Column Life

Fungi don’t turn humans into zombies. But The Last of Us gets some science right

Human body temperature and brain chemistry may be impenetrable barriers for zombifying fungi

Tina Hesman Saey

By Tina Hesman Saey

Senior Writer, Molecular Biology

A still image from the television show The Last of Us showing a human body that has been completely covered by an orange fungus attached to a gray wall.

A human casualty of a fictional fungal pandemic is shown in this image from the HBO series The Last of Us.

Liane Hentscher/HBO

Like so many others, I’ve been watching the HBO series The Last of Us. It’s a classic zombie apocalypse drama following Joel (played by Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as they make their way across the former United States (now run by a fascist government called Fedra).