Halo: Nightfall
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
| Halo: Nightfall | |
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Directed by: |
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Produced by: |
Ridley Scott |
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Studio: |
Scott Free Productions with 343 Industries |
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Written by: |
Paul T. Scheuring |
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Music by: |
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Starring: |
Mike Colter |
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Release date(s): |
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Running time: |
119 minutes |
- "Survival is a choice."
- — Official tagline
Halo: Nightfall[3] is a live-action Xbox Originals webseries for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and other Microsoft devices which was released in late 2014.[4] Consisting of five episodes,[5] the series was created by Scott Free Productions in conjunction with 343 Industries. Acclaimed filmmaker Ridley Scott was the show's executive producer along with Scott Free TV President David Zucker; it was directed by television director Sergio Mimica-Gezzan.[4] In the series, "A strange and treacherous world exposes elite UNSC operatives to a much deeper danger." The five episodes of Nightfall aired on the Halo Channel weekly, on Tuesdays at 4 PM PST, starting on November 11, 2014 and concluding on December 9, 2014.[6]
Serving as an origin story for Agent Locke, a secondary playable character in Halo 5: Guardians,[7] Nightfall is intended to connect the stories of Halo 4 and Guardians.[8][9] An ONI unit under Locke's command is deployed on the distant human Outer Colony of Sedra to investigate terrorist activity. Sedra is described as a backwater world harboring a disdain for the Unified Earth Government and the UNSC. During their investigation, a Sedran city is attacked by a Sangheili terrorist wielding a biological weapon that only affects humans.[10] Locke's team is forced to work together with Sedran Colonial Guard commander Randall Aiken and his troops to track down the origin of the bioweapon. During their search, the unit is drawn to a partially intact section of Installation 04, the Halo ringworld destroyed by the Master Chief in the first Halo game.[11][12][13] A grave threat present on the ancient construct soon turns the mission into a desperate fight for survival.[6][14]
Nightfall was planned to have narrative connections to Halo: The Television Series.[15] The series also incorporated interactive features with the Halo Channel application for Xbox One.[7] Viewers could complete challenges related to the series to unlock features that can be used in Halo games. Each episode had several challenges and "Second Story" videos that expand on events that were not shown in the series. Additionally, viewers could access the Halo Channel's "Halo Encyclopedia" to gain information on characters, locations, weapons, and vehicles that are featured in Halo: Nightfall.[16]
Plot Synopsis[edit]
Chapter One: It's Only Just Beginning[edit]
The series opens with Colonel Randall Aiken, the Sedran Colonial Guard's commander, looking upon a sunset over Sedra City in his apartment with his daughter Natalie. In a voice-over, Aiken monologues about the nature of being a soldier and ominously hints at the events to come.
The story proper begins on the outskirts of Sedra City, where Lieutenant Commander Locke and his four-man team trail a Yonhet smuggler. The alien meets with a Sangheili Zealot and hands him a device known to be used to contain bombs. The ONI agents split up; Ramos apprehends the Yonhet while Locke goes after the Zealot. Locke follows the Elite into a city access tunnel, but the Zealot escapes after a brief duel. In the city, ONI operatives Jordan Gaines and Mason Hundley are implementing lockdown protocols but fail to prevent the Zealot from entering a crowded mall. Locke confronts the Sangheili and attempts to force him to surrender, but the Zealot instead jumps off a ledge and activates the device. The weapon releases an energy pulse which covers the entire city and beyond but appears harmless at first. However, civilians soon start showing symptoms of infection, having difficulty breathing and their veins being turned into darkened tendrils. Gaines and Hundley, who were in the immediate vicinity of the blast, are also affected and are taken to a Sedran Colonial Guard hospital where Colonel Aiken initially refuses to let the agents in due to his dislike of ONI. However, Locke convinces the colonel to allow the injured operatives to be treated.
While Locke and his team undergo decontamination, reports continue to arrive of infections up to ten kilometers from the blast site. The bioagent, an entirely foreign element, appears to randomly break down human DNA, but does not affect the other species that also inhabit Sedra. Locke theorizes that the remote colony may have been chosen as a target to test the weapon before the terrorists move on to more populous worlds. The Colonial Guard find a colonial tug used to smuggle the element on the planet, but the pilots are nowhere to be found. Colonel Aiken reluctantly agrees to work with the ONI agents to track down the source of the element. Aiken violently interrogates the captured Yonhet, named Axl, about the identity of the tug's pilots. However, Locke, speaking an alien language, manages to persuade Axl to divulge what he knows. The Yonhet reveals that the element originated from a place even Sangheili Zealots avoid, calling it "hell". The Zealots instead buy it from smugglers who are willing to go there.
Tracing the tug's positioning reveals that the vessel obtained the element from a fragment of Installation 04 that was thrown through slipspace during the ring's destruction and ended up orbiting perilously close to a red giant. However, there is no record of the mystery element being previously present on the ring, but Sedran P