What really happened in the desert?

Question

This obviously contains spoiler for the Uncharted 3 plot, so proceed with caution.

I just completed Uncharted 3 for the second time, and playing the desert part again raised some questions.

Let's recap a bit. Drake's just been through the whole shipyard ordeal - escaping capture, fighting off pirates, getting on and off the cruise ship and finally being washed ashore -after getting back to Elena, they have "a couple of hours of sleep" and reach the airport before dawn to catch the airplane. After Drake gets on the plane, we are led to understand he gets a few more hours of sleep (the next time we see him it's daylight outside), he then crashes into the desert.

The next couple of chapters is what really bothers me. So Drake is in the desert, no water, no food (we don't know about the latter for sure but we aren't told otherwise), it seems like he spends two days (we see two day-night cycles) walking in circles in the desert's heat and cold until he finally by chance reaches the ghost town. Only after surviving the ghost town Drakes get's a proper sleep again and food.

I might be reading into it too much, but it seems to me there's more than meets the eye in the desert chapter. I know the Uncharted series storyline relies on coincidence and chance but the desert scene when viewed without any interpretation seems really far-fetched. Twice before that point in the game we see characters hallucinating stuff that's not there, is it possible Drake imagines part of that desert journey (aside from the obvious mirages we see), that it really lasted much shorter? That he didn't reach his destination just by chance? Was this ever addressed by the game developers or cast?

Answer 1

In the first few minutes of Uncharted II, Drake is jumping around and pulling himself up ledges after he's been shot in the stomach. If he can do that, he can survive 2 days in the desert. (My personal canon is that it's not blood, the bullet shattered the uncapped red Sharpie he previously showed he was carrying)

Drake would be in no shape to be running through the village and mowing down everyone in sight after two days without water. Really, he should have been staying put during the day, and moving only at night. Then at least he could keep his bearings, and he wouldn't get heat stroke.

In reality it's not possible to navigate by the stars alone like Sully supposedly is either. The exact height of the North Star would tell you what latitutde you were looking for, but you would need an absolute date and time to know how far East or West on that line.

Answer 2

Parts of the desert journey were probably leftovers from the hallucinogenic substance and interrogation he had earlier in the game.

The voiceovers from Marlowe, the mirages, the red rock that he hides underneath, and Sully urging him on.

All of these happened late in the desert journey when he's dehydrated and tired. It doesn't seem that the day and night cycles were a hallucination though.

As far as I've seen this hasn't been addressed specifically by the developers.