4. The Issue With The Master Chief
The larger-than-life appeal of Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 is indeed made of epic proportions. When first introduced in Halo: Combat Evolved, he gave off this unstoppable, machine-like energy that made him (and the player) feel invincible. Then in Halo 2 and Halo 3, that aura was continued and only added to just how imposing a figure the Master Chief is. Any visual depiction of the character screams powerhouse, god, machine, and basically any synonym relating to the word indestructible. The Master Chief could be considered the Superman of video games, with all his accolades and achievements throughout Halo's career. His personality is simple but effective, coming from Eridanus II where he is confronted by Dr. Catherine Halsey and Lieutenant Jacob Keyes and chosen as the first candidate for the Spartan II program, where he and 74 other kids of his age are covertly kidnapped and taken to the military planet of Reach to be physically trained and augmented into Spartans, virtually indestructible supersoldiers trained to the highest degree to complete the missions that normal marines could not. With a direct origin story behind the visor and his military career in its prime, you'd think it'd be pretty easy to convert all this potential into film. Not so much. While the Master Chief is perceived as one of the gaming's biggest badasses, the shear quality of his character would be rather demanding for filmmakers to pursue. Deciding, of course, which path to take with the story and beginning, would dictate where, in line, the Master Chief falls into play. Where would they start with him? How would they portray the character? Would he be a real man in fitted, prosthetic armor, or a CG effect? And the biggest question of all: who would play the Chief, or do his voice? All these questions are stacked on the quintessential belief that the Master Chief, John-117, would be Halo's biggest hurdle to stride over. Where the beginning would have to make sense within the context of the film, the Master Chief would have to make sense depending on which section of the story's vast history they choose as the setting. As the series propelled into newer and bigger areas, the Chief evolved with it, along with his armor upgrades, the inclusion of Cortana, the team-ups with his fellow Spartans, later missions pre-Halo, the events on Halo and post-Halo, all the way to Earth and the Battle of New Mombasa. So, in choosing a beginning, one must properly choose the right version of the Master Chief. Will they focus on the events pre-Halo, where they crash-land and defend themselves against the Covenant, where the Chief was in his Mark V armor at the time? Or will they focus on later events, where the Chief transferred from Mark V to Mark VI? The point of origin which the writers choose has to have the Master Chief in his current form at the time, which I would imagine wouldn't be too hard to guess, but writers for other game-to-film adaptations have been wrong before...
totally wrong. But matching the setting with the Chief isn't the biggest reason why a Halo film shouldn't be made; it's only a small caveat compared to the bigger issue. The biggest problem with the idea behind the Master Chief being in a Halo film has to do not with how he's executed in the story, but how he's executed through acting means and the way of replicating his exact behavior from the series. In my God-honest opinion, pulling off a casting choice such as this is near impossible. We're not talking about casting Solid Snake or Mario, or Cloud or Jak; we're talking about casting a video game character that
has no face. The idea of him being a machine with a face that we haven't seen before is so fitting for his character in-game, because it gives us as the players the opportunity to
become the Master Chief through his point of view. How, exactly, could that be pulled off in a Halo film? The dependency of having the player be the literal hero of the series is its defining trademark, and unless they somehow merge multiple perspectives together, it will undoubtedly lose most of its charm. The execution of the Master Chief in this regard is of the utmost importance in terms of both character progression and action, so what actor would do the role justice? The answer to that question: not one actor known in today's world. It's the easiest answer to explain, really; casting an A-list actor, or even a lesser known one, wouldn't be enough to convey the massive intimidation and personality of the Master Chief. Imagine this: the studio (unnamed at this time) manages to build a whole suit of armor for the actor to fit into. Standing at exactly 7ft 2in, it would have to be someone incredibly tall or someone standing on some form of stilts inside the armor plating, where upon the helmet will be placed over their heads for the duration of the film, not once seeing their face. Now imagine someone as silly as Vin Diesel, maybe Tom Cruise, or Chris Hemsworth, perhaps even Dwayne Johnson providing the voice (those names are only placeholder examples, of course). Not a pretty sight, is it? Now, I've gone on record with my interpretation of how the Master Chief should be portrayed in the film, and it's far from what most filmmakers would do. For me, it's not about choosing the best actor for the job. It's about choosing the most logical path towards achieving a direct personification of the Chief, not silly out-of-proportion pastiche sloppily put together. Here's a play-by-play listing of exactly
how the Master Chief should be carried out in a Halo film: a) Go through with constructing the armor, depending on the setting, where it would be either Mark V or Mark VI. b) Instead of finding an actor known to the whole world for the sake of publicity, find an unknown actor who: 1. Has never acted before in a major motion picture. 2. Has only played small, supporting roles in previous films where said unknown actor is not even noticeable. 3. Is around the 7ft mark and could fit into the armor and move it as one whole unit, instead of standing on boosters inside the armor. Also, find someone who can maneuver inside the armor at an efficient rate to the point that it's believable. c) With said unknown actor in the armor where we won't be able to see his face throughout the whole film, use the voice actor who provided the voice of the Master Chief himself in the series, Steve Downes. With his voice, it would create a unique bridge between his interpretation in the games and his interpretation in the film. d) Presto, you have an exact replica of the Master Chief from the series, not some Hollywood bigshot wannabe trying to sound and look like a hard ass. If this project does in fact go into an official development stage, I would expect them to follow up on this strategy of implementing the Master Chief. Let's just hope that with this fool-proof strategy, Hollywood doesn't find a way to
still screw things up.