Kansas City

Kansas City is a major location in HBO's The Last of Us. It is the largest city in Missouri, located on the western border with Kansas. It was a city where FEDRA established an especially brutal quarantine zone and maintained many collaborators.

Notably, the city had its own local resistance movement, rather than a Firefly insurgency. These rebels eventually took control of the zone.^[1]

History[]

Background[]

Prior to the Cordyceps brain infection outbreak, Kansas City was a thriving city in Missouri, a bustling metropolis much like other cities in the United States. It also had suburban areas including one where people lived in near an embankment.^[2] During the outbreak, the city was initially thrown into chaos, with dozens of cars jamming the section of Interstate 35 as people tried to leave the city.^[1]

FEDRA and the military established a quarantine zone in the city to protect its remaining non-infected citizens. The city possessed several neighborhoods were people stayed. Like other zones, it had large walls around parts of its perimeter and a FEDRA detention center where FEDRA held known law breakers for interrogation.

In 2008, the military began a clearing operation that drove the infected in the city underground, with a follow up operation around 2020-2021 that succeeded in clearing the underground tunnels within the city, meaning the infection was surprisingly well-managed even 20 years after Outbreak Day. However, unrest and discontentment with FEDRA's oppressive rule grew; the FEDRA garrison in Kansas City had a reputation for being especially brutal and cruel, which culminated in Michael Coghlan forming a resistance group to drive FEDRA from the city in late 2023.^[2]

Shortly after Michael's arrest and murder by FEDRA, the revolutionaries--now under the command of his sister Kathleen--took over the city from FEDRA's control after a successful uprising, brutally executing not only FEDRA soldiers, but also suspected collaborators, relentlessly hunting them down. Later they resorted to killing outsiders and stealing their supplies to survive. Discontent also grew from residents within the group because Kathleen turned the city into a dictatorship similar to how FEDRA had run it.^[1]

Events of HBO's The Last of Us[]

In 2023, Joel and Ellie attempted to pass through the city only for a group of the city's revolutionaries, including Bryan, to attack them. The pair killed them in self-defense and fled the area, leaving their corpses for the next patrol to find.^[1] Kathleen's group then pursued Joel, Ellie, Henry and Sam throughout the city the following day. They eventually cornered them in the suburbs, only for the infected horde the military had contained beneath the city to escape in a sink hole and attack them. The horde killed the militia group then charged into the metropolis.

The status of the city's remaining survivors is unknown.^[2]

Known inhabitants[]

• Numerous QZ civilians
• Numerous FEDRA soldiers (deceased)
• FEDRA collaborators
  • Dr. Edelstein (deceased)
  • The Bergquists
  • The Chans
  • Henry Burrell (deceased)
  • Sam Burrell (deceased)
  • Carrie Schreiber
  • Mark Anthony Halpin
• Kansas City resistance
  • Kathleen Coghlan (deceased)
  • Michael Coghlan (deceased)
  • Perry (deceased)
  • Bryan (deceased)
  • Anthony (deceased)

Gallery[]

Kansas City QZ

Behind the scenes[]

• Kansas City replaces Pittsburgh as seen in the video game on which the series is based. Co-creator Craig Mazin found the production locations in Canada more closely imitated Kansas City and felt Pittsburgh was not important enough to the story to justify the difficulty in reproducing it. Co-creator Neil Druckmann, who wrote and co-directed the video game, considered it a superficial change as the characters are more important than the location. He and Mazin felt the additional distance to Kansas City justified the story beats and character development.^[3]
• A warning sign that says, "WLF, TRESPASSERS KILLED ON SIGHT" can be seen at the Kansas City QZ main gate in the episode, "Please Hold to My Hand".^[4] It is the same warning sign from the video game, The Last of Us Part II, where it was found at the Seattle QZ main gate.^[5]

References[]