HALO'D — A comedy biopic. Based on a true story. Mostly.

The Story · Synopsis

Four friends. One basement.
A game that almost killed them —
then changed everything.

BEAT 01

It’s 1999. Bungie is days from bankruptcy.

not great!!

A bug in Myth II is deleting players’ entire hard drives. A million discs are already in boxes. The recall will cost $800,000 they don’t have.

BEAT 02

Their last hope is a game called HALO.

in secret. on a mac.

Jason is quietly building it on a Mac while the company burns. Steve Jobs announces it himself — on stage, to the world.

BEAT 03

Then Microsoft buys them — to save the Xbox.

awkward.

$30 million. Independence traded for survival. The Mac faithful call it betrayal; the team calls it Tuesday. Two years of crunch later, they ship the game that changes everything.

BEAT 04

And it’s a comedy. Because that’s the only honest way to tell it.

you’ll cry. it’s fine.

You’ll laugh. Then your throat will tighten. Then you’ll laugh again.

The Story

It's 1999. Bungie is a scrappy Chicago games studio on the brink of collapse after a catastrophic bug in Myth II starts deleting players' entire hard drives. While the company scrambles to survive the recall, lead programmer Jason quietly begins prototyping something new on a Mac — a game that will eventually be called Halo.

What follows is a two-year odyssey of creative brilliance, corporate warfare, impossible deadlines — and the deal that changed everything: Microsoft's acquisition of Bungie, and the birth of the Xbox.

The Conflict

Halo wasn't supposed to be an Xbox game. It was a Mac game. Steve Jobs announced it himself. Then Microsoft bought the whole studio out from under him — and turned a small team of misfits into the most important game studio on earth.

The price? Their independence. Their identity. Their friendships. The film lives in the tension between creative freedom and corporate power — told with jokes, because the people who lived it wouldn't accept anything less.

so here’s how it actually happened —▼ ROLL TAPE ▼

October 26, 1999 — Myth II deleting files

SC 01INT. BUNGIE CHICAGO — NIGHT · OCT 26 '99

The uninstaller that ate a million hard drives oops.

Myth II ships with a bug that deletes your entire computer. A million discs are already in boxes. Bungie is worth less than the pizza in its fridge. This is scene one.

BUNGIE SOFTWARE · CHICAGO IL

DAMAGE REPORT — OCT 26 1999

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

MYTH II v1.0 .......... SHIPPED

UNINSTALLER MOOD ....... HUNGRY

HARD DRIVES EATEN ... 1,000,000

DISCS RECALLED ...... 1,000,000

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

TOTAL DAMAGE ..... $800,000.00

PAYMENT METHOD ..... THE FUTURE

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

HAVE A NICE DAY :)

Interactive Evidence · Insert Coin

Could you have
saved the studio?

CRAZY INVESTORSIT’S TIME TO MAKE SOME CRRRAZY MONEY

INSERT COIN ▶

BEST RAISE $0

drive. pitch. get refused. repeat. (this is a real scene in the script.)

Recovered Media · Do Not Duplicate

Exhibit A: the Furby
incident

SC 02½EXT. WACKER DRIVE, CHICAGO — 1999 (ALLEGEDLY)

REC · RBR-TV · EXHIBIT A

▶ PLAY TAPE

actual security footage. the toy division disputes this.

Dramatis Personae · Based On Real Legends

Select your player

The Visionary

Jason

Co-founder. Brilliant, obsessive, allergic to publicity. Secretly builds the future while the company burns around him.

VISION98

SLEEP09

SUBTLETY22

"I just want to make something that matters."

The Architect

Jaime

Design lead. Inventor of "30 seconds of fun." Ships the uninstaller that starts our movie. Refuses to ship anything else until it feels right.

DESIGN96

CHIP INTAKE99

COMPROMISE08

"If you can't make 30 seconds of fun, you can't make 30 hours."

The Storyteller

Joe

Invented his own job title — "ludo-narrative designer" — because he didn't feel legitimate. The running gag that becomes the film's most moving beat.

WORDS94

JOB TITLE★

CONFIDENCE17

"Every great game is just a great story you get to live inside."

The Artist

Lorraine

Designer of the studio's identity — and the logo the whole world knows. She pours herself into work that will always carry someone else's name. The driest wit in the building.

ART97

DEADPAN99

PATIENCE41

"Somebody had to make sure it didn't look like it was made in a basement. It was made in a basement."

Tone · Not A Video Game Movie. A Movie About People.

What it
feels like

Silicon Valley

The workplace absurdity. Brilliant idiots doing impossible things badly, then badly doing impossible things brilliantly.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

The maximalist heart. Chaos as a delivery system for sincerity — it winks at you right up until the moment it makes you cry. And means it.

Underneath it all, one idea: empathy — learning to see through another's eyes. It's what the best moment in Halo taught millions of players, and it's what this movie is secretly about the whole time.

Fig. 1 — actual accurate diagram of video game development

The Point Of All This

A love letter to the people
who make games

Behind every game you’ve ever loved there’s a room like the one in this film: too small, too loud, running on cold pizza and blind faith. HALO’D is a comedy because that room is funny. It’s a love letter because that room changed the world.

for everyone who ever fixed a bug at 4am, shipped a miracle,
and got a t-shirt for it. this one’s for you.

it was 4am. like this.

Recovered From A Shoebox · Do Not Bend

The production
scrapbook

real photos. real-ish. drag them. fling them. tap one to flip it over.

E3 2000. the console was fine. mostly.

someone said friday. it was not friday.

november 2001. cap'n crunch, served on frisbee.

fred introduced himself. the steak did not survive.

day one of the furby situation. sales unaffected.

lorraine drove. the passenger had notes.

sept 20 2000. outside the mothership. still smiling. why?

e3 2000. the costumes arrived three years before the game.

found taped inside a pizza box. artist unknown.

Why This Story · Why Now

2026: Halo
turns 25

Every gamer over 30 has a Halo story. Nobody knows the real one. Tech origin stories — BlackBerry, Air, Tetris, The Social Network — are a proven box-office and awards category. This is the next chapter, and arguably the most dramatic — certainly the funniest. The 25th anniversary is a built-in global marketing event.

$6B

Franchise revenue · zero films ever made about it

81M

Players with deep emotional connection to this era

$125M

Halo 2's first 24 hours — the biggest entertainment launch in history at the time

25–45

The LAN-party generation — now the peak theatrical & streaming demo

Creative Team

The creative
team

Screenplay by

Kevin Leahy & David Schneider

David Schneider — co-writer, The Death of Stalin. Current draft: a 102-page comedy with a working heart.

Based on the screenplay by

Sam Mazany

The original optioned screenplay that started it all.

Based on the article by

Steve Haske

The definitive oral history of Halo's chaotic creation — rights optioned.

Produced by

Lee Murphy · Jörg Tittel · Laurence Jones

Raised By Robots

The Package · Attached & In Motion

Swinging big

Director · Reading The Script

Taika Waititi

Currently reading the script with a view to directing. Comedy that turns sincere without whiplash — the exact skill this story demands.

Casting Director · On Board

Kharmel Cochrane

Casting the film now. The eye behind some of the sharpest ensembles in recent cinema is building ours.

Casting Target · "Fred Chambers"

Walton Goggins

The corporate wolf in a golf shirt. Our bullseye for the Microsoft-side scene-stealer.

Casting Target · "Jaime"

Cooper Hoffman

The bullseye for our chip-eating, uninstaller-shipping heart of the studio.

🥚

Cameo Concept

One Star, Every Titan

A single A-list star plays every tech titan of the era — a multiverse-of-moguls running gag built for the trailer.

* Taika Waititi is reading the script with a view to directing. Kharmel Cochrane is casting the film. Casting targets are aspirational; no cast is attached at this stage.

HALO'D

A fatal exception 0E has occurred at 0028:C0011E36 in VXD MYTH2_UNINSTALL(01).

Your hard drive has NOT been erased. Probably. We're like 90% sure.

* This happened to a million real computers in 1999.

* This is scene one of the movie.

Press any key (or click, or tap) to return to this universe _

Four friends. One basement.
A game that almost killed them —
then changed everything.

It’s 1999. Bungie is days from bankruptcy.

Their last hope is a game called HALO.

Then Microsoft buys them — to save the Xbox.

And it’s a comedy. Because that’s the only honest way to tell it.

The Story

The Conflict

The uninstaller that ate a million hard drives oops.

Could you have
saved the studio?

Twenty misfits. One impossible game.

Exhibit A: the Furby
incident

The Death Star buys the rebels these smiles cost $30M

And somehow... they shipped it (they made THIS??)

The quiet after everything the whole movie is in this booth

Select your player

Jason

Jaime

Joe

Lorraine

What it
feels like

Silicon Valley

Everything Everywhere All At Once

A love letter to the people
who make games

The production
scrapbook

2026: Halo
turns 25

The creative
team

Swinging big

Taika Waititi

Kharmel Cochrane

Walton Goggins

Cooper Hoffman

One Star, Every Titan

Four friends. One basement.A game that almost killed them —then changed everything.

It’s 1999. Bungie is days from bankruptcy.

Their last hope is a game called HALO.

Then Microsoft buys them — to save the Xbox.

And it’s a comedy. Because that’s the only honest way to tell it.

The Story

The Conflict

The uninstaller that ate a million hard drives oops.

Could you havesaved the studio?

Twenty misfits. One impossible game.

Exhibit A: the Furbyincident

The Death Star buys the rebels these smiles cost $30M

And somehow... they shipped it (they made THIS??)

The quiet after everything the whole movie is in this booth

Select your player

Jason

Jaime

Joe

Lorraine

What itfeels like

Silicon Valley

Everything Everywhere All At Once

A love letter to the peoplewho make games

The productionscrapbook

2026: Haloturns 25

The creativeteam

Swinging big

Taika Waititi

Kharmel Cochrane

Walton Goggins

Cooper Hoffman

One Star, Every Titan

Four friends. One basement.
A game that almost killed them —
then changed everything.

Could you have
saved the studio?

Exhibit A: the Furby
incident

What it
feels like

A love letter to the people
who make games

The production
scrapbook

2026: Halo
turns 25

The creative
team