Allan Unger









Ever since Sony and Naughty Dog released the first Uncharted video game, fans have pestered the companies about two things: wanting a live-action version, and dreaming of Firefly's Nathan Fillion as its star. Fillion's resemblance to fictional hero Nathan Drake, both in appearance and in sarcastic tone, has always been apparent.

Fillion himself got tongues wagging about the idea again over the weekend by posting a vague tease about the Uncharted series on social media. He followed through on Monday with quite the reveal: a 15-minute "fan film" (simply titled Uncharted) in which he stars as the game's globe-trotting action-hero.

"Fan film" is imperative stuff here, both for its loudly unofficial status and for its limited scope, but there's no arguing the production's love of the game series. Its opening sequence sees Drake tied down, beaten up, and interrogated over stolen treasure—and cracking wise through the punches. Eventually, he breaks free from his handcuffs (using a metal arrow taken from a compass on his person), beats henchmen up, and discovers a treasure-filled office, at which point Drake waxes historically about tantalizing relics.

It's this part, where Fillion whispers breathlessly about "a whole stack of letters from Ferdinand Magellan to [Afonso de] Albuquerque," that perhaps feels the most like Uncharted—where we get wide-eyed, nerd-giddy delivery about history-changing treasures, instead of Indiana Jones' museum-focused grit. This spirit continues once Drake escapes to a remote hillside, where he breaks down a further, treasure-related revelation with familiar series characters Sully (actor Stephen Lang from Avatar) and Elena (actor Mircea Monroe).





Another series-authentic trait: the 15-minute runtime is mostly composed of conversations and sarcastic one-liners, not fisticuffs or gunplay. Since the game series is famous for its non-interactive cut scenes, the ratio seems about right, though this may also boil down to Fillion not being quite up to Drake's unrealistic levels of stamina and strength. (The video includes zero wall-scaling or cliff-climbing moments, sadly.) Once Drake finally pulls his gun out, at least, director Allan Ungar shows his chops by delivering a brief-but-satisfying shooting sequence filmed from the same behind-the-back perspective as in the video game.

In his announcement of the video, Fillion offered thanks and gratitude for all involved, but he didn't go so far as to suggest that Naughty Dog or Sony had anything to do with the production—or that this video would build toward a future collaboration. Still, this kind of action- and dialogue-filled project is rarely done simply out of the goodness of one's heart, and with nary a peep from the Tom Holland-linked Uncharted film project since mid-2017, it's anyone's guess as to whether there's room for more Fillion-Drake in the media world.

Here's Fillion's statement to fans:

This is something I've wanted to do, but more importantly, something I've wanted to see for a long time. If you've ever pinned a towel around your neck for a cape or donned a fedora and nearly put your eye out with a homemade whip, this is for you. Thank you, @allanungar, for letting us all scratch this itch. Thank you, @naughty_dog_inc, for creating such a wonderful archetype. Thank you fans, for your excellent taste. You know who you are. Enjoy.

Listing image by Allan Unger