The Ending of Halo 2 Revealed
Storyboard artist Lee Wilson has given us our best look yet at the infamous cut ending of Halo 2.
On November 9th, 2004, Halo 2 was released. At the time, it was probably the most anticipated video game launch ever and there are few games since that can match the level of hype it received. Over a million and a half copies were preordered, there was coverage on news networks, and it ended up making well over $100 million in just the first 24 hours. But it did not take long after the release for people to realize that it ended on a giant cliffhanger. And it was soon after that when people correctly guessed that this was not the ending the developers intended. At first, Bungie would play coy, saying only that the cliffhanger was “intentional,” but eventually they would admit that, yes, they had a whole ending planned for the game and had to scrap it due to the extreme crunch of the development. In the years since then, bits and pieces of what this cut ending was have trickled out, but never enough to get a full picture.
The first sign that Bungie had planned for more than what shipped actually came immediately. There was a Limited Collector’s Edition of Halo 2 that included a DVD with well over an hour of behind-the-scenes information on the game. The documentary “Behind The Scenes — The Making of Halo 2” was not shy about the struggles the studio faced making the game, explicitly mentioning that things had been cut to get the game out the door. But it stopped short of actually saying that an ending had been planned. Special feature “Designing the Levels” tipped their hand, though. It showed a whiteboard detailing a level labeled “Earth_Ark_09” that was for both the Master Chief and the “Dervish.” Fans quickly deduced that the “Dervish” was the Arbiter and that this level was supposed to take place after the end of the released game.
An art book, The Art of Halo: Creating Virtual Worlds, was released the same day as the game and has a screenshot that might be from the ending. It says it’s from “early […]development” and portrays an Earth level. But the architecture in the shot is clearly Forerunner. There are no Forerunner areas in any Earth level in the shipping game. The only known Forerunner structure on Earth is the Ark. There is also concept art of the Arbiter and Chief together in a very similar hallway. The only time they were known to be together in any version of the story was at the end, inside the Ark.
There was also another piece of concept art of the two of them together in what appears to be a Forerunner location.
When Halo 3 was released in 2007, it came in three versions. The most expensive, the Legendary Edition, included a DVD containing the cinematics from Halo and Halo 2 along with developer commentary. When talking about Halo 2, the three developers, Jason Jones, Joe Staten, and Martin O’Donnell, talked just a little about the original ending. Jones brought up a “medallion that the Prophet had.” Later in the commentary, Staten said there were three levels cut from the end. And that the very last cinematic, Cortana with Gravemind, was always intended as the post-credit stinger.
In May of 2016, composer and audio lead Martin O’Donnell was interviewed for IGN’s Unfiltered podcast. He gave a brief rundown of the ending.
You were supposed to go back to Earth City, find the Ark… and at that point, that [the portal from Halo 3] was the Ark that opened up. […]That was where the Ark was. It wasn’t some other place. That thing on the Earth was where the Ark had been buried by the Covenant. And the Prophet of Truth had come back to there and the ending was you and the Arbiter chasing the Prophet of Truth through the Ark and having a grand and glorious conclusion on Earth, finishing the fight right there.
A year later, Vice published a massive oral history of the entire series up to that point. Included as part of this was a quote from writer and cinematic lead Joe Staten talking about the cut ending:
We had this great third act wrap-up of Master Chief and the Arbiter coming together and defeating the Prophets and discovering The Ark, and this deeper secret inside of it. But it was so above what we could possibly do from a production point of view that it fell apart. There was meant to be a mission where you were fighting on top of The Ark, like it was uncovered like it is in Halo 3. So you’re fighting multiple Scarabs, going through a trench run to make your way into it. We had it all modeled out, we had it all massed out, this big structure with Scarabs sitting on top of it.
That was all that was known about the original, cut finale. Until now. YouTuber C3 Sabertooth made an incredible video where he animated storyboards for Halo: Combat Evolved drawn by Lee Wilson that showed a similar, but different story for that game. In response and appreciation, on December 15th, 2020, Wilson posted all the boards he drew for Halo 2 to his ArtStation page, dozens and dozens of them. They cover the entire game. They cover multiple versions of the entire game. And they also appear to include storyboards for the last, or at least near the last, iteration of the original ending. Before we get into that, some notes:
- These storyboards cover cutscenes, not anything that would have occurred during gameplay, and they don’t include dialogue. They have shots, action, and camera movement. So these will give us the big picture, but won’t tell us everything.
- Some boards will be listed as “Intra.” That refers to a cutscene that takes place in the middle of a level. But what Bungie considered a level was a little different than what is listed as levels in the final game. During development, missions that took place at the same location were considered one level. So, for example, Outskirts and Metropolis were thought of as one level. The cutscene that starts Metropolis was an “intra” at one point. If the ending had survived until the final game, the “intra” cutscene likely would have been an intro cutscene for a new level.
- Most of these storyboards appear to come from the same version of the story, but that’s not 100% certain. And there are some that appear to be from an earlier version of the story. I’m assuming that the events they depict would still happen in the later version of the story since they match up quite well with the later version. This mixing and matching of versions is why the scene numbers will bounce around a little.
- The design for the Forerunner key ship that the Chief boards at the end of the game was in flux right up to the release. Even in the final game, pictures for the levels Gravemind and High Charity in the main menu have an old design. I believe that’s why many of the boards just use a Covenant carrier for it instead.
- The boards are labeled with two numbers. The first is the level the cutscene is associated with and the second is incremented whenever the location changes.
- “ECU” means extreme closeup.
- According to a comment he left on the YouTube video covering his Halo 1 storyboards, the ArtStation link above contains all the boards he did for Halo 2. And the ones that start with an X are from the version of the story that shipped.
- These boards all refer to the second playable character as the “Dervish.” That name was changed rather late in production to the Arbiter.
- A handful of lines of dialog for the Arbiter from the finale were found in a leaked build of Halo: Reach. I will quote them where it appears that they were intended to go.
Without further ado, let’s do this. The caption for each picture will include a link to a gallery with each storyboard from that cutscene laid out in order.
Master Chief is in the Forerunner key ship as it exits slip-space and flies towards Earth. He makes contact with Lord Hood and they discuss their next moves. The ship hurtles towards the Covenant fleet and into the atmosphere. As the ship begins to enter the atmosphere, the Chief throws a grenade at a hatch, blowing it away. He then runs and jumps out of it.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, a group of Marines is pinned in a shallow creek bed by Covenant cannons on the African Savannah outside New Mombasa where the Ark has appeared. The Forerunner ship appears and flies over their heads towards the ark and the artillery. Suddenly, there’s a small explosion behind them. They look back to see a cloud of dust. And from the dust walks the Master Chief. After a moment of shock, the Marines jump out of the creek bed to attack the Covenant, led by the Chief. Fade to gameplay.
The Chief crests a ridge close to the Ark. There’s an army of Brutes on a narrow plain between him and the Forerunner installation. They look at him and the Marines that have joined him and roar. They prepare to charge and the Chief readies his weapon. Just then, a group of Covenant cruisers shimmers into existence above them. Particles around the Chief and the Marines start rising as the cruisers’ plasma beams charge. The humans dive to the ground and the cruisers open fire. But they’re firing at the Brutes. The entire army is wiped out by the powerful plasma bolts and the Chief and the Marines watch in amazement. This triggers seven gigantic pillars to erupt from the ground around the Ark. Each of the pillars begins emitting an umbrella-like shield from their tops. The Covenant plasmas blasts smack into the shield but don’t penetrate it. Chief turns to see seven Covenant dropships speeding towards him. This is Miranda and Johnson arriving with reinforcements. They dive down to the ground as they rocket towards the rapidly growing shields, which are starting to link up with each other. The first three dropships make it under the shield. Miranda and Johnson’s ship just barely scrapes in. The last three aren’t so lucky. They slam into the shield and explode. Miranda and Johnson bring their dropship over to the Chief as the others pass over his head. In the back of one stands the Arbiter, with 343 Guilty Spark floating alongside him. Their ship dives into a trench surrounding the Ark. Fade to gameplay.
In the control room of the Ark of the Forerunners, the Arbiter approaches the Prophet of Truth, who’s staring at a holo-display. Truth turns around to face his former warrior. The Chief and 343 Guilty Spark appear behind the Arbiter. Truth and the Arbiter get into a heated discussion and the Arbiter snaps at the Prophet.
“And which promise is that? That the Great Journey is for all of us? That the Prophets shall lead us in good faith? That the Elites shall make the galaxy a graveyard and never ask why or wherefore? You knew all along what Halo would do, how many would die.”
The Arbiter takes off his helmet and tosses it at Truth’s feet. He then raises his gun at the Prophet. Fade to gameplay.
The mortally wounded Prophet of Truth lies on the floor as the Arbiter approaches him and puts a hand around his neck. The Arbiter snaps his neck then gets up and looks at the Chief, who’s at the holo-display, an excited 343 bobbing around him. Symbols for five active Haloes blink rapidly. The Chief looks back at the Arbiter, who nods at him. He slams his hand on a control on the display to deactivate the Halo array. Outside, the energy shield being projected by the seven pillars flickers and then disappears. The tops of five of the pillars slowly open to reveal massive energy cannons. The control room shudders as they do this. The cannons then each fire gigantic energy flares into the sky. The flares race through the atmosphere, towards the Covenant fleet situated about the Ark. One of the flares appears to pass right through a Covenant ship, leaving it unharmed. But its shields flicker and fade and it starts falling to the Earth. As the flares pass by the human orbital stations, they each disappear into five separate slip-space ruptures. The Chief and the Arbiter watch on the holo-display as five lines representing the flares approach the five Halo rings. In space near Gamma Halo, all is quiet. Then a flare appears from a slip-space rupture and streaks towards the ring. It reaches the center of the ring, but for a moment nothing happens. Then the flare explodes into thousands of energy bolts that shoot out to points on the surface all over the halo. The halo shudders and deactivates in a giant flash of light. The Arbiter and the Chief watch on the holo-display as all five rings are deactivated by the flares. After all five icons change status to indicate that they are offline, a deep metallic groan fills the control room. The central generator is collapsing, dragging all the pillars with it. Outside, one-by-one each of the pillars tumbles to the ground. Back in the control room, 343 flies towards a passageway as debris starts falling all around. The main door to the room opens to reveal a squad of honor Brutes. The Chief and the Arbiter give each other a brief look before going off in separate directions, Chief towards the Brutes and the Arbiter towards the monitor. Fade to gameplay.
The Chief races through the entry hall to the Ark as it collapses around him. He sprints towards the bright light of the exit. As he runs, the white light slowly engulfs him. Cut to a big ceremony in the assembly hall of the orbiting station, just like the beginning of the game. Only this time, the Chief is out of his armor and in a dress uniform. Lord Hood pins a medal on his chest, then stands back and salutes. There are Marines in the crowd cheering and Sergeant Johnson whistles. Outside, space fighters deploy fireworks. The Chief is looking out the window at the fireworks. Johnson walks up and briefly talks to him before Miranda shows up. Johnson leaves them alone. Both of them stare out the window as the Covenant fleet departs Earth. Fade to credits.
The Arbiter enters the data vault in the Ark as it continues to collapse. The room seemingly has no ceiling, rising over a kilometer into the air. 343 Guilty Spark flits from one data array to another. An explosion rocks the vault causing a giant piece of rock to come tumbling towards a sarcophagus in the middle of the room, smashing into it. Dust fills the vault. The Arbiter searches through it for the monitor. He takes a couple of steps and bumps into the sarcophagus, which is now broken and open on the floor. He reaches towards it to find… a human skeleton. 343 finds the Arbiter and they have a brief conversation.
“This is a Forerunner? No…. That is impossible; it cannot be!”
Then there’s another rock slide and this one blocks the entrance. 343 looks around and tells the Arbiter to grab onto him. He flies up the shaft as the Arbiter holds on. The screen fades to white. Cut to the main hall of a Covenant carrier. The Arbiter heads down the hall, which is filled with Spec-Ops Elites saluting him. He walks to a viewing platform where the Spec-Ops commander waits for him. He places a hand on the commander’s shoulder as they both look out the viewing window at Earth.
“Now they shall have peace, while the fires of civil war burn throughout the Covenant. Come, let us make haste. It stands to us to put them out.”
Fade to credits.
The Cortana/Gravemind “stinger” cutscene that plays after the credits in the final game is represented in the storyboards for this version as well. It was left out as it is near identical to the final game. Also, it was stated in the developer’s commentary for Halo 2 included with the Legendary Edition of Halo 3 that this was always the intended final cutscene, even before the campaign was gutted so it’s not surprising to see it here. The dueling “fade to credits” sequences are confusing. There are a couple of possibilities. Maybe the player would get to choose who to play as in the final mission. Maybe the credits would play twice. Maybe there were two different campaigns at one point. Or maybe the credits would be split in two with a mission in between.
There is one thing Bungie developers have mentioned as part of the ending that isn’t here. During the developer’s commentary, there was talk of a “prophet’s medallion” that would somehow come into play. Anything else about it is unknown.
Updates:
January 20th, 2021: Added a history of the details that had been revealed about the ending before the storyboards were posted.
June 18th, 2022: Added newly found dialogue, some concept art, and expanded the story of how the storyboards were posted to give credit to YouTuber C3 Sabertooth’s amazing work.