Our Future Days
What it is: A three-minute fan film set in Jackson, Wyoming, a few days after Joel's death in The Last of Us Part II. Ellie picks up a guitar, plays Pearl Jam's "Future Days," and the song pulls her backward into memory.
Release year: 2026
Where to watch: Movie OTT currently lists it across major streaming platforms — check the where-to-watch widget for your region, since availability shifts without notice for independent projects like this one.
The Setup: Why This Moment Matters
Here's what the source material skips: the quiet days in Jackson after Joel dies, before Ellie's rage becomes action. That's where this fan film plants itself — in the gap between grief and revenge, when loss is still just loss.
The song is the hinge. "Future Days" is what Joel was teaching Ellie before everything collapsed in The Last of Us Part II. Hearing it again, especially after his death, carries a specific weight — Pearl Jam's lyrics about holding onto love across time hit differently when the person singing them to you is gone. It's not subtle, but it doesn't need to be.
Three minutes is the whole runtime. No room for setup, no subtext developing slowly. Everything has to carry weight in a piece this compressed. The concept works because fans of the source material are already primed — you know exactly what this song means, so the filmmakers can skip the explanation and go straight to the feeling.
Why Fan Films Like This Exist (And Why This One Works)
Fan filmmaking occupies a strange corner of entertainment. There's no studio backing. No IMDb rating that means anything (this one sits at 0/10, which really just means it hasn't gotten enough votes yet). No trade coverage, no festival run, no box office. Just people who felt a story so intensely they needed to extend it — just a little, just enough to breathe.
What strikes me about "Our Future Days" is the creative specificity. The filmmakers could've made a straight action piece or a revenge fantasy. Instead, they chose to sit in stillness. They picked the moment before the violence starts, when Jackson is still just Jackson and not yet a launching point for a quest that will destroy Ellie.
Working within three minutes and (presumably) limited resources, the ambition is real — evoking a time-travel or memory-transport effect isn't easy. Hard to say if the execution fully lands without more viewer responses to draw from, but the concept is sound. It's asking the right question: what was Ellie thinking in those few days? What did she need?
How to Actually Find It (And Why That's Harder Than It Sounds)
Fan films don't behave like studio releases. They drift across platforms, pop up on one service, disappear, reappear somewhere else. Movie OTT tracks this stuff in real time — it's the most reliable way to pin down where "Our Future Days" is streaming right now in your region, rather than chasing dead links or outdated guides.
What you need to know before clicking play:
- Runtime: 3 minutes (shorter than a commercial break)
- Type: Fan film (not official HBO, Naughty Dog, or Sony production)
- Rating: Not rated by the MPAA
- Best for: People who've finished The Last of Us Part II or watched the HBO series Season 2
If you haven't seen the source material, this won't hit the same way. The whole thing depends on you already knowing Joel, already understanding what Ellie lost, already having the song in your muscle memory from the game or show.
Two Things People Confuse This With (And Why It Matters)
Searching for "Our Future Days" pulls up two other things that aren't this film.
There's "Futra Days," a completely unrelated 2024 sci-fi romance starring Tania Raymonde and Brandon Sklenar. According to IMDb, it's 99 minutes long and dropped on October 29, 2024. Not The Last of Us. Not related at all. Movie OTT has listings for that too if you're curious, but it's a different project entirely.
Then there's the Season 2 premiere of the HBO series, which is also called "Future Days". Same song title, official production, but separate from the fan film. The HBO episode is a full television episode with its own plot and pacing — this fan film is something else entirely. Quieter. Smaller. Made outside the official pipeline.
The Song Itself: Why "Future Days" Breaks You
Pearl Jam's "Future Days" appears in The Last of Us Part II at a moment that hits different after Joel dies. He's teaching it to Ellie. The lyrics are about holding onto love across time. When you hear it again — after his death, with Ellie alone in Jackson — the song becomes almost unbearable.
That's not an accident. The filmmakers know exactly what they're doing by centering the entire piece around this one track. It's an emotional shortcut that works because you're already carrying the weight. Fan filmmaking thrives on this kind of shorthand — you don't need to explain the context because the audience brought it with them.
Should You Watch It?
Look — "Our Future Days" isn't for everyone. It won't work if you haven't played the game or watched the show. It won't work if you're looking for plot or action. It's a mood piece. A coda. One last moment with characters you can't stop thinking about.
If you've finished The Last of Us Part II, especially if you found Joel's death hitting harder than you expected, this is worth three minutes. That's all it takes. Check Movie OTT for current availability, queue it up between episodes of whatever you're watching, and let it do what it's designed to do.
No awards. No critical consensus. No box office. Just a song, a memory, and the specific ache of a story you couldn't let go of anyway.