Halo Corrects A Cortana Line That Made No Sense In Combat Evolved

Warning! SPOILERS for Halo, episode 1

Thanks to the new live-action Halo series, a confusing Cortana line from the very first game now makes a lot more sense with a new context. While the new Paramount+ series begins just before the introduction of the Halo rings which become critical to deciding the victors of the Human-Covenant War, Master Chief discovers an artifact that may be the key to humanity finding the rings before the alien forces of the Covenant. Along the way, the series references Halo: Combat Evolved, providing new context as a means to correct a line from Master Chief’s AI companion which was so strange it became a popular meme.

In Halo episode 1, the colony world of Madrigal is attacked by the Covenant. Outgunned and ill-equipped for the brutality of the Sangheili warriors commonly known as Elites, the colonists are slaughtered. However, the UNSC eventually arrives to dispatch Silver Team, a squad of SPARTAN super-soldiers led by Master Chief John-117 (Pablo Schreiber). Thanks to their efforts, the Covenant forces were terminated with the colony’s sole survivor being Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha), the daughter of an insurrectionist leader. While that eventually comes with its own complications, Silver Team soon learns that attacking the colony was not the Elites’ primary directive on Madrigal.

Investigating near the Covenant’s dropship (known as a Phantom), John-117 enters a cave with his fellow SPARTAN Kai-125. Upon their discovery that the natural caves give way to a more artificial space with a Covenant dig site, Kai-125 reports the same line spoken by the AI Cortana in the first Halo game: “Cave network does not appear to be a natural formation.” While this seems like a mundane line, it didn’t make any sense in Combat Evolved. While John-117 and Kai-125 are on the natural world of Madrigal, the videogame line was spoken when Master Chief and Cortana were on a Halo ring where everything was artificially created by the Forerunner race. The “cave network” in the game was clearly a tunnel that had been formed. Now, the new Halo is finally correcting the confusing line with this new context.

While the line is now fixed with a simple change in location, John-117 is still in the same position where he and the UNSC are on the cusp of discovering humanity’s role in relation to the Halo rings and their creators. While the Covenant may worship the Forerunners as gods, mankind was unknowingly chosen to take the Mantle of Responsibility instead — hence the Covenant’s holy war to wipe them all out in the hopes of taking their place. At any rate, it certainly seems as though the Forerunner object Master Chief activated on Madrigal will lead him to the first Halo ring, complete with its obviously unnatural cave formations.

As the live-action Halo series continues, it will be interesting to see if there will be any other dialogue references to the iconic videogame franchise. The premiere episode alone features several exciting visual cues and sound effects for fans to enjoy from the games. While Paramount’s Halo series may have its own timeline and continuity, the first episode honors the source material quite well, going so far as to even correct lines that made no sense.

Halo releases new episodes Wednesdays on Paramount+.

About The Author

Kevin Erdmann
(2514 Articles Published)

Kevin Erdmann is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers. With a major in Cinema Studies and a minor in Comics and Cartoon Studies from the UofO, Kevin is pretty sure he’s writing for the right site. While Kevin is a huge Marvel fan, he also loves Batman because he’s Batman and is a firm believer that Han shot first. Disney also shares a big part of his fan patronage. Kevin lives in Oregon with his wonderful wife and sinister cat who is no doubt currently plotting his demise.

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