Halo Infinite interview: Master Chief’s silence makes him a great hero

Master Chief is an eloquent man, who prefers to talk than speak. A recent replay of the Halo series reminded me that the Chief is often used as a badass line delivery system or comedic relief — with a dry, quick wit. You can read more Halo Infinite, he’s more talkative — and just as dry. But most players remember him as a largely silent hero — or as Halo franchise development director, Frank O’Connor, calls him: “laconic.”

We spoke to O’ Connor and creative director Joseph Staten about the series’ iconic quiet man.

Master Chief was created in an odd time period for video games. In that era, protagonists weren’t usually voiced like Half-Life’s Gordon Freeman or loud-mouths like the titular Duke Nukem. John-117 is Master Chief. He can speak but prefers to keep his mouth shut. It’s an interesting mix that originally leaves him in limbo between hero and player avatar.

“It’s a really easy decision to go one way or the other and say, ‘He’s going to be a completely silent protagonist,’ or ‘He’s going to crack wise,’ sort of Duke Nukem style,” said O’Connor. “[Bungie]He should have personality. They also wanted to give him a function that could be used in cinematics so they created laconic. So he speaks briefly.”

Staten said that he believed Master Chief’s actions to be more powerful than his words. A big, powerful guy like Chief doesn’t need to speak when he can just do. That’s how Master Chief normally operates in the Halo games: through action. This is not only true when the player has complete control. John is less expressive and does more in cutscenes than Cortana, his AI companion (and inanimate objects). Halo InfiniteThe Weapon, his AI friend and new assistant (the duo’s main speaker), does the majority of the talking.

One of Staten’s favorite Halo scenes — and one he called out specifically in our interview — involves no dialogue from Master Chief at all. The original Halo, Cortana and Master Chief teleport back onto the Truth and Reconciliation ship after it’s been taken over by the Flood. After they reach the ship, the camera flips over to reveal the fact that Master Chief and Cortana came in upside-down. Master Chief falls to the ground. Cortana is intrigued about her error and explains to Chief how it happened. Chief bangs on his helmet with one hand, then moves on.

My favorite scene is the one with the chattier Chief. It appears at the beginning of Halo 2At the conclusion of the Cairo Station mission. Master Chief takes the Covenant bomb set up to destroy the human base and deactivates it. He then drags the explosive into an airlock nearby, opens the lid, and rides the weapon. Dr. Strangelove-style into space. Chief lifts the bomb to the Hub of a Covenant Ship, and then activates it. The enemy cruiser is destroyed.

It’s one of the coolest video game cutscenes I’ve ever seen — made even better with 343’s remaster — but John only has five lines in it. Cortana is first asked by him how long it took to detonate the bomb. Then he requests permission from Lord Hood to depart the station. When Lord Hood asks why Chief would want to leave, John delivers one of the most iconic video game action hero lines of the early 2000s: “To give the Covenant back their bomb.”

Take a look at the infrequency with which John speaks in the first Halo, this Chief scene makes him seem downright talkative — although each line is succinct. Compared to the characters around him, he’s still the strong, silent type. When he is expressing an idea or a response, he speaks. That’s because Bungie didn’t want to take players out of the moment.

“Well, there were a lot of factors [contributing to Chief’s quiet nature], but I think the most important one, ultimately, was our commitment to making sure that the connection between you as a player and this character was as strong as possible,” said Staten. “And we wrote more lines for Master Chief than showed up in Halo, Combat Evolved. We continued to remove them through an editing process. Because it just felt like the more he says, the more chances there are that we’ll get it wrong for you, whoever you are.”

Both Staten’s favorite cutscene and mine serve unique purposes, and it’s what makes Bungie’s execution of a MostlySo smart is the silent protagonist. Master Chief knocking his head straight is a normal reaction — it’s a universal move, no matter who is in the suit. Chief is portrayed in the bomb scene as an experienced, confident soldier. When Cortana asks him what he’ll do if he misses, he simply says, “I won’t.” And he doesn’t. He becomes more confident when I take back control of Chief. I get lost in Chief’s identity as both a character and my avatar.

Image: 343 Industries/Xbox Game Studios

Playing a character like Nathan Drake makes me feel like I’m experiencing incredible events through an incredible character’s perspective. Whereas quiet, player-created avatars make me feel like I’m experiencing the events myself. Having Chief hide behind a mask and talk sparingly offers the best of both worlds, letting me lean into a character’s accomplishments and then forget he exists.

If I don’t always know what he’s thinking, and never know what he looks like, I can imagine my own reality.

“Folks who like Master Chief, every single one of them has a fairly different version of who that Master Chief is,” said O’Connor. “And the good thing is, there isn’t enough of him speaking, or showing his face in the game, to pull you out of that fiction. If you’re, you know, a middle-aged black guy, or a teenage girl with red hair, there’s no visual reminder that you’re not in that universe anytime, even though every now and then you’re going to say something dry and witty in the face of great danger.”

John-117 has never been the deepest character, at least in the games — but he’s not supposed to be. Cortanas as well as Sgt. Johnsons around him are the characters who are supposed to draw our attention and carry the story’s weight. Master Chief has a more significant function. He shows me how cool I am in his shoes, and then he gets out of my path.