (@hbomaxnordic)

You can see how far our characters have gone since the start of the series. Like the whole show began in Texas before Joel became a smuggler in Boston. Then he and Ellie took a long road trip by car from Lincon to Kansas City. At the same time, this map could give context as to why US viewers called bullsh*t on the geography back in episode three , when the show claimed that our characters were “10 miles west from Boston.” In the end, this could be a good educational tool for those who want to know more about America’s geography.

Fortunately, Joel and Ellie don’t have a long way to go before making their way to Salt Lake City in Utah. But based on what was shown in the episode eight trailer , it seems like Ellie has to deal with another roadblock before she and Joel can make their way to the Fireflies.

New episodes of The Last of Us drop every Sunday at 6 pm PT / 9 pm ET on HBO and HBO Max.

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The last of us episode 4 trailer: joel & ellie's high-stakes road trip.

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The big bang theory's leonard being dead would break a golden sitcom rule, the great's perfect replacement show just dropped on prime video with an 89% rt score.

The Last of Us episode 4 trailer promises high-stakes on Joel and Ellie's next stop on their road trip. Pedro Pascal stars as Joel, a black market smuggler tasked with transporting Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to a distant contingent of the idealistic militant faction known as the Fireflies. With the 14-year-old orphan immune to the fungal infection that wreaked havoc across the planet, turning humans into ravenous grotesque creatures, the Fireflies believe that Ellie may hold the key to saving the world.

Following episode 3's conclusion, HBO Max released the trailer for The Last of Us episode 4 which teases a riveting next chapter on Joel and Ellie's road trip .

The trailer depicts Joel and Ellie on the road shortly after leaving Bill and Frank's fortified sanctuary. However, they quickly find themselves lost and ambushed by an unknown violent group, promising audiences an action-packed chapter in Joel and Ellie's arduous journey.

Related: The Last Of Us Episode 3 Ending Explained

What The Last Of Us Trailer Reveals About Episode 4

The Last of Us episode 4 trailer prepares audiences for Joel and Ellie's first major leg on their cross-country expedition since leaving the Boston Quarantine Zone. Finally heading out of Massachusetts after grabbing supplies from Bill and Frank's compound , the two will be together for an extended period of time. This allows Joel and Ellie the chance to understand what makes the other tick, but more importantly, which buttons not to press. The video puts Ellie's lack of world knowledge on display as she investigates an ordinary coffee maker and misreads a state map. Unfortunately, her inexperience leaves the two lost in a new city.

Ending up in a secluded alley, a group of violent survivors attempts to bait them with an injured man. However, Joel sees through the ruse and attempts to escape the ambush but is overwhelmed. The pair are forced to flee on foot in deadly unknown enemy territory. Joel takes charge to protect Ellie , coming face-to-face with those hunting them. Although apprehensive about Joel earlier in the season, Ellie seemingly begins to put her complete trust in her designated protector.

The Last of Us episode 4 will also introduce Melanie Lynskey as a new character written specifically for HBO's television adaptation. She is set to play Kathleen, the leader of the survivor group that violently controls Kansas City. The trailer shows her holding a gun to someone's head as she demands the whereabouts of another. The identity of the person she is searching for remains to be seen. Although Joel and Ellie have faced danger before, specifically the infected, The Last of Us episode 4's hunter survivor group may be their biggest challenge yet.

Next: Explaining The Last Of Us' Infection Origin & Flour Connection

Source: HBO Max

• The Last Of Us (2023)

The Last of Us season 1 episode 4 preview: The road trip

The Last of Us January 30, 2023

After all, the preview tonight for what lies ahead put the spotlight on a few simple things, with the status of Joel and Ellie’s trip being very high up on the list. They’ve got a car and they’re very much on the road, but this is going to be a tumultuous journey, to put things lightly.

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Obviously, there are a few reasons for this that start with the current state of this post-apocalyptic world, but the situation is actually a little more complicated than this. Ellie’s not exactly familiar with being in a car, let alone trying to help Joel navigate. That’s before they end up in a perilous situation where, once again, their lives could be in danger. This is not going to be a fun, happy-go-lucky road trip full of songs on the radio and good times.

The preview for episode 4 also did show an appearance coming for Melanie Lynskey, which is great news for everyone out there who loves  Yellowjackets.  It does feel fairly clear to us right now that this show is 100% killing it when it comes to some of their guest stars. Remember that we had Nick Offerman tonight, and there are many more coming down the road.

If you did not know…

There are only nine episodes this season, so we are already a third of the way through the story. We’re not trying to be the bearer of bad news here; instead, we’re mostly just trying to remind you of what it is that we are actually looking at here.

Related  – The Last of Us season 2 is coming, but is it the end? The reasons to worry

What do you think we are going to see moving into The Last of Us  season 1 episode 4 on HBO?

Let us know in the attached comments! Once you do just that, remember to also come back around for other updates. (Photo: HBO.)

The Last of Us Brings the Father-Daughter Road Trip to Live Action

Pedro pascal and bella ramsey star in the adaption of naughty dog's acclaimed franchise..

With its adaptation of The Last of Us , HBO is banking on the goodwill that Naughty Dog’s zombie-adventure franchise has banked through two games, an expansion, and a handful of comics. An adaptation of the series was always going to draw attention, but putting Pedro Pascal in the lead role as Joel and hiring Chernobyl’s Craig Mazin on as showrunner brought the upcoming series a greater air of prestige than it already would’ve gotten just by being an HBO drama and based on one of PlayStation’s premier franchises.

Like the original 2013 game, The Last of Us show is a post-apocalyptic road trip featuring Joel and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie as they cross the country to a hopeful safe zone where Ellie can contribute to a cure for a deadly disease that’s turned much of the world into monstrous zombies. But the series isn’t just going to be a straight-up adaptation; it plans on bringing in new characters—played by actors like Graham Greene and Ellie’s in-game actor Ashley Johnson—and enhancing already established ones, like Nick Offerman’s Bill . And it also plans on weaving in some Ellie’s past that was previously explored in the Left Behind DLC to the first game, which prominently features her friend Riley (Storm Reid).

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The cheesiness of using a dark cover of “Take on Me” aside, the newest trailer for The Last of Us looks plenty gripping and enthralling in a way that HBO series often look in their trailers. What’ll be more interesting to see is what, if anything, it ultimately adds to Naughty Dog’s franchise beyond appeasing the cinematic dreams of the games’ director, Neil Druckmann.

Also starring Anna Torv, Gabriel Luna, and Nico Parker, The Last of Us hits HBO on January 15.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water .

New 'The Last of Us' Poster Maps Joel and Ellie's Journey So Far

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In a short time, Joel ( Pedro Pascal ) and Ellie ( Bella Ramsey ) have already come a long way within HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us . Joel journeyed from Texas all the way to Boston after the cordyceps outbreak began and, since joining up with Ellie, the two have made their way from Massachusetts to Kansas City on the way to Wyoming, only to be stopped dead in their tracks by Melanie Lynskey 's Kathleen. Ahead of the release of Episode 5 which officially puts Season 1 past the halfway mark, a new poster was released retracing the steps of the two survivors through the first leg of their journey.

The poster is a weathered map of the continental U.S. with two lines marking Joel's trek to Boston and later his and Ellie's journey together. Four markers are placed on the map to show four key locations visited throughout the series. Joel's line starts at Austin where, in Episode 1, we meet him along with his daughter Sarah ( Nico Parker ) and brother Tommy ( Gabriel Luna ) in the moments before the outbreak begins and see them face heartbreak once the chaos starts to unfold. From there, we head to Boston where, years later, Joel has become a smuggler with his partner Tess ( Anna Torv ) and is tasked with transporting Ellie out West to hopefully find a cure. The line gets thicker as Joel and Ellie are now united on their way to Lincoln where they encounter the tragedy of Bill ( Nick Offerman ) and Frank ( Murray Bartlett ). A small flag marks their current location in Kansas City.

This week , the duo will face the returning clickers, alongside the vengeful Kathleen, as they try to continue moving forward to Wyoming. Trapped in a supposedly "liberated" Kansas City, they'll see Kathleen's rule firsthand as she searches for Henry Burrell, a man that wronged her in the past. As fire and carnage play out throughout the city, the roar of the clickers will send Joel and Ellie running once again in their attempts to survive.

RELATED: 'The Last of Us' Episode 4 Was Right to Keep the Violence Offscreen

The Last of Us 's Journey Has Been Fruitful for HBO

One beneficiary of Joel and Ellie's heart-wrenching journey is HBO. Despite airing alongside The Grammys on Sunday, The Last of Us once again set a new high for viewership . 7.5 million viewers tuned in to watch "Please Hold My Hand" live, marking a 17% increase from the landmark Episode 3. Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have so far proven to be excellent stewards for the series, with many of their changes, like Bill and Frank's story and the addition of characters like Kathleen, landing well along the way. They've ensured this journey doesn't end with just one season too, meaning the entire The Last of Us saga will likely come to screens one day.

Luckily for fans of the series, the journey continues a little earlier this week. HBO previously announced that HBO Max subscribers would receive Episode 5 on Friday, February 10 instead of having to wait until Sunday, February 12 to see the latest entry. It will be available to stream at the typical time of 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT while the linear network will air it at that time on Sunday.

Check out the new poster below.

• The Last of Us (2023)

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The Last of Us Episode 4 Trailer: A Road Trip Poses Big Trouble for Joel and Ellie

Episode 4 introduces melanie lynskey as the new character kathleen, the leader of a kansas city revolutionary gang..

Photo Credit: HBO

Pedro Pascal as Joel in a still from The Last of Us

• The Last of Us episode 4 premieres February 6 at 8:30am IST
• Ellie (Bella Ramsey) shows her disgust for the smell of coffee
• Episode 4 will reportedly run for 50 minutes

The Last of Us episode 4 trailer is out. HBO has dropped a preview for next week's episode of the post-apocalyptic drama based on the eponymous PlayStation video game, teasing a new character in the form of Kathleen, a ruthless leader of a revolutionary movement in Kansas City. Melanie Lynskey, best known for her run on Yellowjackets, will portray the role — signifying big trouble for our survivor duo Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Titled 'Please Hold My Hand', the episode will be directed by Jeremy Webb (The Umbrella Academy) and will reportedly be only 50 minutes long — significantly shorter than the 75-minute runtime of episode 3. The Last of Us episode 4 premieres February 6 at 8:30am IST/ February 5 at 9pm ET on Disney+ Hotstar and HBO Max, respectively.

The trailer for The Last of Us episode 4 kicks off by introducing Ellie's ( Ramsey ) new pet peeve - a disgust for the smell of coffee, as the pair take a break, out in the woods. “It smells like burnt sh-t,” she tells Joel ( Pascal ), who unbothered by her comments, instantly takes a loud slurp from the flask. While not explicitly mentioned, to Ellie's credit, the coffee must have been strained using some smelly rag or his sock — seeing as they've been travelling for a while. Episode 3 introduced our unlikely greasy-haired ally Bill ( Nick Offerman ), who was given a surprising love story spin with his partner Frank ( Murray Bartlett ) in the TV series.

The Last of Us episode 4 trailer puts Joel and Ellie on the road, as they continue their journey to Wyoming. Ellie, who isn't familiar with being in a car, struggles to help with map navigation, causing the duo to halt at a hostile territory. “This is my second day in a f--king car, man. Stop,” she says, upon noticing an injured survivor begging them for help. Believing that he's probably bitten and infected, Joel resumes driving the car, crashing into some debris. “This has gone too far. It has to stop,” an unseen hostage tells the new character Kathleen ( Lynskey ), who is seen holding a gun to his head. “Where is he?”, she asks with tears in her eyes, presumably referring to Joel. The Last of Us episode 4 trailer then cuts to display some action sequences of our duo stealthily navigating their way across the dilapidated town, and engaging in combat with the last surviving citizens.

“We'll get through this,” Joel assures Ellie at the end of the Last of Us episode 4 trailer, before heading out onto the streets. Circling back to the new character Kathleen, over on Twitter , writer Neil Druckmann commended her performance in the series. “OMG! You crushed your episodes! Can't wait for people to see your character!”, he said , confirming that Lynskey will appear in multiple episodes.

Last week, HBO renewed The Last of Us series for a second season , with Druckmann adding that it will explore the events of the award-winning video game sequel, The Last of Us Part II . Craig Mazin , showrunner and director on episode 1 of the Last of Us also suggested that the continuation might end up being a two-parter, claiming that the story is 'more than a season's worth of television'.

New episodes of The Last of Us stream every Monday on Disney+ Hotstar , at 8:30am IST in India, and Sunday at 9pm ET on HBO Max wherever available. Season 1 comprises of nine episodes.

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The Last of Us Season 1

• Release Date 16 January 2023
• Genre Action, Drama, Thriller
• Cast Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Anna Torv, Nick Offerman, Gabriel Luna, Merle Dandridge, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett, Storm Reid, Jeffrey Pierce, Lamar Johnson, Keivonn Woodard, Graham Greene, Elaine Miles, Melanie Lynskey
• Director Kantemir Balagov
• Producer Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann, Carolyn Strauss, Rose Lam, Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan

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Road Trip to ‘The Last of Us’ Filming Locations in Alberta

Disclaimer: this page may contain affiliate links. please review our full terms and conditions for more information and our privacy policy. note that any pricing, operating hours, or other such information provided below may have changed since initial publication..

Compiled by the Road Trip Alberta team

Last Updated on January 8, 2024

HBO’s TV series The Last of Us premiered in January of 2023 and was an instant megahit. Based on a video game by the same name, the story follows heroes Joel (played by Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (played by Bella Ramsey) across the post-apocalyptic United States. While it features a number of notable American cities like Boston, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, and more, the entire series was actually shot in Alberta and is one of the biggest productions in Canada’s history! As the show’s star, Pedro Pascal, said: “There’s such a powerful and dynamic physical landscape to Alberta.” And in the show, that sentiment really comes through. So, if you’re a fan and interested in road-tripping to see prominent The Last of Us filming locations, then this article is for you.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Last of Us (@thelastofus)

We’ve designed a four-day, three-night trip that starts out in downtown Edmonton and takes you to the southern tips of the province (with suggestions for nice, non-apocalyptic things to do along the way as well).

**Spoiler Alert**

If you haven’t played the game or watched the show, proceed to read with caution, as there are plenty of spoilers ahead.

Take this road trip to see important The Last of Us filming locations

Day 1: edmonton.

The capital city of Edmonton is featured in the second episode, with the Alberta Legislature Building acting as the Massachusetts State House. Entire streets surrounding “The Ledge” (as it’s known locally) were transformed to show the journey of Joel, Ellie, and Tess (played by Anna Torv) to this critical location. What follows is a highly pivotal scene in the series, where Tess is attacked by the zombie-like creatures, setting Joel and Ellie up to undertake the rest of the journey on their own.

Guided tours of the Alberta Legislature Building are available. Also, take a walk down 100A Street, 104 Street and 108 Street to see if you can spot the standout scenes or even recreate some of the most remarkable shots.

From Edmonton, start driving south towards Calgary on Highway 2, but also plan a detour into Olds. 51st Street was transformed into a small Texas town for a few scenes in episode one.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Willow Lane Barn (@willowlanebarn)

Also filmed here was a stop at Willow Lane Barn . While you won’t be able to go inside (unless you are attending an event there – it is a gorgeous wedding venue!) you can admire from afar and say that you visited the spot where Joel and Ellie ravished a meal served up in a dining hall by Joel’s brother, Tommy (played by Gabriel Luna) in episode 6.

After you’ve completed the drive from Edmonton to Calgary, check into one of these excellent Calgary hotels (we suggest picking one downtown), and you might want to get started on the list of all the filming locations in the city, as noted below.

For dinner, head to Model Milk – not only is it one of our personal fave Calgary restaurants – but it was also one that Pedro Pascal loved !

DAY 2: Calgary

Get ready for an epic day of sightseeing and selfie-snapping, because Cowtown was the site of so many filming locations from the show. Here are some of the most important stops to make:

DOWNTOWN CALGARY

Downtown Calgary was the setting for many scenes – often nondescript shots in parking lots, tunnels, and staircases – but the neighbourhood of Inglewood held the built set for the Boston quarantine zone, and thus much of the first episode was shot here (grab a cuppa at Rosso Coffee on 24th Ave & 7th St SE – the built set was across the street)!

There are also plenty of other recognizable spots with quick glimpses throughout the show. The historic Bell Block building (1002 Macleod Trail SE) was seen in the first episode, as was Calgary’s infamous Globe Cinema (617 – 8 Ave SW) – even with the sign left in.

PHO ANH HUYEN VIETNAMESE NOODLE HOUSE

Remember that opening scene in episode two at a restaurant in Indonesia? That was actually the Pho Anh Huyen Vietnamese Noodle House on 1403 Centre St NW.

4TH AVENUE FLYOVER

As you drove into downtown Calgary (taking Memorial Drive west from Deerfoot Trail), the scene in front of you already might have triggered your memory of the show. This major overpass was shut down in October of 2021 and transformed to produce memorable scenes of a post-apocalyptic world in episode two, as Joel, Ellie and Tess made their way to the Massachusetts State House.

THE LAUNDROMAT

In Kansas City, in episode four, Joel and Ellie crashed their pickup truck into a laundromat which led to their run-in with the revolutionary group led by Kathleen (played by Melanie Lynskey). While the laundromat was actually a built set, the area it was situated in is easily identifiable! Walk or drive north along Macleod Trail and look down an alley on the right, between 11th and 10th Ave SE.

CALGARY ZOO

When we watched the scene in episode 9 where Ellie fed the giraffe (in supposed Salt Lake City), we were certain it was created via CGI. We were very wrong! You can actually meet Nabo, the bull Masai giraffe who resides at the Calgary Zoo (210 St. George’s Drive NE), who is now famous by association with the show.

Remember that terrifying scene in the Boston Museum in episode two? The entrance to the museum was actually shot at the Hotel Arts (119 – 12 Ave SW).

CALGARY NORTHLAND VILLAGE MALL

This mall carried the storyline in episode seven in which Ellie and her best friend Riley (played by Storm Reid) were attacked while enjoying an epic evening of exploration, games, and more. Sadly, it is currently unvisitable, as it is under construction to become an open-air mall. Stay tuned as it is slated to open in 2023 (although it will likely be pretty unrecognizable from the show).

HERITAGE PARK

Head to the Wainwright Hotel at Heritage Park , a large open-air museum in Calgary’s southwest, to situate yourself in the exact spot where Joel and Tommy had a private conversation in episode six. (Trust us and sample the Fry Bread while you’re there.)

FISH CREEK PROVINCIAL PARK

Outdoor lovers who live in southern Calgary quickly identified the Shannon Terrace pedestrian bridge in Fish Creek Provincial Park which Joel and Ellie walked over in episode three. To see it, park at the Shannon Terrace day-use area in the provincial park. From there, it’s roughly a five-minute walk to the bridge.

MOUNT ROYAL UNIVERSITY & SOUTHERN ALBERTA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (SAIT)

In early winter of 2021, both of these post-secondary institutions hosted the cast and crew, as they were made over to look like the University of Eastern Colorado (including having vines, leaves, and sandbags added, plus snow was removed). Here, Joel and Ellie were making their way to a supposed Firefly compound in episode six, only to be attacked. This is where Joel was impaled.

SAIT’s Senator Burns Building also played home to the Indonesian Ministry of Health, with the lounge and hallways seen in the first few minutes of episode 2.

For your second day in Calgary, maybe take a break from apocalyptic gazing and find some fun in the city! We suggest eating at our fave Mexican restaurant – Native Tounges – and also picking one of these awesome guided Calgary tours to do.

DAY 3: Canmore & Area

Today, you head to one of the most scenic spots in Alberta, and the most beloved of all The Last of Us filming locations! Both stars raved about this mountain resort town, and with good reason. Get your caffeine fix early at one of Calgary’s great coffee shops , and then make your way west on Highway 1 from Calgary to Canmore .

The whole town was transformed into Jackson, Wyoming, and walking down the main street of Canmore will trigger many memories from the show. It played the backdrop for most of episode six, and besides wandering the streets, don’t miss seeing the Canmore Engine Bridge – a gorgeous spot in the hit show where Joel and Ellie crossed just before getting to Jackson.

While there, head a bit out of town to Bow Valley Provincial Park and hike the Barrier Lake Lookout Trail . This gorgeous overlook (altered to show the town of Jackson) was the final scene of episode 9. (We may have shed a couple of tears at this scene – but don’t worry – season two is coming ! Although it is yet to be announced if the show will return to Canada for filming.)

If you want to extend your road trip by a day or two, we suggest adding a night here. There are SO many amazing things to do in Canmore , and many fabulous Canmore restaurants ! Plus, with some extra time on your hands, you can also take a drive into Kananaskis and peep at some other scenes from the HBO show – like, some gorgeous overhead views of driving along Highway 40 were used (although note that portions of that road are closed in winter).

DAY 3: Heading South

On day three, the stops are going to come hot and heavy as a lot of ground is going to be covered in southern Alberta. Head back towards Calgary on Highway 1, but then turn south on Highway 22X, and then Highway 22 east towards Priddis for a total of 113 km.

The small town of Priddis was home to pivotal scenes in episode four. The Priddis General Store is where Joel had some supplies stashed, and the nearby Ann & Sandy Cross Conservation Area showed some beautiful shots of Joel and Ellie hiking.

From Priddis, head south on Highway 22 and east on Highway 549 into Okotoks.

Optional side trip!

Although it is a little out of the way, visiting Sheep River Falls will put you in the same setting as Joel and Ellie while resting by a river, just downstream from the falls, in episode three. To get there, instead of taking Highway 549 into Okotoks, keep heading south on Highway 22 until you arrive at the former town of Turner Valley. From there, go west on Highway 546 into Sheep River Provincial Park. Note that this will add over an hour of driving time to your day, and Sheep River Road is only open in summer months.

The Suntree neighbourhood in the small city of Okotoks was home to a battleground in episode eight. While most of that episode’s scenes were filmed in Waterton Lakes National Park, Ellie can be seen leaving 501 Suntree Place (an abandoned house) before her run-in with cult leader David.

This small city, just 22km south of Okotoks on Highway 2, is no stranger to filming iconic shows. It serves as the home base for CBC’s heart-warmer called Heartland , so being home to several apocalyptic filming locations for The Last of Us is certainly a departure! While a couple of quick shots can be seen in episode one – Evelyn’s Memory Lane Diner was very recognizable where Joel and his daughter Sarah (played by Nico Parker) are chased through a restaurant, plus the entire series opened on the quiet Sullivan Road cul de sac in town – one of the most memorable episodes of the whole season was almost entirely shot here.

Episode three, in which we watch Bill (played by Nick Offerman) and Frank’s (played by Murray Bartlett) heart-wrenching love story, was mostly shot in the High River neighbourhood of Beechwood. This residential neighbourhood, abandoned after dramatic floods hit the city in 2013, was the perfect setting for Bill and Frank’s house.

Keep heading south on Highway 2 until you arrive at Nanton (only 30km further) to find the Ranchland Inn, where Joel, Ellie, Sam (played by Keivonn Woodard) and Henry (played by Lamar Johnson) retreated for safety in episode five. Across the street from there is where Henry was buried after he was overcome with the deadly infection. This is also where you see a production oops, where a small bit of a UFA (United Farmers of Alberta) sign can be seen in the show.

FORT MACLEOD

Southward bound again! Keep going on Highway 2, and when you pass through Clareshom, take a quick glimpse east of the highway in town – that water tower you see was also visible in episode four.

But the big draw is Fort Macleod – 81 km south of Nanton – as it predominantly stands in for Austin, Texas, in episode one. This small town is once again no stranger to moulding itself into other locations – as it has previously been used for such big productions as Brokeback Mountain, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Fargo, and more. And as the cordyceps fungus outbreak took over Austin, so did it take over main street Fort Macleod.

Notably, pre-outbreak, Sarah got Joel’s watch fixed at Lone Star Watch Repair Store here, with the local Don’s Barber Shop in the other half of the building. As chaos started to take over the streets, Samuel Roland Antiques is recognizable, as are Johnny’s Restaurant and the iconic Empress Theatre.

From Fort Macleod, take Highway 3 east to Lethbridge (50 km). Although Alberta’s third-largest city is only seen via a quick glimpse of the massive High-Level Bridge (also called the Lethbridge Viaduct) with a collapsed portion, it’s worth the detour for that view.

After this long day of apocalyptic sightseeing, take a rest in one of the great Lethbridge hotels . We also recommend getting cocktails high over the city at Water Tower Grill (you can also see the big bridge from there!), and then hit up the best Lethbridge restaurant , Bourbon and Butter , for dinner.

DAY 4: Waterton Lakes National Park

The last day of our road trip takes you into one of the best-kept secrets in Canada – Waterton Lakes National Park. To get from Lethbridge to Waterton , take Highway 5 southwest for just over an hour and a half of driving time.

The townsite was featured heavily in episode eight. Ellie encounters a faith-based group living in the town and eventually ends up caged in the kitchen of the Bayshore Inn & Spa (depicted in the show as the Silver Lake Steakhouse). The Tamarack Garage is also visible, rebranded as the Silver Lake Rental Shop, as are the gorgeous shores of Waterton Lake, where Joel and Ellie embrace after she escapes.

So maybe you could have squeezed this stop in yesterday, or you could just pack up and go home now, but don’t waste the fact that you are in this gorgeous national park! Spend another day or two enjoying all the things to do in Waterton , and check in to one of the awesome Waterton hotels .

In addition, note that these are just a handful of the 180 identifiable The Last of Us filming locations!

For a fuller list, see this map put together by Travel Alberta.

The Last of Us – Season 2

We don’t know yet if Season 2 will be filmed in Alberta, but we sure hope so. It will be a while, though, with Bella Ramsey predicting late 2024 or early 2025. All we know is we can’t wait. Stay tuned!

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Dalene Heck is a co-founder of Road Trip Alberta. She was born in Edmonton, grew up in the Peace Country, and has ventured to almost every corner of Alberta and the world (she’s travelled to 60 countries)! She is a serial blogger, the CEO of HMI Marketing , co-creator of the Trip Chaser card game, a leukemia-slayer, and cat whisperer.

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The game people compared to prestige TV is now prestige TV.

When The Last of Us came out for the PlayStation 3 in 2013, critics and gamers alike hailed it as a new achievement for video games as a medium, praising not just the gameplay but its complex story that was closer to what you might expect from prestige TV than most games at the time.

Now, a decade later, Chernobyl showrunner Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, creator of the game, have closed the loop, turning the game into a series for HBO. Pedro Pascal plays Joel, a man who is tasked with getting a young girl named Ellie, played by Game of Thrones breakout Bella Ramsey, across a post-apocalyptic United States because she just might be the only person who is immune to the fungal infection that’s turned humanity into mushroomy zombies. Anna Torv, Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman, Melanie Lynskey, and more also star.

The Latest on The Last of Us

The Last of Us

Based upon the video game and set 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed by a deadly virus, two survivors must navigate killers and monsters on a trek across America.

The Best Video Game Adaptations on TV and Film, Ranked

The 10 best shows of 2023, 40 best horror tv shows of all time, 20 best post-apocalyptic tv shows, cast & crew.

Pedro Pascal Joel

Bella Ramsey Ellie

Craig Mazin Creator

Neil Druckmann Creator

Carter Swan Executive Producer

Where to Stream

2023– series 1 season 9 episodes.

Upcoming TV Airings

Sorry, this show is not airing on television in the next two weeks. Check back again soon!

Matt Roush says...

The Last of Us transcends its origins to become an unusually affecting, at times heartbreaking, trek of terror, right up there with the early days of  The Walking Dead .

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A Retro Look At The History Of The US Road Trip

Posted: November 30, 2023 | Last updated: November 30, 2023

The open road

1910s: a family poses by their car

Although the first car was invented in 1886 , it wasn’t until a couple of decades later that automobiles became more popular and widespread in America. This was thanks to a game-changing invention: Henry Ford’s Model T, which launched in 1908. It ran on gasoline, which made it cheaper and meant it could travel further distances than the electric vehicles that had previously been used. In this photograph from the 1910s, a family poses by their brand new Model T.

1910s: the first-ever RV

You might be surprised to learn that the world’s first recreational vehicle, or RV, was invented back in 1915. The 25-foot (7.6m) long automobile was created by Roland Conklin’s Gas-Electric Motor Bus Company and dubbed the Gypsy Van. It was kitted out with a kitchen, sleeping berths, folding tables, various small appliances, a generator and lighting. It was used by the Conklin family to travel from Huntington, New York to San Francisco, California on a journey that captured the attention of national media. 

1910s: touring the national parks

Since the first national parks were signed into law in the late 1800s, Americans began to gain a greater appreciation for the natural beauty in their backyard. Then the arrival of cars made it easier to access them – although it was still a privilege available to the wealthy few who were lucky enough to own one. Pictured here is a group of visitors on a guided “Two National Parks in Two Weeks” tour that swept through Rocky Mountain National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

1920s: birth of Tin Can Tourism

1920s: an unusual attraction in Yosemite

1920s: a legendary cross-country race

While road trips may have been a way to unwind for many, motorcyclist and car racer Erwin Baker turned these cross-country journeys up a notch – by driving as fast as he could. In fact, he even earned the name “Cannonball”, after a newspaper compared him to a Cannonball Express train during one of his famous cross-country races. Shown here in 1923, in his Oldsmobile 30A surrounded by fans, the racer had just completed a trip from New York to Los Angeles by motorcycle in a record-breaking 12-and-a-half days. 

1930s: road trippers check their directions

1930s: boots allow people to pack luggage

1930s: the first Airstream arrives

1940s: car drives through Badlands National Park

The striated peaks of the Badlands, South Dakota are just as striking in this rudimentary color photograph as they are today. The national park (then a national monument) was located close to US Highways 14 and 6, so when roads were built through it during the 1930s and 1940s there was a significant uptick in visitor numbers.

1940s: automobile ownership on the rise

1940s: car drives through Yellowstone National Park

1950s: road-tripping increases in popularity

By the 1950s, the road trip had become an undeniable fixture of American culture. The postwar years saw a continued boom in car ownership across the country and road conditions had improved a great deal too. In 1959, an engineer at Volvo developed the three-point seatbelt (the kind we're familiar with today) which also made hitting the road a whole lot safer. Pictured here, a road-tripping couple check their map.

1950s: famous stars take to the road

Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel On The Road helped cement the dream of traveling through America’s highways and byways in the collective imagination. Celebrities also helped to give road-tripping a glamorous image. Pictured here is Marilyn Monroe and her husband at the time, playwright Arthur Miller (center, with box), with their friend Milton Green (right), a photographer. Captured in New York in 1956, the trio are about to take a trip to Connecticut in a Thunderbird convertible.

1950s: motels and diners spring up everywhere

Now that more Americans were taking to the road during their vacation time, they needed a place to stay. So the neon signs of motels and diners became an increasingly common sight along the country’s highways. A classic “mom-and-pop” motel would offer affordable lodgings, a place to park up for the night, and often a diner serving home-style food.

1960s: Route 66 gains notoriety

The first all-weather road between the Midwest and the Pacific Coast, Route 66 revolutionized the road trip. It shaved some 200 miles (322km) off the journey between Chicago and Los Angeles, making it easier for people in the rural west to get to cities in the midwest and northeast. In 1960, Route 66 , an American TV series that followed the escapades of a pair of young men traveling the route, aired on CBS. As the so-called Mother Road continued to crop up in popular culture, America's fascination with her grew.

1960s: Aristocrat is the top trailer maker

1960s: camper vans make waves

1970s: VWs dominate the hippie trail

1970s: more campsites spring up

1970s: trailers experience a fall from grace

1980s: motels shut their doors on Route 66

1980s: NASCAR fans gather at Daytona International Speedway

1980s: RVs become more advanced

After a lag in the 1970s due to the oil crisis, the RV industry boomed during the 1980s. Popular movies including National Lampoon's Vacation and The Blues Brothers, whose storylines heavily featured the motorhomes, helped to cement RVs’ place in popular culture. The iconic RV of the decade was the Fleetwood Bounder, released in 1985, which was the first of its kind to include basement storage – now a common fixture in these vehicles.

1990s: tourists take in Alaskan scenery

1990s: old-school trailers are back

1990s: Big Sur maintains its magic

Made popular by the Beat Generation in the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s, central California’s Big Sur is one of the most popular road trips in the country. Highway 1 is the iconic route which takes travelers along this rugged coastline, with the most visited stretch running between Santa Barbara and Monterey. Here, a classic 1990s compact car drives alongside the sun-splashed cliffs. 

2000s: the most popular RV

2000s: drive-thru in Maryland

2000s: remnants of Route 66

By the 2000s, the historic Route 66 had become a tourist attraction in its own right, with plenty of motels, diners and even a museum profiting off its storied past. At this section near Prewitt, New Mexico, photographed in 2003, the road runs parallel to Interstate 40. It seems a fitting visual metaphor, given the road was ultimately surpassed by the high-speed interstate highway system.

2010s: navigation gets an upgrade

2010s: camper vans powered by solar

2010s: road tripping goes electric

Until very recently, long-distance travel in an electric vehicle has felt like a distant dream. But thanks to the rapid improvements in EVs themselves, which mean they can travel for longer distances, as well as the installation of new charging points across the States, electric-powered road trips look like an increasingly viable option. And  a new cross-country network of EV charging points , running from Los Angeles, California to Washington DC, is making it easier than ever to refuel. Pictured is a motorway sign for a charging point along southern California’s Pacific Coast Highway.

2020s: a pandemic causes problems

The start of the 2020s saw a curveball thrown at the travel industry: the COVID-19 pandemic. Popular destinations, such as Las Vegas (pictured), had their income from tourism almost completely slashed overnight, as lockdowns took hold and flights were canceled. However, when Americans were allowed to travel within the USA again, road trips experienced a renaissance: a survey for Vacationer magazine estimated that 80% of Americans planned to take a road trip in 2022. Many were keen to avoid airports and flying for fear of contracting the virus, and the open road offered a safer way to satisfy the wanderlust.

2020s: remote working on the road

Another unexpected twist from the pandemic was the rise in remote working, which made long-term 'workations' a genuinely feasible option for many: one 2022 survey of RV owners revealed that over half had worked while on the road that year. Looking into the future, an increased awareness of the impact of flying on our planet means travelers will be looking for a different kind of trip, and driving through dramatic landscapes with the ability to stop anywhere certainly presents a more ecological and enriching alternative. It seems the freedom of the road will always beckon.

Next, discover the amazing experiences you can only have in the US

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Athing Mu falls, finishes last in 800m at US Olympic track and field trials

EUGENE, Ore. — Disaster happened in the first lap of the women’s 800-meter final at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials at Hayward Field.

Defending Olympic champion Athing Mu got tangled up with competitors, tripped and fell to the track. The spectators inside the stadium let out a huge gasp as she hit the ground. By the time Mu regained her footing, she was in last place.

The other competitors continued to run as Mu trailed far in the back of the pack.

“We fear when she is in the middle of the pack because of her long loping stride that she may fall to the track,” NBC track and field analyst Sanya Richards-Ross said on the broadcast. 

Nia Akins ended up finishing the 800 final in first, running a 1:57.36. Allie Wilson placed second at 1:58.32 and Juliette Whittaker came in third at 1:58.45.

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Mu, showing good sportsmanship, continued to run well out of position and finished in last place with a time of 2:19.69. After Mu finished, she exited the track visibly emotional.

The trials marked the 2024 debut for Mu, who hadn’t competed since September 2023. She was bothered by a hamstring injury that delayed the start of her 2024 season.

In the preliminary round of the 800, Mu was noticeably rusty. She finished third in her heat when she ran a 2:01.73, but easily qualified. Mu showed improvement and won what was a dramatic 800 semifinal that featured Michaela Rose getting out to a big early lead and Kate Grace falling at the finish line.

Unfortunately for Mu, she was the one who fell to the track in the final and it cost her a chance to defend her gold medal in Paris.

At the Toyko Olympics, Mu became the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the 800 since Madeline Manning did it at the 1968 Mexico City games.

Follow USA TODAY Sports' Tyler Dragon on X  @TheTylerDragon .

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First 2024 Presidential Debate Recap: Joe Biden Sparks Concerns, Donald Trump Lies

A stunning debate between the two oldest U.S. presidents in history put the 2024 candidates' track records, temperaments and cognitive health on full display

Joe Biden and Donald Trump reunited in Atlanta for an unprecedented presidential debate between two White House veterans.

CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash were tapped to moderate the first debate of the 2024 election cycle, which aired on Thursday, June 27. In a departure from the norm, the event did not feature a live studio audience.

Thursday's debate carried weighty stakes for both candidates. Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, boasted near-identical poll numbers at the start of the night with only four months until Election Day — and amid a rematch between the oldest U.S. presidents in history, mental competency of both candidates was the question on many voters' minds.

 ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/Getty

Need to Know

• The first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle was an important test for Joe Biden and Donald Trump, as the two oldest U.S. presidents faced off for a rematch of 2020
• President Biden's frail performance left pundits questioning whether a last-minute switch-up to the Democratic ticket is possible
• President Trump's repeated lies on stage and hesitance to accept the 2024 election results tarnished trust
• The candidates entered the night in a statistical dead heat, and post-debate polling will soon reveal the impact

Debate Night Started with Biden and Trump in a Tied Race

Biden and Trump began their first 2024 debate with polling showing them in a statistical dead heat.

At least three polls place the Democrat and Republican in a literal tie nationally, with Trump just barely ahead in swing states. Others — like a recent New York Times /Siena poll — show Trump ahead of Biden by as many as four points among registered voters.

The ramifications of the evening performances will be reflected in post-debate polling soon enough.

President Biden and first lady Dr. Jill Biden , who was there in support, can’t head home just yet. The first couple is scheduled to drop by a campaign event in Atlanta tonight before going wheels up for North Carolina. They will land in Raleigh just before 2 a.m. local time.

The Bidens are doing a post-debate campaign rally in North Carolina on Friday morning, then continuing on to New York for a series of weekend receptions.

The Debate Is Over

The debate has ended after about 100 minutes. The event left political strategists concerned over President Biden's weak performance, and troubled by former President Trump's repeated lies on the stage.

Trump Asked 3 Times Whether He'll Accept the 2024 Election Results: 'I Shouldn’t Have to Say That'

Toward the end of the debate, Dana Bash asked if Trump would accept the results of the 2024 presidential election if he loses, after all legal challenges have been exhausted.

“I shouldn’t have to say that, but of course I believe that. It’s totally unacceptable," he said, then accusing Biden of getting the world close to WWIII.

“The question was: Will you accept the results of the election, regardless of who wins?” Bash eventually interjected. Trump said that he wanted to continue talking about Biden and Russia.

"President Trump, the question was, 'Will you accept the results of the election regardless of who wins?' "

Trump said that if it's fair and free, then "absolutely." But, he claimed without evidence, the 2020 election wasn't free, reciting a conspiracy theory that has not been supported.

"You can't stand loss," Biden said. "Something snapped in you when you lost last time."

Trump and Biden Talk Golf

Joe Raedle/Getty

In response to a question about his age, Trump said, "I just won two club championships . To do that you have to be quite smart and you have to be able to hit the ball a long way. And I do it. He can't do it. I was willing to take a cognitive test ... I aced 'em."

Saying that he has asked Biden to play with him, Biden replied, "I'm happy to play golf with you if you carry your own bag."

Trump then retorted, "I've seen your swing; I know your swing."

Trump Says Biden Might Be Convicted Felon 'as Soon as He Gets Out of Office'

In a remark that some quickly perceived as a threat, Trump suggested that Biden could just as easily become a convicted felon as he did.

"He could be a convicted felon as soon as he gets out of office with all the things he's done," Trump said. "This man is a criminal. You're lucky. You're lucky. I did nothing wrong. We have a system that's rigged and disgusting. I did nothing wrong."

Biden said that he has done nothing comparable to what Trump has been indicted for, and asserted that presidents are not supposed to threaten retribution.

Biden’s Voice Is Particularly Weak Tonight

Within moments of taking the stage tonight, it was clear that Biden’s voice was especially soft. A source familiar now tells PEOPLE that he is sick with a cold.

Biden to Trump: ‘You Have the Morals of an Alley Cat’

During one particularly tense exchange, Biden laid into Trump over allegations of sexual abuse against women including writer E. Jean Carroll and an alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels .

“You have the morals of an alley cat,” Biden told Trump. “How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for molesting a woman in public ... for having sex with a porn star while your wife was pregnant...?”

Biden Addresses Trump’s Criminal Charges, Trump Mentions Hunter

ANGELA WEISS/POOL/AFP via Getty

About 45 minutes into the debate, Trump's recent felony conviction on 34 charges entered the chat. A New York jury found Trump guilty in May of falsifying business records to conceal a scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election.

“The only person on this stage that’s a convicted felon is the man I’m looking at right now,” Biden said, looking over at Trump.

Trump pivoted, telling Biden that his son, Hunter, is also a convicted felon. Hunter was found guilty of three felony charges related to obtaining and possessing a gun while addicted to a controlled substance.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty

Trump Deflects Capitol Riot Responsibility: 'On Jan. 6, We Were Respected'

Trump was asked to speak about what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of violent protestors stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop Biden's Electoral College victory from being certified.

The former president, who told his supporters to "fight like hell" to take the country back, deflected responsibility, saying, “On Jan. 6, we were respected all over the world. All over the world we were respected. And then [Biden] comes in, and we got laughed at."

The Last Time They Debated

Scott Olson / Getty Images

This is the first public, in-person meeting between Biden and Trump since the 2020 presidential debates. During the first debate of that election cycle, even right-wing pundits said that Trump offered a poor performance, repeatedly interrupting Biden throughout and straying from the topics at hand.

Tonight mics are muted, preventing interruptions on both sides and keeping the back and forth in order.

Trump Denies Calling Veterans 'Suckers' and 'Losers'

Justin Sullivan/Getty

Trump claimed that he had the highest approval ratings among veterans and Biden has the worst, leading Biden to bring up a 2020 report that Trump privately called fallen soldiers "suckers" and "losers."

Trump asserted that it was a "made-up quote," and suggested that Biden made it up.

"A four-star general on your staff said you said it," Biden responded, referring to former Trump chief of staff John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general who backed up the claim.

"My son was not a loser. He's not a sucker," Biden continued. "You’re the sucker. You’re the loser." Biden's oldest son, Beau, died in 2015 of brain cancer, which the president has suggested was the result of his exposure to burn pits while serving in the Army in Iraq.

'That's Simply Not True': Biden Slams Trump's Claim About Late-Term Abortions

While discussing the downfall of Roe v. Wade , which Trump has taken credit for, the candidates sparred over the goal of enshrining abortion protections.

Trump said that Biden and Democrats are "willing to rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month and kill the baby."

Biden, who kicked off the debate with a soft voice, grew forceful and said, "That is simply not true ... We are not for late term abortion. Period. Period. Period."

Moments later, as the debate switched to immigration policy, Biden called back to Trump's earlier comment, saying, "When he was president he was separating babies from their mothers ... in cages."

After failing to meet CNN's debate requirement that participants reach at least 15% in four national voter polls, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will host a competing event on Thursday night.

In a statement , Kennedy's campaign called his exclusion from the debate "an act of collusion between two establishment parties," with the candidate saying, "Our last two presidents are restricting voters from choosing anyone other than themselves."

Kennedy's event — dubbed "The Real Debate" — will be moderated by libertarian television personality John Stossel and streamed on X from a studio in Los Angeles with a live audience, the campaign said.

On Friday, June 21, CNN flipped a coin to sort out a few final debate night details. Trump’s campaign chose “heads” and Biden’s campaign chose “tails.” It landed on tails.

As winner of the coin toss, the Biden campaign got to either decide where each candidate will stand, or the order of the closing statements. The campaign said that Biden would like to stand on the right side of the stage, which puts Trump on the left.

Trump’s campaign then got to choose who will deliver the final word on Thursday, and said that Trump would like to speak last.

Taylor Hill/WireImage, Paul Morigi/Getty

CNN selected two of its leading political anchors, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, to moderate the first 2024 presidential debate. Tapper, 55, and Bash, 53, co-host the network’s Sunday morning political affairs show, The Situation Room .

Tapper, CNN’s chief Washington correspondent, also anchors The Lead with Jake Tapper on weekdays, and Bash, the network’s chief political correspondent, inherited hosting duties for Inside Politics from her ex-husband John King last year.

Each of them have moderated numerous primary debates for both parties, most recently co-moderating the 2024 Republican primary debate between Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis in January.

Tapper famously called the first 2020 presidential debate between Biden and Trump, hosted by Fox News, a “ hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck ” and “the worst debate I have ever seen.” Bash called the unruly event, which was full of interruptions, a “s---show.”

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/getty

Shortly after former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger , a Republican, crossed the aisle to endorse the Biden-Harris ticket on Wednesday, he appeared in the Georgia State Capitol to explain his decision.

“I tell you what, I am proud to stand up here today as a conservative Republican and endorsing Joe Biden for reelection to the president of the United States,” he said at Wednesday’s news conference, standing alongside former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (the state’s No. 2 Republican until 2023) and ex-Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn (who guarded a Capitol stairwell during the Jan. 6 riot).

Kinzinger was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over his 2020 election subversion efforts. In a social media video first announcing his endorsement of Biden on Wednesday, he said that “while I certainly don’t agree with President Biden on everything, and I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for president, I know that he will always protect the very thing that makes America the best country in the world: our democracy.”

Kevin Dietsch/Getty

The Biden and Trump campaigns agreed to a unique set of terms in May that dictated how CNN will run its 90-minute debate. Here’s what they signed off on:

• There will be no studio audience
• No props or pre-written notes are allowed
• Each candidate gets a pen, a pad of paper and a water bottle
• Microphones will be muted except when it’s a candidate’s turn to speak
• Candidates will appear at uniform podiums
• There will be two commercial breaks, during which the candidates cannot speak to campaign staffers

Mandel NGAN/Getty

President Biden, who spent the week in Camp David preparing for the debate with a panel of advisers, traveled from Maryland to Georgia on Thursday afternoon, arriving at the Dobbins Air Reserve Base shortly after 3 p.m. local time.

Former President Trump arrived in town later, at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, just before 5:30 p.m.

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A New Hampshire man who was charged with levying death threats toward presidential hopefuls last year was found dead during jury deliberations on his case, court filings revealed.

Tyler Anderson, 30, was facing three counts for sending a threat using interstate commerce and faced up to 15 years in prison. It is not immediately clear how he died.

“The government has learned that the defendant is deceased. There is no case or controversy,” federal prosecutors wrote in a motion to dismiss Thursday.

On Wednesday, the FBI conducted a search for Anderson and had fears that he had threatened to inflict self-harm, WMUR 9 reported . He was reportedly found dead in a parking garage close to a hospital in Concord.

The Post contacted his lawyer for comment.

Anderson’s attorney had mounted a defense predicated on free speech.

He was arrested in December and formally charged several weeks later.

Authorities accused him of texting death threats to Vivek Ramaswamy ‘s presidential campaign as well as ominous warnings to at least two other presidential hopefuls.

“Great, another opportunity for me to blow [Ramaswamy’s] brains out!” Anderson allegedly replied in one text to the campaign

“I’m going to kill everyone who attends and then f–k their corpses,” he allegedly wrote in another.

Ramaswamy’s campaign had confirmed that he was one of the targets.

Another message he sent on Nov. 22, 2023, featured a threat to “impale” and “disembowel” one candidate. Later on Dec. 6, 2023, he wrote, “Now I know where to go so I can blow that bastard’s head off,” and added, “Hope you have the stamina for a mass shooting!”

Prosecutors did not identify the other two candidates that had allegedly been targetted by Anderson.

However, one of those messages featured a slogan associated with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and described someone “who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is.” Christie’s events were dubbed “Tell it Like It Is Town Halls.”

Anderson’s attorney claimed that his client had no intention of following through on those cryptic threats.

The defendant from Dover had been getting treatment for mental health and was under instructions to remain current on his prescribed medications, per court records .

His trial began with jury selection last week. Jurors then began deliberating on Tuesday, before proceedings got cut short.

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Making the U.S. Olympic track and field team is a herculean task.

"It doesn't matter who you are," Ato Boldon told NBC Olympics in a pre-Trials roundtable . "You're guaranteed drama. It's the toughest team in the world to make."

Boldon's words rang true during the women's 800m final on Night 4 of Trials.

Defending Olympic women's 800m champion Athing Mu shockingly tripped and fell just a few seconds into the final, so Mu will miss out on the Paris Games.

In her absence, Nia Akins , Allie Wilson and Juliette Whittaker finished 1-2-3 and are all going to their first Olympic Games.

The fourth night of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials also featured finals in the women's high jump, men's long jump, men's 1500m, men's 400m and women's 5000m.

• Grant Holloway kicked off the night with the fastest 110m hurdles time in U.S. Trials history, running a blazing 12.92 seconds. Holloway advanced to the 110m hurdles semifinal.
• Laulauga Tausaga-Collins was shockingly eliminated from the women's discus opening round after fouling out three times. Tausaga-Collins is the defending world discus champion but won't compete at the Paris Olympics. Meanwhile, Tokyo gold medalist Valarie Allman set a new U.S. Trials record with a 70.89m toss, securing her place in the women's discus final.
• Cole Hocker set a U.S. Trials record to win the men's 1500m final in 3 minutes, 30.59 seconds and book his second Olympic spot, alongside Yared Nuguse and 21-year-old Hobbs Kessler .
• Charity Hufnagel of the University of Kentucky won the women's high jump final over favorite Vashti Cunningham , who had won 12 consecutive national championships, including the Tokyo Olympic Trials. Cunningham finished third, so will head to the Olympics alongside Rachel Glenn , since both women have the Olympic standard. Hufnagel doesn't yet qualify for Paris, since she hasn't hit the standard of 1.97m.
• Florida State standout Jeremiah Davis won the men's long jump final with an 8.20m leap. Davis, second-place finisher Malcolm Clemons and third-place jumper Jarrion Lawson will all need to qualify for the Paris Olympics via World Athletics rankings, as they haven't met the Olympic standard of 8.27m.
• Anna Hall won the heptathlon, completing a grueling comeback from a complex knee surgery six months ago. Hall has earned a spot on her first Olympic team after breaking her foot at 2021 Trials. Hall's redemption story is now complete.
• Quincy Hall blew by Michael Norman in the final stretch to win the men's 400m final in 44.17 seconds and earn a spot on his first Olympic team, joining Norman and first-time Olympian Chris Bailey .
• Elle St. Pierre beat a 24-year-old U.S. Olympic Trials record with her time, winning the women's 5000m final by just .02-seconds over Elise Cranny . In an epic finish, St. Pierre clocked in with a stellar time of 14 minutes, 40.34 seconds to make her second Olympic team with Cranny and Karissa Schweizer .

See below for event recaps, highlights and more. For full event-by-event results from the first four days of Trials, click here .

Men's 110m hurdles

Three-time world champion Grant Holloway headlined the opening round of the men's 110m hurdles, and he did so in signature mind-boggling fashion. With a scorching time of 12.92 seconds in his heat, Holloway ran the fastest 110m hurdles heat time in the history of U.S. Olympic Trials. It also marks the second-fastest time of his career.

American Aries Merritt holds the world record of 12.80, which he set in 2012.

"The biggest thing coming out here was having it translate from practice to the track," Holloway told Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports. "You guys keep talking world record, my main focus is to make this team, and then we can talk more once we're in Paris."

Holloway's next step is the semifinal in Eugene, which he advanced to along with fellow heat victors Freddie Crittenden , Trey Cunningham and Jamal Britt .

Dylan Beard , who appeared on the TODAY Show in the spring, has made headlines for pursuing Olympic track and field as he works his day job at a local Walmart. Beard ran the second-fastest time of his heat to advance to the semis.

TOP 10 TIMES

• Grant Holloway | 12.92
• Jamal Britt | 13.07
• Trey Cunningham | 13.12
• Daniel Roberts | 13.14
• Ja’Qualon Scott |13.15
• Freddie Crittenden | 13.16
• Dylan Beard | 13.19
• Cameron Murray | 13.23
• Cordell Tinch | 13.33
• Myles Hunter | 13.33

Men's 1500m

In an epic men's 1500m final, Cole Hocker smashed the U.S. Trials record with a blazing 3 minutes, 30.59 seconds to win his second-consecutive Olympic Trials final. Hocker will headline the U.S. men's 1500m team at the Paris Olympics, which will be his second Olympics. Hocker placed sixth in the Tokyo 1500m final.

"I was ready for anything today," Hocker rold Lewis Johnson. "I know I'm the strongest I've ever been."

Hocker is a University of Oregon alum and now has clinched his second Olympic team on his former home track.

Yared Nuguse finished second in 3:30.86 to secure his Olympic spot, and 21-year-old Hobbs Kessler is headed to his first Games after finishing third in 3:31.53. Nuguse previously earned a spot on the U.S. team at the Tokyo Olympics, but a quad injury kept him from competing, meaning Paris will be his first Olympics.

"It means so much to come back and make up for three years ago," Nuguse said immediately after the race. "I know I'm really fit and where I want to be. Now, I'm excited to go to Paris."

FINAL RESULTS

• Cole Hocker* | 3:30.59
• Yared Nuguse* | 3:30.86
• Hobbs Kessler* | 3:31.53
• Vincent Ciattei | 3:31.78
• Nathan Green | 3:32.20
• Henry Wynne | 3:32.94
• Joe Waskom | 3:33.74
• Elliott Cook | 3:33.84
• Craig Engels | 3:34.21
•  Cooper Teare | 3:35.17
•  Liam Murphy | 3:36.37
•  Ethan Strand | 3:39.08 *Secured Olympic spot

Entering the week, Kessler had yet to make any outdoor U.S. team, so his first is the granddaddy of them all, the Olympic squad. His time of 3:31.53 is his new personal best.

Hocker, Nuguse and Kessler will compete in one of the upcoming Olympics' headline events, featuring defending Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway and reigning world champion Josh Kerr of Great Britain. Ingebrigsten and Kerr have been sparring on and off the track for months, so the American trio now will enter a scintillating men's 1500m in Paris.

Anna Hall won the women's heptathlon just six months after undergoing a complex knee surgery and earned a spot on her first Olympic team. Hall broke her foot at the 2021 Olympic Trials after crashing into a barrier and will now compete at the Olympics for the first time.

"I'm almost in shock," Hall said after running the 800m. "This year has been so hard. Falling in 2021, the journey to get here was so much harder than I imagined. I'm just so thankful.

"I thought about quitting, but everyone around me was like, 'No, we're doing this.'"

Chari Hawkins and Taliyah Brooks , who finished second and third, will have to wait before they can officially book their spot in Paris. Neither woman has hit the Olympic standard as of June 24, so they'll need to qualify based on World Athletics rankings.

• Anna Hall* | 6614
• Chari Hawkins | 6456
• Taliyah Brooks | 6408
• Michelle Atherley | 6391
• Allie Jones | 6199
• Erica Bougard | 6192
• Jadin O’Brien | 6108
• Timara Chapman | 6073
• Ashtin Zamzow-Mahler | 6058
•  Jenelle Rogers | 5969 *Secured Olympic spot

Men's 400m

Quincy Hall stormed past Michael Norman over the final stretch to win the men's 400m final in 44.17 seconds and earn a spot on his first Olympic team.

In a thrilling final, Norman led for the first 300m before Hall blew past him to take the victory. Norman, who finished second in 44.41, heads to the Olympics along with third-place finisher Chris Bailey .

Norman competed at the Tokyo Olympics, winning gold in the men's 4x400m, and is now bound for his second Olympic Games. Bailey is a first-time Olympian. He owns a gold medal in the 4x400m from 2023 Worlds in Budapest.

Quincy Wilson , the 16-year-old phenom who set under-18 world records in back-to-back races over the weekend, finished sixth and is eligible for the U.S. 4x400m relay pool in Paris, but the teenager will wait for word from USA Track & Field.

• Quincy Hall* | 44.17
• Michael Norman* | 44.41
• Chris Bailey* | 44.42
• Vernon Norwood | 44.47
• Bryce Deadmon | 44.61
• Quincy Wilson | 44.94
• Khaleb McRae | 45.06
• Matthew Boling | 45.15
• Justin Robinson | 46.08 *Secured Olympic spot

Women's 5000m

Elle St. Pierre broke a 24-year-old U.S. Olympic Trials record with her 5000m time of 14 minutes, 40.34 seconds, winning by just .02-seconds over Elise Cranny . In a photo finish, St. Pierre officially made her second Olympic team.

St. Pierre gave birth to her son, Ivan, on March 4, 2023 and has since won a world indoor title in the 3000m and now the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 5000m. Next up: the Olympics.

"I've been waiting for this for a bit," St. Pierre said immediately after the epic finish. "I dug a little deeper at the end. It's just so emotional to have Ivan here, and I'm proud to be his mom."

Cranny is also bound for her second Olympics, as is third-place finisher Karissa Schweizer .

• Elle St. Pierre* | 14:40.34
• Elise Cranny* | 14:40.36
• Karissa Schweizer* | 14:45.12
• Parker Valby | 14:51.44
• Whittni Morgan | 15:05.53
• Allie Buchalski | 15:12.87
• Ella Donaghu | 15:14.27
• Taylor Roe | 15:15.37
• Rachel Smith | 15:22.16
• Abby Nichols | 15:25.19 *Secured Olympic spot

Women's 800m

The final event of the night, the women's 800m final, provided one of the most shocking moments in recent U.S. Olympic Trials memory.

Defending Olympic champion Athing Mu suddenly tripped and fell just a few just seconds into the final, which means the 22-year-old will miss out on the Paris Games.

In Mu's absence, Nia Akins , Allie Wilson and Juliette Whittaker finished 1-2-3 and are all going to their first Olympics.

Akins won her first U.S. Trials title in 1 minute, 57.36 seconds, topping Wilson by nearly a full second.

"I wasn't thinking about anything," Akins said. "I was just running. I'm just speechless. I don't know what to say."

• Nia Akins* | 1:57.36
• Allie Wilson* | 1:58.32
• Juliette Whittaker* | 1:58.45
• Michaela Rose | 1:59.32
• Sage Hurta-Klecker | 2:00.38
• Kristie Schoffield | 2:01.04
• Raevyn Rogers | 2:01.12
• Kate Grace | 2:02.37
• Athing Mu | 2:19.69 *Secured Olympic spot

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