The Battle Begins

The Battle Begins is a campaign-exclusive trailer for Halo: Reach. It was released on July 29, 2010 and runs for 1:06. It has a more dramatic tone than previous trailers, focusing on parts of the campaign that contemplate the Covenant invasion and destruction of Reach.

Summary

The trailer opens with the game's intro, with the view zooming in through space. Text shown on a black background:

THIS SEPTEMBER

The camera passes through the ring of one of Reach's moons, to reveal the planet Reach. Text shown:

THE BATTLE BEGINS

SPARTAN-B312 is seen exiting a Warthog in a scene from the game's introductory cinematic, Noble Actual.

Cut to two UH-144 Falcons approaching the Visegrad Relay in a scene from the opening cinematic of the level Winter Contingency. Cuts to a scene from the opening of the level ONI: Sword Base; shows a side-shot of two Falcons on their way to Sword Base, with a Covenant corvette hovering in the background. Zoom in on Carter-A259, who turns to look at the Covenant ship.

Next, a scene from the opening cinematic of Long Night of Solace is shown; Kat-B320 outlines the premise of Operation: UPPER CUT while Emile-A239, Jun-A266, Noble Six and Jorge-052 watch. Cut to a scene from the closing cinematic of Nightfall, with Noble Six and Jun-A266 observing a massive Covenant landing zone at Ütközet.

Cut to a part of the opening of the level Tip of the Spear, with a convoy of Warthogs, Falcons, Pelicans and a Mongoose rolling toward Covenant positions. Close-up of Noble Six's and Kat-B320's Warthog, with the gunner turning the LAAG to face the incoming Covenant banshees. Plasma mortar bolts can be seen arcing up in the distance. One of the Warthogs is hit and destroyed by a round.

A scene for the closing of Tip of the Spear is shown, with Noble Six leaping off Spire One, to a Falcon where Jorge-052 barely catches him and pulls him on board. Shows a brief shot of a Falcon flying over a damaged New Alexandria in the level of the same name.

Cut to a scene from the level Winter Contingency, with a Sangheili Zealot team led by a Field Marshal attacking Noble Team in the Visegrad communications outpost. The next shot shows Noble Six, with Kat-B320's body in his hands barely visible on screen, as well as the rest of Noble Team, futilely shooting at a Field Marhsall on board a Phantom, in the closing cinematic of New Alexandria.

Shows a part of the opening cinematic of Exodus, with Noble Six standing atop a hill looking down to the besieged city of New Alexandria with Covenant corvettes looming overhead. Zooms in to show Jorge's dog tags in Six's hand.

A slightly modified scene from the closing of New Alexandria is shown: Noble Six, Jun and Carter emerge from a ruined building with the ruins of New Alexandria seen in the background. Jun drops a blue signal flare.

Cut to the Sabre Bravo 029 taking off, then shows the UNSC Savannah in Reach orbit, accompanied by Sabres and a Pelican. A brief scene of space combat from the level Long Night of Solace is shown, with the player destroying several Seraphs on their way to the Covenant corvette Ardent Prayer. Cuts to text on a black screen:

THE MOST ANTICIPATED GAME OF 2010

HALO: REACH

Shows Noble Six looking at a mountain range, with the wreckage of the Covenant supercarrier Long Night of Solace crashed on top of a mountain and pieces of debris raining down.

View from the orbit of a glassed Reach, with Epsilon Eridani in the horizon. Shows the text:

REMEMBER REACH

09.14.10

Video ends in the Xbox 360 logo being shown on the screen.

Trivia

• Contributors at HBO have noted that the final image of Noble Six staring at a crashed Covenant vessel resembles Crashed, a piece of artwork from Marathon 2: Durandal that was drawn by Craig Mullins.
• A shorter, forty second long version of this trailer has been made as a television commercial, which features some alternate footage.
• At approximately thirty seconds, the chainguns on the Warthogs are firing; however, their barrels are not spinning.
• The song played in the trailer shares its name with the traile itself. It is played in the Halo: Reach campaign level Noble Actual, and appears in the soundtrack as the first song of Winter Contingency.

Gallery

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  A promotional image of the trailer.

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  Emile, Jun, Noble Six and Jorge watch as Kat formulates a plan.

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  Noble Six surveys the city of New Alexandria.

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  Noble Six looks out at a mountain range, where the Long Night of Solace lies in ruin.