Here’s a list of all Halo’s sources, the ones I can think of anyway.

Every war movie

You play a space marine. You get dropped off in what’s basically a helicopter. You drive jeeps and throw grenades. There’s a particularly entertaining sequence where you’re driving around in what looks like an M1 Abrams tank.

Star Wars

Which is itself a mashup of many World War II movies. George Lucas spliced together a mixtape of dogfight scenes and then had Industrial Light & Magic recreate them shot-for-shot. One mixtape inspired another. The very first level of the game is lifted from the opening scene from Star Wars almost exactly. You fight your way off a spacecraft that’s been boarded and overrun by armored dudes shooting lasers. You make your way to an escape pod and launch it to the planet below. The only thing that’s missing is C-3P0.

Star Trek

In Halo’s universe the United Nations Space Command maps neatly onto Starfleet.

Alien and Aliens

The moody, cramped hallways with flickering lights. The helmet-mounted video cameras. The frequent sense of claustrophobic dread. The horror of humans being parasitized by aliens. One of the Covenant species looks kind of like the aliens in Aliens.

Ringworld

It’s set on a ringworld.

The Bible

Your foes are called the Covenant and the Flood. The game and the world it’s set on are called Halo.

The Song of Roland

Your holographic assistant Cortana is named after a sword.

All this borrowing and sampling is what makes Halo great. If it was “original” it would be tedious. You don’t need a ton of exposition and backstory if you’ve seen the movies or read the books that Halo is based on.

Any influences, references or outright thefts I missed? I know I must have. Hit me up in the comments.