The militarized future of the Halo universe draws inspiration from both fictional and
real-life warfare. Though the games take place in the twenty-sixth century, many of the guns
found in the series appear to take their design from modern weaponry.
All of you will probably
be familiar with the Battle Rifle, one of the most-used weapons in the series, but you
may not know that the look of the rifle was most likely taken directly from the FAMAS
Assault Rifle, a gun that is best known for being the standard issue rifle of the French
Army since the late 1970s. That’s not all, Halo 3’s sniper rifle design bears more
than a passing resemblance to the South African “Mechem NTW-20”, a very compact weapon,
developed to deliver pinpoint accuracy across large open plains. Then there’s the infamous
Needler guns, unsurprisingly, the design of these alien weapons were not based on any
actual human technology. However, the name “Needler” is taken from Skylark of Valeron,
an obscure book first published as a series of short stories in Astounding magazine that
began in 1934, before being released as a novel in 1949.
The Flood have always been one of the most feared antagonists in the Halo series, operating
like a virus that can infect human and Covenant soldiers alike, their passing similarities
to the Star Trek franchise’s Borg has often been mentioned by fans. Though you might not
know about the Biblical references that Bungie Studios built into their origin story. Many
believe “The Flood” to be a reference to the Biblical flood found in Genesis, after
all, in both stories humanity finds safety in the Ark. But there’s also a much more
subtle reference to be found, “G 617 g” was the first planet that The Flood infected,
so it is probably no coincidence that Genesis 6:17 reads: “And, behold, I, even I, do
bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of
life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.”
Biblical stories are not the only ancient tales to be referenced in the series, you’ll
find a few shout-outs to Greek history as well. There’s the obvious one of course,
the SPARTAN program is not-so-subtly named after the famed warriors from ancient Greece,
but not all are so well-known. For instance, Halo 2’s final boss, the ruthless and deadly
Tartarus, shares his name with the deepest level of Hades, the Greek underworld. Tartarus
was where the cruelest and most despicable humans were to suffer never-ending torture,
as atonement for their transgressions. Many Halo fans have claimed that the sci-fi
book series Ringworld was a major inspiration in the game’s initial development, since
both stories did take place on superficially similar worlds that looked like rings, but
according to Bungie co-founder Jason Jones “it's more similar to the ‘orbitals’
in Iain M. Banks' Culture novels”. The Orbitals from the Culture series are probably the single
biggest outside influence on the series. They are very similar to the Halo Array found in
the game series, where fully operational environments can be found on alien-made rings.
Starship Troopers is one of the most famous sci-fi military novels of all time, so it
is only right that the Halo series should draw some inspiration from the book, and the
film based on it. Halo:ODST is where this is the most clearly seen. The game’s SOEIV
drop pods are likely based on the drop pods in Starship Troopers. The book also popularized
the idea of using robotic exoskeletons in combat; this has had a huge impact on the
science-fiction genre and Halo specifically.
It may come as a surprise to some of you more
casual Halo fans, but Master Chief has an actual name: John-117. Many have argued about
what exactly inspired this name, and a few intriguing theories have sprang up as a result.
The first is that the name is derived from the 1993 film Demolition Man, where Sylvester
Stallone plays John Spartan, also known as Prisoner #117, who is kept in cryostasis,
much like John-117 at the beginning of the first Halo game. Another theory is that the
name refers to Revelation 1:17, a book believed to be written by the Apostle John that reads
“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me
and said: ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.’” Many fans believe this
is referring to The Chief’s important role as the savior of humanity in the first Halo
trilogy. Still others believe that his name is a reference to Jon 6725416, a character
in Christopher Rowley’s Starhammer novel, which Jason Jones has claimed was also an
influence on the Halo series. But which, if any, of these theories is the right one? Not
even Cortana knows.
You thought you knew Halo, but hopefully you’ve learned just a thing or two more. Do you know
of any other historical or literary references found in the Halo universe that we didn’t
cover here? Share them in the comment section below and we might include it in a future
episode. If you liked this show and its format, don’t forget to ‘Like’ and ‘Subscribe’
for more.