Genre: Action/Sci-Fi
Director: Gareth Edwards
Writer: Mo Buck
Based on the video game series
Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sarah Gadon, Sophie Turner, Paul Giamatti, Allen Leech, Doug Jones, Robin Wright, Sissy Spacek, Vincent D'Onofrio
Plot: There’s a line of simple beds enclosed by glass walls, children are sleeping. The camera zooms on one of them. His head is shaved and he wears a grey uniform with the name John written on it. The kid looks up and is afraid. The camera pans out of Dr. Catherine Halsey’s (Robin Wright) eyes. She’s interrogated by a shadowy figure about the SPARTAN-II program, a program she created. He retells her the story of the Covenant War and Halsey concludes that there would be no more humans in the entire Universe if not for her Spartans. She doesn’t understand that nobody was concerned about how they were made before. The interrogator says that their lack of humanity, their tendency to act like sociopaths is raising a few eyebrows with the higher-ups. The interrogator asks Catherine is she thinks the Master Chief succeeded because he was broken, at his core. Catherine becomes irritated, because she thinks they want to replace the Master Chief, her greatest achievement. He tells her that the Master Chief is dead. She answers that he’s making a mistake seeing Spartans as military personnel. She says Spartans are humanity’s next step and that Spartans never die!
Cortana (Sarah Gadon) sends once again the ship’s automated message to request assistance. The Forward Unto Dawn is drifting towards Requiem, a legendary planet. She sees enemy presence on board with her sensors and she decides to wake up John-117, aka the Master Chief (Alexander Skarsgard). After a while, he steps out of his cryotube and inserts Cortana back in his helmet. The ship starts shaking violently on intervals. John walks in the Forward Unto Dawn, looking for enemies. After he clears a complete floor, he enters an elevator to go up. After the doors opened, the ship starts to depressurize and debris start to fall uncontrollably. Cortana apologizes for not keeping the ship in a better state. John is surprised by a Covenant with an Energy Sword. He kills him and asks Cortana why a Covenant attacked him. She said a lot happened in four years. He kills some more Covenant until Cortana can’t spot any on her radar. They open the blast shield to see what they’re up against. They notice they’re drifting to a mysterious planet and they have an entire Covenant fleet after them. The Phantoms drop forces in the Dawn. Cortana suggests firing missiles at the fleet. John tries to survive while he goes to activate the missiles. He reaches them and fires them, destroying most of the Covenant fleet. After they all went away, a mysterious orange light comes from the planet, which is now closer than ever, followed by a bright blue light. The ship accelerates, the planet is pulling the Forward Unto Dawn. John tries to flee, but he’s knocked down by a flying debris.
The Dawn crashes down of Requiem’s surface. Cortana wakes John-117 up. He clears the debris around him and Cortana starts talking disjointedly. He takes out the chip from his helmet and her avatar appears. She says the crash damaged her, but John doesn’t believe it. She reveals that she was made 8 years ago and that AIs start deteriorating after seven years. John promises Cortana that they’ll go back to Earth to show her to Catherine Halsey, she’ll know what to do. They hear and see Covenant ships flying over them. John is determined to use a Covenant ship to fly back to Earth. They begin exploring Requiem. They find out with several terminals that the Covenant are looking for something on this planet. John spots the Dawn’s vehicle bay, who detached in the fall. They find a Warthog, still intact. Cortana says she looked at her internal composure and found a way for her to get cured. She says that she was composed as a clone of Dr. Halsey, so it’s absolutely sure that she could help them. John begins to drive his Warthog around and they enter a cave, where they spot a building. They enter and Cortana opens a Cartographer, but it is blocked. Cortana found a way to unlock it, but they need to travel to another terminal and they do. Cortana accesses the Cartographer and tries to contact the UNSC Infinity, a ship so big, you could hear its transmissions from galaxies away. They’re interrupted by Covenant forces and John defends himself while Cortana listens to the Infinity transmissions. They talk about an artifact, but it’s not clear. She says they could reach a higher point to hear them better. Out of nowhere, three Prometheans, a race of digital intelligence, appear. They open up a portal on the other side of the room and start shooting at John. He inserts Cortana back in his helmet and runs in the portal. It closes after he gets in.
When John touches the ground, he finds out, thanks to Cortana, that he’s closer to the planet’s core, where they need to go to contact the UNSC Infinity, their ticket out of Requiem. John insert Cortana in a console and she tries to contact Infinity, but she realizes that beams are creating interference, preventing her to contact the ship. Cortana opens a door and asks John to follow her instructions. They enter in some kind of tunnel. Enemies similar to the one they previously saw emerged, but they walk like dogs, walking on the walls. John takes them out. A Promethean knight, what they saw earlier, appears right in front of John. He cracks his skull open and it reveals a glowing human skull. When John kills Prometheans, they let go of their data, that Cortana is using to know this place better. John is able to destroy the core interfering with their communication. He places Cortana in a console and she sees a map of Requiem, with the UNSC Infinity flying in orbit. She tries to contact them, but she starts to fade. She comes back to her senses and she warns the Infinity to not approach the planet as they’ll be drag down. As soon as John exits the center where he was, he sees several Covenant ships breaking the orbital shield of Requiem, creating an opening for the UNSC Infinity. The Prometheans fight the Covenant, as John sneaks behind their back to reach the Infinity. He’s somehow caught in the middle of the battlefield, where he sees the two leaders : Jul’Mdama (Vincent D’Onofrio) of the Covenant and The Didact (Benedict Cumberbatch) of the Prometheans. The Didact feels the presence of John and he disintegrates his cover. He telekinetically grabs him and pulls him over to him. He warns him and throws him against a pillar. While John is unconscious, the Covenant bow down in front of the Didact and all the hostilities stop.
When John regains his senses, Cortana warns him that the UNSC Infinity has been pulled down by the Prometheans and will crash down to the surface up north. John grabs a Ghost and flees the scene in the Infinity’s direction.
John leaves his Ghost as the jungle becomes too dense. There’s also a dense fog in the jungle. He’s able to see the UNSC Infinity crash gently on the ground, but it’s far away. He also sees Pelicans crash down all over the jungle. He progresses and sees a couple of knights, but they disappear before he’s able to fight them. He looks at the dog tags on the dead Marines and Cortana says they were part of the unit of Commander Lasky. John walks in the jungle, killing knights and walkers silently. He’s on top of a cliff when he sees a Marine get killed by a knight, but he’s able to detonate his grenade to kill it. John goes up close and wears something the knight dropped to see in the fog. John continues to walk in the forest where he sees a Promethean structure. Cortana sees contact inside and John investigates. It’s Commander Thomas Lansky (Allen Leech) and the Spartan Sarah Palmer (Sophie Turner) with a bunch of the remaining Marines. They all contact the Infinity, where Andrew Del Rio (Paul Giamatti) answers. He tells them about a ship nearby that could help them reach the Infinity. John leaves with Marines to reach the ship. They walk silently in the jungle and reach the intact Pelican dragged to the surface. There’s like an entire army of Prometheans guarding it. They’re able to kill them all and to reach the ship. They fly to grab Lasky and Palmer. Just before they start flying, they receive a transmission from Del Rio, urging them to come back to the Infinity, who’s under attack.
John lands the Pelican right in front of the Infinity. They open the doors and closes them as soon as everyone is inside. They’re all briefed by Del Rio, who tell them that the Prometheans are extracting data from the ship and they’re attacking it to exterminate them. Del Rio shows John a new UNSC weapon, a Mantis, an armored fighting vehicle, on two legs. Spartan gets inside and gets out. He goes straight to the Covenant who are disabling the Infinity’s defense. He guns them down, allowing the Infinity to activate its shields and reactors. When John comes back to enter in Infinity, he faces a lot of resistance, but with the Mantis armor, it’s almost too easy. It also has its limit and John is forced to go back in the before the Mantis is destroyed. When he gets back inside, he assists Del Rio, Lasky and Palmer to raise the ship in the air, which it does. They start firing on the Covenant and the Prometheans in front of them. The Didact ship appears and the Infinity shoots at it, driving it away. The Infinity leaves Requiem’s surface.
Cortana explains to the group that the Prometheans are advanced, living AIs that were created by the Forerunners a long time ago. Del Rio states that their initial mission was to locate the remaining Halo rings to study them for decommission. They found out some weird symbols on the installations after the science teams were killed. The specialists back on Earth determined that it was signals leading here. Del Rio says the Infinity is leaving, but John disagrees. He says they should stay here to kill the Didact, who seems to be running things here.
Andrew Del Rio accepted John’s request and sent the Gypsy Company, a company of about 200 marines and a few Spartans, including John-117 back to Requiem’s surface. Their main mission is to destroy the Particle Cannons defending the Gravity Well Generator keeping the Infinity in Requiem’s atmosphere. If they have the opportunity, they can also engage with the Didact with the intent to kill. The Gypsy company is flying with Pelicans over the zone. Del Rio refused to send a recon team to the disappointment of both Cortana and John. John’s Pelican is the last to land and Lansky asks him to follow him in a canyon. They get on a Mammoth, a Ultra-Heavy Mobile Anti-Aircra Weapons Platform, with Spartan Palmer. While the Marines are still in the Pelicans, getting all the attention of the Prometheans, the three of them drive the Mammoth and go to destroy the cannons. They’re able to destroy three cannons, but they have to get on foot to manually deactivate the fourth one. John runs through the defense and enters the structure. There’s nobody inside and he inserts Cortana in the main console. She shuts down the cannon, but her hologram disappears.
John follows a series of lights and he exits the facility. He’s on a balcony and a mysterious creature appears in front of him. He says he’s the Librarian (Doug Jones). He says he’s what’s the left of the now-extinct Forerunner, an ultra-advanced civilization responsible for the Halos. He says the Didact is leaving Requiem and he mustn’t allow it. He presents to John the Composer, a device which can fusion organic and digital life together. The Didact used it to create his army of Prometheans, but he wants it back and he wants to use it on all humans across the galaxy, including Earth. He says he worked for the Didact at first, but he hid seeds from him. These seeds were the basis for the Spartan suit and the AIs, like Cortana. They hear a rumbling behind them and the Didact appears. He threatens the Librarian, but John keeps him away. Before she leaves the Librarian gives Cortana back to John and says he can’t beat the Didact without something. He touches John and his armor starts glowing. He opens a portal and tells John to enter it. He teleports before the Didact is able to reach him.
John appears in the middle of the battlefield, alongside Palmer and Lansky. They defend themselves until they hear Del Rio on their radio who tells them to paint the gravity well to destroy it. Palmer gets up and designates the target. The Infinity, who can now fly because the cannons were destroyed, destroys the gravity well that prevented it from leaving Requiem.
The crew is back inside and John tells them what happened. Del Rio reminds them that he’s in command and that his ship can’t deal with that much damage anymore and they should leave. John puts Cortana in a console and she appears. She tells Del Rio that it is much bigger than they thought it was. He disagrees with her and she gets angry. She starts flashing red and she starts talking incomprehensibly. She releases a burst of energy that knocks Del Rio down. He orders Lasky to take back Cortana and destroy her, but John puts her back in his helmet. Del Rio orders Palmer to arrest John, but he decides to walk away on his own. Before he leaves, he tells Lasky to transmit a message to people on Earth. He says trouble is coming and they should get ready. Cortana and him will do what they can from here.
Lansky tells John he prepared a Pelican for him to leave. He thanks him and leaves the Infinity with his Pelican. He sees the Infinity leaving the atmosphere. He turns back and sees the Didact’s ship. He decides to go closer and as he approaches, the Didact starts talking to him on the radio, dissing him and the entire human race. The ship is followed by several small Covenant ships, from Jul’Mdama army. He gets up in the air and flies over them. Everyone starts leaving the atmosphere and as the Didact ends his monologue, he starts loading his cannon to shoot at John’s Pelican. John inserts Cortana back in his helmet and he jumps out of the Pelican. He uses his thrusters to land on a Covenant ship. It’s about to enter a slipspace and John hides behind a wing.
After the ship comes out of the slipspace, Cortana wakes John up. He discovers the Didact was going to a Halo, Installation 03, but not really on the Halo, more on a human-built station near it, the Ivanoff Station. John boards the ship and kills the Covenant in it. Cortana contacts Dr. Sandra Tillson (Sissy Spacek) the chief at the Ivanoff Station and tells her to protect the artifact they’re studying at all cost. Cortana has another episode of rampancy and she’s unable to tell to John to correct his trajectory. The ship crashes on the landing bay and John is badly hurt.
Cortana is, once again, able to wake him up. She hears Dr. Tillson who says that they’re killing everyone in the station. John runs inside and kill the few Covenant who got there before him. Cortana activates the barrier around the station. It’s able to contain some ships, but as soon as the Didact arrives, the barrier breaks. John runs inside and locks the doors, as if it would make a difference. He tells Tillson to evacuate the station and to give him the codes to destroy it. As the scientists are evacuating the place, the fleet starts destroying them. Cortana activates the defense system yet again to no avail. John gets inside a Mantis suit and starts shooting at the Prometheans who are getting inside. He’s soon overwhelmed and he retreats back into a hangar. He hears a very loud noise. It’s the Didact who took down the roof with his ship. He steals the Composer and fires it. The scientists on the station are turned to ashes and John fades.
When he wakes up, he gets in the last remaining ship on the station with Cortana and leaves the desert station. He finds out that it was a ship meant to destroy the facility in case it was in danger and that there’s a nuke on board. He speeds up and gets close enough to the Didact’s ship before he enters a slipspace.
They appear right next to Earth. Cortana contacts the Infinity, who’s waiting right outside the splispace. Lasky answers and he tells them that Del Rio has been dismissed because he abandoned them on Requiem. Cortana tells everyone that the Didact will be close enough to use the Composer in exactly four minutes. There’s an immense space battle between the Promethean and Covenant alliance and the UNSC. John navigates through the battlefield and reaches the Didact’s ship. He forces his way inside it and enters a sort of garage. Cortana scans the ship and finds the Composer. The Didact detects her presence in the ship’s system. She struggles to guide John in the ship, but they finally find the Didact, who shielded himself with the Composer, with a powerful shield. Cortana weakens herself to deactivate it, but the Didact was able to use the Composer on Earth in the meantime. John starts to fight with the Didact, but he’s too powerful. He runs back to his ship and Cortana tells him that there’s only one thing left to do, activate the nuke bomb. The Didact arrives, preventing John from leaving the ship. Cortana, in her hologram form assists John, but it’s too late, the nuke explodes.
John awakens and everything around him is blue. Cortana is standing in front of him. They’re floating. She tells him that they took care of each other all those years, but it’s the first time she saved a life and had to pay hers to do it. John asks her if it’s their final goodbye. She says yes and they share an embrace. She disappears and the blue bubble too. John is motionlessly drifting in space, with Earth in the background.
First Post-credit scene: A Pelican fetches John and bring him inside the Pelican. They put him on a table and he awakens. He speaks with Lansky and tells him that their mission, as Spartans, is to protect humanity and he failed today and he lost Cortana too.
Second Post-credit scene: The Didact makes a speech to a almost infinite army of Prometheans back on Requiem that they won’t give up on their goal: to eradicate the biggest threat in the galaxy: Humanity. During this time, John walks in the Infinity and stumbles across Sarah Palmer. He’s way taller than she is. He’s followed by several Spartans. For the first time in about ten years, he takes off his armor and we see his face for the first time.
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