Halo: Landfall
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The Halo Shorts refer to a group of short live action films created in collaboration with Bungie Studios, Neill Blomkamp, WETA Digital, and Origami Digital LLC. These films were the Halo Franchise's first foray into live action films, followed closely by the Museum series of films, the Halo shorts are intended to give both fans and sponsors a preview of what the Halo Movie could look like, should production be resumed. Despite popular belief, this is not a trailer for an upcoming Halo Movie.
Timeline
Kept under tight wraps, the set was announced unexpectedly on July 10, 2007 with the release of the first video, Halo: Arms Race on the front page of Bungie.net. Arms Race featured several shots of characters as well as special effects and set props, but little real action. The film was also shown at E3 2007, and with it came promises of additional shorts[1].
Arms Race was a live-action trailer that went up with another film one long month later. Combat, released on WETA's website in August 2007[2], telling the story of two ODST troopers fighting off Brutes while trying to retrieve an object on the battlefield during the Second Battle of Earth.
A third film, Last One Standing, was released on September 24, just hours before the release of Halo 3. This film was released first on the Discovery Channel's website, as part of their promotion for an unrelated show, Last One Standing[3]. This film continued the story of the two ODSTs in Combat, featuring more weapons, special effects, and live action combat between the Marines and Brutes. A few Marines are killed, but take many Brutes down with them. It ends with the sight of a fireball descending into the atmosphere, a scene which is also the beginning of Halo 3, which explains how the UNSC was able to predict where John-117's landing would be, as the mission was to affix trajectory on his descent using a laser-guided tracker.
It has not been made clear if these three will be the only Halo shorts, as some sources have claimed that there would be only three videos, while others have claimed otherwise. WETA's website does not specify if Last One Standing would be the final film in this series. It has also not been stated what kind of budget the shorts have.
On October 26, 2007th, all three films were edited together into one seven-minute mini-movie, and were released simultaneously on Bungie.net and Xbox Live Marketplace. The mini-movie is titled Halo: Landfall.[4]
Shorts
Props
The shorts featured fully integrated props and costumes created by WETA workshop. These included a fully functional M12 Warthog LRV complete with working chain gun, four wheel drive, and airbags[5]. The props also featured M6G Pistols, BR55 Battle Rifles, a SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle, and an M41 Rocket Launcher. Additionally, costumes for the projects included two full ODST uniforms and at least half a dozen Marine uniforms (one a Corpsman variant) for actors to wear. It has not been specified how much these cost or what the future plans for them may be.
Trivia
- It should be noted that the Halo 3 Achievement for completing the first mission in the campaign is titled "Landfall". This is more than likely a reference to the short film, due to the fact that in Halo: Landfall, the marines are searching for Master Chief's location when he falls to Earth.
- In the cutscene ingame, when Master Chief falls to Earth, it is night, when in the video, it is clearly the morning at the very least. This is most likely due to the timezones, the location of the Master Chief's landing site and the area where Halo: Landfall takes place.
- The ODST's helmets' visors are orange, unlike regular ODST troops. They resemble the MJOLNIR ODST multiplayer helmet.
- When the video was first released, many believed that this was a trailer for the Halo Movie.
- At the top right corner of the squad leaders helmet it is possible to see the status of his squad mates.
