Tommy (Gabriel Luna), Joel’s brother.
Joel (Pedro Pascal) comforts his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker).
There exist a scant handful of experiences with the capacity to reduce you to a blubbering wreck before you’ve even got comfortable in your seat. George Kirk’s sacrifice in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek may prompt some faint moistness around the eyes; the first ten minutes of Up, meanwhile, is precision-engineered to crack the very hardest of hearts wide open. Introducing a character, then almost immediately asking you to grieve for them, requires a deftness of emotional storytelling few can manage, but The Last Of Us pulls it off in spades.