The Last Of Us Season 2 Premiere Calls Back To One Of Joel's Favorite Film Franchises

The world of HBO's "The Last of Us" TV show is incredibly bleak. Not only did civilization as we know it end with a fungal infection that effectively turned people into zombies (just don't call them that), but society is now split into countless factions — many of them violent, cannibalistic, or authoritarian. Still, the worst part is that the HBO show placed the Cordyceps apocalypse in the year 2003 (as opposed to 2013). This means that people in "The Last of Us" missed out on seeing the Rohirrim charge at Pelennor Fields in "Return of the King" in theaters, and never saw "Revenge of the Sith." (Having "Attack of the Clones" be the last "Star Wars" movie people were able to see is rather depressing.) In that universe, "Lost" never changed television forever, and audiences missed out on "Fullmetal Alchemist," "Howl's Moving Castle," and the masterpiece that is "Hunter x Hunter." "Halo 2" never came out, and neither did the Nintendo Wii.

We don't know much about the pop culture of the world of "The Last of Us," but what little we know is not very impressive. In the season 2 premiere, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and her best friend Dina (Isabela Merced) talk about "Curtis and Viper," with Dina saying Ellie reminds her of them and that she plans to watch "Curtis and Viper 2" with Joel soon.

In case you've been spending hours on IMDb trying to find out what "Curtis and Viper" is to no avail, fret not, because the answer is easy: It doesn't actually exist.

In the world of "The Last of Us," the "Curtis and Viper" movies were an action franchise from the '80s — think "Lethal Weapon" with an even-tempered partner and a wilder, rogue one. The movies follow two former commandos that go rogue to fight bad guys. What makes this franchise different, however, is that Viper is a trained ninja. That's right, this is a movie about a cop and a ninja working together.

In "The Last of Us Part II" game, Ellie finds a poster for a "Curtis and Viper 4" and explains to Dina that in that movie, the two former commandos fight Russian spies (because of course they do).

The references to the "Curtis and Viper" movies are a cute way of showing just how important pop culture and the arts are even in the apocalypse, but in season 2 of "The Last of Us," it also serves to show how the community of Jackson has found enough of a sense of normalcy to be thinking about watching old VHS tapes.

Most importantly, however, "Curtis and Viper 2" specifically has a heartbreaking connection to Joel. Back in the very first episode of "The Last of Us" season 1, we follow Joel's daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) as she tries to find the perfect gift for Joel's birthday. She goes to her neighbor and asks if she can borrow a DVD of "Curtis and Viper 2," unaware that in the other room, the neighbor is turning into an Infected. Watching "Curtis and Viper 2" is the very last thing Joel and Sarah do together before the apocalypse begins and Sarah meets a heartbreaking end. The fact that Joel is trying to watch it Dina because Ellie isn't speaking to him quietly underlines how emotionally devastated he is at his falling out with Ellie.

New episodes of "The Last of Us" season 2 arrive on HBO and Max on Sunday nights.