It's so sad that a commercial could get the Halo feel so much better then the TV show. Between this and the Halo Reach live action it really shows how far live action has fallen for (oddly enough) Xbox IPs only.
we're Xbox IPs the only ones who did live action vids?? not including the old parody Warzone vids ... I think a lot has to do with PASSION for the PROJECT and just look treating it like another title like most games! Gears of war never had a live action trailer but my god did they capture emotion better than anyone on their trailers (mad world GOW 1)
@@leanwithdean True the GoW trilogy trailers were very good. My point was more about how all (pre Fallout TV show) the Xbox live action stuff recently has been a flop when compared to Sony (TLOU) and Nintendo (Detective Pikachu) projects and it's sad because years before they made some really good live action things.
I really think the problem lies with people who don't respect the material are somehow making it to the head of the teams that are producing media for a franchise. They are using the chance to make a movie with a high-budget because of the IP to tell their own stories where that IP is an obstacle to work around. They have no respect or love for the source material so they don't understand the rules and constraints of an established IP, you end up with shit like that Halo show or the Star Wars sequels. They start taking shortcuts that damage the original IP in ways they don't understand or care for. Even that new Avatar show is a good example of this. ODST and its commerical are great because the nerds who loved Halo were involved with making the game and the ad. The Master Cheeks show is horrible because they have people who have no interest in Halo involved in writing it. They think race swapping Keyes and erasing his entire legacy from Halo 1 is somehow a good change because "Alternate timeline" as if that means anything. That's the lazy man's way out of understanding a franchise and writing well for it. Nerds used to make all the cool shit because they are passionate about their ideas. Look at Helldivers 2, even as just a game it's doing really well because the gameplay is focused and solid. The devs in charge are gamers, some with military experience, making a game about being a Commando behind enemy lines. It works perfectly because they love what they are working on.
@@Gibblets411 That's a good description. It's what happened to the MCU and when the TV shows was first announced and they had to say multiple times this wasn't the Halo games timeline this was the "Silver Timeline" it was a massive red flag. I think the actress from Madam Webb said it best, a lot of entertainment nowadays aren't made with 1 persons vision leading they are made by committee. Halo TV show definitely feels like that and the little improvement S2 has made over S1 still leaves a massive amount to be desired.
@@gorgan4714 > the "Silver Timeline" it was a massive red flag It's pretty much an admission of disinterest in the source material: "We can't tell our story within those rules so you'll have to forgive our lazy changes". They had to course correct a bit to make sure they didn't entirely lose the Halo fans that do watch it. Yet so much is still blatantly wrong.
@@North862it wasn’t that they got difficult planets, but that certain cultures grouped together on certain planets once they became more governed/hospitable/accessible, especially when said planet resembled their ancestral homelands on Earth. Like you pointed out here for that reason Reach had a massive population of Hungarian speakers, Sansar was a planet that predominantly had those from a Nordic descent, Gao was predominantly Latin, and Meridian a lot of French speakers are the others I remember that had that same Diaspora effect. The UEG and by extension the CMA were the governing bodies of Human space, countries as they’re known today ceased to exist 300 years before the games take place
@@samhutchison9582not just that, but this specific battalion of ODSTs in the commercial were made up of predominantly Hungarian descended individuals from Reach
The fact that people get more involved and connect with a 2 minute long advertisement as apposed to a multi-season show tells me a lot. ODST is the goat
Would love to see you look at the Halo 3 "Believe" ad campaign. They did a series of live action "interviews" with vets of the Covenant war and their stories about the Chief. It's fantastic
I have already but it's a Patreon exclusive. It was a personal request, uploaded it a month ago maybe? I found it very moving tbh. Thank you for watching this video! 🙏🏻
I actually like the fact that the Hero didn't actually kill the Brute. He survived by sheer luck. And that's the staple of the ODST's. And he went on to become a hardened veteran. Only the best last that long. And without that moment of luck in his first battle, he never would have lasted that long. That's all the story you need. Why does this have so much better storytelling than the Halo TV show.
It also is lore accurate in a sense, during the period of initial contact with the Convenant on Harvest a Human trooper was lucky to survive combat with Brutes even if there was only a team of Brutes vs a Platoon of UNSC Troopers because of the sheer amount of firepower it took to put down just one of them.
Lets not forget the similarities in the funeral scene at the beginning 4:00 and the end 17:57 . same central tower, Round high walls to show a confined safe space, torches/flames scattered all over the ground, same procession happening on the right of the shot, and how it shows the effects and progression of the war, from being able to hold a proper funeral procession to one that is held hastily while all soldiers still doing the job they have to, but in different times and situations.
I think you nailed it with how this feels like a real military advert. ODST has an incredibly hardcore following among Halo fans and a huge part of the why it's loved is that it's about normal soldiers rather than the big augmented superheroes that the Spartans are. It makes it feel so much more real. I think you'll like the game, it has an incredible style and soundtrack that is so different in tone from the rest of the series. The sax just hits different
What’s also interesting is its following in real life too. If you look at modern day units and soldiers, you can occasionally find them bearing both UNSC and ODST patches - especially amongst the para regiments. And in many ways, I’ve definitely heard of guys who have joined the military and the paratroopers due to not just this advert but the Halo ODST’s and their stories in general. Its something you probably will never see again for a long time - tho potentially Helldivers 2 may actually be doing that now - but being such a major inspirational game and universe that it actually inspires real world people to sign up and serve their nations in hope of defending what they have.
I see a lot of veterans talk online about halo being a huge reason why they signed up, and couch coop getting them through tough times while they were deployed. Id bet you can see a spike in recruitment when halo 3 dropped 😆
15:40 there is a saying in the miliary, particularly in special operations, "You would be wise to fear the old man in a profession where good men die young." speaks to Tarkov and his skills as a soldier, just that he's survived this long.
This is what The Tv-show should have been somewhat like , Mix Band of brothers with intergalactic space opera. Never understood why ppl dislike bagpipes, love them beautiful instruments
We should be watching a halo series were we see the action but ultimately know the end atleast for the true fans id would like to have that same feeling this commercial has.theres no other way you should be feeling sad, somber , but knowing there sacrifices werent in vain and they didnt go quietly into the night.
Part of the reason that it is so believable in respects isn't JUST the cinematography, but the fact that the burial ceremony is pulled right from military tradition. Flag over coffin, the four pallbearers taking the flag to start it's folding, the hand off. The commands for the 21 gun salute. The military precision in which it is so directly portrayed with as well. And that extends to the way that the rest of commercial is shown. It's grounded in reality for the training, the battlefield burial following aspects of the full honors as best they can be during a lull in the fighting. Body recovery during the war (For those that know a bit about the lore) being very difficult due to the way that ground battles are carried out and military being last off the ground as time runs out for the naval ships to stay safely in system and pick up personnel, and equipment where it can. ODST do also have the highest casualty rate by percentage, due to being a select (And entirely volunteer) and special forces type 'branch' of the Marines. Also the young man we see at the end is not our character in ODST. We are a faceless, voiceless rookie ODST. And another reason for the "Harsh" grounding of the ODST promotional campaign is that you aren't the invincible Master Chief or a super soldier of any kind. You're just a guy with a higher level of training and better armor than the marines you deploy with, be it before, during or after the opening phases of combat. Generally speaking ODST were also not hot dropped into highly hostile areas to allow for deployment, squad linkup, and limiting ground based casualties beyond bad drops or pod deceleration failures.
This commercial and the Halo: Reach one work together in perfect unison; both show what the characters are and what separates them from each other. Spartans are emotionally numb, we barely seen them with their helmets off because at their core they are spartans, their eyes and face are their helmet. ODST’s have emotion, they have trauma and it effects them. ODST’s have funerals, we see their faces, we see their emotions, ect. It really cements the difference between and the uniqueness of Spartans and ODST’s with two trailers.
The ceremony, training and battle scene were all shot in the same location. Ceremony being in a retired Soviet nuclear funnel, training outside and battle in a quarry in the same location.
This is the kind of shit we could have had for the Halo TV series. We could have had so much more, but instead we got Master Cheeks and Great Value Walmart Covenant.
It's also worth noting how in the last scene you can see how battleworn the armor of the guy we've been following is, signifying his experience, vs. the prestine armor of the new guy who is most likely on his first drop.
The audio as well is underrated in this commercial! As soon as it gets real, you can hear the overtone of a chilling air raid siren, which maintains throughout the part of the video with the relentless war drums. The air raid siren coincides its tone with the recruit's drop as he makes landfall and everything, it lends so well to that subconscious, "holy crap, this is serious, impending danger." Spectacular. Some of the best videogame commercials in all of history in my opinion were done for Halo during this era. I think this, and the Believe campaign for Halo 3 were the best of them. Love your content, as someone who works on film myself (Not what you do, mind you. Just a digital animator!), I love to hear your insight into these cinematics and ads.
Thank you so much for watching fella and it's awesome to hear you're in the industry as well. 💪🏻To be honest as I said in the video, this is probably my favourite ad that I've seen in years and I watch a lot.
To me, the scene that _makes_ this is right at the end. When the veteran Tarkov puts on the helmet, and the New Blood puts on his, and they become the same. Silver visor, ODSTs, Helljumpers.
ODST I thought was such a great move by bungie. We've been playing as Master Chief this whole time, a spartan II, it really gave you that fantasy of being an OP soldier. But now, as an ODST, you're more fragile, it really makes you feel more grounded in reality in the Halo universe as a "normal" person. Chief can solo a chieftain while it took a squad of 4 odsts to do the same
And this is why as an Xbox kid for so long, having just got a pc, we need helldivers 2 on Xbox, we’ve got a generation of helljumpers trained against the covenant
One thing I noticed was when, at the starting funeral scene, the lead character’s face lit up when he looked upwards. To me that shows he was inspired evermore to enlist and fight
I love how we don't see the brute just standing there waiting, we see him only when the protagonist is attacked. He's fully tunnel visioned in the chaos (which they get your mind accustomed to for that ~10 seconds) and the viewer is transported into his mental state masterfully.
I remember when I was at a sports bar with my dad and his friends when I was younger this came on the TV and the entire bar got a lot quieter when it started with the bagpipe funeral music. Everyone was watching the entire first half with rapt attention. Some people knew it was for a video game, but a lot didn't. At the end of the commercial everyone was talking about it. It was definitely the best commercial for that entire year and it is still one of my favorite commercials ever.
At the time i just turned 11 and i was surprised that this was not a recruitment AD this commercial so real and realistic. No I am a 25 year old disabled Vet. The feelings and atmosphere are very real. It does give off a sadness a form of sacrifice and that he wont be seen or heard from again. Funerals really do suck one minute your talking shit and having a great time with the boys and before you know it. You will never recreate the late Friday night BBQ outside of the barracks anymore. The main protagonist as a kid he does it inspires him to do more. That drive and devotion will shape his personality. You expect the training to be hard and will push you to your breaking point. To you failure or quitting is not a option. Once he has his first drop, he uses his survival instincts and makes smart decision and remembers his training. Once he becomes a seasoned Veteran, he is a leaders in. charge of men who were his age and equally inspired when he first started. He now takes a role that inspires him to bring those under him alive and that the death of his father is swing full circle and understands. These scenes are a really law and very accurate, yes there different but human expression is a universal language. I love this commercial so much because it compiles my memory's into it and i re-experience moment that i will never forget. Who ever directed this has to be a Veteran him self, if not then they used actual Hungarian service members.
I know it's not in the reaction, but the song that plays is in Welsh. the words are; Gafflwn Dihenydd O'r Fuddugol wiriol sydd Ni fydd neb yn ein drechu Falch ydy ni i drochu Draed o'r flaen i'r Annwn Mewn y gwybodaeth fe godwn ni. Translation: We cheat death From his rightful victory No one can overcome us We are glad to plunge Feet first into Annwn (the otherworld/afterlife in Welsh Mythology) In the knowledge we will rise.
@@Runedragonx Fun trivia about the song in the first trailer, it was NEVER released as a song on soundtrack. But after 8 years Gareth Williams a composer for the ODST trailer song, worked on Guy Richie film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword 2017 The same song was used in the movie and we finally got it in official release on the movies soundtrack
So glad you reacted to it! this commercial is probably the top reason I managed to grasp the right idea and "seriousness" of halo as a whole, and felt very emotional and enjoyed playing it so much
The new character at the end conveys so much with very subtle looks. He starts looking like he is struggling to accept what's in front of him, almost going to a distant stare, to looking briefly at his commanding officer as if for guidance, only to have some distance explosion bring him back to a focus on what must be done in the now. The atmosphere this commercial brings is incredible. Really brings back memories of the hope I had for the halo TV show back in the day
Fun Fact: The Politics and the Life, the song in this was very memorable but almost impossible to find until it was used in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. Where now it’s easily accessible on Spotify. I remember freaking out the first time I saw that movie and heard the song again.
Maybe the person at the start was a friend or a cousin. You cannot give enough praise for the old Halo advertisements. The quality of these, in my opinion, surpasses even the Halo tv series. Why can't we have the same intensity in the series as we had in this ad? This proves you do not need spoken dialogue when your characters can tell it with their emotions. You could so understand what the characters were thinking and "saying" to each other. Thank you for reacting to this. Please react to the other live action ads, for example to Reach.
You're absolutely right on thinking that ODSTs tend to not live very long. In the story, most of them don't end up surviving their first combat drops. So seeing the main character aging up between cuts tells a story about the character themselves and their skills and ability to survive. The saying "fear an old man in a profession where men die young" comes to mind.
The ODST commercial went so fucking hard. The song is a Welsh war song called Light Of Aiden which roughly translates to "We cheat death of its rightful victory. Gladly we take the plunge, feet first into hell With the knowledge that we shall rise again."
It does remind me more of the 'Join the Canadian Forces' commercials than a game advertisement. Hell, it could pass for an actual commercial in the Halo universe, even, playing on the shared trauma of the Covenant. I forget the language the characters are speaking (Polish?) but they could be shouting gibberish, and it wouldn't even matter. Tarkov's entire character arc is so clear, and so well executed it transcends language. I also did serve with the CF, and I think it captures the vibes as well as anyone possibly could with only about 2 minutes' time. The #1 word I'd describe combat with is 'confusion' and it's what we try and train for. More often than not, you will not see the enemy, you will not know what's going on, you won't even know where all your friends are at any given moment, only for things to quiet down and become almost boring for hours at a time - and you have no idea when something will come out of nowhere and shatter that calm all over again. This is that, bite-sized, and it's perfect. Between this and the Halo 3 'Believe' campaign there's clearly some folks who used to work in Bungie marketing or for them who really knew what they were doing. I hope they're all doing well, since we haven't really seen ad campaigns on this level out of Bungie or 343 since, which is a terrible shame. That aside, (and a re-post from last vid that got burried lol); I maintain my hope that some of The Parry God's Half-Life animated shorts will find their way on here one day (previously suggested; I worked on 3 of them with him). But... I've also recently come across some others that I can't help but mention, a pair of space animations (though both channels have more); -【SAVAGES】A near future space war series A trailer for an ongoing animated series being released piecemeal by YTer REAL FR0S7. A hard sci-fi space warfare set, with individual scenes from upwards of a dozen different episodes - some have released, and most are still pending. Heavily inspired by a niche (and very in-depth) game called Children of a Dead Earth, with major vibes from The Expanse in it as well. Some of the other episodes that are up are much more of a slow burn, but from the shots in the trailer not associated with shorts yet, it feels like the series is only just beginning. - ONE REVOLUTION PER MINUTE - a short film by Erik Wernquist Is the first animated short I've seen which, based entirely on the visuals, I actually started to tear up. It's just so stunningly beautiful, I'd consider it a moving work of art that belongs in a gallery. It's all from the perspective of a passenger aboard a cruise liner-like ship using artificial spin-gravity to keep its passengers comfortable, and is on what seems to be a multi-year long journey... And it's just... So engrossing I found myself forgetting it was animated more than once.
@@Runedragonx Right, Hungarian, yes that was it, just a bit off lol. I remember spending forever looking for the trailer music, since it wasn't released with the official soundtrack. Only a couple years ago did I find the original writer Peter Freeman, and his upload of the trailer where he explains his process in /watch?v=vCpGjB6IExE "In 2009 I was approached by Humanworld LLC. to write a song for the trailer of the new game that was to be introduced in September of that year. They wanted an "Obscure" language and Welsh seemed to be what they were looking for. We used the tune from a contemporary Welsh song called "Lament" by the singer-songwriting group "Light of Aiden" gave it a more martial beat and I provided the words based on the Halo mythos. The words are: Gafflwn Dihenydd O'r fuddugol yn wirriol sydd Ni fydd neb yn ein drechu Falch ydy ni i drochu Traed o flaen i'r Annwn Mewn y gwybodaeth Fe godwn ni. We cheat death from his right as the victor. None can defeat us, we are proud to jump feet first into Annwn in the knowledge that we will rise. "Annwn" is the Welsh otherworld where all must go at death. Only to rise again to a new life." The music just on its own: watch?v=qD3gWhl66Ng
"Hell it could pass for an actual commercial in the Halo universe" I believe that was actually what they were going for. One of the commercials from the "Believe" campaign for Halo 3 was an in universe museum/memorial for the diorama used in the main "Believe" commercial.
I really love all the details in the armor too, especially the helmets. You can tell our main guy is a veteran by all the scratches covering his helmet, while the news guy's helmet is still shiny and new. It actually reminds me of the clones from the clone wars animated show, all the new clones had clean white armor, and all the old hands had scarring and painted decals among other customizations.
This halo trailer effected me so much when I was younger I enlisted for a short while (never went in) but I literally attribute that part of my life to this halo advertisement
ODST's were sent on nothing but suicide missions. They were trained to be prepared to die at any moment, it was almost guaranteed that they would die. And that is greatly reflected throughout this commercial. THIS is what the Halo TV Show should be, this level of cinematography and story telling. But I can only hope.
I think the brute scene is perfect it shows the chaos and randomness of a full fledge battle, reminds me of the battle of Fallujah reports from 2007. Also "Only Death Stops Them" is an ODST mantra, which really shows their intensity because they were before the spartan program in the lore.
This is one of my favourites! I remember when I first got into Halo I fell in love with it. I played halo 2 few times on a rented Xbox and got my first 360 and halo 3 in grade 10! I never really thought much past the game until I read a few of the books and something I noted was how gritty it was described as. I remember coming from call of duty world at war and how that was a very dark gritty looking game in comparison to the older titles. So picturing that over what I would read in the books always made me crave some of that in the games. This trailer at the end where they are standing around the hand made memorial they are so battered and battle damaged. Everything is so warn and used it scratches that itch I’ve always wanted to see!
With the youngster at the end. The lighting picks out his eyes. They arent sad or depressed. He's wide eyed. The thousand yard stare. And when Tarkov stands he snaps out of it but remains wide eyed. It just feels real
I love in the ending scene, all their armor is shot to shit, their flag is tattered, they’ve lost brothers. And they still put their helmets on and continue the fight.
I think my favorite part of story telling in this commercial was the gradual shift in the main ODSTs attitude. He was jumpy, inspired, anxious, fearful, older then seasoned. The next ODST had that same fear, anxiousness, and jumped, it was another cycle, and it made me think hed be the next grizzled veteran overlocking the next squad.
As others pointed out, the soldiers in the video talk Hungarian, and at least parts of the video was shot here in Hungary. If I remember correctly the drill sergeant was an actual special forces instructor. What also makes this special to me is that one of my old favourite Hungarian metal bands shot one of their videos at the same location as the funeral at the start - I was full on "wait a minute, I've seen this place before".
I saw this commercial when it first came out and to this day it still blows my mind. I still can't believe one of my favorite pieces of live action media is a commercial.
The thing i love about this and the 3 - ODST - Reach era trailers were they really put you in the shoes of the main character. Halo 3 has Master Chief slamming a bubble shield to tank some Wraith fire then sprinting into impossible odds. Reach has Kat and 6 going on a suicide mission in an attempt to gain just a fraction of a victory. ODST, you're a grunt getting thrusted into a situation you can't even begin to understand but you know just enough to survive. The marketing teams behind these were absolutely brilliant and i haven't seen anything like these since.
I want you to know I've been following you for a while brother and this one threw me back to my youth harder than anything else I've watched from you. Thanks for giving me those golden memories I didn't expect to have today.
Thank you so much for being here fella, it really means the world to me that you want to spend your time with me. I'm glad I hit those memories for you too.
Those instructors were all Hungarian Special Forces instructors if im not mistaken, leads to some amazing acting as they are effectively just doing their job
Notice also that in the shot of the ODST's by the firelight (near the end of the commercial) the fire spots around them mimic the torches from the funeral scene in the beginning.
This ad was more than just an ad. It's legitimately cinema, in its purest form. It fully transcended its intended purpose and delivered a masterfully told, gut-punching story entirely with visuals, editing, and haunting music. All within 3 minutes.
It’s cool what was done with the ODST flags as well. In the beginning a somber moment while the flag is out and when it’s put away, we get thrown into bootcamp. In the end, they are again remembering a fallen soldier, when he puts the flag away, its helmets on and let get back to work.
The moment that cements it all is when they look at each other at the end, put their helmets on, and move out. That professionalism and grit and strength and composure---that's what really makes the moment powerful and tells us exactly what caliber of people become ODSTs.
I love this video, the hole time your playing it and pause to break it down, the song is playing in my head. I really like how you went through this and helped me appreciate it more.
The Halo 3 Landfall commercial and this one for ODST are probably my favorite bits of live action I've ever seen. They're entirely what fans of the series needed, a true boots on the ground emotional ride. That's why they hold up so well today, because they were made for art's sake but just happened to be ads.
This trailer made my spine tingle when I was younger. I really miss that golden age of AAA gaming when you could tell that developers actually loved what they were creating and didn't get all the joy ground out of them by executives/stakeholders
Wonderful been asking you to review this one for a while now, still one of the best live action trailers ever made for any game to ever exist of all times simply remarkable work on this one.
the whole trailer was filmed in and around a power station with the start being in the cooling tower. the coffin was labelled K Stark in the lore he was the main man's uncle.
A couple fun facts for you: the opening funeral scene was shot inside an active nuclear power plant's cooling tower. It was directed by Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Ghost in the Shell (2017)). They filmed the whole thing over three days.
I've seen this trailer so much, that I didn't mind the music and audio being cut out, I could just hear it in my own head. Really phenomenal trailer this one is.
One of the greatest ads of all time. I read a comment on the original video that said a guy was in a bar when this ad came on the tv and the ENTIRE bar went silent watching this.
I saw this when I was 12 and it not only hyped me up for the game, but it was one if the things that sparked an interest in US military service, and being that my family were all vets, it definitely helped get me there. That was about the time I was consuming more and more military media, and now that I have served, I have to say they got everything right. Perhaps most accurately was the feeling of losing one of your people. I've lost several and that is always the most somber feeling. Especially when the man performing the cermony looks at our protagonist Tarkov for a moment, seemingly with guilt, and that is too real. When you lose a guy, seeing the family in their time of loss really makes you wonder if it was all worth it and if something could have been done differently to prevent it.
So years ago, I showed this to a friend who was a vietnam vet, and he loved the part when the guys throw there heltmets on, he said the smooth way they just slid on and jumped into action reminded him of his time. The old vets would slap on there heltmets, no fussing, but bam, on and in the right spot everytime whole newer guys would figdet and fuss with them. It is a subtle detail, but a big nood to thoese who know.
as someone who loves getting understanding and learning about crafts and talents that I may not pursue, i love getting to look forward to your videos and the breakdowns. been watching for a while and although i may not comment much there are many like me that really do enjoy what you're putting out and we look forward to seeing more every time! so keep it up Kai, hopefully someday i'll be able to support ya so I can enjoy the videos you haven't put out here as well
This is easily one of if not the best commercial for a game I have ever seen and I will never forget this game because of this, and the beautiful vocals and song. Thanks for the video on it, great stuff.
Brilliant. This two minute and thirty second trailer hit my emotions harder than most two-hour movies. The characters are so humanized-familiar. Good job to the makers. The sound was off when you started this vid, I could still hear the song. Your video brake down of why the trailer works is great, I really enjoyed it. On the bounce trooper.
I muted it due to copyright. They had it in King Arthur I believe so it's licensed out. Thank you for watching and I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the breakdown. KZ
So I'm pretty sure they used Hungarian actors (and the language) and then Welsh in the backing track lyrics just to help make it feel so.... other, so completely hard to focus on any one thing. I think the director or someone who worked on this said as much but god it works. I'm pretty sure they were chosen because they sound similar to english/romantic/germanic languages but are still completely different and impossible for anyone not close to familiar to even pin down. Oh also! The amazing backing track was featured in the Guy Ritchie King Arthur movie, and has some interesting backstory itself if you delve a little.
Omg I had totally forgot about this one. Might I just say I check youtube every day now looking for you next video. You are really good at what you do and it is reflected at me. When watching this trailer it all came back to. I am ver surprised because I am thinking and feeling everything and then you are saying it yourself. Your right this is the most powerful trailer that halo has ever done. Your so right this trailer takes you full circle, but it also shows you the cycle that the odst have. Also the sgt that is in charge of the 21 gun salute. The first couple of times he is looking at the soldiers and then the last one he breaks the 4th wall looking at the viewer and what is also ment to be the boy and with one look he confirms to the kid that they want him. If he wasn't inspired enough with that one look the confirms that this will be his path. Just raw power and you highlight all tho points in this trailer so well. Next video please. I'm hooked man. 😊
The thing thats also important in my opinion, is that black is the traditional color for a funeral. When they put the black helmet on and the black visor comes down, it gives the ongoing theme of decent into darkness. The black consumes the light in the eyes, the brightest part of his face, like a vail. The vail is not just to conceal the face, but not your view. From the outside looking in you see darkness, and from the inside looking out you have the figurative darkness. It feels like a plunge in a dark cave into cold water.
A big reason that this commercial hits so hard for me is because a close tragedy inspires the main character of the commercial to become an ODST. I'm Canadian and the 2014 parliament hill shooting was for me, the final inspiration that caused me, and many others I joined with, to sign up with the Canadian army. So in terms of storytelling within the commercial, the story of the main character is something that many people can either relate to because they could see themselves doing something similar, or they actually did something lifechanging because of a tragedy that they felt close to their heart.
I will say this until the end of time: the Halo show would have been AMAZING as a Band of Brothers style series following an ODST unit through all 30 years of the war against the Covenant. It wouldn't have needed to tell a story with the Forerunners or anything else in the overarching Halo story, just a simple series showing how brutal the war actually is compared to what is shown in the games. Also another series to look into doing reactions could be the Gears of War trailers, because honestly I forget most of them and it would be cool to see them again in this context.
love the trial by fire, fresh outta bootcamp, shiny new armor and at the end, he’s the vet with the battleworn armor while leading the new “shiny” through the gauntlet.
Fun trivia about the song in the first trailer, it was NEVER released as a song on soundtrack. But after 8 years Gareth Williams a composer for the ODST trailer song, worked on Guy Richie film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword 2017 The same song was used in the movie and we finally got it in official release on the movies soundtrack
Yeah this really was a great trailer that got everyone hyped for the game. Also feel like I should mention that fans were asking for the song that plays for YEARS but just never got it for some reason.....until it was released years later as part of the OST for a King Arthur movie! Even now if you go to the song here on TH-cam, all of the top comments are still about ODST and not the movie 🤣
There is more storytelling in this 2 1/2 min commercial than the entirety of the halo tv show. This is seriously probably the single best live action commercial for a videogame ever made.
In regards to that ending scene, I think we can feel that because as you said, it's full circle. Just as we felt the boy's emotions in the funeral at the beginning, we can feel this young soldier's emotions here. Which, I get the impression that he is a not-yet hardened rookie, who just did a lot of growing up in that little bit of time.
Fun Facts: They got Hungarian special forces to play the drill instructors The beginning funeral was filmed in an active nuclear cooling tower The large battle was filmed in a quarry
ODST is my favorite game in the Halo franchise, and one of my favorite games of all time. Many early Halo commercials have a sad or somber feel to them, but this one just nails the particular somberness that comes from being a regular human in the war with the Covenant. No power armor, no cutting edge gene enhancement, you are not going to save the world. ODST is grounded, lonely, and at times borders on hopeless, and its a near perfect piece of combat scifi story telling.
Fun Fact: the music track they used for this commercial was also used years later in the movie, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. The track is called: The Politics & The Life.
![กิโลเมตรที่ 0 เดินทางรอบโลกไม่ใช้เครื่องบิน [Around The World Ep. 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/toJG9oofLFY/mqdefault.jpg)
It's so sad that a commercial could get the Halo feel so much better then the TV show. Between this and the Halo Reach live action it really shows how far live action has fallen for (oddly enough) Xbox IPs only.
we're Xbox IPs the only ones who did live action vids?? not including the old parody Warzone vids ... I think a lot has to do with PASSION for the PROJECT and just look treating it like another title like most games! Gears of war never had a live action trailer but my god did they capture emotion better than anyone on their trailers (mad world GOW 1)
@@leanwithdean True the GoW trilogy trailers were very good. My point was more about how all (pre Fallout TV show) the Xbox live action stuff recently has been a flop when compared to Sony (TLOU) and Nintendo (Detective Pikachu) projects and it's sad because years before they made some really good live action things.
I really think the problem lies with people who don't respect the material are somehow making it to the head of the teams that are producing media for a franchise.
They are using the chance to make a movie with a high-budget because of the IP to tell their own stories where that IP is an obstacle to work around. They have no respect or love for the source material so they don't understand the rules and constraints of an established IP, you end up with shit like that Halo show or the Star Wars sequels. They start taking shortcuts that damage the original IP in ways they don't understand or care for. Even that new Avatar show is a good example of this.
ODST and its commerical are great because the nerds who loved Halo were involved with making the game and the ad.
The Master Cheeks show is horrible because they have people who have no interest in Halo involved in writing it. They think race swapping Keyes and erasing his entire legacy from Halo 1 is somehow a good change because "Alternate timeline" as if that means anything. That's the lazy man's way out of understanding a franchise and writing well for it.
Nerds used to make all the cool shit because they are passionate about their ideas. Look at Helldivers 2, even as just a game it's doing really well because the gameplay is focused and solid. The devs in charge are gamers, some with military experience, making a game about being a Commando behind enemy lines.
It works perfectly because they love what they are working on.
@@Gibblets411 That's a good description. It's what happened to the MCU and when the TV shows was first announced and they had to say multiple times this wasn't the Halo games timeline this was the "Silver Timeline" it was a massive red flag. I think the actress from Madam Webb said it best, a lot of entertainment nowadays aren't made with 1 persons vision leading they are made by committee. Halo TV show definitely feels like that and the little improvement S2 has made over S1 still leaves a massive amount to be desired.
@@gorgan4714
> the "Silver Timeline" it was a massive red flag
It's pretty much an admission of disinterest in the source material: "We can't tell our story within those rules so you'll have to forgive our lazy changes".
They had to course correct a bit to make sure they didn't entirely lose the Halo fans that do watch it.
Yet so much is still blatantly wrong.
What i like most about this is that they speak hungarian, the native language of Reach
I love the idea that different countries got different planets
this song is in welsh
oh the actual speaking of the instructor my bad
@@North862it wasn’t that they got difficult planets, but that certain cultures grouped together on certain planets once they became more governed/hospitable/accessible, especially when said planet resembled their ancestral homelands on Earth. Like you pointed out here for that reason Reach had a massive population of Hungarian speakers, Sansar was a planet that predominantly had those from a Nordic descent, Gao was predominantly Latin, and Meridian a lot of French speakers are the others I remember that had that same Diaspora effect. The UEG and by extension the CMA were the governing bodies of Human space, countries as they’re known today ceased to exist 300 years before the games take place
So cool, never knew that
That marketing for halo back in the day was so good…
God tier
Marketing was better than an entire show
Sure was was good times.
God tier marketing for god tier games.
Too bad there was zero follow-through.
Also the instructors (And the funeral soldiers) look so believable because they're real military instructors
Yep. Hungarian special forces I read somewhere before
@@Quattro_Joe which fits double, because in Halo Reach you see that many of the residents of Reach spoke Hungarian, Including Jorge
@@samhutchison9582not just that, but this specific battalion of ODSTs in the commercial were made up of predominantly Hungarian descended individuals from Reach
Thats cool I never knew that
@@TheScientificBackpac I've always loved how one of them is named Tarkov lol
even with the sound removed i could still hear that song in my head. This trailer is cemented in my brain forever
The song is called "The Politics & The Life" by Daniel Pemberton in case you were wondering.
@@preach6991 it's actually called Lament by light of aiden and is sung in Welsh. Pemberton copied it for king arthur
Also why I got copyright striked on the first upload 😑. Thank you for watching fellas!
@@tobiasneethling8871 the Pemberton version is the one used in the trailer.
@@preach6991 that's impossible given how time works. Pemberton reused the song from the trailer
God I miss this era of Halo. You truly dont know how great you have it until it's gone.
No one tells you when it's the Golden Age
Now you know exactly what a WoW player means when they say they missed Classic era. Lol
Yep but be happy you were born at the right time so you have these awesome memories
just like Reach, we will always remember it.
@@lukekunka317 Those were some good times.
The fact that people get more involved and connect with a 2 minute long advertisement as apposed to a multi-season show tells me a lot. ODST is the goat
I agree!
Would love to see you look at the Halo 3 "Believe" ad campaign. They did a series of live action "interviews" with vets of the Covenant war and their stories about the Chief. It's fantastic
Yes.
I have already but it's a Patreon exclusive. It was a personal request, uploaded it a month ago maybe? I found it very moving tbh. Thank you for watching this video! 🙏🏻
@@kaizammit awesome!
@@kaizammitbest way to convince me to join ... because I just did.
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for joining! ODST is also on there plus more exclusives. ODST is a early access. Much love man 🙏🏻
I actually like the fact that the Hero didn't actually kill the Brute. He survived by sheer luck. And that's the staple of the ODST's.
And he went on to become a hardened veteran.
Only the best last that long. And without that moment of luck in his first battle, he never would have lasted that long. That's all the story you need.
Why does this have so much better storytelling than the Halo TV show.
Because you can relate to it, the way it's shot to just the silence of the character. Masterclass tbh.
Fear the old man in a young man's game.
@@Practitioner_of_Diogenes "Fear the old in a profession where men die young."
Is another way I've heard it and it rings soo true
It also is lore accurate in a sense, during the period of initial contact with the Convenant on Harvest a Human trooper was lucky to survive combat with Brutes even if there was only a team of Brutes vs a Platoon of UNSC Troopers because of the sheer amount of firepower it took to put down just one of them.
Lets not forget the similarities in the funeral scene at the beginning 4:00 and the end 17:57 . same central tower, Round high walls to show a confined safe space, torches/flames scattered all over the ground, same procession happening on the right of the shot, and how it shows the effects and progression of the war, from being able to hold a proper funeral procession to one that is held hastily while all soldiers still doing the job they have to, but in different times and situations.
I think you nailed it with how this feels like a real military advert. ODST has an incredibly hardcore following among Halo fans and a huge part of the why it's loved is that it's about normal soldiers rather than the big augmented superheroes that the Spartans are. It makes it feel so much more real.
I think you'll like the game, it has an incredible style and soundtrack that is so different in tone from the rest of the series. The sax just hits different
What’s also interesting is its following in real life too. If you look at modern day units and soldiers, you can occasionally find them bearing both UNSC and ODST patches - especially amongst the para regiments.
And in many ways, I’ve definitely heard of guys who have joined the military and the paratroopers due to not just this advert but the Halo ODST’s and their stories in general.
Its something you probably will never see again for a long time - tho potentially Helldivers 2 may actually be doing that now - but being such a major inspirational game and universe that it actually inspires real world people to sign up and serve their nations in hope of defending what they have.
@@reecedignan8365 its definitely become a cultural phenomenon
I see a lot of veterans talk online about halo being a huge reason why they signed up, and couch coop getting them through tough times while they were deployed. Id bet you can see a spike in recruitment when halo 3 dropped 😆
15:40 there is a saying in the miliary, particularly in special operations, "You would be wise to fear the old man in a profession where good men die young." speaks to Tarkov and his skills as a soldier, just that he's survived this long.
This is what The Tv-show should have been somewhat like , Mix Band of brothers with intergalactic space opera. Never understood why ppl dislike bagpipes, love them beautiful instruments
We should be watching a halo series were we see the action but ultimately know the end atleast for the true fans id would like to have that same feeling this commercial has.theres no other way you should be feeling sad, somber , but knowing there sacrifices werent in vain and they didnt go quietly into the night.
Part of the reason that it is so believable in respects isn't JUST the cinematography, but the fact that the burial ceremony is pulled right from military tradition. Flag over coffin, the four pallbearers taking the flag to start it's folding, the hand off. The commands for the 21 gun salute. The military precision in which it is so directly portrayed with as well. And that extends to the way that the rest of commercial is shown. It's grounded in reality for the training, the battlefield burial following aspects of the full honors as best they can be during a lull in the fighting. Body recovery during the war (For those that know a bit about the lore) being very difficult due to the way that ground battles are carried out and military being last off the ground as time runs out for the naval ships to stay safely in system and pick up personnel, and equipment where it can.
ODST do also have the highest casualty rate by percentage, due to being a select (And entirely volunteer) and special forces type 'branch' of the Marines. Also the young man we see at the end is not our character in ODST. We are a faceless, voiceless rookie ODST. And another reason for the "Harsh" grounding of the ODST promotional campaign is that you aren't the invincible Master Chief or a super soldier of any kind. You're just a guy with a higher level of training and better armor than the marines you deploy with, be it before, during or after the opening phases of combat. Generally speaking ODST were also not hot dropped into highly hostile areas to allow for deployment, squad linkup, and limiting ground based casualties beyond bad drops or pod deceleration failures.
This commercial and the Halo: Reach one work together in perfect unison; both show what the characters are and what separates them from each other. Spartans are emotionally numb, we barely seen them with their helmets off because at their core they are spartans, their eyes and face are their helmet. ODST’s have emotion, they have trauma and it effects them. ODST’s have funerals, we see their faces, we see their emotions, ect. It really cements the difference between and the uniqueness of Spartans and ODST’s with two trailers.
The ceremony, training and battle scene were all shot in the same location. Ceremony being in a retired Soviet nuclear funnel, training outside and battle in a quarry in the same location.
This is the kind of shit we could have had for the Halo TV series. We could have had so much more, but instead we got Master Cheeks and Great Value Walmart Covenant.
It's also worth noting how in the last scene you can see how battleworn the armor of the guy we've been following is, signifying his experience, vs. the prestine armor of the new guy who is most likely on his first drop.
The audio as well is underrated in this commercial! As soon as it gets real, you can hear the overtone of a chilling air raid siren, which maintains throughout the part of the video with the relentless war drums. The air raid siren coincides its tone with the recruit's drop as he makes landfall and everything, it lends so well to that subconscious, "holy crap, this is serious, impending danger."
Spectacular. Some of the best videogame commercials in all of history in my opinion were done for Halo during this era. I think this, and the Believe campaign for Halo 3 were the best of them.
Love your content, as someone who works on film myself (Not what you do, mind you. Just a digital animator!), I love to hear your insight into these cinematics and ads.
Thank you so much for watching fella and it's awesome to hear you're in the industry as well. 💪🏻To be honest as I said in the video, this is probably my favourite ad that I've seen in years and I watch a lot.
To me, the scene that _makes_ this is right at the end. When the veteran Tarkov puts on the helmet, and the New Blood puts on his, and they become the same. Silver visor, ODSTs, Helljumpers.
ODST I thought was such a great move by bungie. We've been playing as Master Chief this whole time, a spartan II, it really gave you that fantasy of being an OP soldier. But now, as an ODST, you're more fragile, it really makes you feel more grounded in reality in the Halo universe as a "normal" person. Chief can solo a chieftain while it took a squad of 4 odsts to do the same
ODSTs have stronger armour than halo 2 chief for legendary lol
And this is why as an Xbox kid for so long, having just got a pc, we need helldivers 2 on Xbox, we’ve got a generation of helljumpers trained against the covenant
Bro I'm foaming at the mouth ready to get it on Xbox to help!!!!
One thing I noticed was when, at the starting funeral scene, the lead character’s face lit up when he looked upwards. To me that shows he was inspired evermore to enlist and fight
I love this trailer. The soldiers speaking Hungarian with the Welsh music about plunging feet first into the otherworld is just perfect imo.
I love how we don't see the brute just standing there waiting, we see him only when the protagonist is attacked. He's fully tunnel visioned in the chaos (which they get your mind accustomed to for that ~10 seconds) and the viewer is transported into his mental state masterfully.
I remember when I was at a sports bar with my dad and his friends when I was younger this came on the TV and the entire bar got a lot quieter when it started with the bagpipe funeral music. Everyone was watching the entire first half with rapt attention. Some people knew it was for a video game, but a lot didn't. At the end of the commercial everyone was talking about it. It was definitely the best commercial for that entire year and it is still one of my favorite commercials ever.
At the time i just turned 11 and i was surprised that this was not a recruitment AD this commercial so real and realistic. No I am a 25 year old disabled Vet. The feelings and atmosphere are very real. It does give off a sadness a form of sacrifice and that he wont be seen or heard from again. Funerals really do suck one minute your talking shit and having a great time with the boys and before you know it. You will never recreate the late Friday night BBQ outside of the barracks anymore. The main protagonist as a kid he does it inspires him to do more. That drive and devotion will shape his personality. You expect the training to be hard and will push you to your breaking point. To you failure or quitting is not a option. Once he has his first drop, he uses his survival instincts and makes smart decision and remembers his training. Once he becomes a seasoned Veteran, he is a leaders in. charge of men who were his age and equally inspired when he first started. He now takes a role that inspires him to bring those under him alive and that the death of his father is swing full circle and understands. These scenes are a really law and very accurate, yes there different but human expression is a universal language. I love this commercial so much because it compiles my memory's into it and i re-experience moment that i will never forget. Who ever directed this has to be a Veteran him self, if not then they used actual Hungarian service members.
I know it's not in the reaction, but the song that plays is in Welsh. the words are;
Gafflwn Dihenydd
O'r Fuddugol wiriol sydd
Ni fydd neb yn ein drechu
Falch ydy ni i drochu
Draed o'r flaen i'r Annwn
Mewn y gwybodaeth fe godwn ni.
Translation:
We cheat death
From his rightful victory
No one can overcome us
We are glad to plunge
Feet first into Annwn (the otherworld/afterlife in Welsh Mythology)
In the knowledge we will rise.
'O'r Fuddugol _y-n_ wiriol sydd'
What's the name of the song though?
@@benjaminbatema6963
The Politics & The Life - Daniel Pemberton
The original rough draft of the track:
Lament - Light of Aidan
@@Runedragonx Fun trivia about the song in the first trailer, it was NEVER released as a song on soundtrack.
But after 8 years Gareth Williams a composer for the ODST trailer song, worked on Guy Richie film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword 2017
The same song was used in the movie and we finally got it in official release on the movies soundtrack
@@DuBstep115 That's how I finally found it on Spotify lol
So glad you reacted to it! this commercial is probably the top reason I managed to grasp the right idea and "seriousness" of halo as a whole, and felt very emotional and enjoyed playing it so much
The new character at the end conveys so much with very subtle looks. He starts looking like he is struggling to accept what's in front of him, almost going to a distant stare, to looking briefly at his commanding officer as if for guidance, only to have some distance explosion bring him back to a focus on what must be done in the now.
The atmosphere this commercial brings is incredible. Really brings back memories of the hope I had for the halo TV show back in the day
Fun Fact: The Politics and the Life, the song in this was very memorable but almost impossible to find until it was used in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. Where now it’s easily accessible on Spotify. I remember freaking out the first time I saw that movie and heard the song again.
“This is what the fuckin program should have been like” Exactly! This is what Halo used to be. Serious, raw, and gritty.
Maybe the person at the start was a friend or a cousin.
You cannot give enough praise for the old Halo advertisements. The quality of these, in my opinion, surpasses even the Halo tv series.
Why can't we have the same intensity in the series as we had in this ad?
This proves you do not need spoken dialogue when your characters can tell it with their emotions. You could so understand what the characters were thinking and "saying" to each other.
Thank you for reacting to this. Please react to the other live action ads, for example to Reach.
Halo's Xbox and 360 era marketing was the GOAT.
Could be a sister, uncle, etc.
@@TheHaven923 Yeah, clearly some close relative / friend.
You're absolutely right on thinking that ODSTs tend to not live very long. In the story, most of them don't end up surviving their first combat drops. So seeing the main character aging up between cuts tells a story about the character themselves and their skills and ability to survive. The saying "fear an old man in a profession where men die young" comes to mind.
A Band of Brothers style ODST mini series.
The ODST commercial went so fucking hard. The song is a Welsh war song called Light Of Aiden which roughly translates to
"We cheat death of its rightful victory.
Gladly we take the plunge, feet first into hell
With the knowledge that we shall rise again."
It does remind me more of the 'Join the Canadian Forces' commercials than a game advertisement. Hell, it could pass for an actual commercial in the Halo universe, even, playing on the shared trauma of the Covenant. I forget the language the characters are speaking (Polish?) but they could be shouting gibberish, and it wouldn't even matter. Tarkov's entire character arc is so clear, and so well executed it transcends language. I also did serve with the CF, and I think it captures the vibes as well as anyone possibly could with only about 2 minutes' time. The #1 word I'd describe combat with is 'confusion' and it's what we try and train for. More often than not, you will not see the enemy, you will not know what's going on, you won't even know where all your friends are at any given moment, only for things to quiet down and become almost boring for hours at a time - and you have no idea when something will come out of nowhere and shatter that calm all over again. This is that, bite-sized, and it's perfect.
Between this and the Halo 3 'Believe' campaign there's clearly some folks who used to work in Bungie marketing or for them who really knew what they were doing. I hope they're all doing well, since we haven't really seen ad campaigns on this level out of Bungie or 343 since, which is a terrible shame.
That aside, (and a re-post from last vid that got burried lol); I maintain my hope that some of The Parry God's Half-Life animated shorts will find their way on here one day (previously suggested; I worked on 3 of them with him). But... I've also recently come across some others that I can't help but mention, a pair of space animations (though both channels have more);
-【SAVAGES】A near future space war series
A trailer for an ongoing animated series being released piecemeal by YTer REAL FR0S7. A hard sci-fi space warfare set, with individual scenes from upwards of a dozen different episodes - some have released, and most are still pending. Heavily inspired by a niche (and very in-depth) game called Children of a Dead Earth, with major vibes from The Expanse in it as well. Some of the other episodes that are up are much more of a slow burn, but from the shots in the trailer not associated with shorts yet, it feels like the series is only just beginning.
- ONE REVOLUTION PER MINUTE - a short film by Erik Wernquist
Is the first animated short I've seen which, based entirely on the visuals, I actually started to tear up. It's just so stunningly beautiful, I'd consider it a moving work of art that belongs in a gallery. It's all from the perspective of a passenger aboard a cruise liner-like ship using artificial spin-gravity to keep its passengers comfortable, and is on what seems to be a multi-year long journey... And it's just... So engrossing I found myself forgetting it was animated more than once.
Bungie had this weird obsession with Hungarian, the song itself is Welsh
They are speaking Hungarian.
@@Runedragonx Right, Hungarian, yes that was it, just a bit off lol.
I remember spending forever looking for the trailer music, since it wasn't released with the official soundtrack. Only a couple years ago did I find the original writer Peter Freeman, and his upload of the trailer where he explains his process in /watch?v=vCpGjB6IExE
"In 2009 I was approached by Humanworld LLC. to write a song for the trailer of the new game that was to be introduced in September of that year. They wanted an "Obscure" language and Welsh seemed to be what they were looking for.
We used the tune from a contemporary Welsh song called "Lament" by the singer-songwriting group "Light of Aiden" gave it a more martial beat and I provided the words based on the Halo mythos. The words are:
Gafflwn Dihenydd
O'r fuddugol yn wirriol sydd
Ni fydd neb yn ein drechu
Falch ydy ni i drochu
Traed o flaen i'r Annwn
Mewn y gwybodaeth
Fe godwn ni.
We cheat death from his right as the victor. None can defeat us, we are proud to jump feet first into Annwn in the knowledge that we will rise.
"Annwn" is the Welsh otherworld where all must go at death. Only to rise again to a new life."
The music just on its own: watch?v=qD3gWhl66Ng
"Hell it could pass for an actual commercial in the Halo universe"
I believe that was actually what they were going for.
One of the commercials from the "Believe" campaign for Halo 3 was an in universe museum/memorial for the diorama used in the main "Believe" commercial.
@@dfcd1432 Hell yeah, Believe is a gold standard for advertising. Almost 2 decades later and I'll still re-watch them and choke up a little bit.
i still go back and watch this odst commercial every so often gives me chills every time
Glad you could review this! Shame about the audio, though
Yeah I know, it shocked me when I first uploaded it. Copyright slap right in the mush!
I would recommend you watching the Making Of "We are ODST", because it contains a deleted scene from this promo trailer.
I really love all the details in the armor too, especially the helmets. You can tell our main guy is a veteran by all the scratches covering his helmet, while the news guy's helmet is still shiny and new. It actually reminds me of the clones from the clone wars animated show, all the new clones had clean white armor, and all the old hands had scarring and painted decals among other customizations.
This halo trailer effected me so much when I was younger I enlisted for a short while (never went in) but I literally attribute that part of my life to this halo advertisement
ODST's were sent on nothing but suicide missions. They were trained to be prepared to die at any moment, it was almost guaranteed that they would die. And that is greatly reflected throughout this commercial. THIS is what the Halo TV Show should be, this level of cinematography and story telling. But I can only hope.
And this was the peak of Halo. They did such a perfect job
I think the brute scene is perfect it shows the chaos and randomness of a full fledge battle, reminds me of the battle of Fallujah reports from 2007. Also "Only Death Stops Them" is an ODST mantra, which really shows their intensity because they were before the spartan program in the lore.
This is one of my favourites! I remember when I first got into Halo I fell in love with it. I played halo 2 few times on a rented Xbox and got my first 360 and halo 3 in grade 10!
I never really thought much past the game until I read a few of the books and something I noted was how gritty it was described as. I remember coming from call of duty world at war and how that was a very dark gritty looking game in comparison to the older titles. So picturing that over what I would read in the books always made me crave some of that in the games.
This trailer at the end where they are standing around the hand made memorial they are so battered and battle damaged. Everything is so warn and used it scratches that itch I’ve always wanted to see!
“That proper rocked me.”
I can’t think of a higher praise, wow.
With the youngster at the end. The lighting picks out his eyes. They arent sad or depressed. He's wide eyed. The thousand yard stare. And when Tarkov stands he snaps out of it but remains wide eyed. It just feels real
I love in the ending scene, all their armor is shot to shit, their flag is tattered, they’ve lost brothers. And they still put their helmets on and continue the fight.
I think my favorite part of story telling in this commercial was the gradual shift in the main ODSTs attitude. He was jumpy, inspired, anxious, fearful, older then seasoned. The next ODST had that same fear, anxiousness, and jumped, it was another cycle, and it made me think hed be the next grizzled veteran overlocking the next squad.
As others pointed out, the soldiers in the video talk Hungarian, and at least parts of the video was shot here in Hungary. If I remember correctly the drill sergeant was an actual special forces instructor. What also makes this special to me is that one of my old favourite Hungarian metal bands shot one of their videos at the same location as the funeral at the start - I was full on "wait a minute, I've seen this place before".
I saw this commercial when it first came out and to this day it still blows my mind. I still can't believe one of my favorite pieces of live action media is a commercial.
The thing i love about this and the 3 - ODST - Reach era trailers were they really put you in the shoes of the main character. Halo 3 has Master Chief slamming a bubble shield to tank some Wraith fire then sprinting into impossible odds. Reach has Kat and 6 going on a suicide mission in an attempt to gain just a fraction of a victory. ODST, you're a grunt getting thrusted into a situation you can't even begin to understand but you know just enough to survive.
The marketing teams behind these were absolutely brilliant and i haven't seen anything like these since.
This commercial brings tears to my eyes because it just feels *_fucking real_*
I want you to know I've been following you for a while brother and this one threw me back to my youth harder than anything else I've watched from you. Thanks for giving me those golden memories I didn't expect to have today.
Thank you so much for being here fella, it really means the world to me that you want to spend your time with me. I'm glad I hit those memories for you too.
ODST was my first HALO game. I'm so glad it was. "Troopers! We are green, and very, very mean!"
I like how you actually break down the video piece by piece and explain how and why.
Those instructors were all Hungarian Special Forces instructors if im not mistaken, leads to some amazing acting as they are effectively just doing their job
Notice also that in the shot of the ODST's by the firelight (near the end of the commercial) the fire spots around them mimic the torches from the funeral scene in the beginning.
11:08 It shows him jumping into the unknown. Then it cuts to him dropping into a a battlefield, hence the name Hell-Jumpers.
This ad was more than just an ad. It's legitimately cinema, in its purest form. It fully transcended its intended purpose and delivered a masterfully told, gut-punching story entirely with visuals, editing, and haunting music. All within 3 minutes.
It’s cool what was done with the ODST flags as well. In the beginning a somber moment while the flag is out and when it’s put away, we get thrown into bootcamp. In the end, they are again remembering a fallen soldier, when he puts the flag away, its helmets on and let get back to work.
The moment that cements it all is when they look at each other at the end, put their helmets on, and move out. That professionalism and grit and strength and composure---that's what really makes the moment powerful and tells us exactly what caliber of people become ODSTs.
I love this video, the hole time your playing it and pause to break it down, the song is playing in my head.
I really like how you went through this and helped me appreciate it more.
The Halo 3 Landfall commercial and this one for ODST are probably my favorite bits of live action I've ever seen. They're entirely what fans of the series needed, a true boots on the ground emotional ride. That's why they hold up so well today, because they were made for art's sake but just happened to be ads.
I have been waiting for you to watch this ODST ad! and I love your reactions, I've learned so much from your break downs of your videos!
This trailer made my spine tingle when I was younger. I really miss that golden age of AAA gaming when you could tell that developers actually loved what they were creating and didn't get all the joy ground out of them by executives/stakeholders
Wonderful been asking you to review this one for a while now, still one of the best live action trailers ever made for any game to ever exist of all times simply remarkable work on this one.
the whole trailer was filmed in and around a power station with the start being in the cooling tower. the coffin was labelled K Stark in the lore he was the main man's uncle.
So happy you reacted to this I was wondering how long it would take. This is my favorite halo ad ever made
A couple fun facts for you: the opening funeral scene was shot inside an active nuclear power plant's cooling tower. It was directed by Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Ghost in the Shell (2017)). They filmed the whole thing over three days.
I absolutely love your coverage of game cinematics. Great commentary, cheeky sense of humour, and well edited to boot. 😊❤
Thank you so much for being here! It really means a lot to read your comment. I glad you're enjoying the content. 💥
This ad, the Believe ads for 3, and Remember Reach is some of the best marketing material I’ve ever seen for any video game
I've seen this trailer so much, that I didn't mind the music and audio being cut out, I could just hear it in my own head. Really phenomenal trailer this one is.
One of the greatest ads of all time. I read a comment on the original video that said a guy was in a bar when this ad came on the tv and the ENTIRE bar went silent watching this.
I bet and I wondered what they all thought when they saw the Brute?
@kaizammit probably something along the lines of "Oh Shit!"
Please, please, please, please, please, please. Please. Please. Please watch all of the Halo 3 believe trailers. You won't regret it.
KAI: I can't see jack all.... ; Me: 😶
KAI: ... but I don't mind Me: 😀
You liked that didn't you? Haha. Thank you for watching fella.
I can't understand the modern halo games without the advertisement campaigns like these. Make me want to become a odst
Ooh been looking forward to this one!
This era of Halo live-action trailers are among my favorite game trailers period.
I saw this when I was 12 and it not only hyped me up for the game, but it was one if the things that sparked an interest in US military service, and being that my family were all vets, it definitely helped get me there. That was about the time I was consuming more and more military media, and now that I have served, I have to say they got everything right. Perhaps most accurately was the feeling of losing one of your people. I've lost several and that is always the most somber feeling. Especially when the man performing the cermony looks at our protagonist Tarkov for a moment, seemingly with guilt, and that is too real. When you lose a guy, seeing the family in their time of loss really makes you wonder if it was all worth it and if something could have been done differently to prevent it.
This is by far my FAVORITE game trailer I’ve ever seen, the music, atmosphere, and the small story you get is just MINT
So years ago, I showed this to a friend who was a vietnam vet, and he loved the part when the guys throw there heltmets on, he said the smooth way they just slid on and jumped into action reminded him of his time. The old vets would slap on there heltmets, no fussing, but bam, on and in the right spot everytime whole newer guys would figdet and fuss with them. It is a subtle detail, but a big nood to thoese who know.
as someone who loves getting understanding and learning about crafts and talents that I may not pursue, i love getting to look forward to your videos and the breakdowns. been watching for a while and although i may not comment much there are many like me that really do enjoy what you're putting out and we look forward to seeing more every time! so keep it up Kai, hopefully someday i'll be able to support ya so I can enjoy the videos you haven't put out here as well
Dude! Email me please (email is in the description box), copy and paste your comment and I will respond 💪🏻.
This is easily one of if not the best commercial for a game I have ever seen and I will never forget this game because of this, and the beautiful vocals and song. Thanks for the video on it, great stuff.
Afterball this time, still, my favorite part is when the young man at the funeral in the beginning flinched hearing the gunshot.
Brilliant. This two minute and thirty second trailer hit my emotions harder than most two-hour movies. The characters are so humanized-familiar. Good job to the makers. The sound was off when you started this vid, I could still hear the song. Your video brake down of why the trailer works is great, I really enjoyed it. On the bounce trooper.
I muted it due to copyright. They had it in King Arthur I believe so it's licensed out. Thank you for watching and I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the breakdown. KZ
Such a nostalgia trip watching this thanks for the bream down
So I'm pretty sure they used Hungarian actors (and the language) and then Welsh in the backing track lyrics just to help make it feel so.... other, so completely hard to focus on any one thing. I think the director or someone who worked on this said as much but god it works. I'm pretty sure they were chosen because they sound similar to english/romantic/germanic languages but are still completely different and impossible for anyone not close to familiar to even pin down.
Oh also! The amazing backing track was featured in the Guy Ritchie King Arthur movie, and has some interesting backstory itself if you delve a little.
Omg I had totally forgot about this one. Might I just say I check youtube every day now looking for you next video. You are really good at what you do and it is reflected at me. When watching this trailer it all came back to. I am ver surprised because I am thinking and feeling everything and then you are saying it yourself. Your right this is the most powerful trailer that halo has ever done.
Your so right this trailer takes you full circle, but it also shows you the cycle that the odst have. Also the sgt that is in charge of the 21 gun salute. The first couple of times he is looking at the soldiers and then the last one he breaks the 4th wall looking at the viewer and what is also ment to be the boy and with one look he confirms to the kid that they want him. If he wasn't inspired enough with that one look the confirms that this will be his path.
Just raw power and you highlight all tho points in this trailer so well. Next video please. I'm hooked man. 😊
Next video is the ODST game, out this Wednesday.
Thanks 😊
The thing thats also important in my opinion, is that black is the traditional color for a funeral. When they put the black helmet on and the black visor comes down, it gives the ongoing theme of decent into darkness. The black consumes the light in the eyes, the brightest part of his face, like a vail. The vail is not just to conceal the face, but not your view. From the outside looking in you see darkness, and from the inside looking out you have the figurative darkness. It feels like a plunge in a dark cave into cold water.
A big reason that this commercial hits so hard for me is because a close tragedy inspires the main character of the commercial to become an ODST. I'm Canadian and the 2014 parliament hill shooting was for me, the final inspiration that caused me, and many others I joined with, to sign up with the Canadian army. So in terms of storytelling within the commercial, the story of the main character is something that many people can either relate to because they could see themselves doing something similar, or they actually did something lifechanging because of a tragedy that they felt close to their heart.
Good for you fella! I'm glad something positive happened from such a negative thing. Thank you for watching the video too 🙏🏻💪🏻
I will say this until the end of time: the Halo show would have been AMAZING as a Band of Brothers style series following an ODST unit through all 30 years of the war against the Covenant. It wouldn't have needed to tell a story with the Forerunners or anything else in the overarching Halo story, just a simple series showing how brutal the war actually is compared to what is shown in the games. Also another series to look into doing reactions could be the Gears of War trailers, because honestly I forget most of them and it would be cool to see them again in this context.
But then how would we cram in a generic chosen one storyline involving Master Chief and two young girls?
God the Halo show sucks so fucking much.
love the trial by fire, fresh outta bootcamp, shiny new armor and at the end, he’s the vet with the battleworn armor while leading the new “shiny” through the gauntlet.
Fun trivia about the song in the first trailer, it was NEVER released as a song on soundtrack.
But after 8 years Gareth Williams a composer for the ODST trailer song, worked on Guy Richie film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword 2017
The same song was used in the movie and we finally got it in official release on the movies soundtrack
Yeah this really was a great trailer that got everyone hyped for the game. Also feel like I should mention that fans were asking for the song that plays for YEARS but just never got it for some reason.....until it was released years later as part of the OST for a King Arthur movie! Even now if you go to the song here on TH-cam, all of the top comments are still about ODST and not the movie 🤣
There is more storytelling in this 2 1/2 min commercial than the entirety of the halo tv show. This is seriously probably the single best live action commercial for a videogame ever made.
In regards to that ending scene, I think we can feel that because as you said, it's full circle. Just as we felt the boy's emotions in the funeral at the beginning, we can feel this young soldier's emotions here. Which, I get the impression that he is a not-yet hardened rookie, who just did a lot of growing up in that little bit of time.
Fun Facts:
They got Hungarian special forces to play the drill instructors
The beginning funeral was filmed in an active nuclear cooling tower
The large battle was filmed in a quarry
ODST is my favorite game in the Halo franchise, and one of my favorite games of all time. Many early Halo commercials have a sad or somber feel to them, but this one just nails the particular somberness that comes from being a regular human in the war with the Covenant. No power armor, no cutting edge gene enhancement, you are not going to save the world. ODST is grounded, lonely, and at times borders on hopeless, and its a near perfect piece of combat scifi story telling.
Fun Fact: the music track they used for this commercial was also used years later in the movie, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. The track is called: The Politics & The Life.
Probably why the copyright gods tried to strike me down. Well they did on the first upload...