On the road: Survivors trek through apocalyptic America in ‘The Last of Us’

Ahighly anticipated adaptation finally hits home screens Sunday, Jan. 15, when “The Last of Us” premieres on HBO. Based on the bestselling 2013 video game of the same name, “The Last of Us” follows survivors in post-apocalyptic America as they trek across the country on a special mission that could save humanity. No sweat!

Yet again tasked with sneaking a powerful child through arid, dangerous terrain is Pedro Pascal, whose experience in “The Mandalorian” portraying the titular bounty hunter comes in handy in his latest project. Pascal stars as Joel in “The Last of Us,” a smuggler who has survived a bizarre fungal outbreak that forced the living into military-controlled quarantine zones or equally guarded settlements.

Joel works with his smuggling partner, Tess, portrayed by “Mindhunter” actress Anna Torv, within the Boston quarantine zone. Filming for the show, however, took place a little farther north than the New England city. Locations across Alberta, Canada, stand in for postapocalyptic America in “The Last of Us,” as eagle-eyed internet sleuths spotted in early 2022, when the Instagram fan account @HBOTheLastOfUs shared a photo and video of the show’s production trucks rolling into the small town of Okotoks, just a few kilometers south of Calgary.

While on the trail of a weapon cache payday, Joel and Tess encounter the leader of a resistance militia named Marlene (Merle Dandridge “Station 19”), who offers Joel and Tess a risky trade for the guns.

Marlene assures them that if they can safely smuggle a girl out of a quarantine zone and back to where she and the other members of the Fireflies militia are hiding out, then Joel and Tess will get even more than what they traveled there for.

They aren’t looking for just any girl, though. Ellie, portrayed by “Game of Thrones” and “Catherine Called Birdy” (2022) actress Bella Ramsey, could be the key to a vaccine. Most people exposed to the infection discover symptoms within days, but Ellie, infected weeks before meeting the smugglers, is far from becoming the mutated creature typical of the Infected.