The Last of Us - Season 1 Episode 4 (2023)

In a dystopian town controlled by a Big Brother-like regime, a reclusive Hermit is trapped working as a security guard for the last surviving civilization.

While isolated in a remote shack in the woods, the Hermit puts his life on the line to train the stubbornly quick-witted Ephyra to take over his role. She questions the morality of the Hermit's actions and the nature of their controlled existence. The Hermit, aware of life beyond the town's walls, urges her to leave and explore the unknown. Faced with this revelation, she must decide whether to remain safely in her village, taking the Hermit's place as the new security guard, or escape to the unknown world outside of her town, while the Hermit remains rotting in his isolated shack, resigned to his fate.

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Curiosity didn't kill the cat - it destroyed the world.

In Those Who Know, a society shattered by civil wars born from misinformation has rejected knowledge itself. The chaos of AI and the Internet nearly wiped out humanity, leaving the remnants of civilization to fear information as a catalyst for further unrest. Now, in this dystopian world, reading is a forbidden art, and the masses place their trust in a shadowy, masked government known as The Ones Who Know. Their ways of life are unknown to the public, but one thing is certain: in this world, knowledge is poison, ignorance is the antidote.

Their figurehead, the Hermit, is a mysterious and revered figure, a security guard turned martyr, known as The One Who Knows All. Living in isolation at the edge of society, he is rumored to be the last literate human on Earth. His role as protector of the people is shrouded in ambiguity, and his true purpose remains a closely guarded secret in a world where knowledge itself is the enemy.

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Wise, cautious, but controlling, the Hermit is a man haunted by the weight of his past.

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Isolated in a cabin at the edge of the woods, the Hermit has lived his entire life banished from society. He is the only person in his town who possesses the lost art of literacy. The Hermit sits atop a hill, surrounded by surveillance of the entire world—a watchdog with vast knowledge but wasted potential.

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Though he yearns to explore the world beyond, the shadow of the Hermit's past wrongdoings and the fear of his superiors keep him trapped in his shack. Once a loyal enforcer of the government's brutal orders, he now regrets his actions and longs for redemption. But he rejects atonement for his sins alone.

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When Ephyra, a young, rebellious soul, looking for a way to escape the rules of her town, pushes her way into his life, the Hermit sees her as a vessel to right his wrongs - he sees her as his replacement, and his way out of this career path. He welcomes her under his wing through a crypt of carefully crafted misdirection that keeps Ephyra in the dark about a lot of truths to his life.

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To convince Ephyra to venture beyond the town's limits, the Hermit must accept the truth about himself: he is not the godlike figure Ephyra and the townspeople believe him to be, but a villain who has fulfilled the government he despises' every command. Only by admitting his faults can he hope to guide Ephyra towards a path of true freedom.

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Ephyra is a young, headstrong, and curious individual with a sharp wit and an insatiable thirst for dramatic change in bureaucracy.

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Born after the world crumbled into disarray, she doesn't understand her world, her people's past, or even what handwriting is—and she’s determined to change that. Ephyra idolizes the Hermit, seeing in him a mentor who can teach her the secrets of the world. She sees the Hermit's job as a way of ignighting change in her town, and has taken all the necessary steps to convince the Hermit that she will take the Hermit's place.

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However, through a battle of wits that challenge the Hermit's crypt of misdirection, Ephyra learns the truth about her mentor. She is forced to confront the reality of her hero’s dark past and the lessons he has taught her.

Faced with a choice, Ephyra must decide whether to take the Hermit’s now untrustworthy advice and leave her hometown behind, or follow her own desires and continue living in the shadow of mystery.

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Her rebellious spirit clashes with the Hermit's cautious nature, creating fiery dialogue and a deep-seated tension between them. Though they share the same goals, our two protagonists' vastly different methods of rebellion create an underlying conflict that drives their relationship forward.

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The Hermit envies Ephyra’s youthful spirit and hunger for change—qualities he abandoned long ago in favor of survival. At the same time, Ephyra envies the Hermit’s life of solitude, his omnipotent role as the town’s watcher, and his access to the few remaining books in the world. This shared envy fuels the tension between them, as both characters struggle to reconcile their desires with the harsh realities of their world.

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Despite their differences, they both wish to sacrifice themselves for the other to achieve their common goal of breaking free from the oppressive regime that controls their lives, leading to the central conflict of this piece.

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From the opening shot, our audience is thrust into a high-stakes scenario: we begin with a pregnant woman being sniped for holding a book.

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The first dialogue we hear is from the feared antagonist, The One Who Knows, who represents the shadowy Those Who Know that controls this dystopian society. The One Who Knows engages in a threatening conversation with the Hermit while Ephyra hides in plain sight, lest she is discovered and killed.

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This scene, and the pivotal moment when Ephyra faces a life-altering choice, will be shot handheld to create an unstable, documentary-like feel, emphasizing the precariousness of their situation.

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The Hermit’s presence will always be framed with others in the shot, symbolizing his constant feeling of being observed, haunted, and trapped in a world of relentless surveillance. In contrast, Ephyra’s shots will be focus and composed, reflecting her sense of inner freedom and determination.

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However, as the power dynamics between the two protagonists shift, the framing will tighten, making the walls of the shack seem to close in, visually representing the mounting pressure and their shared struggle against the overwhelming force of government fascism. This visual approach will underscore the claustrophobic and oppressive atmosphere of the world they inhabit, highlighting the enormity of the challenges they face.

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The visual tone of the film will be steeped in mystery and tension, achieved through lighting that creates strong, ominous shadows, diffused with haze and fog to enhance the sense of unease. This atmospheric lighting will reflect the characters' internal struggles, particularly the Hermit’s fear of the unknown and his fear of himself. The setting—a dingy, sparking shack with boarded up windows—will serve as a physical manifestation of the Hermit’s cynicism, with the oppressive environment seeping from the screen to grip the audience the way he has been gripped by his oppressors for so long.

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The film’s philosophical depth will be conveyed through powerful dialogue, exploring universal themes of control, freedom, and identity. The performances of our actors, particularly in moments of intense introspection, will amplify the film’s dark, contemplative tone. Our characters are consistently holding back from speaking their minds, showing any sort of strong emotion, until information pulls them into dropping their own masks both to each other and to the camera.

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Growing up in a small town in Virginia during the early days of the internet, I witnessed firsthand how rapidly our world was changing.

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 As algorithms advanced, the people around me began living in different online realities, each shaped by the mentors and consequent information they chose to follow. This divergence led to profound consequences—I saw friends get caught up in extremist pipelines, some ending up on the front lines in Washington D.C. on January 6th.

Supporters of then-US President Donald Trump battled police officers at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 as commemorations for that deadly day are held one year later [File: Julio Cortez/AP Photo]

My hometown was a place of deep political turmoil. It was a town where children's books were threatened with bonfires in high school parking lots, where priests blamed their own sins on the community, where racism ruined spirit days with hate symbols being proudly adorned, and where the flames of civil unrest were stoked by internet echo chambers. These experiences left me constantly questioning which morals to follow, what qualifies someone as an authority figure, and what happens when their perception of reality is distorted by media.

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These questions are at the core of this piece, driving me to explore what might happen if we could start over—if all media, both good and bad, were banned to protect humanity from itself. In a world where information can be as destructive as it is enlightening, I’m compelled to imagine a society that, in its fear of repeating the mistakes of the past, chooses to reject knowledge entirely.

Nick Anderson / Copyright 2023 Tribune Content Agency

But beyond this dystopian narrative, this film has a deeply personal interaction between a student and her mentor. As a young filmmaker preparing to graduate and step into the high-risk entertainment industry, I find myself yearning for someone to guide me, to hold my hand and give me the exact steps to follow. Yet, each time I get close to discovering how to "make it," my mentors end up moving on to something better or stepping down from their position of power. This film is a letter to myself, a reflection of that longing for a consistent and stable mentor. The Hermit, in speaking to Ephyra about learning to navigate the world on her own, is also speaking to all young adults about to embark on their own journeys into the unknown.

In the words of the great screenwriter William Goldman, "Nobody knows what they're doing."

This truth terrifies me, but it also fuels my drive. At some point, myself ourselves in theory, critiques, and advice isn’t going to help me. I’ll have to go out and see for myself what facts of life are true, to learn by doing. This film is exemplary for that experience—an acknowledgment that knowledge comes in the doing, and no one can do it for you. Others can show you how things operate, share their experiences, but ultimately, you must take the leap into the unknown act of doing yourself. And perhaps the most terrifying or liberating realization is that there is no one way to do anything.

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In the wake of a global pandemic, the world has entered a new, unsettling era.

Politics have spiraled into extremism, public discourse has been reduced to fleeting comment sections on social media, and viewpoints are no longer organically shared but rather dictated by algorithms under the control of a powerful, faceless, few. News articles are increasingly summarized by AI, and across the country, critical information about our own history is being banned from schools. Acts like Florida’s "Don’t Say Gay" and the College Board’s revisions to critical race theory are just the beginning. In this new reality, even the discussions in the classroom assigned to our youth are censored and rewritten by AI—because we are growing too afraid to hear our own voice. The fear of not following the "proper" way to express ourselves has led to an over-reliance on chat models to rephrase our words into something deemed acceptable.

This parallels the world Ephyra was born into—a world taken to the extreme, set 100 years in the future. A deep-rooted fear now divides generations. Older generations, shaped by the disillusionment of global conflicts, hesitates to engage in politics, wary of the consequences of protest. They are represented by the Hermit—a figure withdrawn from the chaos of the world. Meanwhile, younger generations like the ones making this project, born in the shadow of 9/11, are desperate to push boundaries, though their context has been diluted by time and censorship.

Students across Nashville walked out of schools and gathered at the Tennessee State Capitol in protest to demand action for gun reform laws in the state on April 3 in Nashville, Tenn. A 28-year-old former student of the private Covenant School in Nashville, wielding a handgun and two AR-style weapons, shot and killed three 9-year-old students and three adults before being killed by responding police officers on March 27. Seth Herald/Getty Images

Epyra’s journey is a poignant reflection of these generational tensions. She constantly pushes the Hermit for more information, desperate for the truth, but the Hermit, bound by his own limitations, cannot provide what she seeks. This is the conversation between generations—repeated endlessly, filled with frustration and misunderstanding. Ultimately, the Hermit encourages Ephyra to venture beyond the safety of her isolated town, symbolic of the online echo chambers her generation found refuge during the pandemic, to see the world as it truly is—outside of the filtered, sanitized information that has survived the test of time.

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Those Who Know is a stark exploration of our potential future, where fear, censorship, and generational divides shape a world on the brink of losing its voice. Our team has high hopes for this project. And this short is only the beginning. We are planning on using this piece as a proof of concept to pitch a feature film to future investors, to make this allegory sliver its way into the lexicon of everyday life, through the form of a seat-gripping, nail-biting conflict between a student and her mentor.

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If you have any items that you are looking to get rid or clothing- email us some photos! We may be interested in using it as a prop in our film! We specifically are looking for old televisions and outdated nonfiction books to adorn the Hermit's personal (but illegal) library.

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Camera and gear rentals make up a significant portion of our budget. If you have any gear that is available for us to use in the State of New York we'd be beyond grateful! And if you don't have gear or finances but still want to help...

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Like what you see? Share our campaign with your network of friends, family, and fellow filmmakers! The more awareness around our project, the more likely we can bring this project to life. Plus, creating a community around this campaign is especially crucial for open discussions on mentorship and fear of the unknown - seeing a population of people who relate to the fear of taking on the unknown encourages creators to remember, unlike Ephyra or the Hermit, we are not alone!

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Thank you for taking the time to read about our project and mission! We are so thankful for contributions of any scale. If you are interested, here are other ways to support and get involved:

• If you haven't yet, follow our Seed and Spark! This allows us to give you all updates, sneak peaks, and information on screenings when this film hits festivals!

• Follow @thosewhoknow.film on Instagram! We meant it when we said we want to build a community of artists. BTS, status updates, and community outreaches will be actively shared on our platform.

• Watch our pitch video! Hopefully you did, but words on a page mean nothing without a voice behind them. Those Who Know is a visual journey heavily inspired by a multitude of content featured in the pitch video at the top of this page. It helps you get to know our director, Abigail Marshall, and gives you an insight into the location we'll be shooting in! Plus, the whole interview was shot on a camcorder, so for the nostalgic indie types (like us), you'll be transported to the original days of digital media.