Genre: Action/Sci-Fi
Director: Gareth Edwards
Writer: Mo Buck
Based on the video game series
Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Sarah Gadon, Robin Wright, Ben Foster, Milla Jovovich, Kevin Durand, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Morris Chestnut, Uzo Aduba, Sophie Turner, Allen Leech, Vincent D'Onofrio, James Spader, Dan Castellaneta (voice)
Plot: The movie starts inside an UNSC Pelican flying a planet that was invaded by the Forerunners. Jameson Locke (Morris Chestnut), leader of the newly created Osiris Fireteam paces around the vessel. He enters a briefing room and he meets with his partner, Holly Tanaka (Uzo Aduba). The door opens again and their third member, Edward Buck (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), a seasoned veteran arrives. Locke accepts an incoming transmission from the UNSC Infinity. Thomas Lasky (Allen Leech) tells them that the planet they are flying over if the sixth colony to be invaded in the last 72 hours. Forerunner in origin. He says their target is to extract Catherine Halsey, rumored to be held in Covenant custody and bring on her back on the Infinity. They should expect resistance. It’s their go time. He wishes them luck and he ends the transmission. The Osiris team load up and take their weapons. They put their helmets on and nod to each other. They open the door and jump out, in formation. They have to separate because of an exploding Banshee, but is hit by it. Halo 5 appears on the screen as we zoom out and see the battlefield. Osiris lands on the ground and as Buck cocks his shotgun, they engage combat with the Covenant forces.
In a change of scenery, the camera focuses on the back of John-117 (Alexander Skarsgard), the Master Chief’s head as he pats the slot where Cortana’s chip usually go. A couple of feet back, Kelly-087 (Milla Jovovich) the third member of the Blue Team, Fred-104 (Kevin Durand) that she hasn’t seen John like this ever since their training camp. John tells her Kelly that he can hear her and that he’s fine. He calls the UNSC Infinity and he says that he located the Argent Moon, a ship recently sold to the Covenant by scavengers and contains sensitive data. There’s hostile activity on site, so they must be careful. Just like Osiris team, they jump out of their ship and towards Argent Moon. They use their newly implanted thrusters to steady their fall and shoot at the Argent Moon’s windows. Unsuspected Covenants are dragged in space due to the pressure change as Blue Team lands in Argent Moon. The room depressurizes and the window repairs itself. They turn on their lamp and walk through the dark corridors. They kill a bunch of Covenant silently. There are cadavers of UNSC soldiers on the ship. They log into a computer and take the data they wanted. They take an elevator and arrive on the main deck, where the Covenant were all grouped. John, Fred and Linda are overwhelmed, but are able to kill them all thanks to their marksmanship. The remaining Covenant call their secret weapon and a huge enemy arrives and starts to throw barrels and boxes at them. The force of the impact destroys the floor they were on and John falls, isolated from his team and into a dark pit.
The Osiris team senses the urgency and run through the battlefield, shooting Convenants left and right. They climb a mountain to get a better view of the battlefield and visualize their objective, but they are shot by a immense vehicle and they fall in a cavern. Buck says it’s Jul’ Mdama’s Kraken. Tanaka hacks the Covenant transmission and she translates what ‘Mdama is saying. They are starting the final assault. They use their thrusters to escape from the cave and the run in the temple’s direction. Jul ‘Mdama (Vincent D’Onofrio), hiding in the temple, is overwhelmed by the Promothean’s defence of the planet. His prisoner, Catherine Halsey (Robin Wright), assures him that he’ll lost this triple war against the Arbiter, the Promotheans and the humans. No one likes them. Halsey sees the Osiris team entering the room, so she distracts Jul ‘Mdama. Buck, Tanaka and Locke are all hiding and have the guards in their visors, ready to shoot. Locke gives the signal and Osiris strikes. Halsey hides from ‘Mdama, who takes out his energy sword. He looks around and sees Osiris who just killed all his guards. Locke tells the others that he has this. He charges towards ‘Mdama and he jukes the Covenant’s sword, stabbing him in the gut in the process. ‘Mdama grabs Locke and he tries to choke him, but Buck and Tanaka charge ‘Mdama and stab him in the neck and chest, defeating him. Locke breaths heavily, but is able to tell Halsey that Thomas Lasky wants to speak to her.
John awakes and he hears someone calling him from afar. He gets up and the voice sounds familiar. He turns on his flashlight and walks in the voice’s direction. The voice is now coming from above him. The Master Chief looks up and he sees the silhouette of Cortana (Sarah Gadon) on the moon. Cortana tells John that the domain is open, the next step is Meridian the reconquest will begin. The ground underneath John starts to shake, in unison with the steps of both Kelly and Fred who find John. John tells them that Cortana is on Meridian. They both say it’s impossible, because she’s dead. John agrees, he saw her die, but they’ll talk about it later, they have a mission to complete.
Osiris is back on the UNSC Infinity and they deliver Halsey to Thomas Lasky and Sarah Palmer (Sophie Turner). Palmer grabs her by the arm and they escort her out of their sight, as Osiris wonder what Halsey did to deserve that harsh treatment.
The Blue team continue with their assignments, silently killing Covenants along the way. They talk about Cortana a bit and even though John is positive that he saw Cortana die, he truly believes that she’s on Meridian and that she wants to deliver him a message, so they will go there. Fred gets John’s attention and points out the massive float of Covenant ship coming for them -. Kelly says they need to get out of there before it’s too late, but John says he can’t let them get the data on Argent Moon, so they hurry to launch the self-destruction protocol. They run down the ship and reach the engines. They press a couple of buttons and an electronic voice announces the ship is going in self-destruction mode. The Blue Team doesn’t know where to go, since they are surrounded by Covenant who silently snuck on them. They decide to head for the SAS to get out of Argent Moon and they go berserk on the Covenant, slowly getting closer to the SAS as the countdown gets closer to explosion. They finally manage to get in the SAS and get out of Argent Moon. The Blue Team looks on as Argent Moon explodes behind them.
When the Blue Team gets back on their ship, John transmits his message to Lasky on the Infinity and he announces that they had to destroy the Argent Moon and that he’s taking the Blue Team to Meridian as he received a transmission from Cortana. Lasky refuses and he said that they received the transmission too and they are also sending a team there, John is too emotionally involved with her to do that mission. John doesn’t agree and he destroys the transmitter. He tells Blue Team that they are going anyway and they both say that they have his back. Dr. Halsey, who listened to the conversation reminds Lasky that John shouldn’t get Cortana back. He doesn’t understand that she’s broken and she has gone berserk. She has access to the Forerunner domain on Meridian and she can control all their devices. Sarah Palmer comes back and she says she just declared that John, Fred and Kelly are AWOL and they need to bring them back to the Infinity for disobeying command from their superior officer. The Osiris team is already on their way to get the Blue Team back and Lasky thanks her for her good work.
The Osiris team is on a ship, awaiting their deployment on Meridian. Edward Buck, who fought alongside the Spartan a long time ago, is hesitant to capture him, he’s considered a war hero and people will hate them for it, but Locke says it’s just a job for him. Tanaka joins them and it’s time for them to deploy. They jump down on an orbital platform, with a building nearby. They slowly walks towards the building, not expecting any sings of aggression from the locals. Out of nowhere, a Forerunner ships arrive and starts to shoot at them. They run towards a building and get inside. The workers are surprised to see the UNSC on Meridian and start to panic that something bad is about to happen on Meridian, until the Forerunner ship starts to destroy the building. The workers follow Osiris inside a giant elevator, where they lock themselves in. The planet’s governor, Sloan (Dan Castellaneta), speaking to them through speakers, orders the UNSC to explain themselves and they can all go fuck themselves. Locke asks him that he doesn’t seem really happy to see them and Sloan says that Meridian has been under attack for a couple of weeks now and that the UNSC just decided to show up. Sloan activates the orbital elevator to go down to the ground level, or on Meridian. He opens the windows and Osiris sees the Forerunners attacking the base. When they reach the ground floor, Sloan refuses to open the door, but Buck and Locke destroy it with their guns against the workers wishes. The Spartans exit the elevator and tell the workers to hide.
Sloan orders the workers through the speakers to defend their base and use all weapons available to them. He wants them to activate the automated turrets and to access the heavy weaponry. Osiris splits up, with Buck going for the weaponry, Tanaka to the turrets and Locke to defend the base up front. In a fast, quick cut sequence, the Spartans are able to defeat their enemies and achieve their goal. However, the Prometheans strike back and overwhelmed the inexperienced workers, until Jameson Locke arrives with a Scorpion tank and pulverizes the Promotheans. After the chaos, it’s desolation in the ranks of the people of Meridian, contemplating their loss, but still happy that they defeated them.
Governor Sloan appears as an hologram and delivers a speech to the people of Meridian. He asks them to accept the UNSC on their planet, as they helped them send off the enemy, but they will be leaving as soon as possible. A man says the Spartans should leave right now, but Sloan says the Spartans are here with his permission and he will decide when they leave. The people disagree and say it must not taste good to kiss the UNSC’s boots. Tanaka notices that Sloan is slowly starting to fade, like Cortana did. Jameson Locke is distracted by a UNSC hater, who claims he has heard that another UNSC ship has arrived at the Apogee station. Locke asks him if he’s sure, but the man tells him to go fuck himself. Osiris regroups, they are going to the Apogee station.
When Osiris arrives at the Apogee station, they notice another Pelican following them, full of Sloan’s men. Sloan tells them they will follow Osiris to make sure they don’t do anything sketchy. The Apogee station is also under Promethean attack, so Osiris and their escort help the Apogee workers to defeat the Prometheans. As another round of Prometheans arrive, Osiris finds the Blue Team’s ship parked in the middle of the battlefield. They go inside and find the Blue Team’s destination, a cavern underneath the station. They run across the battlefield as the Meridian people and the Prometheans engage. They get inside an elevator and as they go down, the lose their communication with Sloan, to their absolute relief. They smell something fishy about Governor Sloan, even more when they remember he showed signs of rampancy.
When Osiris exits the elevator, they find a light bridge leading to a door. They get on the bridge and as they approach, a Promethean, much larger than the ones they’ve seen before, appears. He calls himself the Warden Eternal (James Spader). He says he stands in service to Cortana. He says the other humans were approved for passage, but they are not. He hits the ground with his fist and shockwaves send the Spartans flying, but they do not fall down the cavity surrounding them. The Warden deploys his sword and he says she’s calling the guardians to serve her. Their presence in the Guardian’s shelter is undesirable. He charges Osiris who got back on their feet. He swings his sword left and right, unfazed by Osiris’ assault. He then suddenly retreats and disappear into a portal. Osiris takes a breather and say that the Warden was guarding whatever is standing behind that door on Cortana’s order. Locke is the first to go through the door and he sees an immense structure, the Guardian. He and his teammates are captivated by the thing and they inadvertently step into a portal that teleports them a few levels above, but in the same room. Locke turns around and he sees the Blue Team, John, Kelly and Fred. Osiris says the Blue Team are wanted and they should arrest them right here. John throws down a smoke grenade and Blue Team tries to escape. The Guardian’s eyes are glowing, he’s waking up. With him awaking, the room starts to destroy itself. The floor is now composed of platforms and Blue Team is jumping on the platforms, with Osiris behind. At one point, John is trailing a bit and Locke is able to grab his ankle. They are isolated on a platform and they fight, with Locke getting the upper hand. He’s about to use his armor restraint on John to arrest him, but John fights back, elbow to the face, knee to the midsection, headbutt, anything goes and as John locks Locke’s forearm, he activates the armor restrain on Locke, paralyzing him. He joins his teammate with his thrusters and they enter the portal while pointing their rifles at the rest of Osiris who finally managed to get to Locke. They struggle to cancel the restraint and when they do, the ceiling starts to fall, they head back and used the portal and as they reach the last one, the platform collapses. The Guardian is fully awakened and ready to break into the surface.
Osiris arrives on the surface and the ground is shaking uncontrollably. Tanaka contacts Governor Sloan again and she asks him to open the space elevator so they can go back in their ship and leave, just like he wanted. Sloan refuses, saying the space elevator is used to evacuate the people of Meridian. He won’t open the doors until the area is cleared. Osiris is outnumbered, Prometheans are coming from everywhere, but Osiris keeps on fighting, until there are no Prometheans left. The Guardian’s head is now fully exposed. The Prometheans are taken care of, for now, so Tanaka asks Sloan to open the doors and he does. Buck asks him when did Cortana tell him about the Guardian and he doesn’t answer. He just says that he was able to get his people to survive. A change is going to come, for all of us. She’s bringing a new dawn and he intends to be a part of it. As the elevator ascends, the Guardian is also ascending to the surface. Osiris believes Cortana is behind that Guardian moving. As the elevator reaches its destination, the Guardian is completely on the ground. He sends a shockwave through the air and a huge explosion devastates the ground level. A strong wind arises near Osiris and they struggle to reach their Pelican. The station is exploding and they have to reach the Pelican soon, or they will die. They finally manage to get in and leave just as the station explodes. His job done, the Guardian leaves through a portal he created.
Osiris is back on the Infinity with Lasky, Palmer and Halsey. They tell them about what happened on Meridian. Locke says the Warden Eternal confirmed Halsey’s theory. Lasky confirms that eleven other Guardians have awakened and teleported themselves with a portal, but who knows where. Halsey says there’s at least one guardian Cortana doesn’t have. She presses buttons on a console and a planet appears, a Covenant appears. Halsey says there’s a Guardian on this planet. Palmer refuses to go there, the UNSC doesn’t want to get involved in the Arbiter’s war against the heretic Covenant, but Lasky says he’ll arrange that.
The Blue Team gets out of the Guardian, on the planet Genesis. They see other Guardians appear and wonder why Cortana brought them here. Kelly tries to contact someone, but they get nothing in return. They walk around in a building, until a console turns on as John gets near it. He tries to contact Cortana on it, but he doesn’t get an answer. They leave the building and walk the luxuriant vegetation of the planet, seeing Covenant cadavers left and right. They get on a cliff with nowhere to go and a light bridge appears, Cortana guiding them thinks John. They get near a structure with dozens of Covenant cadavers. The Warden Eternal gets out of the building and welcomes John, who aims his rifle at him. The Warden says he’s at Cortana’s service and she called him here. The Warden escorts John and the Blue Team inside and he asks John why did he come here and he says he wants to bring Cortana home. The Warden gets hostile, as Cortana is their guide, their savior. A ton of Prometheans appear and Blue Team defend themselves against the Warden. John isolates the Warden as Kelly and Fred fight the Prometheans. John is able to stick a grenade on the Warden’s back, his weakness and the Warden is defeated. He helps them kill the Prometheans and when they are done, Cortana appears. She says she doesn’t have the time to explain everything, but she’s out there to save the universe. She needs them to activate the Forerunner domain so she can achieve her goal. She gives them a vehicle and tells John that she didn’t think she would see him again, but yet, here he stands. John says they’ll talk later and Blue Team gets on the vehicle and leave.
Osiris is on Sanghelios, the Forerunner planet where a guardian is held. The planet is torn by a war between the Arbiter and the heretic Covenant. Osiris flies their Pelican through the battlefield, dodging misfired missiles left and right. The heretics are throwing their final assault against the Arbiter and things are looking good for him. He’s reclused in his headquarters. Osiris is able to land near his building and get inside. Thel’Vadamee, or the Arbiter (Ben Foster) is fighting Covenant with his sword, defeating them. Osiris kidnaps the Arbiter, as he asks them what are Spartans doing on Sanghelios, but they don’t have time to answer. They leave and get on their Pelican in a hurry.
Back on the Infinity, they explain what’s going on with the Arbiter and they elaborate a plan with Dr. Halsey, so she can awaken the Guardian to find out where they all teleport. They ask the Arbiter if they can stay on his planet and he says that as long as he’s winning his war, they can stay.
Blue Team arrives in the building Cortana has taken refuge. She appears before John and she says she has found a cure for her rampancy with the Forerunner Mantle of Responsability and she has decided to use the Forerunner installations to take over the world and give the universe a good balance where everything is just and no one is oppressed. Cortana’s model flashes rapidly, indicating that she may still be rampant. She asks John if he wants to join her and he refuses. She then imprisons Blue Team before they have the time to do anything.
Osiris, Halsey and Palmer are heading down to Sanghelios, where the Arbiter assembled all the Swords of Sanghelios, his soldiers. They are launching the final assault on the heretic’s Kraken, the greatest mobile weapon they possess. The wait silently behind rocks and when the Kraken starts moving, they begin their assaults. Most of the heretics were killed, but some of them are still present. Palmer, Buck and Tanaka escort Halsey to the Guardian’s location, while Locke and the Arbiter fight the Kraken. Locke launches himself on the Kraken and he fights the Covenant as the Arbiter slices them left and right with his energy sword. Halsey is able to reach the Guardian thanks to their help. Halsey works on it to wake it up, but Locke struggles to deactivate the Kraken. The Guardian’s eyes are now glowing, Osiris, Palmer and Halsey leave the cave. The Guardian rises and he’s directly underneath the Kraken. They beg Locke to jump down and he jumps down just as the Guardian destroys the Kraken. Halsey stays with the Arbiter and the UNSC on Sanghelios as Osiris get in their Pelican in a hurry to get on the Guardian just as it teleports.
Osiris wonders where they are when they appear on Genesis. Tanaka tries to contact John-117 and she gets a response. He asks them how are they here, but Cortana takes over the frequency. She sends Forerunners out to kill them and the Warden Eternal appears again. He may have been defeated before, but he has infinite lives, as long as Cortana is alive. Osiris fights the Prometheans and they kill them all, as the Warden Eternal inadvertently guides them to Cortana’s home. The Warden sets up barriers to defend it. Osiris uses the numbers advantage to take care of the Warden Eternal, for the second time and the barriers fall.
Cortana frees the Blue Team, but the Warden Eternal reappears and he guides the Blue Team with force. He isolates John from his teammates as John speaks to Cortana directly. John asks her if she knows how many people died when she brought the Guardians here and she changes the subject. She reminds him of their good time together and she orders the Warden to leave Blue Team alone. He disagrees and Blue Team fights the Warden, killing him again. She guides the Blue Team to where she’s connected. The Warden appears again and he triples itself. Cortana screams that it’s enough and she appears in her human form for the first time before John. She touches the Warden and it disappears. She invites John in and she wants to talk to him alone. She says she has a plan in mind and she wants to do good for humanity and for all the species. She can bring justice to the world and she needs him. John reminds her about all the lost lives along the way, but she says every victory comes at a price. John gets near the console and he grabs Cortana’s chip, disconnecting her. Kelly and Fred arrive. They order John to destroy Cortana, so they can get out of here alive and eradicate the threat. John looks them in the eye and he hears Cortana telling him to not do it. They stare at each other, with nobody moving. Outside, the Guardians awaken, their master, Cortana, is dead.
Post-Credit Scene: On another planet, The Didact (Benedict Cumberbatch) signals to his troops that the Guardians have been reactivated, they are ready to launch the final assault against the humans and the Covenant, and they will win this time.
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