John-117

Looking for the UNSC Navy rank Master Chief, the level Sierra 117, or the Halo Wars character John Forge?

"They let me pick... did I ever tell you that? Choose whichever Spartan I wanted. You know me, I did my research, watched as you became the soldier we needed you to be. Like the others you were strong and swift and brave, a natural leader... But you had something they didn't. Something no one saw but me. Can you guess? Luck."

- Cortana

Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 is a SPARTAN-II Commando of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command. With nearly 30 years of active duty, he is one of the most decorated soldiers in the United Nations Space Command and has earned every known medal in the UNSC except the Prisoner of War Ribbon. In 2553, John-117 went missing in action after the Battle of Installation 00 when he and Arbiter Thel 'Vadam eliminated the Flood threat.

He is more commonly known as "Spartan" by the Arbiter and Rtas 'Vadum, "Demon" by the Covenant and other Sangheili, "Master Chief" by Humans, "Reclaimer" by both 343 Guilty Spark and 2401 Penitent Tangent and "Casket" or "Armored Casket" by Gravemind.

Age
John's age is affected by the same ambiguities as all beings that leave their home worlds for deep space. By technical human Earth years, John is approximately 42 years old at the time he crash-landed on Installation 04. However, during the 27 Earth years that he has spent fighting the Covenant, considerable time was spent in Slipspace. The aging process is slowed in Slipspace by deep sleep in cryochambers; in which all cellular aging can be halted completely.

So, although 42 Earth years had passed between John's birth and his arrival on Installation 04, his relative biological age would be much younger. It is presumed that in the 26th century human longevity would be extended somewhere near its theorized maximum limit of 150 years. This would make 42 years of age the equivalent of being approximately 21 years old in the early 21st century. Considering that John has gone through physical augmentation and spent a good portion of time in Slipspace while in cryo, his physical condition should be that of a young man at full maturity and the peak of physical health, with a numeric age in Earth years irrelevant to determining his physical age.

Appearance
John's face has never been seen in the games, and therefore his appearance was left mostly to the imagination. There are videos on Youtube in which someone has hacked into the ending cutscene of Halo: Combat Evolved when John takes his helmet off to reveal an identical helmet (meaning that the 3D artists didn't produce a separate character model for this single occasion, as it was easier to simply make a new helmet model and used it in the animation, as the head won't be seen by the player anyway), players have also found a glitch in the Halo 3 beta using a mongoose to reveal what looks to be a face in the Spartan's helmet. However, the books Halo: The Fall of Reach and Halo: The Flood, give us a little insight to John's appearance. Early on in The Fall of Reach, when Dr. Catherine Halsey and Jacob Keyes go to Eridanus II to observe John as a child, he is described as "a typical six-year-old male, with tousled brown hair and a sly smile that revealed a gap between his front teeth". In Halo: The Flood, referring to John in 2552, he is described as having "Short hair, with serious eyes, a firm mouth, and a strong jaw." Also he's described as being unnaturally pale, a consequence of spending most of his time in his armor. .

Trivia

 * John was one of the three people to talk to the Gravemind along with Thel 'Vadam and Cortana
 * Fans have many theories as to the significance of his number, 117. Inside the Halo Universe the number was randomly assigned, but Bungie's choice has been theorized upon in many ways. For more, see: List of Biblical References in Halo. It is most likely that it was chosen for mathematical reasons, since 1-1+7= 7, and also that the first 3 digits of 7^6 are 117.


 * In Halo 3 the first time you see the Master Chief in the Campaign is exactly one minute and seventeen seconds into the mission Arrival.


 * In both Halo: Uprising and Halo 3, John is referred to as Sierra 117. This is a military-appropriate identifier using the Phonetic Alphabet.


 * At the end of Halo 3, shown on the memorial to fallen heroes, the Master Chief Petty Officer insignia next to the 117 carving has three stars, with the third being covered up by tape.


 * A model was never made for John's face in the game. Although Bungie has consistently stated that John's face would never be revealed to help players imagine themselves as Master Chief, numerous claims have been made that John's face was visible. During the Halo 3 Beta, several players posted videos of a possible version of the Master Chief's face. In reality, this face was an Easter egg left by Bungie, and is a model of one of their employees. Bungie's refusal to show John's face has been parodied many times in popular culture.


 * Master Chief has appeared in a parody in the show MAD TV.


 * A wax sculpture of John-117 can be visited at Madame Tussauds, Las Vegas. He was the first gaming character to become a Madame Tussauds wax sculpture.


 * John appears in a cameo in Fable II as "Minstrel Chief." The armor featured is known as "Hal's Armor". The energy sword also makes an appearance as one of the first weapons you can attain with the Collector's Edition of Fable II.


 * John 1 Chapter 1, Verse 7, is a passage referring God who relinquished all evil from the world so people could believe, hence 'Believe' being part of the advertising campaign for Halo 3.


 * Because the events that were depicted in the "Believe" interviews (the Second Battle of Mombasa and the capture and death of the Master Chief) never actually happened, the interviews are assumed as a massive cover-up operation done by the ONI's Section Two to cover up the truth about the Forerunners, the Fortress Worlds, and the Flood.


 * John is voiced by Steve Downes in all three of the Halo games.