John-117

Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, more commonly known as the Master Chief, is a SPARTAN-II commando of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command.

He is the protagonist and main character in both the Halo trilogy and Reclaimer Saga. With over thirty years of active duty, he has become one of the most decorated war veterans in the United Nations Space Command, earning every known UNSC medal except the Prisoner of War Medallion.

Appearance
Until the release of Halo 4, John-117's face has never been seen in the games, and therefore his appearance is left mostly to one's imagination. The novels Halo: The Fall of Reach and Halo: The Flood give some insight to John's appearance. Early in Halo: The Fall of Reach, when Dr. Catherine Halsey and Lieutenant Jacob Keyes go to Eridanus II to observe John as a child, he is described as "a typical six-year-old male, with tousled brown hair and a sly smile that revealed a gap between his front teeth." In Halo: The Flood, referring to John in 2552, he is described as having "Short hair, with serious eyes, a firm mouth, and a strong jaw." He is described as being unnaturally pale, a consequence of spending most of his time in his armor.

In the ending cutscene of Halo: Combat Evolved, John takes off his helmet, and the camera pans upward, leaving the head obscured by the ship window frame as he sets the helmet to his side. Some people have used Halo: Custom Edition development mode to move the camera. However, Bungie's 3D artists did not produce a separate character model for this occasion, just a separate helmet model; if the animation is viewed from inside the ship, it appears as if John takes off his helmet, revealing an identical helmet underneath. Players have also found an Easter Egg in the Halo 3 Beta. Using a Mongoose, players can reveal what looks like a face in a Spartan's helmet. However, Bungie has confirmed that this is Marcus R. Lehto's face, not John's.

For the first time, John's face was shown without a helmet in Halo: Helljumper Issue 1. The comic illustrated the fight between John and four ODSTs. As expected, his face is seen from the side and is covered up in shadow, hiding any specific facial features. He was also only 14 years of age during this depiction.

John's face can be seen clearly on the front cover of Halo: Fall of Reach - Boot Camp Issue One as a six year old child.

Personality
The personality of John is explored much more deeply in the books than the games. This is in order that players can more easily project their own personalities onto John-117.

As a child, John strove to win at any situation, at all costs. This seems to have been a part of his character even prior to his conscription to the SPARTAN Program, as he pushed himself to win at any game he played, including chess, gravball or King of the Hill. As his career progressed, he transformed his desire to achieve personal victory to a desire to achieve victory for his squad and, by extension, humanity as a whole. John is tenacious to complete any mission at hand, and often disregards his personal safety in order to win. Indeed, he has often emerged victorious from situations many would consider impossible. Though even a Spartan is not devoid of fear, John simply acknowledges it and puts it aside, while never openly showing it. He is not shy about expressing caution, however, as shown in his first encounter with the Gravemind. John is generally stoic and taciturn, but not devoid of a sense of humor. He often makes dry remarks about the situation at hand, but this seems to be more frequent when interacting with Cortana than anyone else, such as other Spartans.

John is also known as a man of his word and will strive to keep any promise he makes, even at great personal risk. As he was forced to leave Cortana behind on High Charity, John promised to come back for her after dealing with the Prophet of Truth. Cortana chided him not to make a promise when he knew he couldn't keep it. However, despite incredible odds, John did keep his promise, as he fought his way through the Flood into High Charity to retrieve her. Upon finding her, Cortana was in a weak and damaged state. Nearing rampancy, John-117 told her, "You know me. When I make a promise…" to which Cortana replied "You keep it." This encouragement gave her the strength to compose herself after enduring the mental tortures of the Gravemind. John holds great personal respect for his trainer and mentor Chief Petty Officer Mendez, as well as Dr. Halsey, who he considers a mother-like figure. He appears to deny Halsey's claims about his extraordinary luck at several points in the Halo Legendsepisode "The Package."

In a strange twist of fate, one of John's closests friendships was with the construct Cortana, an artificial intelligence "born" from the mind of Dr. Halsey herself. Cortana was initially assigned to him for his mission to capture the Covenant Prophets. Despite some initial hesitation towards working with an AI out of fear of conflicting directives, John and Cortana quickly formed a formidable team and John realized quickly that Cortana would be a great help instead of a liability. The two's relationship evolved from a partnership to a close friendship over the course of Halo: Combat Evolved, due both the duration of the mission and the life-or-death situations they struggled through. During their adventures, John showed absolute trust in Cortana, believing in her even when Lord Hood was unsure of her reliability, being willing to trust her enough to risk Earth on her word that she had a way to stop the Flood. The two also had similar personalities: they both had a propensity to blow things up, with John commenting he wasn't sure which one of them was better at it. The pair also tended to enjoy executing high risk plans. After Cortana explained to John his strategy to use a disabled bomb to blow up a Covenant Carrier was crazy, he offered to leave her behind. Instead, she quipped, "Unfortunately for us both, I like crazy." When Cortana begins to go rampant, John becomes desperate to find a way to save her. Her absolute loyalty to him is shown when she restrains the Ur-Didact to save him, telling The Didact when he asks why she's helping humanity "I'm not doing this for mankind," showing she's helping out of loyalty to John. Cortana sacrifices herself to save John and he is clearly devastated by her "death," though he gets to say a goodbye to her in which she can finally touch him, something she has always wanted to do.

Although John has difficulty understanding the 'undisciplined' lifestyle of civilians, he is fiercely protective of their lives and humanity as a whole. The mass slaughter of civilians at the hands of the Covenant was enough to drive even the stoic John into a cold rage. After the massacre of Draco III, John and his Spartans remained on-site until every Covenant soldier responsible for the atrocity was dead.

John is known to show an exceptional care for soldiers under his command, while at times viewing them as a liability rather than an asset (more out of fear and concern for them than for himself). By 2552, after his experiences on Halo, John acknowledged to Corporal Locklear that, armor and enhancements aside, there was little difference between a 'normal' soldier and himself. This is not to say that John was previously without compassion. During the Battle of Installation 04, when searching for the survivors of the Pillar of Autumn, a Marine named Fitzgerald was wounded by an Unggoy with a Needler. John-117 retrieved a first aid kit and expertly treated the wound, taking time to ask the Marine if he was alright. By 2552, most members of the UNSC held "John-117" in complete awe, even among his Spartan comrades. His exploits and prowess quickly made him a legend in his own time, and his mere presence on a battlefield was enough to inspire the hope of victory regardless of the odds.

Despite his life of military indoctrination, John is not entirely submissive to command. On multiple occasions John has directly disobeyed protocol, and even superior officers that contradicted what he personally thought was right. On the UNSC Gettysburg during Operation: FIRST STRIKE, Dr. Halsey decided to test his morality by giving him two data chips, one containing information regarding Avery Johnson's immunity to the Flood, which would surely lead to his dissection by ONI with little chance of replicating his immunity. The other was missing this data, and John originally planned to sacrifice his friend in accordance with directive, but realized that one man can make a difference, and crushed the complete record into dust. Later in 2557 when John and Cortana made their way aboard the UNSC Infinity, after Cortana's rampant outburst surprising everyone in the room, Captain Andrew Del Rio acted on his resentment of John-117 for questioning his orders to flee Requiem and subsequently ordered that Cortana be destroyed. Before Commander Lasky could retrieve her, without hesitation John did so first, displaying his unflinching loyalty to Cortana, and that not even the UNSC would stop him from doing everything in his power to save her. Del Rio personally ordered John to hand her over, but he refused, responding, "no, sir." After the infuriated Captain ordered his arrest, Commander Sarah Palmer refused to act, and John-117 promptly left Infinity in a Pelican Gunship to stay behind on Requiem to stop the Didact.

Abilities
Powers and Abilities: Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Cybernetic physical and mental augmentations, Weapon Mastery (Military technology mastery with UNSC and Standard Covenant Weapons, High-Tech weapons mastery with Forerunner Technology and Heavy Covenant Weapons), Stealth Mastery, Martial Arts Expert, Pain Tolerance | All previous plus Adaptability with MJOLNIR Spartan Armor, Enhanced Senses (Such as Enhanced Awareness, Hearing, Night and Telescopic vision with MJOLNIR Helmet), Healing (With Spartan Shields, Biofoam, Regenerator and Regeneration Field), Forcefield Creation with Bubble Shield, Invisibility with Cloaking (Invisibility) and Active Camouflage, Statistics Amplification with various Boosts and Equipment, Homing Attackwith Hydra Launcher and other weapons, Plasma Projection and Energy Projection with various Covenant weapons, Limited Gravity Manipulation with Type-2 Gravity Hammer and Beam Rifle Delta (Gravity hammer pulls targets closer and Beam Rifle Delta creates small portals upon impact), Limited Illusion Creation with Hologram (Capable of creating a Hologram of himself, but it only walks forwards and cannot be controlled) Resistance to Temperature and Radiation | All previous plus Attack Reflection and Forcefield Creation with Hardlight Shield, limited Flight with Thruster Pack, Can see Invisible beings and X-Ray/Thermographic Vision with Promethean Vision, Resistance to Virtualization with Genesong, (Resisted the Composer, a Forerunner technology that transforms biological lifeforms into computer AI's).

Attack Potency: At least Wall level (Accidently killed two ODST soldiers, and casually kicked a man wearing an exoskeleton comparable in mass to Mjolnir armor 8 meters away, can spar with other Spartans and survive, and is considerably stronger now as an adult) | Small Building level+, possibly higher (Can KO other Spartans and other comparable troops with multiple punches, overpowered an Elite Zealot while extremely exhausted, is capable of killing weaker Sangheili with one punch), Street level to Building level+ with weapons (Arsenal ranges from Handguns to Spartan Lasers) | Building level (His new suit is significantly more powerful than before, is comparable to Spartan Edward Buck who casually killed a Promethean Soldier with a stomp, managed to penetrate the Didact's eye with a knife, but got stomped shortly afterwards), Street level to Multi-City Block level with weapons (UNSC weapons are slightly stronger than before, Incineration Cannon is this strong, can get access to various Promethean Weapons), higher with damage powerups and REQ variants.

Speed: Superhuman travel speed (Ran half a kilometer in 17 seconds; nearly 106 kilometers per hour, but tore his Achilles tendon doing it) Subsonic combat speed (Can react to stun rounds) | Superhuman movement speed (Should be faster than before) Higher with speed amps, Supersonic combat speed and reactions (Can react to bullets and Covenant plasma projectiles, has barely dodged handgun fire at point-blank range, viewed combat with the ODST's in slow motion) Higher when paired with Cortana (With her help, he reacted to a projectile he'd be unable to normally), Speed of Light attack speed with Spartan laser (Although, it requires 5 seconds to charge) | Superhuman movement speed (Should be faster than before) Higher with speed amps, Supersoniccombat speed and reactions (Faster than before and has reacted to Promethean Lancer Knights).

Lifting Strength: Class 5 (Can deadlift at least 3 times his own body weight, deadlifted 500 kilograms as a test, kicked a man wearing an exoskeleton comparable in mass to Mjolnir armor 8 meters away) | Class 10 with MJOLNIR armor (Comparable to Cal-141 who deadlifted 5 tonnes, dragged a large antimatter warhead around with little effort, casually flips overturned 3 ton Warthog jeeps single-handedly, one Spartan moved a large stone monolith while also fighting back the pain of losing half of his left arm, is somewhat stronger than the average Elite and somewhat weaker than the average Brute) | At least Class 10 (Should be stronger than before).

Striking Strength: At least Wall Class (A 14-year old John accidentally pummeled several ODSTs to death without even realizing it and launched one of them 30 feet with a few punches) | Small Building Class+, possibly higher (Can barely deflect large anti-tank missiles and damage tank shells with his hands; can kill weaker Sangheli with a single punch, who are somewhat comparable to his Mk5 form, out wrestled a Brute, his physical superior) | Building Class (Stronger than before, comparable to Buck, who oneshotted a Promethean Soldier with a curbstomp, is also comparable to Holly Tanaka, who effortlessly smashed through rock this big with a Spartan charge.

Durability: At least Wall level (John, at the age of 14, had the confidence to survive a 30 meter fall with little to no injury | Small Building level+, possibly higher (Can withstand various sorts of human and covenant weapons, can take hits from other Spartans, survived blows from speeding Warthogs and a 2 kilometer fall, survived being somewhat close Scorpion Missile detonation), Building level with MJOLNIR energy shields (Took a direct hit from 343 Guilty Spark's Sentinel Beam; which vaporized a Kig-Yar, can barely survive one hit from Fuel Rod Cannon in MK 5, withstood 6 of them in Mk 6, easily emerged from a large explosion unharmed in his Mk6), higher with Overshield and Deployable Cover (Roughly two to three times stronger than MJOLNIR shields), at least Multi-City Block level with Invincibility (Renders him virtuously impervious to all UNSC and Covenant infantry weapons, this includes Spartan Lasers, Wraith Mortars, and Scarab beam), at least Small City level with  Bubble Shield (Repels all projectiles and nearly all explosions outside the bubble shield, withstood a several Megaton Nuclear explosion) | Building level (Took multiple hits from Locke, and an extremely casual Ur-Didact), likely Building level+ with shields (Can take hits from 2 Splinter Grenade sparks before being ionized), higher with Overshield, at least Multi-City Block level with Hard Light Shield (Can repel blows from the Incineration Cannon).

Stamina: Superhuman (Can last much longer on the battlefield much longer than any of the UNSC marines and ODST soldiers, has the pain tolerance to continue fighting even when losing an arm. Stamina is further enhance by MJOLNIR regeneration; in MJOLNIR he has proven himself capable of fighting with torn tendons in his limbs and even internal bleeding).

Range: Extended melee range; hundreds of meters with most ranged weapons, several kilometers with sniper rifles.

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.
 * 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). On a final note, ex Guns N' Roses' member Izzy Stradlin's second solo studio album is called 117°.
 * 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.