Dawn

Prologue is the first level of Halo 4's campaign. It does not contain actual gameplay, instead only a cutscene depicting Halsey and her thoughts on the SPARTAN-II Program.

Transcript

Open on a line of beds. They are made of plastic, with no sheets, and are enclosed by glass walls. Pan to a boy sitting on one of the beds. His head is shaved and he wears a grey uniform that reads "John". He looks up at his viewer, his eyes showing fear and want of sympathy.

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

• Interrogator: Tell me about the children.

Cut to a side shot of Halsey's face. The interrogator, who is framed in shadow, sits at the other end of their table.

• Interrogator: ...Dr. Halsey.

Halsey looks at her speaker defiantly. He is framed in shadow.

• Halsey: You already know everything.

• Interrogator: You kidnapped them.

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

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

Cut to a SPARTAN-II, now fully armored and being inspected by technicians. He towers over all of them.

• 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 in your favor and you know it. You developed the Spartans to crush human rebellion, not to fight the Covenant.

Banshees bomb the city as civilians runs for their lives.

• Halsey: When one human world after another fell...

An Elite drives his energy sword through a fleeing man.

• Halsey: When my Spartans were all that stood between humanity and extinction...

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

• Halsey: No one was concerned over why they were originally built.

The Spartans land. An Elite snarls aggressively at them. The two sides trade fire.

• Interrogator: So you feel in the end that your choices were justified.

Halsey 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 other before you were Naval Intelligence but you, you're something else.

Cut to a Spartan sitting alone in a hangar. His head is drooped and he is speaking to no one.

• Interrogator: Records show Spartans routinely exhibited mildly sociopathic tendencies, difficulty with socialization, furthermore...

Cut to a Spartan fighting a Brute Chieftain. He leaps agilely, dodging every blow.

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

Cut to Master Chief, seeing Halsey hold up a data crystal chip projecting Cortana.

• 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 a Spartan's foot stepping down on a puddle. The Spartan leads a crowd of military personnel. The fighting has stopped but the city is clouded in smoke.

• Halsey': Your mistake is seeing Spartans as military hardware. My Spartans are humanity's next step, (Halsey stands up from her chair) our destiny as a species. (Closeup and gradual zoom of Halsey's face) Do not underestimate them. But most of all, do not underestimate... him.

Anachronisms

Main article: List of inconsistencies in the Halo series

Several elements in the cutscene are different from how they occurred in the canon. The most prominent is that the Spartans are all shown wearing MJOLNIR Mark VI, specifically the variant specially made by Cortana for John. How Halsey even knew this variant even existed is unknown, and she additionally was shown to have distaste for alterations to her armor. Several depicted elements of John's variant, such as its thruster pack, were also not applied to MJOLNIR except as attachments, such as the built-in thruster pack the cutscene's soldiers use to slow their descent, which would have been useful to Red Team during their orbital drop at the Fall of Reach. In a related vein, the Sangheili are using the armor variant only seen used by the Covenant remnant.

The SPARTAN-II augmentation procedures are depicted differently than in Scanned. In the commercial, the Spartans were young adults and teenagers, whether in Halsey's memory the Spartans are preteens. This change may arguably be more accurate, as the augmentations were intended to be applied just before puberty. The surgery and procedure also looks different, as the trainees are now in enclosed chambers while the procedure is done by machine.

Some of the events are meant to be representative rather than exact. When and where the battle in the city occurred is unclear, but it is likely not a specific battle that occurred, instead compiling elements from hundreds of fights. Likewise, the scene with Halsey presenting Cortana to John is also representative, as evidenced by John's armor and him meeting Cortana by hologram, not inside his head as shown in Halo: The Fall of Reach. The overall answer for the cutscene's loose depictions is most of it take place inside Halsey's head, and thus she is embellishing its events.