Prologue

Prologue is the first level of Halo 4's campaign. Rather than featuring gameplay it is a cutscene depicting Dr. Catherine Halsey and her thoughts on the SPARTAN-II Program.

Transcript

{Cutscene}

Open on a line of beds. They are made of plastic, with no sheets, and are enclosed by glass walls. Children inside them are sleeping. Pan to a boy sitting on one of the beds. His head is shaved and he wears a gray uniform that reads "JOHN". He looks up at his viewer, his eyes grave.

Halsey's memory of a young John.

Fade in to a closeup of Halsey's eyes. She seems tired and grave.

• Interrogator: "Tell me about the children."

The interrogator, who is framed in shadow, sits at the other end of their table.

• Interrogator: "Dr. Halsey?"

Halsey looks at her speaker defiantly.

• Doctor Catherine Halsey: "You already know everything."

• Interrogator: "You kidnapped them."

Cut to John-117, now wearing a breath mask, lying down on the bed as machines prepare to operate on him.

• Halsey (voiceover): "Children's minds are more easily accepting of indoctrination, their bodies more adaptable to augmentation. The result was the ultimate soldier."

Cut to John, now fully armored and being inspected by technicians. He towers over all of them.

John fully armored.

• Halsey: "And because of our success, when the Covenant invaded, we were ready."

Cut to a CAS-class assault carrier hovering over a human city. Dozens of aircraft fly out of its launch bay.

Cut back to the interrogation.

• Interrogator: "Dr. Halsey, you're bending history for your favor and you know it. You developed the Spartans to crush human rebellion, not to fight the Covenant."

Banshees strafe and bomb the city as civilians runs for their lives.

• Halsey (voiceover): "When one human world after another fell..."

A Sangheili drives his energy sword through a fleeing civilian.

• Halsey (voiceover): "When my Spartans were all that stood between humanity and extinction..."

From up in the sky, a dozen Spartans drop from Pelicans, using thruster packs to slow their descent.

• Halsey (voiceover): "Nobody was concerned over why they were originally built."

The Spartans land. A Elite snarls at them. The Spartans take cover and shoot down some of the Sangheili who return fire, flaring the shields on the Spartans' armor, while the lead Elite calmly steps forward and fires back. Cut to the Spartans advancing, still firing.

The Spartans fighting the Covenant.

• Interrogator (voiceover): "So you feel in the end that your choices were justified."

Cut to Halsey, who sits forward calmly, clasping her hands.

• Halsey: "My work saved the human race."

• Interrogator: "Do you think the Spartans' lack of basic humanity helped?"

Halsey looks at him worriedly as the interrogator, now standing, backs away from the table.

• Halsey: "What are you after? The others before you were Naval Intelligence but you - you're something else."

Cut to John sitting alone in a hangar. His head is drooped and he is speaking to no one. Marines walk past him.

John sitting alone.

• Interrogator (voiceover): "Records show Spartans routinely exhibited mildly sociopathic tendencies, difficulty with socialization. Furthermore..."

Cut to a Spartan fighting a Jiralhanae Chieftain. He leaps agilely, dodging every blow. Dead Sangheili cover the ground.

• Halsey (voiceover): "The records show efficient behavior operating in hazardous situations. I supplied the tools to maintain that efficiency."

Cut to John as Halsey hold up a data crystal chip projecting Cortana's avatar.

Cut back to the interrogation.

• Interrogator: "Do you believe the Master Chief succeeded because he was, at his core, broken?"

• Halsey: "What does John have to do with this? You want to replace him."

• Interrogator: "The Master Chief is dead."

• Halsey: "His file reads 'missing in action'."

• Interrogator: "Catherine, Spartans never die."

Cut to John's foot stepping into a puddle. He leads a crowd of military personnel and civilians. The fighting has stopped but dust clouds cover the city.

• Halsey: "Your mistake is seeing Spartans as military hardware. My Spartans are humanity's next step..."

Halsey stands up from her chair in determination.

• Halsey: "Our destiny as a species. Do not underestimate them. But most of all, do not underestimate... him."

Cut to black.

Production notes

• According to Halo: The Fall of Reach, John met Cortana when her chip was inserted into his neural interface for the first time. This occurred just after he received his second-generation Mark V MJOLNIR armor and took place inside a large tent. However, the cutscene shows John wearing a variant of the Mark IV (see below) and Cortana appears in holographic form; the meeting instead seems to take place inside a bunker. The comic Halo: Fall of Reach also shows John being introduced to Cortana via her avatar, although John is correctly depicted as wearing his new Mark V suit.
• The Spartans' MJOLNIR armor resembles the upgraded Mark VI version that Cortana devised for John-117, despite Dr. Halsey not knowing such a variant existed. However, Halo 4: The Essential Visual Guide establishes these suits as the Mark IV variant upon which John's revised armor was based, much like the original Mark VI was canonically based on John's Mark IV variant from The Package and Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. From a production standpoint, the use of the Halo 4-era armor design is most likely out of necessity to employ existing 3D assets for the cinematic, and possibly a stylistic choice to create a connection to the aesthetic style of the game proper. Notably, the suits are shown to possess energy shields; while this may seem anachronistic, MJOLNIR energy shielding prototypes had entered field-testing by 2531.

Sources

Preceded by Halo 3 credits

Halo 4 Campaign Missions Prologue

Succeeded by Dawn