Marine Glitch on the Silent Cartographer

This is a humorous glitch that occurs on the Halo: Combat Evolved level The Silent Cartographer.

How to Achieve It
Play through the Silent Cartographer level on Halo: Combat Evolved until you reach the first Forerunner structure. Fight your way inside and Cortana will advise the Master Chief that he should not allow the Covenant to close the doors. Once the doors have closed, ferry the Marines that came with you to the drop zone using the Warthogs available on the map to this room in front of the door. Ensure you bring most, if not all the surviving Marines to this room. You can ask them to disembark from the Warthogs if you wish but you run the risk of killing them when you bring your next load of Marines with you. Once you've finished, this room should now be full of Marines, with some on foot and others in Warthogs. At this point, continue with the mission as normal. When you trigger the next cutscene, the Elite Zealot will be killed by your Marines almost instantly.

Once you have activated the Silent Cartographer, you will receive a message from the Marines, stating that they are coming under attack at the Landing Zone -- but that is impossible because they are actually completely safe within the building you are in. Return to the room you left the Marines in on your way out of the Forerunner structure. They will be exactly where you left them, either standing or sitting within Warthogs. However, they are completely motionless. If you attack them, they will make the noises of being wounded but they will remain still. Attacking them enough will disarm them, but they will continue to be still. If you shoot a Marine "statue" with a Needler, the needles will not explode unless you unload three clips, walk away, and come back. This means you can potentially turn a Marine into an explosive chandelier. You can also try throwing Plasma Grenades.

Sometimes, when returning to the Marines, they will all have died for no apparent reason.

Similar Glitch
When the door has been opened, there will be no Zealot (like always). Find the Marines, get them just outside the Silent Cartographer, and only one Warthog will have acting Marines. The Marines in the other Warthogs will remain completely immobile, and you won't be able to enter the Warthogs.

Other Glitch
Also, when you go down the first time, if you ignore all the other enemies, you can stick the Elite Zealot. The doors will then close and lock on their own. Then, when you unlock the door and trigger the cutscene, you can see the Elite walk out uninjured, but you can also see its dead body lying on the ground.

Further Aid
The Marines can be ferried to the entrance room to the Silent Cartographer at any point before you activate it. The walkthrough here just provides the quickest and simplest path.

Possible Explanation
In many games, if you travel a sufficient distance away from an AI-controlled character, that character will "freeze". An example of this can be seen in Halo 3's level The Ark: at the start of the level, play until the two Hunters come out, and then run all the way back to the previous clearing (where you got the Sniper Rifle). Save and Quit, and watch the level in the Theater: the ODSTs and the Hunters will "pause" when you leave the area.

A similar phenomenon could be occurring with the frozen Marines here. Their AIs are probably not scripted to do anything unless they're at the Landing Zone. Since this glitch keeps them out of the Landing Zone, they do exactly what their AI tells them to do, which is... nothing whatsoever.

Related Links

 * The Silent Cartographer