Halo 4 – Prologue Voice Over Script
[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 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.
[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.]
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: 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. Hundreds 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…
[A Sangheili drives his energy sword through a fleeing civilian.]
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:… nobody was concerned over why they were originally built.
[The Spartans land. An Elite snarls aggressively 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 moving forward, still firing.]
Interrogator: 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.
C[ut to a Spartan sitting alone in a hangar. His head is drooped and he is speaking to no one. Marines walk past him.]
Interrogator: Records show Spartans routinely exhibited mildly sociopathic tendencies, difficulty with socialization. Further…
[Cut to a Spartan fighting a Jiralhanae Chieftain. He leaps agilely, dodging its every blow. Dead Sangheili cover the ground around them.]
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.
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 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 in determination.]
Halsey: Our destiny as a species. Do not underestimate them. But most of all, do not underestimate him.
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[Skyrim opens with an Imperial wagon driving four prisoners down a snowy mountain pass. All are seated and bound; the one dressed in finery is gagged.]
Ralof: Hey, you. You’re finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there.
Lokir: D**n you Stormcloaks. Skyrim was fine until you came along. Empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn’t been looking for you, I could’ve stolen that horse and been half way to Hammerfell. You there. You and me — we should be here. It’s these Stormcloaks the Empire wants.
Ralof: We’re all brothers and sisters in binds now, thief.
Imperial Soldier: Shut up back there!
[Lokir looks at the gagged man.]
Lokir: And what’s wrong with him?
Ralof: Watch your tongue! You’re speaking to Ulfric Stormcloak, the true High King.
Lokir: Ulfric? The Jarl of Windhelm? You’re the leader of the rebellion. But if they captured you… Oh gods, where are they taking us?
Ralof: I don’t know where we’re going, but Sovngarde awaits.
Lokir: No, this can’t be happening. This isn’t happening.
Ralof: Hey, what village are you from, horse thief?
Lokir: Why do you care?
Ralof: A Nord’s last thoughts should be of home.
Lokir: Rorikstead. I’m…I’m from Rorikstead.
[They approach the village of Helgen. A soldier calls out to the lead wagon.]
Imperial Soldier: General Tullius, sir! The headsman is waiting!
General Tullius: Good. Let’s get this over with.
Lokir: Shor, Mara, Dibella, Kynareth, Akatosh. Divines, please help me.
Ralof: Look at him, General Tullius the Military Governor. And it looks like the Thalmor are with him. D**n elves. I bet they had something to do with this. This is Helgen. I used to be sweet on a girl from here. Wonder if Vilod is still making that mead with juniper berries mixed in. Funny…when I was a boy, Imperial walls and towers used to make me feel so safe.
[A man and son watch the prisoners pull into town.]
Haming: Who are they, daddy? Where are they going?
Torolf: You need to go inside, little cub.
Haming: Why? I want to watch the soldiers.
Torolf: Inside the house. Now.
Galadriel: (speaking partly in Elvish)
(I amar prestar aen.)
The world is changed.
(Han matho ne nen.)
I feel it in the water.
(Han mathon ned cae.)
I feel it in the earth.
(A han noston ned gwilith.)
I smell it in the air.
Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.
It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the Elves, immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Seven to the Dwarf-Lords, great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. And nine, nine rings were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else desire power. For within these rings was bound the strength and the will to govern each race. But they were all of them deceived, for another ring was made. Deep in the land of Mordor, in the Fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged a master ring, and into this ring he poured his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life.
One ring to rule them all.
One by one, the free lands of Middle-Earth fell to the power of the Ring, but there were some who resisted. A last alliance of men and elves marched against the armies of Mordor, and on the very slopes of Mount Doom, they fought for the freedom of Middle-Earth. Victory was near, but the power of the ring could not be undone. It was in this moment, when all hope had faded, that Isildur, son of the king, took up his father’s sword.
Sauron, enemy of the free peoples of Middle-Earth, was defeated. The Ring passed to Isildur, who had this one chance to destroy evil forever, but the hearts of men are easily corrupted. And the ring of power has a will of its own. It betrayed Isildur, to his death.
And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge. Until, when chance came, it ensnared another bearer.
It came to the creature Gollum, who took it deep into the tunnels of the Misty Mountains. And there it consumed him. The ring gave to Gollum unnatural long life. For five hundred years it poisoned his mind, and in the gloom of Gollum’s cave, it waited. Darkness crept back into the forests of the world. Rumor grew of a shadow in the East, whispers of a nameless fear, and the Ring of Power perceived its time had come. It abandoned Gollum, but then something happened that the Ring did not intend. It was picked up by the most unlikely creature imaginable: a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, of the Shire.
For the time will soon come when hobbits will shape the fortunes of all.
To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark, dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp, shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
Do I really look like a guy with a plan, Harvey?
I don’t have a plan …
The mob has plans. The cops have plans.
You know what I am, Harvey? I am a dog chasing cars… I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it.
I just do things. I am just the wrench in the gears. I hate plans.
Yours, theirs, everyone’s. Maroni has plans. Gordon has plans.
Schemers trying to control their worlds.
I am not a schemer. I show the schemer how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.
So when I say that you and your girlfriend was nothing personal, you know I am telling the truth.
I just did what I do best. I took your plan and turned it on itself.
Look what I have done to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets.
Nobody panics when the expected people gets killed. Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plan is horrifying.
If I tell the press that tomorrow a gangbanger will get shot or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics. – because it’s all part of the plan.
But when I say that one little old mayor will die, everybody lose their minds.
Introduce a little anarchy, you upset the established order and everything becomes chaos.
I am agent of chaos.
And you know the thing about chaos Harvey?
“IT is FAIR.”
Hello, ladies, look at your man, now back to me, now back at your man, now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me, but if he stopped using ladies scented body wash and switched to Old Spice, he could smell like he’s me. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re on a boat with the man your man could smell like. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s an oyster with two tickets to that thing you love. Look again, the tickets are now diamonds. Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady. I’m on a horse.
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