Three Scenes in UnCharted that don’t happen if Tom Holland had Social Anxiety Disorder

UnCharted

In 2022’s UnCharted, there are three scenes which would have been cut if Tom Holland had Social Anxiety Disorder.

Attention all history buffs: Who is the first person to sail around the world? “Ferdinand Magellan”, you say. That’s what I thought too. Turns out Magellan actually died before he completed the voyage. At least, that is what they said in the Uncharted movie. Starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, Uncharted focuses on the history of Magellan’s voyage to find the lost treasure, which is a whole lot of gold. Holland and Wahlberg worked well together for on-screen action and comedy, eventually leading us on a trip from New York to the Philippines.

Nathan Drake (played by Tom Holland) learned from his older brother during childhood about history and the significant value that historical artifacts have. After his brother disappeared on a voyage with Victor Sullivan (played by Mark Wahlberg), Nathan (or Nate as he was referred to) became a professional thief while working as a bartender in New York. Stealing bracelets off his customers or picking pockets from doormen, Nate was quite the under-the-radar criminal. Eventually, he was recruited by Sully to find Magellan’s lost gold.

Social Anxiety Disorder

If you’re an adventurer and enjoying learning new things like Tom Holland is from Uncharted, then click here to learn more about the effects of SAD. If you want a super quick-notes version of it, check out the following:

Social Anxiety Disorder causes extreme fear in social settings, specifically fear of being judged by others, being embarrassed or humiliated, fear of others noticing your embarrassment, which then leads to humiliation

SAD symptoms include the dreaded:

• Bright, red facial blushing
• Profuse, heavy sweating
• Trembling hands
• Thumping heart rate

Make a long story short… SAD causes the most uncomfortable social situations to be in. It’s awful.

Three Scenes in Uncharted which would not have happened if Tom Holland had Social Anxiety Disorder

Scene 1: Tom Holland working as a bar tender in New York City

Anxiety Provoking Event: Interacting with customers inside the bar and being watched/observed by others as you’re making the drink

If Tom Holland was a bartender who had Social Anxiety Disorder, he would be sweating and blushing all day while trying to make drinks and conversate with his customers. He wouldn’t be able to focus on making the complex drinks requested by patrons, not to mention mightily struggling to interact with customers, especially attractive women.

Being a skilled bartender means being able to create a variety of different drinks for your customers. You would be consistently watched and judged by patrons, which means that there is little room for error. Throw into the mix the type of people you would find in an area like Manhattan, and you the pressure to perform well becomes even higher.

Then there is the social aspect of bartending. As Tom Holland’s character Nate showed us, starting a conversation is part of the job. Nate started a conversation with the beautiful woman who ordered a complex drink from him. He gave her a bit of a history lesson about that particular drink while he skillfully made it for her. A few minutes later, he stole her bracelet, but that’s beside the point.

So there are two major factors in being a bartender that are a big no-no for SAD sufferers:

• Being watched and judged while making the drink
• Conversing with the guests

If Tom Holland had SAD, he would not be able to focus on creating the drink because of the intense fear of being watched and judged. Additionally, he would not be able to conversate with the guests at the bar because of fear of embarrassment, humiliation, and being judged. And if by miracle chance he were able to conversate regularly, he would start to blush and sweat just from the anticipation of developing those dreaded SAD symptoms. It’s a lose-lose situation for him.

Scene 2: Tom Holland attends high class auction in Manhattan

Anxiety Provoking Event: Interacting with others at a social gathering is a huge SAD trigger, especially if you’re interacting with people high-class, hugely judgmental people.

If Tom Holland had Social Anxiety Disorder, he would not have been able to attend a high-class auction because large social gatherings are very uncomfortable situations for SAD sufferers, especially if the people in attendance are rich, judgmental snobs.

Attending a social gathering is like a no-win situation with SAD sufferers. You can attend the gathering and try to conversate with people, but your conversations would end up being really superficial as you prefer to just play it safe. If you get any deeper, there is a risk that people will learn more about you, and therefore judge you. This will lead to the dreaded red face symptoms.

Or if you’re at a social event, you could try to mind your own business and stand around in the corner all alone. The problem with that is you will fear being approached by someone. The fear leads to anticipation and anxiety, which unfortunately causes red face symptoms. This is really unpleasant and makes you want to go the bathroom and wash your face with cold water.

If Tom Holland had SAD, he would rather just spare himself the embarrassment, the feeling of being judged by these uppity NYC rich folks, and the feeling of anticipation symptoms. In other words, he just wouldn’t attend the auction.

Scene 3: The dance at a Barcelona night club with Chloe while they were trying to “blend in.”

Anxiety Provoking Event: Dancing in public at a large social gathering with a girl that you have a crush on, especially after you just admitted that you’re not a good dancer. There is a high risk for tremendous embarrassment here.

If Tom Holland had Social Anxiety Disorder, he would never have agreed to dance with his crush, Chloe. He would not have agreed to even enter the night club with her.

• Night club- large social gathering which triggers SAD symptoms
• Dancing with your crush- extreme fear of negative judgement by your crush which would cause SAD symptoms
• Dancing poorly with your crush- extreme fear of humiliation in front of your crush, which would cause SAD symptoms. She would then notice the red, sweaty face and call attention to it. She might make the “ill”, grossed-out face or she might just ask,
  • “what’s wrong with you?”
  • Or she may be a bit more sympathetic and ask, “are you okay?”

Either way, her recognition of your red face will exacerbate symptoms causing heavier blushing and heavier sweating.

Those three scenes in UnCharted simply won’t happen if Tom Holland had Social Anxiety Disorder.