John-117

Looking for the rank also called Master Chief? "No soldier should be honored for doing what is expected."

- John-117 to First Lieutenant Shah, Second Battle of Mombasa

Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 was a SPARTAN-II of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Group. With a little under 30 years of active duty, he is one of the most decorated soldiers in the UNSC Navy. In 2553, John-117 went missing in action after the Battle of Installation 00 when he and the Arbiter eliminated the Flood threat.

He is also known as the "Demon", "Master Chief", "Spartan-117", "Chief" and "Reclaimer".

Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, commonly called Master Chief and John alternatively, is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Halo universe, created by Bungie Studios, and is a player character in the trilogy of science fiction first-person shooter video games Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3. Outside of video games, the Master Chief appears in the novels Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood, Halo: First Strike, and Halo: Uprising, and has cameos in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx and the Halo Graphic Novel. He is voiced by Chicago disc jockey Steve Downes in the video games in which he appears.

The Master Chief is one of the most visible symbols of the Halo series and the video game universe. Originally designed by Marcus Lehto, Rob McLees, and Shi Kai Wang, the character is a towering and faceless cybernetically enhanced supersoldier; he is never seen without his armor or helmet. The character has been called an icon, a relative newcomer among more established franchise characters, such as Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Lara Croft.[1] Electronic Gaming Monthly named the Master Chief as the eighth greatest video game character ever.

Contents [hide] 1 Character design 2 Attributes 2.1 Personality 2.2 Outward appearance 3 Appearances 3.1 Halo: The Fall of Reach 3.2 Halo: Combat Evolved 3.3 Halo: First Strike 3.4 Halo 2 3.5 Halo: Uprising and Halo 3 4 Appearances in other media 5 Impact and reception 6 Notes and references 7 External links

[edit] Character design Shi Kai Wang's sketch which became the basis for the Master ChiefThe task of developing the Master Chief for the character's first appearance in Halo: Combat Evolved fell on Rob McLees and the project's Art Director, Marcus Lehto. Eventually, Shi Kai Wang was hired for conceptual art.[2] One of Wang's sketches was accepted and became the basis for the Master Chief; however, after Wang's version was converted to a 3-D model, it was decided the character looked too slender, "almost effeminate".[2] The Master Chief was subsequently bulked up to the version currently found in the games.[2] Similarly, the Chief's armor went through various changes, such as the addition of an antenna, which was removed later in development, and a green tint.[3]

In an interview on creating believable video game characters, Bungie's Joseph Staten noted that, "Master Chief is really what kicked off the creativity," he said, "in terms of how people react to him. He's a space Navy in really cool green armor."[4]

Bpb Marly, who voices the Master Chief, is a disc jockey and voice actor who had never played video games before Halo.[5] Martin O'Donnell, Bungie's music director, had worked with Downes on a previous video game, Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator, and recommended him for the part.[6] Downes has never appeared at Bungie or Microsoft events, and believes that the Master Chief is left masked because "[the character's identity] is really in the eye of the player".[5]

The February 2008 issue of "Playboy Monthly featured an article detailing Master Chief's armor.[7]

[edit] Attributes

[edit] Personality Steve Downes said that his voice acting was based entirely on Bungie's written character description provided, which specified a character similar to Clint Eastwood and of few words. In a podcast interview, the actor noted that, during the recording, he was given a fair amount of creative leeway to develop the Chief's personality.[5] In the games, the Master Chief never speaks during player-controlled gameplay, making him an almost silent protagonist. Even during cutscenes, the character generally speaks sparingly. Bungie Studios' Frank O'Connor has described the Chief as "so quiet and so invisible, literally, that the player gets to pretend they're the Chief. The player gets to inhabit those shoes [and] apply their own personality."[8] Bungie concept artist Eddie Smith described the Master Chief as "pretty much the consummate professional. He does his job, walks off, doesn't even get the girl, he's that cool he doesn't need her."[9] Although the Master Chief is usually depicted as calm, quiet, and wryly cynical, some reviewers stated that Eric Nylund's portrayal of the character in Halo: The Fall of Reach deviates significantly from the treatment found in the games and other media.[10][11]

Entirely encased in heavy armor and standing seven feet tall, the Chief inspires awe and terror in friends and foes alike.[12] Despite his cold exterior, Master Chief cares about his fellow soldiers, especially the Spartan-IIs with whom he has trained.[12] At one point, the Master Chief risks injury in a massive explosion to save a fellow Spartan,[13] and withholds some combat information on the threat of the Flood, an alien parasite, after realizing that the full disclosure of the combat data would mean the death of Sergeant Avery Johnson.[13]

During his training, the Master Chief is taught by Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez to sacrifice lives only when necessary and to understand the difference between "wasting lives and spending lives."[14] While in the Chi Ceti system, one of the Master Chief's fellow Spartans and best friend, Samuel-034, suffers an irreparable breach in his armor.[14] Sam stays behind to detonate explosives, while the Master Chief and Kelly evacuate the ship. Although the Chief would have preferred to die with his friend, he tells himself that he needs to "live and fight another day".[14] In Halo: First Strike, Dr. Catherine Halsey tries to teach him to save every single life possible.[14]

Despite the Master Chief's excellent combat record, many in the United Nations Space Command (UNSC), the military unit to which he belongs, distrust him. Antonio Silva, an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, exemplifies this attitude,[13] and considers the Master Chief a freak product of an experiment that should never be repeated. Although the Chief resents Silva's dishonor to his fallen comrades' memory, he is also loyal to the chain of command, and remains quiet.[12] Despite these explorations of the character's personality, O'Connor said in an interview that revealing the face of the Chief is not as important as revealing the events going on around the character.[8]

[edit] Outward appearance In the video games, the Master Chief is never seen without his armor. In the final cutscene of Halo: Combat Evolved, the Chief removes his helmet, but camera movement hides his face. Bungie did this to help the player bond with the Chief.[15] The only physical description of the Master Chief comes from the novels. During a briefing scene in Halo: The Flood, the Chief is described as tall with short hair, serious eyes, and strong features. His skin is "too white", a consequence of spending most of his time in his armor.[12] The Master Chief stands about seven feet (2.13 m) tall and weighs 1,000 pounds (450 kg) in armor;[16] without it, he stands six feet, six inches (1.98 m) tall and weighs 287 pounds (130 kg).[14]

[edit] Appearances

[edit] Halo: The Fall of Reach See also: Halo: The Fall of Reach The Master Chief's backstory is never explained in the games. A prequel of Halo: Combat Evolved, the 2001 novel The Fall of Reach, reveals much of the character's history and was released as a companion to the game. The Master Chief, originally named John, was born in 2511 and first lived with his family on the human colony planet Eridanus 2. Large for his six years of age, and approximately a foot above his school peers, he is described as a typical boy with brown hair, freckles and a gap between his two front teeth.[14] In 2517, John and seventy-four other children his age are covertly taken from their homes and replaced with flash clones to hide the kidnapping. The original children are brought to planet Reach, one of the UNSC's headquarters, to begin intense physical and psychological training to become SPARTAN-II supersoldiers.[14] They are assigned new identification numbers instead of last names; John becomes known as John-117. Approximately eight years later, John and the other children are biologically and cybernetically augmented and enhanced. These procedures had substantial risks;[14] only John and thirty-two other Spartans survive.[14].

After the Spartans' first successful operation which involved capturing a rogue UNSC officer, John-117 is briefed on the threat posed by the Covenant, a theocratic alliance of alien races, and witnesses the utter devastation wrought by a single ship.[14] The Spartans are first sent to the Damascus Materials Testing Facility on the planet Chi Ceti 4 to retrieve the MJOLNIR Mark IV armor. In the process, they board a Covenant vessel and plant a bomb; John is forced to leave one of his fellow Spartans, his best friend, to die.[14]

In 2552, the Covenant invades the human world of Sigma Octanus and occupies one of its cities, Cote D'Azure.[14] Following a failed Marine assault, John-117 and three teams of Spartans are sent to destroy the Covenant force with a nuclear warhead. After detonating the weapon, the Spartans return to Reach, where the UNSC High Command has developed a last-ditch plan to capture a Covenant High Prophet, who they hope could be used in order to barter a truce.[14] The Master Chief's armor is upgraded, and he first encounters the artificial intelligence (AI) Cortana during a training mission.[14] A massive Covenant armada of 314 ships[17][18] arrives and begins to destroy the planet, despite the best efforts of the Spartans and other UNSC forces. Aboard the spaceship Pillar of Autumn, Cortana plots a random course of escape.[18] Seemingly the last Spartan alive, the Master Chief enters cryonic sleep along with the Pillar of Autumn's crew.

[edit] Halo: Combat Evolved See also: Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo: The Flood The Master Chief (left), Cortana, and Captain Keyes aboard the Pillar of AutumnThe Master Chief first appears in the games as the protagonist of Halo: Combat Evolved. In Halo: The Flood, the 2003 novelization of the video game, the Chief is likewise the main character. During the opening cinematic of Halo: Combat Evolved, the Chief is awakened from cryonic sleep. Upon exiting slipspace, the Pillar of Autumn is attacked by the Covenant and crash lands on Halo, a ring-shaped megastructure. Master Chief escapes the ship via escape pod. Upon landing on Halo, his first task is to find other survivors. While fighting the Covenant, the Master Chief and Cortana learn that Halo was created by an ancient race, the Forerunners, as a last line of defense against an alien parasite called the Flood.[19] The Covenant accidentally releases the Flood, which begins to spread across the ring.[20] At the request of the installation's resident AI 343 Guilty Spark, the Master Chief retrieves the Index, a device used to activate Halo's defenses and eliminate the Flood. However, Guilty Spark neglects to inform the Master Chief that Halo would accomplish this by destroying all sentient life in a vast radius, essentially starving the Flood to death.[19] Cortana intervenes to prevent the activation of Halo. She and the Master Chief destroy it[21] by detonating the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactor core. The Master Chief and Cortana escape in a Longsword, and believe that they are the only survivors.[12][22]

[edit] Halo: First Strike See also: Halo: First Strike Halo: First Strike, the 2003 novel by Eric Nylund, follows the Master Chief after the events of Halo: Combat Evolved and bridges the events of Halo and Halo 2. Floating in Halo's debris field, Cortana and the Chief discover that there are in fact other human survivors.[13] The Master Chief and these soldiers capture the Covenant flagship Ascendant Justice, and return to Reach to save any UNSC survivors on the planet. At Reach, the Master Chief discovers that the Covenant had not destroyed the planet's biosphere in the usual manner, and that a few other Spartans survive. The Chief retrieves Dr. Catherine Halsey, the creative genius behind the SPARTAN-II Project, and his fellow soldiers. The Spartans then attack a massive Covenant command station, the Unyielding Hierophant, thus delaying a Covenant assault on Earth.[13]

[edit] Halo 2 See also: Halo 2 The Master Chief lands on the surface of Delta Halo.The Master Chief returns as one of two playable characters in Halo 2, the 2004 sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved. Returning to Earth with heavily damaged armor, the Master Chief receives an upgrade. Aboard Cairo Station in space, he attends a brief awards ceremony, which is interrupted by a Covenant invasion. Master Chief is commanded to protect the station.[23] The Covenant is repelled, and the Master Chief joins the ship In Amber Clad to fight the Covenant on Earth's surface, in New Mombasa. As the Covenant departs via slipspace, the In Amber Clad follows them to Installation 05, another Halo. The Master Chief lands on this Halo and subsequently assassinates the Covenant High Prophet of Regret. Emerging from a structure, the Master Chief is attacked by orbiting Covenant forces, but is rescued by the Gravemind, an intelligence of Flood origin. The Gravemind sends him to High Charity to search for Delta Halo's Index.[24] Subsequently, the Master Chief boards a Forerunner ship bound for Earth, intending to "finish the fight".

[edit] Halo: Uprising and Halo 3 See also: Halo: Uprising and Halo 3 The Master Chief appears as a main character in Marvel's limited series Halo: Uprising, in which he breaks into a Covenant-held Forerunner structure before being captured by the Covenant.[25] Like First Strike, the comic serves as a bridge between two video games, Halo 2 and Halo 3, in which Master Chief is again the main character.

Back on Earth, the Master Chief helps to repel hostile Covenant forces from Mombasa, Kenya and Voi. With the Arbiter (a Covenant Elite who has sided with humanity) and fellow allies, the Chief leads the assault on a Forerunner artifact that the Covenant Prophet of Truth is attempting to activate. Soon after Truth escapes Earth through the slipspace portal opened by the artifact, the Flood lands on Earth.[26] After helping to control the infestation, the Master Chief follows Truth to the Ark, an immense constructed world more than 262,144 light-years from the center of the Milky Way galaxy and well beyond the range of any Halo.[27][28] There, all the Halos can be remotely activated, thus killing all sentient life that could be infested by the Flood.[19] It is discovered that a new Halo is being constructed to replace the one that the Master Chief destroyed in Halo: Combat Evolved. The Flood follow the Chief to the Ark, bringing High Charity through the slipspace portal to escape the range of the six original Halos. The allied Elites and humans decide to activate the new Halo in order to kill the Flood outside the galaxy, and thus preserve life there. 343 Guilty Spark opposes the premature activation of the incomplete installation and attempts to stop it. The Master Chief destroys him, activates the ring, and escapes with Cortana and the Arbiter on the UNSC frigate Forward Unto Dawn. During the escape, the collapsing slipspace portal severs the Dawn in two, stranding Cortana and the Master Chief deep in space. While the Arbiter returns to Earth, Cortana activates a distress beacon, knowing that rescue could take years; the Master Chief enters cryonic sleep, telling Cortana, "Wake me when you need me."[29]

[edit] Appearances in other media The Master Chief has appeared or has been referenced several times in non-canon media. Team Ninja approached Bungie Studios and asked to use the Master Chief in their 2006 video game Dead or Alive 4. Although the Chief could not be used due to storyline restrictions, Bungie's interest in the idea resulted in the development of Nicole (Spartan-458).[30]

The Master Chief is mentioned several times in Rooster Teeth Productions' Halo-based machinima parody series Red vs. Blue. In the first episode of the series, Grif, talking to teammate Simmons, says: "I signed up to fight some aliens. Next thing I know, Master Chief blows up the whole Covenant Armada, and I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere, fighting a bunch of blue guys."[31] In the Halo Zune exclusive video titled "Turn On, Tune In, Zune Out", Doc has a segment on his radio broadcast called "You're not Master Chief, and that's okay".[32][33]

The Master Chief is referenced as a hero by a then-retired soldier in the live-action short, "The Museum",[34] and appears in the subsequent video as part of a special advertisement series for Halo 3 entitled "Believe in a Hero".[35]

[edit] Impact and reception In an article in Time, Lev Grossman stated that the Master Chief represents a "new kind of celebrity for a new and profoundly weird millennium" and is a symbol of the increasing legitimacy of video games as an art form.[15] The Sydney Morning Herald simply described the Chief as "iconic".[36] Electronic Gaming Monthly noted that the Master Chief, in half a decade had become the de facto symbol for the Xbox and for a new generation of gamers.[37] The recognition of the Master Chief has spread to mainstream culture; Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas has developed a wax sculpture of the Chief. At the ceremony, Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy said that the "Master Chief is as much of a hero today as characters like Spider-Man, Frodo, and Luke Skywalker were for previous generations."[38]

An actor dressed as the Master Chief stands with Bill Gates at the Halo 3 launch at Best Buy in Seattle, Washington.[39]BusinessWeek listed the Master Chief among several video game characters who have been branded beyond their respective video games, "helping them transcend the very medium in the process".[1] The Master Chief has been used in marketing on a variety of products, from 7-Eleven Slurpees to T-shirts, Xbox 360 controllers, and Mountain Dew.[40][41] In Australia, around September 2007, Hoyts Cinemas popcorn buckets were branded with high-detail images of Halo 3 and the Master Chief along with a prize advertising offer. Several action figures of the character have been created to market of the Halo series; the most recent were manufactured by McFarlane.[42] These actions have been called necessary to the game franchise; Ed Ventura, director of Xbox's worldwide marketing, said, "We want to be in the hearts and minds of our fans as much as we can."[43]

Roger Travis, associate professor of classics at the University of Connecticut, compared the Master Chief to the epic hero Aeneas, in that both superhuman characters save a civilization by defeating strong enemies in a martial setting. The audience is intended to become immersed and to identify with the protagonist similarly in both stories.[44] Matthew Stover compared Halo to the Iliad, saying that both stories share the meta-theme that "war is the crucible of character". As military science fiction, Halo further raises the issue of being human.[45] Stover argued that, since players are to imagine themselves as the Master Chief, the character is correctly presented as a cyborg, neither a flawless machine nor fully human. Players would be unable to empathize with the former, and the latter would be too specifically developed.[45]

IGN saw in the Master Chief elements of Jon 6725416, a character in Christopher Rowley's novel Starhammer.[46] Reviewers have suggested that the name John-117 could be a Biblical reference.[10][46]

Reaction to the Master Chief as a character is generally mixed. Some reviewers see the character's silent nature as a strength;[10] others say that this quality leaves him insufficiently developed and believable.[47][48] Similarly, some critics see the Chief as a stock action hero, with little added dimension.[49] Neil Blomkamp, director of the stalled Halo film, said the movie would have depicted the character as "the most important supporting cast member" because of his faceless nature. Instead, "other characters around him [...] did most of the emotional heavy lifting", with their story exploring their perception of the Chief.[50]

[edit] Notes and references ^ a b Snow, Blake (2007-08-03). Game Icons We Love. businessweek.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-08. “Microsoft's Master Chief, perhaps the newest franchise character on the block, is no different.” ^ a b c Trautmann, Eric (2004). The Art of Halo. New York: Del Ray Publishing. ISBN 0-345-47586-0. ^ One Million Years B.X.. bungie.net. Bungie Studios (2006-02-10). Archived from the original on 2006-02-10. ^ Cifaldi, Frank (2005-05-26). E3 Report: Developing Better Characters, Better Stories. gamasutra.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-14. ^ a b c XerxdeeJ (2005-08-23). A Visit from the Master Chief Himself. tiedtheleader.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-19. ^ KLind (2006-07-26). Interview with the Master Chief. buttonbasher.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-20. ^ Mark MacDonald, "Spartan Specs: Under the Chief's hood," Electronic Gaming Monthly 225 (February 2008): 26-27. ^ a b Kolan, Patrick (2006-09-02). IGN interview with Frankie O'connor. ign.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-02. ^ Bungie Studios. (2004). Halo 2 Limited Collector's Edition Bonus DVD. ^ a b c Park, Gene (2003-09-03). Halo: The Fall Of Reach - Book Review. gamecritics.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-03. ^ Pezzano, Kevin. Halo: The Fall of Reach. revolutionsf.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-03. ^ a b c d e Dietz, William (2003). Halo: The Flood. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-45921-0. ^ a b c d e Nylund, Eric (2003). Halo: First Strike. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-46781-7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Nylund, Eric (2001). Halo: The Fall of Reach. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-45132-5. ^ a b Grossman, Lev (2007-08-30). The Man in the Mask. time.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-31. ^ Bungie Studios (2004). Halo 2 Instruction Manual (in English). Microsoft Game Studios, 8. ^ Bungie Studios. Halo 2. Microsoft. Xbox. Level/area: Cairo Station (in English). (2004) “Cortana: Fifteen Covenant capital ships, holding position just outside the killzone. / Lord Hood: Something's not right. The fleet that destroyed Reach was fifty times this size.” ^ a b Bungie Studios (2001). Halo: Combat Evolved Instruction Manual (in English). Microsoft Game Studios. ^ a b c Bungie Studios. Halo: Combat Evolved. Microsoft. Xbox. Level/area: Two Betrayals (in English). (2001) “Cortana: You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the forerunners built it? Halo doesn't kill Flood, it kills their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever. We're all equally edible. The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death. And that's exactly what Halo is designed to do: wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. You don't believe me? Ask him. / Master Chief: Is this true? / 343 Guilty Spark: More or less. Technically, this installation's pulse has a maximum effective radius of twenty-five thousand light years. But, once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life, or at least any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the Flood.” ^ Bungie Studios. Halo: Combat Evolved. Microsoft. Xbox. Level/area: 343 Guilty Spark (in English). (2001) “343 Guilty Spark: Someone has released the Flood. My function is to prevent it from leaving this installation.” ^ Bungie Studios. Halo: Combat Evolved. Microsoft. Xbox. Level/area: Two Betrayals (in English). (2001) “Cortana: We can't let the monitor activate Halo. We have to stop him. We have to destroy Halo.” ^ Bungie Studios. Halo: Combat Evolved. Microsoft. Xbox. Level/area: The Maw (in English). (2001) “Master Chief: Did anyone else make it? / Cortana: Scanning. (Pause) Just... dust and echoes. We are all that's left.” ^ Bungie Studios. Halo 2. Microsoft. Xbox. Level/area: Cairo Station (in English). (2004) “Lord Hood: They're going to try to take our MAC guns offline, give their capital ships a straight shot at Earth. Master Chief... defend this station.” ^ Bungie Studios. Halo 2. Microsoft. Xbox. Level/area: Gravemind (in English). (2004) “Gravemind: If you will not hear the truth, then I will show it to you. There is still time to stop the key from turning, but first it must be found. You will search one likely spot... and you will search another. Fate had us meet as foes, but this ring will make us brothers.” ^ Bendis, Brian Michael (2007). Halo: Uprising, Book 1. New York: Marvel Comics. ^ Bungie Studios. Halo 3. Microsoft. Xbox 360. Level/area: Floodgate (in English). (2007) “Arbiter: What is it? More Brutes? / Master Chief: Worse. / Miranda Keyes: The Flood. It's spreading all over the city.” ^ Bungie Studios. Halo 3. Microsoft. Xbox 360. Level/area: The Ark (in English). (2007) “Master Chief: That's our galaxy, we're beyond the rim. / 343 Guilty Spark: Two to the eighteenth lightyears from galactic center, to be precise.” ^ Bungie Studios. Halo 3. Microsoft. Xbox 360. Level/area: The Covenant (in English). (2007) “343 Guilty Spark: The Ark is out of range of all the active installations!” ^ Bungie Studios. Halo 3. Microsoft. Xbox 360. Level/area: Halo (in English). (2007) “Cortana: I'll miss you. / Master Chief: Wake me. When you need me.” ^ Dead or Alive 4 Q&A. gamespot.com (2006-03-20). Retrieved on 2007-08-20. ^ Rooster Teeth Productions (2003-04-01). Red vs Blue episode 1: "Why Are We Here?". ^ Rooster Teeth Productions (2007). Red vs Blue Special: "Turn On, Tune In, Zune Out". ^ Kelly, Kevin (2007-06-17). Watch the Exclusive RvB Content Without a Zune. joystiq.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-11. ^ McElroy, Justin (2007-09-12). Watch the New Halo 3 Ad: Museum. joystiq.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-14. ^ Swilinski, Alex (2007-09-12). Brankweek Talks Anatomy of Halo 3 Marketing Onslaught. joystiq.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-18. ^ Moses, Asher (2007-08-30). Prepare for an All-Out War. smh.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-31. ^ Electronic Gaming Monthly staff (2005-11-28). Top Ten Video Game Characters. 1up.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-31. ^ Master Chief Invades Madame Tussauds. Microsoft (2007-09-10). Retrieved on 2007-09-21. ^ Microsoft Games Global Marketing (gamerscoreblog) (2007-09-25). Halo 3 Midnight Madness Bellevue Best Buy 274 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!. Flickr: Photos from gamerscoreblog. Flickr. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. “Taken on September 25, 2007” ^ Brudvig, Erik (2007-07-31). Halo 3 Box Arrives at IGN Offices. ign.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-22. ^ Reserve Halo 3 at 7-11 TODAY!. xbox360rally.com (2007-08-06). Retrieved on 2007-08-22. ^ Plunkett, Luke (2007-09-12). McFarlane Halo 3 figures. kotaku.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-12. ^ High, Kamau (2004-12-09). Play the game, buy the licensed consumer goods. ft.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-17. ^ Travis, Roger (October 10, 2006). Bungie's Epic Achievement: Halo and the Aeneid. The Escapist. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. ^ a b Stover, Matthew Woodring (2006). "You Are the Master Chief", in Yeffeth, Glenn (ed.): Halo Effect: An Unauthorized Look at the Most Successful Video Game of All Time. Dallas, Texas: BenBella Books, 1–10. ^ a b Perry, Douglass (May 17, 2006). The Influence of Literature and Myth in Videogames. IGN. IGN Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. ^ Bear, Erik (2004-12-16). Halo 2 vs Half Life 2. sfhomeworld.org. Retrieved on 2007-08-19. ^ Crecente, Brian (2007-09-24). Feature: Halo 3 Review. kotaku.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-28. ^ Team Freemont (2004). Team Freemont: Halo 2 review. teamfremont.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-05. ^ Croal, N'Gai. "Exclusive: And The Winner For Best Supporting Actor Is...As Master Chief? Bungie Writing Director Joseph Staten Gives Level Up Some Insight Into The Stalled Halo Movie", Newsweek, 2008-01-15. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.

[edit] External links The Master Chief's profile at Bungie.org. John-117 article at Halopedia, a Halo wiki. [show]v • d • eHalo series Main trilogy Halo: Combat Evolved · Halo 2 · Halo 3 Other games Halo Wars · Halo: Chronicles Novelizations and other media The Fall of Reach · The Flood · First Strike · Ghosts of Onyx · Contact Harvest · Sixth Halo Novel · Halo Graphic Novel · Halo: Uprising Music Halo Original Soundtrack · Halo 2 Original Soundtrack · Halo 3 Original Soundtrack Information and fiction Official games and media · Characters Promotion I Love Bees · Marketing for Halo 3 [show]v • d • eCharacters of Halo Master Chief • Cortana • Arbiter • Gravemind UNSC Characters • Covenant Characters • Forerunner Characters

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Age
John's age is affected by the same ambiguities as all beings that leave their home worlds. By technical human Earth years, John is approximately 41 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. Short Slipspace jumps can take several weeks in Earth time, and long jumps can take months or years, meaning that Slipspace travelers have not aged as much as those who did not travel with them. This phenomenon, Time Dilation, is an aspect of Special Relativity, in which clocks in a moving frame of reference appear to move more slowly than clocks in a non-moving frame of reference. The aging process can be further slowed in Slipspace by deep sleep in cryochambers, in which all cellular aging can be halted completely.

So, although 41 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, which would make 41 years of age the equivalent of being 21 years old in early 21st century aging. Considering that John has undergone physical augmentation, spent time in Slipspace (and in cryo while in Slipspace), 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 age.

Trivia

 * John's apparent favorite weapon is the Assault Rifle since it's the default weapon during the game in Halo Combat Evolved and Halo 3.
 * 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.
 * Bible verses that end with 1:17 or 11:7 relate to Halo in an odd way. Revelation 1:17 says, "When I saw him, I fell at him as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, 'Fear not, I am the first and last.'" Revelation 11:7 says, "And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the pit will make war upon them, conquer and kill them." Revelation 11:8 says, "And their dead bodies will lie in the streets of the great city where their Lord was crucified." When it says, "I am the first and last," in Halo it could mean John-117. The beast is the Gravemind/Flood. The great city is New Mombasa.
 * In the Bible, John I became 7th Bishop of Jerusalem in 117 A.D.
 * In both Halo: Uprising Issue 1 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. This is the rank insignia for Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (highest position for an enlisted sailor). Rank insignia may have changed over the centuries or it may have been a posthumous promotion. It is also interesting to note that this is the good behavior variant of the rank insignia.
 * John's name was never mentioned in any Halo game until the final cutscene in Halo 3.
 * 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 at some point. During the Halo 3 Beta several players posted videos of a possible version of the Master Chief's face. 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 several times in popular culture.
 * If the player is playing on the Legendary difficulty setting on the last part of the last mission of the campaign called Halo with the IWHBYD skull turned on, on the side of Johnson's Warthog there will be the numbers 117 scratched, small but, nonetheless there.