List of Marathon References in Halo



This is a list of all the references to Marathon that Bungie put in the Halo games. Mostly sightings of the Marathon logo, seen in the first image right.

Halo: Combat Evolved

 * Captain Keyes - He has the Marathon logo on his uniform.
 * Captain Keyes - His pipe has the Marathon logo on it.
 * Control Room - The Control Room main chamber, when viewed from the top, is shaped like the logo.
 * Cortana - The Marathon AI Durandal, is named after a mythical sword. Cortana is a sword which bears the inscription: My name is Cortana, of the same steel and temper as Joyeuse and Durendal.
 * Dialogue - Sometimes Grunts or Marines will shout "They're everywhere!", similar to the BOBs of Marathon.
 * Difficulty Selection - The Marathon logo appears on the Easy shield.
 * Foehammer - A level in Marathon: Infinity is called "Foe Hammer".
 * Level title - Marathon has a level "If I Had a Rocket Launcher, I'd Make Somebody Pay", Halo has a part "If I Had a Super Weapon..."
 * Light markers - The Covenant light markers in Two Betrayals bear a resemblance to Pfhor staffs.
 * MJOLNIR - There are Mjolnir Mark IV cyborgs in Marathon, there is Mjolnir Mark V battle armor in Halo.
 * On the back part of the Halo rocket launcher it says "SPNKR" which is a reference to the Rocket launcher of marathon       which is title the "SPNKR X-18 SSM Launcher".
 * Pillar of Autumn - The Marathon logo can be seen on the side of the ship.
 * Rampancy - If the player kills Captain Keyes in the first level, Cortana says, "The Master Chief has gone rampant."
 * Silent Cartographer (Level) - The center of the island is shaped like the Marathon logo.
 * Halo PC Loading Screen - If you brighten the gamma on Halo PC a lot, you can see what looks like the Marathon symbol etched in the background of the first loading screen.
 * The MA5B Assault rifle is similar to the MA-75B assault rifle in terms of ammo and name
 * The flamethrower in Halo PC has a similar name to the flamethrower found in Marathon : 7057 = TOZT
 * The forerunner AI 343 Guilty Spark has a resemblance to the Marathon symbol on his front side ( where his photo receptors are)
 * The Flood resemble the Zombie Pfhor, an enemy which was cut from Marathon 2 during its development.
 * The dot on the I in the Bungie logo resembles the circle in the Marathon logo.
 * The Plasma Pistol is much like the Fusion Pistol from Marathon:Durandal, which also shares a vibrating overcharge shot.

Halo 2

 * UESC - Lord Hood says, "United Earth Space Corps," Marathon features the Unified Earth Space Council.


 * The marathon symbol is also used in the Halo 2 Multiplayer online as a gamer tag symbol.


 * Doors - The doors on the level "Regret" in Halo 2


 * If you get outside the level Burial Mounds, look at the rubble by the "ribs" a large piece of debris is engraved with it


 * The Enforcers shields make up a Marathon symbol.


 * If you melee with a shotgun, you can see a Marathon symbol on the silver casing.


 * The multiplayer map "Foundation" is based off of the Marathon "Thunderdome" levels.


 * The multiplayer map "Gemini" is based off of the Marathon level "Duality".


 * On Headlong, in the building which houses mostly human weapons, if you look at the second floor from above it makes out the Marathon Logo


 * If you look at the multiplayer map "Ivory Tower" from above, you will see that the circular courtyard and the small ditch which the water runs along makes up a Marathon logo.


 * The Elite rebellion against the Covenant parallels similar events in the Marathon series. In Marathon 1, Durandal convinced a group of S'pht to rise up against the Pfhor who enslaved them; and after Durandal's disappearance in Marathon 2, the rebel S'pht found themselves stranded together with a group of humans on a hostile world (similar to the Elites' predicament on Delta Halo).


 * The player's main goal in Halo 2 is to stop the Covenant from inadvertently destroying all life in the galaxy with the Halo installations; in Marathon Infinity, it was to prevent the Pfhor from inadvertently releasing a galaxy-destroying chaos being.


 * Some Marines can be heard saying "Eat it, boi!", possibly reffering to the Marathon 2 level named "Eat it, Vid Boi!"


 * The oddball skull has a marathon logo in the eye.

Halo 3
The weapons are often decaled with Marathon symbols


 * When you look at a High-Res screenshot of John's gun from the Halo 3 Announcement Trailer you can see a Marathon logo. Confirmed by KP
 * The BR55HB SR Battle Rifle has the Marathon logo on it's optical sight.
 * There is an achievement for 'accessing all the terminals in the campaign' which is called Marathon man, suggesting that Halo 3 may reintroduce the practice of revealing backstory through messages on computer terminals which the player can optionally read, a gameplay element which was introduced in Marathon (and also used in Oni).
 * In the second E3 Trailer, boxes marked TRAXUS can be seen. Traxus IV was the name of a famous rampant AI in Marathon's universe.
 * The Brute Mauler was probably based on the shotgun from Marathon, which was also dual-wieldable.
 * There is a Marathon:Infinity level editor called Forge. Halo 3 shares that name of its map editor.
 * The ending of Halo 3 may in fact connect the Halo games to the Marathon series. Alex Seropian once stated that Master Chief and the main character of Marathon were the same character. Bungie has since denied this, but the ending of the game may in fact connect them.
 * The M6G has the Marathon logo on the grip near the back.
 * Guilty Spark's Eye, which makes the shape of the circle in the Marathon Logo, also has the full logo inside the eye.
 * The Marathon logo can be seen on a hologram, used to activate the elevators in the level, The Covenant.
 * On the Spartan Insignia, there is a gold Marathon logo.
 * The way the brute holds the marine captive on Sierra 117 is possibly a reference to the L'howan chapter screen.
 * The control panels on the elevators, on the level The Covenant, have the Marathon symbol on them.
 * Some Marines sometimes say "Thank God you're here!", which refers to when BOBs say "Thank God it's you!"
 * At the last cutscene of Halo 3 on legendary, when the Master Chief's half of the ship is floating towards the unknown planet, when the light shines across the planet, you can see a marathon symbol on the surface.
 * A marine can be heard saying (without the IWHBYD skull) "Kill 'em all, sort 'em later", which may refer to the Marathon: Durandal level "God Will Sort the Dead". Sergeant Pete Stacker can also be heard saying "Let God Sort 'em out!", which is also a reference to the level.

Misc.

 * Cortana Letters - These messages are riddled with references.
 * Drinol - Similarity with Drinniol, a Marathon foe.
 * Hunter - Similarity with Marathon foe of the same name.
 * Marathon-class - A class of Cruisers mentioned in Halo: The Fall of Reach.
 * Multiplayer - The multiplayer game "Oddball" is derived from Marathon's "Kill The Man With The Ball", which had the same objective.
 * In both Halo and Marathon, there is a company called Misriah on Mars.
 * A secret level in Marathon Infinity was named "Hats Off to Eight Nineteen" (after the initials of Hamish Sinclair (H=8 S=19), a dedicated fan). $$819/7=117$$ (Master Chief's service number and a 7 reference).
 * The source code for Marathon 2 was released on January 17 (1/17) of 2000.
 * An early promotional brochure(?) for Halo used the tagline "Somewhere in the heavens, Halo is waiting", a variation on Marathon's original tagline.
 * On the side of the rocket launcher reads "SPNKr" which was the name of the rocket launcher in Marathon
 * Marathon 1 takes place in a ship that is orbiting Tau Ceti IV, and there is a system in Halo called the Tau Ceti system (although that star does really exist).
 * In the Diorama on Halo3.com, the video Testimonial:Enemy Weapon, when the camera centres on a sniper rifle, a closer look brings up a Marathon symbol.