The Life

The We Are ODST is a live-action short made exclusively for the launch of Halo 3: ODST. The trailer along with the short film is directed by Rupert Sanders, who also worked on the Halo 3: Believe campaign..

This short showcases the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, an elite organization of UNSC Marines, focusing on the 19th Shock Troops Battalion during their operations in the Human-Covenant War.

Overview

The film starts with a military funeral held for SSGT K. Stark, with a young Tarkov watching, and then shows his recruitment and basic training to enlist as a Marine. Later, the video skips to a combat drop as Tarkov, now an ODST in an insertion pod, dropping towards a Covenant-held battlefield on an unknown planet, where he quickly encounters a Brute and is nearly killed, acquiring wounds to his face. The Brute closes in for the kill as Tarkov fires his pistol, but the Brute is killed by a crashing Banshee, saving Tarkov's life. The scene skips ahead to Tarkov again, now much older, the wounds on his face having become scars. He and a number of other ODST's hold a small service for a fallen comrade killed during combat, and hear a distant explosion and plasma fire in the distance. Forced to abandon the service, the ODST's put their helmets on and move out.

Transcript

{Translated from Hungarian}

{The video starts at Stark's funeral proceedings. Tarkov is seen in the background.}

UNSC officer: Present arms!

{Marines raise their assault rifles, as Tarkov visibly flinches.}

UNSC officer: Fire!

{The video then skips to Tarkov who apparently joins the ODSTs, having his head shaven by a barber. The video then skips to a scene where a group of men stand in a file, then snap to attention. The UNSC instructor yells in front of Tarkov.}

UNSC instructor: "Tarkov! You call that attention?! Thirty, now!

{The scene changes to an obstacle course. Tarkov performs a commando crawl and a UNSC instructor follows him, firing an Assault Rifle over his head, yelling.}

UNSC instructor: "Do you want to die? Do you? Faster! Go, go, go!"

{As Tarkov takes a dive in the obstacle course, the scene changes to him being dropped into an unknown planet. Several HEVs are seen. As soon as he hits the ground, his HEV's hatch bursts open. Tarkov, along with several other ODSTs, start running to an unknown destination, firing their SMGs along the way. However, a Brute Major knocks Tarkov to the ground, knocking his helmet off and inflicting deep gashes in his face. The Brute growls at him as Tarkov fires his pistol to no avail. As the Brute moves in for the kill, a Banshee that was hit with a rocket crashes into him from behind and kills him. Tarkov, lying on the mud, stares at the open space. The scene changes to a makeshift battlefield grave site with Tarkov, now appearing much older, and the gashes in his face having now turned into scars, along with several other ODST's standing beside him. The service having ended, Tarkov folds up the ODST flag that had been placed on the makeshift grave and puts it into a storage compartment in his armor. The view switches to a younger ODST who jerks his head up at the sound of distant plasma fire. Tarkov looks toward the source and puts on his helmet which polarizes, the younger ODST does the same and the squad moves out as a song sung in Welsh fills the background. The words 'we are ODST' appear then switches to 'Halo 3 ODST'.}

The lyrics of the song (in Welsh Gaelic): "Gafflwn Dihenydd, o'r fuddugoliaeth wiriol sydd. Ni fydd neb yn ein Drechu, Falch ydy ni i drochu traed o flaen i'r Annwn yn y gwybodaeth fe godwn ni."

The song translated from Welsh Gaelic: "And my army of brothers went over the hilltops, drenched in blood we may be... but fighting is all left to me... Together with my army of brothers... down we fall... darkness in all... through hell!"

An alternate translation:

“We cheat Death from his rightful victory. No one can defeat us we are glad to plunge feet first into Annwn in the knowledge that we will rise.”

Trivia

• The Marines were originally intended to speak Russian, according to Rupert Sanders during an interview - a language not commonly seen or used previously in the Halo universe. He said that the Russian language better reflects the tough training the ODST's have to go through. He acknowledges however that the ODST are actually speaking Hungarian. This language was picked to symbolise Earth united against the Covenant.
• The Welsh Gaelic (not modern-day Welsh) song is a version of Café del Mar's "Light of Aidan - Lament", which is much lighter and softer in tone and melody.
• The funeral scene was filmed inside the cooling tower of a nuclear power plant, while the intense training scene was filmed just outside the tower. The battle scene was shot in the bottom of a strip-mining coal operation, and the final scene where the ODSTs hold a service for their fallen squadmate was filmed in an abandoned Soviet aluminum refinery.
• The drill instructors in the short are actual Hungarian Special Forces soldiers.
• The short was originally supposed to include a scene of Tarkov's squad storming the interior of a building, killing a Brute on their way in.
• Bungie collaborated with the costume designer from Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers to design the UNSC Marine Dress blues uniform depicted in the trailer, complete with the insignia and rank displays.
• The special effects studio, Legacy Effects, accurately replicated the armor, weapons, and enemies based off the models provided by Bungie, including a life-sized Brute Minor complete with remote-controlled facial expressions.

Related Links

Internal

• Halo 3: ODST
• Halo 3: Believe
• Orbital Drop Shock Troopers

External

• We Are ODST on YouTube
• We Are ODST - Full Version (HD) on YouTube
• Literal translations of some of the words in the song