Arrival
They let me pick, did I ever tell you that?
Choose whichever Spartan I wanted.
You know me. I did my research; watched as you became the soldier we needed you to be.
Like the others, you were strong and swift and brave. A natural leader.
But you had something they didn’t. Something no one saw, but me.
Can you guess?
Luck.
Was I wrong?
[Arrival, Halo 3]
For deeply devoted Halo fans this is a perfect way to start the game: directly referencing the first Halo novel, The Fall of Reach. Cortana’s choice of words here is filled to the brim with references to the first novel. Firstly, you must know that all of the UNSC’s Artificial Intelligences are created from an existing (usually recently deceased) human.
At Dr. Halsey’s insistence, ONI had arranged to have her brain carefully cloned and her memories flash-transferred to the receptacle organs. Only one of the twenty cloned brains had survived the process. Cortana had literally sprung from Dr. Halsey’s mind, like Athena from the head of Zeus. [Halo: The Fall of Reach, pg. 236]
Cortana’s first appearance in The Fall of Reach is thirty-eight years after Halsey first met the Master Chief as a child (known as John, then), so it’s safe to assume that Cortana had been created some time after Halsey’s first meeting with John, and therefore held within her artificial mind the following conversation:
“You like games,” [Halsey] said. “So do I.”
“It’s very simple. I toss the coin like this.” She flicked her wrist, snapped her thumb, and the coin arced, spinning into the air and landed in the sand. “Next time, though, before it lands, I want you to tell me if it will fall with the face of the man showing or with the eagle holding the arrows.”
“I got it.” John tensed, bent his knees, and then his eyes seemed to lose their focus on her and the coin.
She tossed it, making sure there was plenty of spin.
…his hand snapped out and snatched the quarter out of the air.
He held up his closed hand. “Eagle!” he shouted.
She tentatively reached for his hand and peeled open the tiny fist.
The quarter lay in his palm: the eagle shining in the orange sun.
[Later]”We screen these subjects for certain genetic markers,” [Halsey] said. “Strength, agility, even predispositions for aggression and intellect. But we couldn’t remote test for everything. We don’t test for luck.” [Halo: The Fall of Reach, pgs. 24-26]
Dr. Halsey indicated that John was selected in part due to luck (though later, when asked, she would deny believing in an actual trait as luck). It’s not surprising then that Cortana, when asked to select the Spartan she’d like to be paired with, was immediately drawn to the Master Chief.
“…you know he is neither the smartest nor the fastest nor even the strongest of the Spartans. But he is the bravest — and quite possibly the luckiest. And in my opinion, he is the best.”
“Yes,” Cortana whispered. “I concur with your analysis, Doctor.” [Halo: The Fall of Reach, pg. 237]
This won’t be the last time that the game references the first novel.
The first three notes we hear as the camera pans down to the Master Chief are the same as the first three notes heard in the main Halo theme. But they quickly turn ominous as the Chief is seen rigidly lying in the mud. Johnson’s “stay sharp” comment causes the Marines to assume a position of defense around the Chief. Whenever I see the Marines in Halo take up that watchful, defensive circle, I’m always reminded of the level “The Truth and Reconciliation,” when the Marines encircle the Chief as he’s grav-lifted up for the first time into the Covenant ship. A Marine then refers to Sergeant Johnson as “Sergeant Major,” which we’ll hear him called often in the game.
Sometimes I forget that I’m in the next-gen era and such was the case here; I remember being immediately impressed with Johnson’s eyes. As he inspects the Chief, his eyes realistically scan over the Chief’s armour.
Of course, the Chief has to have his hero opening, and Marty’s music supports this scene in a great way. You can’t help but feel excitement as the Chief says, “Yeah, you’re not.” Even if it is a little cheesy. And Johnson’s “why do you always jump?” is a nice reference to the Chief’s leap from Cairo Station in the first level of Halo 2.
Here, we get the first glimpse of the oft-to-be seen Cortana flashes, as they’ve come to be called. In this instance, the Chief is remembering the words Cortana left him with as he departed High Charity. The cinematography is great as Johnson leans in from the right to drawn Chief back into the present.
The cut following the Marine’s line, “your armour’s still in partial lockdown mode,” always seems odd to me. On the Easy and Normal difficulties you’ll encounter the tutorial section here, but on Heroic and Legendary the screen just fades to black when the Marine finishes his line. Bungie could probably have removed the tutorial in a less awkward manner.
The next scene is really exciting because, as players, we’ve already become intimately acquainted with the Arbiter, having played as him throughout Halo 2. But the Chief hasn’t seen him since their separation at Gravemind’s lair. Master Chief seems to accept Johnson’s “the Arbiter’s with us,” explanation pretty quickly. I would have liked to see some more interaction between the two, but that probably would have been too verbose for this section of the game.
“Were it so easy.” The Arbiter reminds everyone that their violent history is not so easily forgotten.
The last scene is pretty odd. There are five variants on Legendary for Johnson’s last line, delivered after the Arbiter’s prompt, “we must go. The Brutes have our scent.” I believe they are random.
Variant 1: Then they must love the smell of badass.
Variant 2: Then they must love the smell of badass. And I left a little present for you, Arbiter. And I’m walking away. Hahaha!
Variant 3: Then they must love the scent of testosterone.
Variant 4: Then they must love the scent of a real man.
Variant 5: They must love the smell of Bulgari. Yeah, I’m doin’ a little product placement! I gotta get paid, too!
They’re pretty weird, in my opinion. But if you’re playing on Legendary then it’s likely that you’ve already completed the game, and therefore have no reason to be rewatching the first cutscene, since it must be loaded as a separate level with no gameplay. So I guess if Bungie wanted to add some amusing stuff into the game, then this was the place to do it.
Overall, a great cutscene. I suppose Bungie implemented it as a separate level so that players replaying the game at later times didn’t have to watch Cortana’s opening speech over and over again. The first scene with Cortana speaking could definitely be seen as being separate from the rest of Sierra 117, but it would seem a little odd to have a cutscene that short loaded that as a separate level. So they probably moved over the Johnson section, even though that takes place in the jungle, and would have likely fit in better at the opening to Sierra 117.
But it was probably just so they could get away with their Johnson fart jokes.
Nice job. I almost commented that Johnson says other things too, but then I remembered that you are dealing with the Legendary difficulty.
Comment by Paavi — April 21, 2008 @ 11:15 pm
I loled hard at the line where johnson tells arbiter he left him a present
Comment by imd one — May 3, 2008 @ 9:34 am
Good job with this. The opening with Cortana brought the first book came straight to my mind. I love the Halo storyline, very ingenious designed story.
Also when I first played, I thought the loading screen from Arrival to Sierra 117, I thought was going to be an opening introduction like you see in like T.V. shows and some movies. ๐
Comment by Sean, sprtn098 — May 3, 2008 @ 11:18 am
I liked it, but Marine(s) should be capitalized, and the word is spelled Sergeant, not Sargeant.
Comment by 0311 — May 3, 2008 @ 11:41 am
I’m quite sure its “worried so easy”
Comment by john — May 4, 2008 @ 7:46 am
It’s “Were it so easy.”
This line is said multiple times in the Halo games.
Comment by Yay295 — May 4, 2008 @ 11:27 pm
It’s “Were it so easy.” Turn on the subtitles and you’ll see for yourself.
Great job, by the way.
Comment by Pimpem 117 — May 5, 2008 @ 1:00 pm
amazing. a really in depth and novel-esque approach to the universe of h3. reading this reminded me of how novel-like video game storylines and plots can be, despite being a very lucrative and often times mis-judged source of media for the modern kid….nice job.
Comment by leatherface ace — May 22, 2008 @ 8:09 pm
totally loved the sipet from the book about john’s and halsey’s first interaction. i forgot that cortana had all of the dr’s memories and that was the full meaning behind her saying he was lucky.
Comment by tuckmasterx — May 23, 2008 @ 4:55 pm
Great Job. I love the opening to Halo 3 and (if I had an X-Box) would watch it often. There is one thing that bothers me though. At the end of H2, Master chief leaves Cortana behind on High Charity… along with Sergeant Johnson and Miranda Keyes. He jumped on the Drednaught, a super fast Forerunner ship headed directly for Earth while Keyes and Johnson left later on on a slower,less advanced covenant ship with the Arbiter and still managed to be there when the MC woke up. Also, what happened to the MC while on the Drednaught?
Comment by Joel — May 23, 2008 @ 10:29 pm
Oh, wait. I forgot to mention, you know how on Arrival when you see the MC jump off the Drednaught? well, I noticed on the Starry Night tv ad for H3 in the scene with the children looking at the sky, you can see a slow moving object in the distance… possibly the Forerunner ship.
Veiw it here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrOJJCEUJow
Watch in seconds 5 to 9 in the top left corner through the grass you can see it.
Comment by Joel — May 23, 2008 @ 10:36 pm
You people are awesome! THANK YOU!!!
Comment by cellar — May 24, 2008 @ 1:04 am
Nice job guys.Just came over here from bungie.net, and thought it might be interesting to check it out here.
So far so good in my opinion.I like how you flesh out every single line of dialogue said, its very nice.
Also, Ive heard Johnson say something else on Legendary.
Sometimes he says:
“Then they must love the smell of green”.
Just letting you know,keep up the good work guys.
Comment by xXxAlHalLoWxXx — May 26, 2008 @ 10:10 am
Awesome
Comment by Jeot21 — May 26, 2008 @ 1:17 pm
It seems to me that the starry night beginning is john talking to another spartan when they were kids, and that’s why when it goes to the other person it’s his helmet, then there’s the explosion. why else would they give us chiefs point of view for that unless it’s a memory?
Comment by Karmon Sands — June 1, 2008 @ 10:58 pm
Just a little info that I remember from the first book; when describing the process of cloning Dr. Halsey’s mind to create Cortana, it goes into further detail about creating A.I.s in general and I think said something to the effect that they only last about 7 years. So she was created close to the beginning of Halo: CE.
Comment by Fimalo — June 2, 2008 @ 9:51 pm
Yeah, “Smart” AI Constructs only last 7 years, and, unless I’m mistaken, only Smart AIs are built from cloned human intelligences. Regular AIs are completely artificial. I think Bungie has moved away from the idea of Cortana dying in 7 years though, since she’s already a few years old in Halo CE, and it seems both she and the Master Chief expect her to be there to ‘wake him when we need him’ at the end of Halo 3.
Comment by Avalanche — June 10, 2008 @ 11:58 am
all of the Halo books are worth a read and yes it brings the book fans closer to the Halo Universe but i would expect this to be the case anyway with a quality studio like Bungie……….. Bring on Halo 4. Keep up the analyasis dude…………
Comment by UTERDOOL — June 12, 2008 @ 4:45 pm
Don’t forget – at the end of the Halo book the Arbiter was the commander of the convenant fleet at Halo – the Chief and him got into a hand-to-hand battle and the cheif backed him into an escape pod…hence “Were it so easy” to forget their linked past…
Comment by Northw — June 12, 2008 @ 9:00 pm
So far, so good!
I have read and commented on some of the other feedback you have put up, and it is good work! I really enjoy it.
One thing i want to point out though is this: EVERYBODY SHOULD BEAT THIS LEVEL ON LEGENDARY!!I mean it’s the easiest level, and if you have a friend who has Halo CE and Halo 2, but doesn’t have Halo 3 for any reason, you can tell him that you at least beat one level on Legendary!
If you have already beaten the game on Legendary, then just watch the commentary so it won’t ruin your record of finishes.
Comment by Mark — July 8, 2008 @ 5:54 pm
i think the cutscene and stuff was done great, but i think starting off THE MOST ANTICIPATED GAME EVER with the main character lying down on the ground, near death is a horrible way to start the game. the chief is supposed to be able to defeat anything and the fans like his invincibility, so starting this game off like that was a pretty bad move by bungie (but i still love h3)
Comment by fabio — August 8, 2008 @ 10:19 pm
@fabio
I don’t understand why you think it was a terrible beginning. Of course it was an anticipated game, but your reasoning is flawed. We first see him jumping from a sub-orbital height with Marty’s amazingly epic music score in the background.
That is where we know he’s badass. Let alone no duh it is the game’s start so he’s got plenty of levels to complete. You’re the only one who thinks it is a bad move by Bungie around here. It’s a story plot device, get over it. I’m not upset that Tom Bombadil from Lord of the Rings wasn’t featured or mentioned at all in the movie…
Great work so far to the Ascendant Justice crew!
Comment by Alex — August 13, 2008 @ 10:42 pm
Actually, that’s not a Dreadnought that the chief jumps from. It’s the forerunner ship that the chief enters at the end of Halo 2. Also, do you remember the marines at the end of Halo 2 saying that the ship the Chief was in was an unidentified one?
Well, the only ship that the marines have not yet seen is that forerunner ship.
Comment by Matt — August 14, 2008 @ 11:20 am
The dreadnought is the name of the forerunner ship
Comment by Kyle — August 14, 2008 @ 11:36 pm
Well at least your on the right track about the ship, I”m not saying this to be argumentative or anything, but the ship isn’t named the dreadnought, that’s merely the class of the ship, such as freighter or cruiser or carrier. It’s just one of the biggest and best ship classes.
Comment by Karmon Sands — August 22, 2008 @ 8:25 pm
BTW The Dreadnought was a incorrect classification The Forerunners had name them “Key Ships” which were built to be an power source for the Portal. to reach the Ark.
Comment by Dan — September 18, 2008 @ 1:24 am
actually, that ship is known as a dreadnought by the covenant at least. truth directly refers to it in one of his speeches:
“My dreadnought, the vessel that has so long been the focus of our worship now rests on it’s true pedestal.”
also, I have never heard of any ships in the game or books being referred to as dreadnoughts, so I don’t think the UNSC uses that class when it designates ships. as far as the key ship belonging to a dreadnought class, I think that having no other forerunner ships as a frame of referance would defeat the purpose of putting them into classes, so perhaps it is known as ‘the dreadnought’ because the prophets found that to be a fitting title.
Comment by gauntletrunner — September 22, 2008 @ 1:54 am
dreadnought doesn’t have to be a designation used in the game or books, it just IS a classification of ship used in the world. And sure the covenant know it’s forerunner, but that doesn’t mean that the humans do. they have never seen any before, yes, it’s design is vastly different to the covenants other ships, baring no similarities to them in fact. But the covenant holy city doesn’t look like one of their ships either. Yet it is covenant controlled, has covenant weapons(which derived from forerunner tech) and now, essentially, a giant battle station with giant plasma weapon emplacements all over as much as it is a floating piece of a planet!
Comment by Karmon Sands — October 11, 2008 @ 5:47 am
um they’re officially called “Cortana Moments” not “Cortana flashes”.
Comment by Xij29y6 — November 14, 2008 @ 1:24 pm
I think the reason Master Chief took so long to get to Earth will be explained in the Halo comic book that Marvel is publishing… I’m betting that the end of the comic story will be this scene of Master Chief falling to Earth…
Comment by John — November 15, 2008 @ 8:06 pm
I thought it was “War is so easy(to start)” I don’t know what he means now with “were”
Comment by Ed Clifton — January 22, 2009 @ 2:31 pm
I interpret it to mean something like, “If only it were so easy.” The Arbiter is terse.
Comment by dammann — February 8, 2009 @ 6:32 am
I guess I should expand on that- “If only it were so easy for the Master Chief and the Arbiter to have a fight that ends decisively.” Neither one of them is ever really defeated in a final way.
Comment by dammann — February 8, 2009 @ 6:34 am
I found it funny how apparently Bulgari still exists in 2553. I wonder if Cortana is based on the NT kernel or some unix variant? ๐
Comment by Poopskintheliar — March 7, 2009 @ 11:30 pm
Arrival is virtually the easiest level. All you have to do is look up, then look down.
Comment by Christian Bethel — April 22, 2009 @ 1:08 pm
@ comment #19 by Northw: I thought that at one point, too, since the books can be a little vague, but I don’t think that’s the case. If my re-reading is correct, Thel (soon to be the Arbiter) arrived at the battle of Reach aboard the ship MC commandeers, but had transfered aboard another ship to assume command once at the ring. …I think. I could be wrong or there could be some minor continuity hiccups concerning the names of the Convenant ships involved.
By the way, the Arbiter’s phrasing, “Were it so easy,” is perfectly correct, possibly more so than the vernacular of English suggests. It’s the proper use of the subjunctive tense in English, used to describe wishes or possibility. Whenever a human talks about MC perishing, his “Were it so easy” remark is just a coment on how hard it is to kill a Spartan, or maybe MC more specifically. Seems to me like a shortened version of, “Were it so easy, he would have already fallen in battle” or something along those lines. There’s no greater meaning, not even a longing, though I find it almost elegant as it is, and I always love the Elites’ flowery speech.
Um… it was my understanding that smart AIs start going off the deep end after 7 years or so but that they can function after that time, just not necessarily well or safely. Wasn’t there a functioning nearly rampant AI in the book ‘Cole Protocol?’ If I am correct, Cortana could well exist for some time with MC in cryo, just with more flamboyance or even in madness.
Comment by TheAsterisk! — April 27, 2009 @ 12:59 am
Something tells me that the 4 Halo comics: Uprising are irrelevant. We can see the Keyship flying over Earth at the end of Halo 2. We can see the Keyship agin as it passes over the night sky in Arrival.
Comment by Chistian Bethel — May 11, 2009 @ 2:47 pm
Very well done article, i particulary enjoyed the references you connected t the novels(s).
Comment by Valiant — June 8, 2009 @ 7:26 pm