John-117

John-117, also known as Master Chief, Reclaimer, Demon, Spartan-117 and Sierra-117, is the main protagonist from the Halo series.
== Charactah Account ==
The Master Chief is the leader of the SPARTAN-IIs, a group of One-Man Army Space Marines serving in the United Nations Space Command. The SPARTANs, equipped with Bio-Augmentation, Deflector Shields and Powered Armor, were created to fight human rebels making trouble for the UNSC, but once the Covenant showed up they took to that fight without complaint. As of Halo 5: Guardians, he is one of the few surviving members of the SPARTAN-II program.
John-117 may seem like an ace, given his skills and accomplishments, but it's explictly stated by Cortana that he was never the best Spartan in any field of his training, and his physical and mental capabilities are not extraordinary by SPARTAN-II standards. What makes him special is his unnaturally high luck, which translates into the ability to survive and accomplish the impossible by sheer chance, making him look like an ace in action. One thing he does seem possessed of, besides luck, is a practically unstoppable determination even by Spartan standards; if he makes a promise, he will do everything in his power to keep that promise, Covenant, Flood, and even ONI itself be damned.
== Appearance ==
=== Anime ===
* Halo Legends
=== Comics ===
* Halo: Escalation
* Halo: Helljumper
* Halo: Tales from Slipspace
* Halo: Uprising
* The Halo Graphic Novel
=== Literature ===
* Halo: Bad Blood
* Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
* Halo: First Strike
* Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
* Halo: Silent Storm - A Master Chief Story
* Halo: The Fall of Reach
* Halo: The Flood
=== Video Games ===
* Halo 2
* Halo 2: Anniversary
* Halo 3
* Halo 4
* Halo 5: Guardians
* Halo Infinite
* Halo: Combat Evolved
* Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
* Halo: Fireteam Raven
* Halo: Reach
* Halo: Spartan Strike
== Trivia ==
* John is only ever referred to by name once in the Halo trilogy of games: by Cortana in the ending cutscene of Halo 3 prior to the credits. In Halo 4 -the beginning of the Reclaimer Saga, both Catherine Halsey and Cortana refer to him by name twice. Humans generally refer to him as the "Master Chief", "Chief" for short, or "Sierra-117". The Covenant, aware of the lethality of the Spartans, refer to John exclusively as "Demon". However, after the Great Schism and the Sangheili alliance with the UNSC, both Thel 'Vadam and Rtas 'Vadum alternatively referred to him as "Spartan". Forerunner enemies and their AI constructs generally refer to John as "Reclaimer", although they seem to use this term in reference to all humans, and not John specifically. Interestingly, the Ur-Didact in his apparent disdain for humanity, chose to curtly address John as "human". However, after John had successfully infiltrated his way into Mantle's Approach, the Ur-Didact chose to refer to him more respectfully as "warrior" before their final confrontation atop the light bridge.
* Most of John's promotions occurred in a relatively short period of time and are depicted in Halo literature: Halo: The Fall of Reach depicts his promotions to Squad Leader and Petty Officer Third Class. It's briefly mentioned that once the Spartans complete their training, they will receive the rank of Petty Officer Second Class. These latter two promotions took place in 2525. By the start of Halo: Silent Storm a few months later in 2526, John has been promoted to Petty Officer First Class, but the circumstances behind this promotion is never revealed. Near the end of the book, John is promoted from Petty Officer First Class directly to Master Chief Petty Officer, a three-rank bump that is stated to be unheard of. The book erroneously refers to it as a four-rank bump however.
* Until Halo 4, John-117's personality is explored more thoroughly in the books than in the games for gaming purposes, so that the gamer can incorporate their identity with John-117. This is because the 'John-117' character, in Fall of Reach, was Eric Nylund's (and is widely accepted as Bungie's) own personal creative stand in for John-117 character.
* John's birth year may be a pun on his ID number, 117 (2+5=7, combined with 11 and reversed is 117)
* Through modding, it is possible to see a Master Chief hidden behind a pillar in the Halo 2 level "The Heretic."
* John-117 is voiced by Steve Downes in all Halo games.
* Fans have many theories as to the significance of his number, 117. Inside the Halo Universe the number was randomly assigned, but Bungie's choice has been theorized upon in many ways. For more, see List of references to religion in Halo. It was possibly chosen for its mathematical connections to 7, Bungie's favorite number, since and. John 1 Chapter 1, Verse 7, is a passage referring God who relinquished all evil from the world so people could believe, hence 'Believe' being part of the advertising campaign for Halo 3. Additionally, the song Remembrance is 1:17 in length, as well as Prepare to Drop. It is interesting to note that in the year 117, a man named "John I" became the 7th Bishop of Jerusalem. This covers both his name, John-117, and Bungie's apparent love for the number 7. It could also be probable that John-117 is named partially in honor of "John Spartan," protagonist of the movie Demolition Man, who was kept in cryogenic storage as "Prisoner 117" for forty years. It could just also be a play on James Bond's number, 007. Or even a reference to the 1998 alien invasion TV series First Wave, whose main character was referred to as "Subject 117." Or possibly because 77 seconds in minutes is 1:17 minutes. It is also worth noting that on the periodic table of elements, element 117 is an artificially created halogen (note the "halo" prefix" and being "man made"). As well, halogens have 7 valence electrons (another possible reference to Bungie's favorite number). Also, ex Guns N' Roses' member Izzy Stradlin's second solo studio album is called 117°. Finally, year 117 was when the Roman Empire reached its greatest extent.
* In both Halo: Uprising and Halo 3, John is referred to as Sierra-117. This is a military-appropriate identifier using the Phonetic Alphabet.
* Bungie's refusal to show John's face has been parodied many times in popular culture.
* A wax sculpture of John-117 can be visited at Madame Tussaud's, L.A. and in Amsterdam. He was the first video game character to become a Madame Tussaud's wax sculpture.
* Fable II makes a reference to John-117 with a character of legend named "Hal," also called the Minstrel Chief. The armor featured (clearly inspired by Halo's Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor) is known as "Hal's Armor." The Energy Sword also makes an appearance as one of the first weapons you can attain with the Collector's Edition of Fable II. The Assault Rifle can be acquired on the Knothole Island DLC as "Hal's Rifle," and has the largest magazine of any ranged weapon in the entire game, although its damage is low to average. In addition, with the Special Edition, the player can obtain the title "Master Chief" for their hero for free from any title vendor.
* At Comic-Con 2010, Frank O'Connor hinted that future media featuring John-117 after the events of Halo 3may be produced.
* When previewing John's voice in Halo: Reach Firefight, he will reply with references to the Halo trilogy.
* "John" is one of the name options for customized Loadouts in Halo: Reach, along with the members of Noble Team and several Spartan-II's.
* In Halo: Reach, on the Heroic difficulty with Campaign Scoring on, every time the player kills a Jiralhanae with an explosive weapon (such as a grenade, Fuel Rod Gun, Rocket Launcher, etc.), the score is 117.
* In an episode of American Dad!, when Steve is in the hospital after an accident, the person in the other room's bed name is John and the room number is 117, probably a reference to John-117.
* One possible reference to 117 is the enlistment year of The Rookie, 2547. 4+7=11 and 2+5=7, making a 117.
** The above reference could be done a second way; with 2+5+4=11 and therefore creating 117.
* Reviewers, such as Kotaku, have pointed to John's silent and faceless nature as a weakness to the character, while other publications said this attribute allows players to better assume his role.
* Gaming magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly named John-117 as the eighth greatest video game character ever.
* Coincidentally, the 2007 film 300 (which is a movie depicting the battle between the Persians and 300 Spartans) has a run time of 117 minutes.
* Also in the movie Demolition Man, Sylvester Stallone's character is named John Spartan.
* John-117 (named 'Master Chief') appeared in one Nice Peter's (a famous YouTuber) Epic Rap Battles of History, battle rapping against 300's King Leonidas. In this, he makes many references about his games, like, "They built a monument to my sins," and, "You're the soldier they need you to be." He mentions Cortana, and her intelligent abilities. He referred to a Covenant weapon, the Plasma Cannon. He even spoke of many gamer's way of celebrating a kill in multiplayer games, 'T-Bagging'. He was played and voiced by Peter Shukoff.
* If a player were to recreate John-117's concept art armor in Halo: Reach, they would need the MJOLNIR Mk. VI or MJOLNIR Mk. V base helmet, MJOLNIR Mk. V or FJ/PARA left shoulder, MJOLNIR Mk. V or FJ/PARA right shoulder, UA/Base Security[W] (For the missing upper-frontal chestpiece) or default chest piece, default wrist, default utility, default or gold visor, Grenadier knee guards, Mk. V FJ/PARA or GUNGNIR knee guards, default armor effect, and John S-117 firefight voice with Olive for both primary and secondary color, though Sage is also acceptable.
* In Halo: Reach, you can purchase John's Firefight voice in the Armory for 150,000 credits.
* John 117's 'luck' and the prevalence of luck as a theme in his being chosen by Cortana is slightly reminiscent of the novel Ringworld by Larry Niven. This novel also contains an ancient ring-world built by a now-disappeared civilization, where one of the main characters (Teela Brown) is chosen to be part of the mission 'due to her luck', and to bring luck to the whole expedition. Luck as an inherent (psionic?) ability is explored further in that series of books.
* In the game Duke Nukem Forever, you can find John's helmet and chest armor in a truck. Duke is asked to wear the armor, and then says "Power armor is for pussies." The person that asked him then asked if he would like a gun instead. Ironically, the developer behind the game, Gearbox Software, developed the PC port of Halo: Combat Evolved.
* John-117 is the only character in the Halo trilogy to witness the death of all three High Prophets.
* John-117 was listed as #2 on Game Informer's Top Ten list of Space Marines, under the Doom Guy of the Doom franchise. Game Informer also listed John-117 as #2 on their Top Ten Heroes of 2012 list. Ironically, John-117 bested Doom Guy in ScrewAttack!'s Death Battle.
* A Master Chief Minecraft skin was released on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, along with a Jiralhanae Major, Unggoy Minor, and other characters.
* The Halo 4 version of John's avatar armor was given out to those who played Halo 4 at E3 2012. It is now available on the Avatar Marketplace for $3.99.
* The Halo 4 version of John's armor sports the "117" number in braille (written "⠁⠁⠛") on the left side of the chest plate.
* According to the Halo 4 Scanned Trailer, John has brown hair and blue eyes.
* In the web-series Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, John is physically portrayed by Daniel Cudmore, known for playing the role of Colossus in the X-Men movies, and is voiced by Alex Pucinelli.
* In Halo 4, John-117 speaks much more often than in the other games (even during gameplay), most likely in order to bring out his character more than in previous Halo titles.
* John's preferred weapon is the UNSC Assault Rifle. He uses an Assault rifle in all the books that he is featured in and all the games that both he and an MA5 appear in except for Halo 2, where he is seen dual-wielding the M7/Caseless Submachine Gun. It is possible that the latter weapon is John's secondary weapon of choice. It may also be just a matter of what is available to him on the battlefield.
* In the first four Halo games, John-117 is seen falling or crashing early in the campaign; in Halo: Combat Evolved, he crashes to Installation 04 in a life boat; in Halo 2, he free falls from Cairo Station to the Covenant Assault Carrier and then to In Amber Clad; in Halo 3, he falls to Earth from the Forerunner Dreadnought; and in Halo 4, he crashes to Requiem along with the wreckage of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn.
* It is possible to unlock a variation John-117's classic Mark VI armor in Halo 4 multiplayer by completing the campaign on Legendary difficulty. While this armor resembles the armor featured in Halo 2 and 3 a great deal more than the armor featured in Halo 4's campaign, it is still a MJOLNIR GEN2 armor and does not replicate the original look 100%, missing features such as a beltpiece and featuring the same colored suit portions as the normal multiplayer armor.
* Despite the fact that it is modeled after John-117, it is impossible to get Halo 2 armor to look exactly like John, as it lacks the color of green on John's actual suit.
* John-117 made an appearance in the Halo 5: Guardians teaser trailer shown at Microsoft's E3 2013 Press Conference. In it, John is hidden in a robe in the beginning of the trailer, and when he is revealed, it is seen that the right part of John's visor is broken. He also encounters what appears to be a bird-like Forerunner construct in the trailer and after seeing the machine he looks into his hand and sees his memory data chip that always held Cortana and devoid of an A.I.
* It is odd that John-117 was not visibly surprised when he first encountered the Spartan-IVs, despite most likely never even having heard of the Spartan-IIIs. Though this could easily be seen as him seeing it as other Spartan-II's from another class, as Halsey stated she plans to have more Spartans made.
* A hidden face texture named "ch_john_117_03" was discovered inside the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary files. The facial features match the description of John-117's face in the books.
* In Halo 5: Guardians, John is one of 8 playable characters in the campaign. His unique attributes are increased melee damage and faster shield and health regeneration rates.
* The 2017 racing game Forza Motorsport 7 features a set of unlockable Driver Gear named "Master Chief", which is based on John-117's armor in Halo 5: Guardians. Players who participated in the December Car Pack Challenge, December Bounty Hunter, Make a Run, or Cold Runner Rivals events before January 3, 2018 obtained the "Master Chief" and "Olympia Vale" Driver Gear suits as rewards.
* In Halo: Reach, one of the achievements is named "We're Just Getting Started" which is a quote from John-117 at the ending of Halo: Combat Evolved.
* John makes a brief cameo appearance in the 2018 film Ready Player One. During the final battle scene, an entire team of Spartans holding MA5D Assault Rifles exactly identical to John appear to fight IOI's Sixers.
== Gallery ==
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== External Links ==
* John-117 at Halo Alpha
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