The Last of Us: in an apocalypse in real life, Joel’s trick to get gasoline out of cars would not work

In “Please Hold to My Hand,” the fourth episode of The Last of UsJoel Miller (Pedro Pascal) stars in a scene that confirms how difficult it is to mobilize in the middle of a zombie apocalypse or, in this case, because of the Cordyceps fungus in search of gasoline.

So far in the program we have seen how Joel and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) have to travel long distances and dodge the infected. When they finally manage to get hold of a vehicle, a Chevrolet S-10, the fuel dilemma begins.

As he recalls a report published on the website of Passion Engine, Gasoline doesn’t last 20 years and it degrades much sooner, so it’s impossible for two decades to have passed and Joel can continue using the fuel from other cars..

The trick wouldn’t work in real life in the middle of an apocalypse

At the beginning of the fourth chapter, we see Joel extracting gasoline from another car to blow it into the pickup. Curiously, Ellie and her protector talk about it. “Do we have to do this every hour?”, asks the teenager, to which Joel responds: “Gasoline spoils over time. This is almost water.”

According to the report, after two decades in the yard of the rusty and abandoned car, gasoline could not be used even with this technique. It could last three to six months, a year at the most.

Fuels degrade due to oxidation and the time it takes to spoil their properties varies due to many factors, such as the composition of the fuel itself, temperature, incidence of light or the presence of metals that catalyze oxidation, among others. others.

Experts insist that gasoline can stay optimal for a quarter or two. In that time interval, its state can vary by the temperature to which it is exposed. For example, at 20ºC it would begin to degrade in six months and at 30ºC in three months.