Johnson's hidden all-clear speech
Posted July 21st 2006 (originally as part of the seven-extras piece)
Associated movies… BCM8
If you do the seven extra Marines trick and your Pelican Sergeant is Johnson, there's a great little bonus to enjoy, namely the following 16-second all-clear speech you can hear from him when you polish off the enemy, as long as you're within several metres of him when the last covie bites the dust:
"That's the last of 'em - area secure. Stand down team! (pause) They did their damnedest that's for sure. This is all that's left of my platoon. The Covenant are down here in force, and they brought plenty of toys. I wouldn't have given us a snowball's chance until you showed up Chief."
It was a quite a surprise when I suddenly heard him launch into that speech the first time! I thought I'd stepped into the Twilight Zone or something. You can hear it at the end of BCM8, but I also made a recording of it for the HBO Dialogue Databank in a carefully controlled situation so you can hear it as clearly as possible (I was right next to him and he was inactive).
Because this line exists, it suggests that maybe Bungie originally hadn't planned for the Pelican guys to automatically be dead, and that Johnson would potentially be the one to announce the all-clear. Somewhere along the line though, the Pelican guys became doomed (maybe Bungie didn't want the Xbox to strain itself), and hence you normally only get something from a standard Marine. Also, instead of you meeting up with Johnson in the first snowfield, that encounter was instead arranged for the next area, where you find him with a sniper rifle. That's my theory anyway.
With the seven extras trick you can end up with two Johnsons at once, but it's not the only situation in the campaign where that can happen. In level 2, if you get one from the first group of Marines, you can drive him into the second part of the level and potentially meet up with another in the rockslide survivor area.
Controlled method
Here's a nice controlled method of finishing off the enemy to hear his all-clear speech, even if he's inactive. Actually, inactive is best if you want to hear it as clearly as possible, because he won't be running around while talking. Possibly using a Ghost (or even better, a Banshee if you placed one handy by the door), take out the Wraith as quickly as you can, and briefly go up near the far end to trigger the distant enemies into coming after you. Except, there's an Elite who stays near the far end, so kill him separately. Let the rest chase you back to where the Marines were, and use the sniper rifle to wipe them out as they come (good fun). When the last one dies, Johnson should start up.
But nothing from Stacker?
Sometimes you'll get southern-talkin' Stacker instead of Johnson, but sadly I haven't heard any all-clear lines from him. Therefore I've decided to imagine my own, heh heh:
"Nice job men - all clear! Whew, those guys just never give up! These are all the men I got left Chief. This place is crawling with Covenant and they brought all kinds o' nasty to play with. I thought we were in for a real whuppin' till you showed up."
No trouble Sergeant.