The Last of Us got a gross MTV Movie Award nomination

By James On Apr 5, 2023

The Best Kiss category of the MTV Movie Awards has always been a bit weird. (Remember when Kind won for an inter-species kiss that shot from the back of a man’s head?) But it’s never been weirder than on Tuesday, when Tess’ “kiss” from HBO’s The last of us was nominated for the award.

[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for The Last of Us, episode 2.]

For those unfamiliar, the “kiss” in question is between Anna Torv, the actress who plays Tess, and Philip Prajoux, the actor who plays the infected Cordycep zombie who kills her by his weird tendril-like mouth mushrooms with her face to connect. It’s a weird, decidedly disgusting moment on the show and almost completely out of step with the rest of the series and its tone.

According to series creator Craig Mazin, the team wanted to explore what would happen if someone became infected peacefully.

“What does it look like if you just stand dead still and let you do this?” asked Mazin in one interview with Variety. “Then we landed on this nightmare fuel. It’s disturbing and it’s violent. I think it’s very primary in the way it enters your own body.

While the scene may not have had the “primary” effect Mazin intended, it did come across as violent, just not in a particularly provocative way. Instead, it feels squinting and bizarrely objectifying to passively allow the otherwise bold, self-assured Tess as her death approaches. The moment sexualizes her in the creepiest, most voyeuristic way possible, without giving her much perspective or anything to say.

And that’s the kiss MTV wants to remember forever. In the past, the award was mostly associated with memorable romantic kisses, such as the running catch-and-kiss of The notebookor the upside-down-in-the-rain kiss from Spider-Man.

The nominees this horror movie moment runs into this year are Harry Styles and David Dawson out My police officerMadison Bailey and Rudy Pankow from Outdoor benchesRiley Keough and Sam Claflin from Daisy Jones and the Sixand Selena Gomez and Cara Delevingne from Only kills in the building.