Summary:
Thomas Lasky, a freshman officer cadet of class 2529 at the Corbulo Academy of Military Science on Circinius IV, is placed in the Hastati Squad. During the school's mandatory acclimation to cryo-sleep, Lasky suffers from blisters and a persistent cough. He also sympathizes with the Insurrectionists, and rather than kill his fellow man, ignores orders to try and force a surrender. His disobedience leads to low combat scores for the entire team which gets him shunned by the rest of the squad. Lasky is further reprimanded for failing to live up to the reputation of his mother, Colonel Audrey Lasky, a senior officer of the UNSC Armed Forces.
Hastati Squad falls under the scrutiny of the commanders, and April Orenski, a junior lieutenant cadet, seizes the lunches of Lasky and Walter Vickers for their poor performance. Vickers brawls with Lasky over the incident in the mess hall until Colonel Kennedy Lynn Mehaffey intervenes. After watching video recordings from his deceased brother, Cadmon, and taking time to reflect, Lasky volunteers to lead Hastati in a game of capture the flag. While waiting for Zuma Squad to approach their location, Lasky orders his men to remove their helmets because they contain IFF transponders detectable by the enemy's motion sensors. Lasky positions his squad in a pincer movement, reminiscent of a tactic utilized by Hannibal at Cannae in 216 BCE. Hastati suffers no casualties, but as Lasky approaches Zuma's flag, he succumbs to his cryo-sickness.
It is discovered that Lasky is severely allergic to the drug cytoprethaline that is injected before cryo-sleep to prevent damage to cells. He could be medically discharged from service. In the meantime, the entire Hastati Squad assembles to watch classified UNSC mission recordings hacked by Michael Sullivan. The footage shows unusually large soldiers in unfamiliar armor, fighting alongside the Insurrectionists against an unknown enemy. An evacuation alarm goes off and cadets are queued for the academy's space elevator while Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST) drop in to the academy grounds. Three SDV-class heavy corvette ships appear in the sky and open fire on the space tether, destroying the lower structure.
Col. Mehaffey is killed by Needler fire in the chaos as alien Sangheili Zealots start methodically slaughtering cadets hiding in their rooms. Junjie Chen of the Hastati Squad is slain when the cadets make a break for the armory. Lasky raises a distress beacon while Vickers attempts to distract the Sangheili and is swiftly cut down. John-117 (Master Chief) answers the distress signal, saves the cadets, and assists them in evacuating, explaining that they (Lasky, Sullivan, Orenski, and Chyler Silva) are the only survivors on the entire planet.
On the way to the rendezvous point a firefight breaks out with Jackal
(reptilian alien) snipers and Sullivan is wounded. The group use a
Warthog to drive out of the academy but are forced to proceed on foot
when a Jackal ambush damages the Warthog beyond repair. Silva takes a
needler round to the stomach and dies shortly after because all the
medical biofoam had been used to treat Sullivan's leg. With just a
single grenade left, Lasky acts as a decoy to give Chief an opening on a
Hunter (colonial worm alien). They are then rescued by a Pelican ship
carrying Kelly-087 and Frederic-104.
32 years later, Lasky, now a Commander on the vessel UNSC Infinity, receives a distress beacon sent by the AI Cortana from the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn. After being adrift in space for four years, she is preparing to awaken the Master Chief from cryo-sleep.
Final Thoughts
It was refreshing to get a story that Master Chief just happens to be a
part of rather than the center of. I firmly believe not every Halo story
- especially side content - needs to star the Chief and there are plenty
of characters, locations, and lore in the Halo timeline that a movie
could explore. Forward Unto Dawn gives a really good impression of the
early days of the human-covenant war, how unprepared everyone was for a
new enemy, and how it feels to not be a Spartan; to be completely
not-in-the-know in the midst of all the chaos. The Spartans take on this
almost mythical status when viewed through the eyes of ordinary people
who have only glimpsed them through snippets of classified material. The
Covenant, likewise, were a complete unknown. Their unexpected
appearance and savagery, coupled with brief glimpses of their forms
through haze and shadows, gave them an almost horror movie-like quality.
The
characters are the weakest elements of the movie; they're almost blank
slates. Most of what I learned about them was through an interview type
segment at the very beginning of the production, but I appreciate that the movie at least
tried to explore the more human side of things and touched on the
jingoism of the UNSC, even if the writer's ultimately didn't go anywhere
with it. I don't think I would watch it again. The first half is very
slow and packed with too much high school drama for my taste, but it's
alright for what it is.
Halo Movies: How enjoyable are they to watch? (left to right; best to worst)
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