On the official “The Last of Us” podcast, Mazin explained:
“So, I had this thing where I wanted the bloater to pick Perry up and rip him in half, like at the waist, you know? And Neil was like, ‘Well, okay, I mean, is that going to be realistic?’ And I’m like, ‘I think so.'”
It sounds like Druckmann was on the right track here, as when the special effects team working on the scene began to explore the idea of making this vision a reality, they came up against some basic biological limitations. “And then the more Wētā tried to do it, the more you realize, like, people don’t rip along the waist,” Mazin said. Wētā FX is the famed New Zealand special effects company that worked on the “Avatar” movies, “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and the latest “Planet of the Apes” films. If Wētā can’t make it look real, I’d wager a guess that no one can.
“It’s just really hard to do,” Mazin conceded. “It got close. It came close. But ultimately, Neil prevailed and was correct in suggesting that something that felt more grounded anatomically would be more effective.” I’ll save you the trouble of landing yourself on a watchlist by Googling this one for you: when it comes to tearing a person apart, be it via animal attack or torture method, many historical examples indicate that ripping a piece of a human being off is way more realistic than snapping them in half like a glowstick. Gross, I know.