Old Familiar Feeling: Aliens
A detailed account of how the beloved science fiction of Aliens influenced the Halo trilogy.
In 2006, Gamespot asked Jaime Griesemer, “What were the inspirations for [Halo’s] mythology?” The Bungie designer for Halo: Combat Evolved and design lead for Halo 2 answered that among other sources, “For movies, obviously there is a big Aliens influence.” [i]
So, how did Aliens influence Halo?
Well, to answer that question, a brief summary is in order for the science-fictionally deprived. Aliens is a 1986 action-heavy sci-fi film directed by James Cameron. “A sequel to the 1979 film Alien, Aliens […] is regarded by many film critics as a benchmark for the action and science fiction genres. In Aliens […] Ellen Ripley returns to the planet LV-426 where she first encountered the hostile Alien. This time she is accompanied by a unit of Colonial Marines.” [ii] Beyond the first two films there were other sequels in the series, directed by neither Ridley Scott (Alien) nor Cameron and aren’t of much interest to us in this article.
Certainly the tone of Aliens versus that of the Halo trilogy as a whole is drastically different. If Aliens is the gritty space combat flick, Halo is the brightly colored Star Wars-esque space opera, complete with its own cyborgian Jedi who single-handedly dispatches villains by the legion. However, in Aliens, even when Ripley and the big bad Colonial Marines come knocking with their futuristic boomsticks they find themselves reduced to prey.
This tonal difference between the franchises is perhaps most keenly felt in the contrast of their villains. Aliens’ antagonists, “Xenomorphs,” are the more “believable” and realistic of the two. Halo’s evil alien conglomeration, the “Covenant,” and the horrific zombie spawning, “Flood,” are comic-bookish by comparison. Then again, it’s much easier to sell a single, silent, animalistic species that crawled out from under some rock as “believable” than an entire cast of alien races with society and culture, bent on galactic domination in big purple spaceships.
Note: It should be stated in advance that Valor is a guest writer and that the following is a work of his own doing, based on his own opinions. The work and the opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the Ascendant Justice site, staff or owner.
Cool article. It reiterated all of the things I had noticed about the similarities between Halo and Aliens. Driving the Warthog through the first cave in Halo: CE and when you’re escaping the Pillar of Autum reminded me of when the APC was in the facility in Aliens.
One thing I thought was different was how the assault rifle looked. The assault rifle in Halo reminds me of the starship in Aliens and was one of the first things I noticed about it when I first bought Halo back in 2001. Maybe Bungie did that on purpose or it’s just me.
Another interesting thing was that Master Chief awakes from cryo like the colonial marines do in Aliens. Both pods open the same way too.
I also liked the similarity between the schematics for the atmosphere re-processor and the trip mine. Both objects blow up and have a wide damage radius.
Comment by MC Warhammer — October 5, 2008 @ 5:41 pm
I knew most of these similarities, but when you put it all down on paper, it almost looks like a straight up jack.
Also you missed one.. 3rd pic from the bottom on part 3: Marines KEEP IT CLEAN!!
Comment by huskerblackshrt — October 6, 2008 @ 12:55 pm
Haliens!
Comment by c0ld vengeance — October 6, 2008 @ 1:07 pm
Glad you noted Shawn Elliot’s mention after the Live Action trailer.
He’s not at 1up anymore though..
Comment by Zeouterlimits — October 6, 2008 @ 2:46 pm
Aha! So im not as crazy as all my friends say i am!
Its pretty obvious that Halo took from Aliens, And I think thats starting to come around the other way.
I recently heard from my Uncle, who actually works at Gearbox, where they are developing the new Aliens game, That they were looking into a veriety of sources for Creative Influence. One of the franchises they were looking at, ironically, was Halo.
What goes around comes around,Huh?
Comment by Desert Rat — October 6, 2008 @ 7:15 pm
Well… I’m not surprised, I knew it, the subtle hints, and when I bought Aliens on DVD you could just see it. Heck, they just ripped Aliens and added a bit more. Could be called a compliment, if we watch the way the Aliens universe is going…
Comment by Shadow_of_Manhattan — October 6, 2008 @ 9:29 pm
Never seen Aliens before, so this was pretty interesting.
Think you’re stretching it with some of the in game/ in movie dialogue comparison. If someone says ‘I’ve got a bad feeling,’ half the population of the world would reply ‘You always have a bad feeling’. Granted, this may be ripped off from Aliens as well, but I say this and I’ve never seen the movie. And ‘dustoff’ isn’t a common term? I dunno.
Assault rifles might be stretching it a bit too… They’ve gotta have triggers… And a pointy end…
Comment by Sierra Bravo — October 7, 2008 @ 5:30 am
Thanks for the comments guys.
Sierra Bravo,
I went out of my way to say that I didn’t think the AR was visually similar to the Pule Rifle, as some claim. I did speculate that the digital ammo counter was probably inspired by the Pulse Rifle though.
Comment by Valor — October 7, 2008 @ 11:29 am
Everything on this site is facinating. everything i read on this site leave my mind full of questions and hypothesis’s(if thats a word). i hopr to read your insights on the halo universe for a long time!
Comment by compoo14 — November 5, 2008 @ 4:25 am