Last Of Us 2: 25 Easter Eggs, Details & References You Need To See

17. Pearl Jam & The Music Store

Uncharted 2 last of us 2
Naughty Dog

This one is quite easily missable, particularly if you don't fully explore around the downtown Seattle open-world section of the game.

While Ellie and Dina are exploring, they can come across an old music shop. Inside, you'll find lots of music paraphernalia, as well as posters and the like advertising fictional bands in The Last of Us universe.

Then, bizarrely, there's a very real poster for Pearl Jam's album Lightning Bolt, just sitting right there on the wall. There's a reason for this: Ellie and Joel throughout the game regularly play the song Future Days by Pearl Jam, and this was Naughty Dog's way of paying tribute to them.

This album didn't actually release until 11th October 2013, which, in Last of Us's timeline, is just after Outbreak Day. Thankfully though, Pearl Jam did demo the song at various pre-release gigs before everything went south, meaning Joel was just that big a fan, he must have attended and learned the track through sight alone.

There's another great scene in the music shop too, where Ellie finds an old abandoned guitar and unleashes a beautiful, sombre version of Aha's Take on Me for Dina's listening pleasure.

Contributor
Contributor

Dan Curtis is approximately one-half videogame knowledge, and the other half inexplicable Geordie accent. He's also one quarter of the Factory Sealed Retro Gaming podcast.