NOTE: This article is about Joel from Naughty Dog's The Last of Us video game series. The HBO version of the character can be found here: Joel Miller (TV Series).
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Lyin' on the couch watchin' Sunday football. That… greasy smell of a downtown hot dog. 4th of July, family barbeques. The sound of a plane flying overhead. Just one peaceful night; a clean conscience–all gone...
„
~ Joel Miller.
“
If somehow the Lord gave a second chance at that moment... I would do it all over again.
„
~ Joel telling Ellie he doesn't regret his decision to save her from the Fireflies even if it doomed humanity.
Joel Miller is one of the main protagonists of The Last of Us franchise. Though he is an incredibly violent, ruthless and ethically sketchy man, he is not completely without positive traits or heroic moments and consistently looks out for the well-being of Ellie, the young girl he travels with. In essence, he is a father figure looking out for his surrogate daughter, but willingly lies about the hospital incident to remain with her. Their relationship would become strained once Ellie learned the truth, but he was murdered by Abby Anderson before they could fully reconcile.
He is voiced and motion-captured by Troy Baker (who also voiced Snow Villers in Final Fantasy XIII, Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite, Jack Mitchell in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Delsin Rowe in inFamous: Second Son, Erron Black in Mortal Kombat X and Mortal Kombat 11, Talion in the Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor series, Samuel Drake in the Uncharted series, Red Hood in Batman: Arkham Knight, and Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle) in the English version of the games.
He was also voiced by Koichi Yamadera in the Japanese version of the game, and by Lorenzo Scattorin (who also voiced Alucard in Hellsing Ultimate, He-Man in the 2000's He-Man and Masters of the Universe, Edward Carnby in 2008's Alone in the Dark, Vito Scaletta in Mafia II and Hanzo in Overwatch) in the Italian version of the game.
Joel has been described as a "violent thug, a brutal killer, and a torturer." He is shown to be able to kill his enemies with noteworthy brutality, earning his infamous reputation to those he encounters. David calls him a "crazy man." During the aftermath of the epidemic that struck the country, he has resorted to working in black-market dealings and smuggling items or people of interest through quarantine zones or other designated areas. Because of this, he has accumulated valuable knowledge in regards to surviving the post-apocalyptic environment. Ellie notes that Joel has stained his hand with innocent blood when he reveals to her that he has been "on both sides", thus having the knowledge about a hunters' ambush and anticipating it. This dark past likely contributed to his experience as a hardened survivalist. Joel is highly cold, calculating and ruthless when it comes to surviving the apocalypse that ravaged the world. This callousness is shown during interrogations where he would end up killing his captives anyway even if they provide valuable information to avoid possible retribution from his victims. He is also wary of trusting others, especially strangers to the point that he is shown to be highly independent even when sustaining severe injuries, refusing to be helped on. His awareness to his surroundings allow him to discern a trap made by other hostile humans such as running over a Cannibal pretending to be a desperate survivor seeking help.
He also becomes extremely dedicated to Ellie, using any means possible to save her and keep her safe. He tortures several cannibals to find out Ellie's location, and then kills the other prisoner after he has gained information about Ellie's location. Ellie also cares greatly for Joel when she cares for him when he was injured, Just as Joel cared for her and protected her throughout their journey. They had a father and daughter bond.
However, Joel's other side is also portrayed. Prior to the apocalypse, he worked hard to single-handedly raise his daughter. The outbreak and Sarah's death changed him into an apathetic, ruthless, and estranged man. He wears the watch that Sarah gave him the day before the initial infection broke out as a reminder. Upon meeting Ellie, he originally has a rocky relationship with her. However, Joel later grows to trust her and finds her reliable at most times such as Ellie spotting for Joel or providing support. As time passes, Joel establishes a father-daughter relationship with Ellie, reminding him of his beloved daughter, Sarah. His more kinder side begins to surface as he spends more time with Ellie, something that was buried underneath two decades of guilt, loss and pain.
Whether being selfish, or not wanting to lose another "daughter" to the whim of another again, he chose to save Ellie and try and start some semblance of a normal life again. His decision to kill Marlene inside the Fireflies facility in Salt Lake City is to cut all loose ends, to ensure that no one will have the knowledge of Ellie and thus no one will go after her in the future. In this sense he is the opposite of Marlene, who intends to sacrifice Ellie for a chance to save the rest of humanity.
Described as being in his late 40's, Joel knows what the world looked like before it was devastated. Over time, he has begun to become less bound by morality and more driven by doing whatever is necessary to survive. "What he wouldn't do in the past is almost a daily occurrence at this point," Bruce Straley, the game's director, notes. Whenever Sarah is brought up or he is uncomfortable, Joel strokes his watch, the same one given to him by his dead daughter showing he's somewhat habitual.
Skills and Abilities[]
“
You make every shot count.
„
~ Joel to Ellie.
Joel using a scavenger as a human shield in combat.
Survivalist: Due to his time as a Hunter, Joel has become a master survivalist.
Stealth: He is skilled with chokeholds and stealth, being able to creep up on a human and Infected without them noticing.
Expert Crafting: Joel is also a skilled craftsmen and can augment his own weapons. He is also able to craft Shivs, Smoke Bombs, Nail Bombs and Molotov's.
Interrogation: He is experienced with torture, an example is when he broke Robert's arm while Tess was trying to discover what happened to the weapons he was supposed to deliver to them, when he interrogated two cannibals with a knife to discover the location of Ellie and shooting Ethan in the stomach while trying to find out where Ellie's surgery was happening.
Weapon Mastery: Joel is also very skilled with all types of firearms and bow and arrows.
Master Combatant: He possesses tremendous fighting skills, Miller is a ferocious fighter, being able to quickly overpower enemies much younger and faster than he is. He’s able to overpower Ethan, a Firefly despite the fact he was being held at gunpoint and he was obviously more military experienced. He was also able to overpower two cannibals despite the fact that he was still recovering from his life-threatening wound and he was ambushed by the latter.
Peak Human Condition: Joel also possesses a quick recovery time. Despite the fact his car was ruined off by Hunters and he was later grabbed by one he was able to overpower the Hunter and kill him on a shard of glass. Despite his many impressive feats, Joel is still human and can be injured, knocked out and ambushed. He gets ambushed many times, such as while leaving the Quarantine Zone he is attacked by two soldiers, another one was when he was ambushed by a hunter while climbing a ladder, nearly drowned if it wasn't for Ellie's help, he was also ambushed by Henry and nearly choked to death, attacked by a cannibal at the University, thrown off a ledge which caused him to be impaled and stealth-attacked by two cannibals.
Weaknesses[]
Cordyceps Infection: Unlike Ellie, Joel is not immune and can be infected by bites or exposure to spores.
Quotes[]
“
Lyin' on the couch watchin' Sunday football. That… greasy smell of a downtown hot dog. 4th of July, family barbeques. The sound of a plane flying overhead. Just one peaceful night; a clean conscience–all gone...
„
~ Joel Miller.
“
It's called luck, and its gonna run out.
„
~ Joel
“
It is over Tess! Now we tried. Let's just go home.
„
~ Joel to Tess.
“
Here's how this thing's gonna play out. You don't bring up Tess – ever. Matter of fact, we can just keep our histories to ourselves.
„
~ Joel to Ellie.
“
You do what I say, when I say it.
„
~ Joel to Ellie.
“
I bring you the cure for mankind and you wanna play the pissy little brother?
„
~ Joel to Tommy.
“
You have no idea what loss is.
„
~ Joel to Ellie during the argument.
“
That's alright. I believe him.
„
~ Joel moments before killing the second cannibal.
“
I guess no matter how hard you try, you can't escape your past.
„
~ Joel
“
We found the Fireflies. Turns out, there's a whole lot more like you, Ellie. People that are immune. It's dozens actually. Ain't done a damn bit of good neither. They've actually st- They've stopped looking for a cure. I'm taking us home. I'm sorry.
„
~ Joel lying to Ellie about what happened at the hospital.
“
I struggled for a long time with survivin', and no matter what, you keep finding something to fight for.
„
~ Joel to Ellie.
“
Some folks call this thing here a gee-tar.
„
~ Joel to Ellie, showing the guitar.
“
We found the Fireflies. And because of her… they were actually going to make a cure. The only catch… it would kill her.
„
~ Joel to Tommy in the opening of The Last of Us Part II.
“
Making a vaccine… would have killed you. So I stopped them.
„
~ Joel to Ellie, telling the truth when confronted.
“
If somehow the Lord gave a second chance at that moment...I would do it all over again.
„
~ Joel to Ellie on his decision to save her.
“
Why don't you say whatever speech you've got rehearsed and get this over with.
„
~ Joel to Abby.
Trivia[]
His weapon of choice appears to be the revolver.
He was officially ranked as the sixth sexiest male video game character ever.
Initially, Neil Druckmann took inspiration from Josh Brolin's portrayal of Llewelyn Moss upon writing the character, whom he noted for being "very quiet, very cool under pressure".
Joel is a fan of music, and stated as a child he wanted to become a singer, and can play guitar. This a reference to his voice actor, Troy Baker, who is singer and guitarist.
Interestingly enough, Baker also played another character who could guitar the year The Last of Us came out, Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite.
In the trailer he can be seen using a hunting rifle in the train station after you first get the Molotov off the dead firefly but in the final game the hunting rifle is not obtainable until the capitol building.
Heroes