MovieChat Forums > Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn (2012) Discussion > How early into the war?

How early into the war?

posted 11 years ago by xamripvan
7 replies | jump to latest

I read the first 3 books and played all the games, but I am not exactly sure of the timeline here. I have a really hard time believing that the cadets didnt know basically who the covenant were or what spartans were. I am assuming at the point of this movie the war had been going on for a little bit, so you would think they would have knowledge of the covenant. When the ships appeared the guy said what is that or something to that effect. And they had no idea what the elites were. Also you would think they would know what a spartan is, clearly they had been in combat so you would think word would get around about them.

[–] pUREcoin 11 years ago

Well the books should answer all your questions, but essentially it goes like this.

Before the Covenant the Insurrectionists were the only real threat to the UNSC. They refer to them quite a lot in the movie.

Spartans were classified and it was only after the Covenant started decimating the UNSC did they make the Spartan IIs public knowledge as a morale boost.

In a situation like this it could be years between the first Covenant sighting and broad public knowledge that they even exist.

[–] KORKUSUZCAN 11 years ago

i sort of got distracted during this... did the series go back n forth? coz at the end MC was on the plane and then it went into the frozen chamber with cortana.

[–] RDStrong 11 years ago

The entire thing is essentially a long flashback with the guy at the beginning and end remembering his early years in the UNSC (which is what you see). If you notice at the end he's holding the rock (and dog tags) that Masterchief gave him after he left the planet.

The ship he's on is the UNSC Infinity which is the ship involved in Halo 4.

[–] KORKUSUZCAN 11 years ago

havent played halo 4. took me a while to get around odst coz the jewish console broke on me 3 times with the kaballah lights

[–] eisphoenix-655-672150 11 years ago

That is a rock? I thought that was some piece of the hand grenade or the Hunter's armor.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] JACCO2008 9 years ago

Well, the war began in 2525 and the movie takes place in 2526 so a little over a year.

As for their ignorance about the Covenant, I just assumed that the UNSC was trying to keep it under wraps for as long as it could given how badly the Covenant was kicking its ass. It would fit that the UNSC would try to keep it secret until it could score some kind of victory so it could be like "yeah, we're at war with an alien empire, but we can beat them, see?"

Also, information is far, far easier to control in an institution like CAMS since it's purely military. No freedom of the press or butthurt feelings to worry about. If the commanders decide they don't want something known, it won't be known. We see this a lot with bootcamp now. Often people will come out of basic and be shocked at the news they simply missed.

Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.