Analyzing the Hero’s Journey in Uncharted 3
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You might have heard of the Hero’s Journey before, but did you know that it refers to a specific kind of story structure? Most of the stories you love can be mapped to the Hero’s Journey. Not only that, but stories from all around the world fall into this pattern, which is so resonant with us as people that it’s become an archetypal structure. This means it’s a trope—a narrative shape that describes a bigger, more fundamental element of story. If you’re struggling with a story, you can apply this archetypal structure to your drafts to see what might be missing.
Your two editors here at Ground Crew have long enjoyed the Uncharted series by studio Naughty Dog for its cinematic gameplay, the puzzles, and, most of all, the characters. To demonstrate the compelling narrative power of the Hero’s Journey (and to have a little fun), we’re going to examine how it’s at work in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Even if you’re not familiar with the game, you can follow along to see how the parts come together for a satisfying whole. Strap in—this’ll be a ride.
What is the Hero’s Journey?
The Hero’s Journey was codified as a concept by a man named Joseph Campbell, whose work has influenced literature, psychology, film, and several other fields by illustrating how the vital elements of journey resonate with our lives as individuals. The structure is constructed by specific stages that the protagonist moves through, each one a milestone for change and growth.
Using the Hero’s Journey as a writer
Many others have delved into this narrative structure, including Christopher Vogler in his seminal book The Writer’s Journey. I can’t recommend it enough if you’re interested in learning how to apply the Hero’s Journey to your own manuscript. Vogler adapts Campbell’s work for storytelling, and the strength of his ideas is proved by his long and successful career as one of Hollywood’s top story consultants. He supplies all the right questions to ask when it comes to revision. If you’re having problems with plot or structure, there is no better resource.
The stages of the Hero’s Journey
Before we get into the game, let’s go over the basic stages of the Hero’s Journey. These are taken from The Writer’s Journey. Remember that the actions described here can be literal or metaphorical.
The Hero’s Journey
Act One
The Ordinary World: We see the hero’s everyday life and the seeds of conflict for this character.
The Call to Adventure: Internal or external pressure propels the hero towards action or change.
Refusal of the Call: The hero is uncertain, reluctant, or fearful.
Meeting with the Mentor: The hero encounters a person who prepares them for the journey by training, equipping, or giving advice.
Crossing the Threshold: The hero leaves the Ordinary World.
Act Two
Tests, Allies, and Enemies: The hero is tested by facing trials, having to choose allies, and in doing so, gathers enemies as well.
The Approach: The hero and their allies prepare for the challenge that awaits.
The Ordeal: The hero confronts death and must face their greatest fear. This is also called the Crisis.
The Reward: From the Ordeal (or Crisis), the hero learns an important lesson. The hero may also earn a physical reward from facing their fear. There’s celebration, but the journey isn’t over yet.
Act Three
The Road Back: The hero returns with the reward they’ve found, whether it’s physical or emotional, but the way back is full of dangers and obstacles. There might be a chase, a run to the finish.
The Resurrection: The climax—the hero is given their ultimate test. Will they act on what they learned in the Crisis? The hero sacrifices themselves in another moment of death and rebirth, but this time it is the ultimate sacrifice. In this action, the conflict from the first stage is resolved.
Return with the Elixir: The hero returns home or continues on, but in either case, they demonstrate the treasure (the Elixir) has transformed them, brought healing (physical or emotional), saved the land, etc.
These steps are sometimes rearranged or abbreviated, and sometimes they may not all appear in one story, but take any story you love and see if you can locate the different stages.
The Hero’s Journey in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Let’s turn now to the fun part. I’ve laid out the steps in the journey, but there are other elements inside of this structure that I have included in my analysis. If you’d like more information on these highlighted terms, please take a look at Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces and Vogler’s Writer’s Journey.
Now, to the game!
Act One
The Ordinary World
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception establishes the Ordinary World in a flashback of the hero, Nathan Drake. Early on, we meet Nathan, a streetwise American teenager with dirty clothes and a chip on his shoulder who’s scraping by in Cartagena, Columbia. It’s clear the security guards at the museum are keeping an eye on him, meaning he already has a reputation as a bit of a thief.
Call to Adventure
Looking to steal a ring that belonged to his ancestor, Sir Francis Drake, Nathan encounters Victor “Sully” Sullivan. The twist is that Sully is also trying to steal the ring for his shady employer, Katherine Marlowe. Sully and Nathan both make a play for the ring, and when Nathan takes off with it, Marlowe orders henchmen to take it back by force. One of them corners Nathan, but Sully shoots first and saves the kid. Sully offers to take Nathan in and hone his skills. He also offers to help him solve the mystery of Sir Francis Drake’s ring, which promises to reveal the location of great treasure.
Refusal of Call
Nathan’s wary of Sully and keeps his distance, insisting he’s doing fine on his own. He’s a reluctant hero.
Meeting with the Mentor
Sullivan acts as Drake’s mentor. As a thief himself, Sullivan recognizes Nathan’s ability and sees himself in the kid. He offers Nathan his help again, pointing out he needs it.
Crossing the Threshold
Nathan finally accepts Sully’s offer, shaking hands over a meal and cementing their partnership.
Act Two
Test, Allies, Enemies
This stage is where the game actually begins. Nathan, twenty years older, and Sully tangle with a man called Talbot. He’s a minion of the main villain, Marlowe, who’s still seeking Nathan’s ring. They’ve finally gotten a lead on Sir Francis Drake’s mystery.
Here, Sully takes on the role of ally. Nathan acquires more allies in the characters of Chloe Frazer and Charlie Cutter. Chloe and Cutter help Nathan as he attempts to discover Sir Francis Drake’s secret and how his ring is tied to the mystery.
There are several tests in this stage. Nathan travels to various locations, including France and Syria, following the trail of Sir Francis Drake, who left clues about his mysterious journey in puzzles and ciphers. Nathan eventually discovers that Drake discovered Ubar, the Atlantis of the Sands, which supposedly is the resting place of great treasure. Marlowe seeks to discover its location.
Nathan must overcome Marlowe’s minions, who frequently try to impede their progress. There is a heavy emphasis on external conflict through the tests as Nathan’s often being shot at or attacked in some form or another. Talbot is a major obstacle, often using a hallucinogenic drug to turn Nathan’s allies against each other.
However, Nathan’s internal conflict begins to move into the foreground. After a close call escaping a burning building, Sully questions Nathan’s actions for the first time, wondering if the treasure they’re hunting is worth all the danger they’re going through to get it. He says that Nathan’s pride is the real reason they are endangering themselves, but he ultimately decides to keep helping against his better judgment.
In Yemen, Nathan’s reunited with Elena Fisher, his estranged wife who’s a foreign ambassador there. Elena acts as an ally, helping Nathan get access to different places in the city, but she is also a shapeshifter (a highly dynamic/changeable character who’s often a love interest). The relationship between Elena and Nathan is complex, and she’s torn between the reasons she left the relationship and the feelings she still has for Nathan.
Elena furthers Nathan’s internal conflict by voicing concern for Sully, who’s devoted to Nathan. At this point, we begin to see Sully as a clone for Nathan, a vision of who he might be if he continues with his treasure-seeking ways. Sully enjoys the adventurous treasure-hunting life, but it’s the reason he has no real family. Nathan has to confront the fact he’s farther along that path than he thought.
Approach to the Inmost Cave
In Yemen, Nathan’s group barely survives a deadly trap to get the next clue, and Sully learns the location of Ubar. However, they also learn that Sir Francis Drake himself turned back from his pursuit of the city at this point, leaving a warning for anyone seeking it.
Elena confronts Nathan about his quest. She questions why he has to continue even when it’s clearly dangerous and Marlowe’s motives are looking a lot more nefarious than simple treasure hunting.
Right after this, Talbot interferes and captures Nathan for Marlowe to interrogate him on what they found. On top of her questions, she reveals that Nathan’s surname is one he chose, and she plants doubt in his mind—did Sully save Nathan all those years ago or condemn him to this kind of life?
Nathan escapes, but he encounters Talbot, who shows himself to be another clone for Nathan as well as a shadow—they look physically similar, are experts with weapons, and Talbot demonstrates what Nathan could become if he buries himself in treasure-hunting for the sake of the treasure itself, warped without concern for who gets hurt.
Talbot uses his drug on Nathan that makes him hallucinate, which eventually throws him back into the memory of his teenage self running from Marlowe’s men. But when he’s cornered this time, Sully is the one holding the gun on Nathan.
After following a false lead and escaping from a band of pirates, Nathan learns that Talbot and Marlowe have captured Sully and are planning an expedition into the desert to use his knowledge of the location of Ubar. Marlowe, despite her past with Sully, is ruthless and will no longer have a need for him once she finds the city.
Elena, in Nathan’s absence, was planning to rescue Sully herself. Nathan, recent events wearing on him, shares a brief moment of rest with her and in an even rarer act, apologizes. The cracks in his self-confidence begin to show.
Nathan plans to hide aboard a plane that’s taking off to supply Marlowe’s convoy, but he makes sure Elena doesn’t come with him. He knows it’ll be dangerous, and he doesn’t want to see her in harm’s way again because of his actions, which has been the case in the previous two games. She accepts his decision but still helps him onto the plane.
Ordeal
Nathan’s discovered, and the firefight onboard causes the plane to depressurize and crash. As the sole survivor, Nathan’s stranded in the desert with little hope of finding the convoy. As he grows more and more dehydrated, Nathan encounters mirages, first of water, then of Sully. He wanders the desert, forced to confront the doubtful voices of Marlowe and Elena as he deals with exhaustion and no shelter. Alone, Nathan has to decide what he’s really looking for in the desert. Constantly disappointed by hopes for water and rescue, Nathan clings to his desire to save Sully and fights the elements and more of Marlowe’s men to find him.
A group of Bedouin help him find the convoy, but it’s clear that Nathan’s walked out of the desert with a new perspective. People are more important than treasure, a discovery that could serve as the armature for Uncharted 3.
Reward
Nathan’s devotion to his friend and his vow that he’s no longer searching for Ubar impresses the leader of the Bedouin, and Nathan gains an ally. As a result of the Ordeal, he recovers Sully safe and sound.
Act Three
The Road Back
Marlowe presses on to Ubar. Nathan and Sully know that they must stop her from acquiring the secret of Ubar, which has been abandoned for a reason.
Resurrection
In the lost city, Nathan drinks the water of the oasis, but the water is Ubar’s true secret and the reason the city was lost—it’s contaminated at the source and causes hallucinations. Nathan sees Talbot and Marlowe kill Sully and chases after them in a fury, threatening to falter in what he discovered in the Ordeal and become like Talbot. When he reunites with Sully, Nathan reorients to reality and commits himself once again to stopping Marlowe.
They prevent Marlowe from taking the urn that’s polluting the water, keeping Ubar’s secret out of dangerous hands. But her careless excavation causes the city to start to crumble, and during the escape, Marlowe is trapped in quicksand. She pleads for Nathan’s help. Despite Sully’s discouragement, Nathan jumps in, acting on what he learned about people being more important.
However, his efforts are in vain, and Marlowe and Nathan’s ring are swallowed up. Talbot, in a rage, has a showdown with Nathan while he’s separated from Sully. Regardless of the destruction around him, Talbot’s bent on vengeance. Nathan slips over a cliff and barely manages to grab a hold. Sully tangles with Talbot, though he’s clearly no match for him. Nathan must make the decision to take out Talbot, and he sacrifices his own safety to make a risky shot while hanging off the cliff. In this way, Nathan kills his shadow, symbolically erasing that potential for darkness.
Return with the Elixir
Nathan and Sully escape from the city, which disappears into the sands for good. Back in Yemen, they reunite with Elena. Sully takes Nathan aside to apologize for the mistakes he made in being a father to him, admitting he is far from being perfect. He gives back Nathan’s wedding ring, something he’s held onto for “too long.” Later, Elena says she’s sorry for the loss of his other ring, but Nathan tells her that he traded it in for something better, making sure she sees he’s wearing his wedding ring again.
Here at the end, Nathan demonstrates he’s internalized the lesson of his Ordeal as well as the Resurrection. He’s become more understanding of the people who care about him, more compassionate and wise. He realizes that his pride as a treasure hunter was pushing away the woman he loved and his oldest friend. The story ends with them leaving together, a more complete whole, a family.
There you have it! Thanks for reading all the way through. If you try applying the Hero’s Journey to a favorite book, game, comic, or anything else, please share it. We’d love to see what you find!
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Images from the game are property of Naughty Dog.
