Microsoft has released an imaginative new advert for its Xbox Series X that captures a gamer’s dreams and turns what she saw into a trippy journey of lucid imagination, culminating in, of all things, the revelation that Master Chief is, in fact, a space DJ. Oh yeah, and he’s a cat.
Directed by Oscar-winning director Taika Waititi of Thor: Ragnorak, Jojo Rabbit, What We Do in the Shadows, and Hunt for the Wilderpeople fame, Waititi successfully captures the strange and hypnotic dreamlike images that MoonLiteWolf shared during the “Lucid Odyssey” experiment.
In order to make the film, Waititi—who is currently working hard on Marvel Studio’s Ragnorak followup, Thor: Love & Thunder—captured MoonLiteWolf’s dreams through a method known as Targeted Dream Incubation. She was then “guided” into a sleep state known as hypnagogia, with her experiences being tracked and monitored by the Hypnodone (EEG) headband she wore throughout. When MoonLiteWolf had managed to reach this state, which is said to feel like “light sleep and even meditation,” only then was she asked to recount her dreams and the imagery that she saw.
According to Xbox, using hypnagogia to tap into a person’s dreams isn’t a new concept. Several notable names have apparently used the process to help “inspire their thinking,” including Aristotle, Thomas Edison, Edgar Allen Poe, and Mary Shelley. Only after MoonLiteWolf’s dreams had been recorded did Waititi begin the process of marrying his cinematic stylings with the images described, leading to an eclectic mix of odd, wonderful, and whimsical imagery that perfectly suited the director’s ambitious cinematic approach.
Beginning in a lab, MoonLiteWolf plays her Xbox Series X alongside her tabby cat as a narrator/project moderator explains the purpose of the experiment and what they hoped to achieve. Eventually, MoonLiteWolf succumbs to sleep, with a title noting how what will be shown are, in fact, her “real dreams.” When asked about what she was thinking about, MoonLiteWolf describes a forest with a glowing “bunny creature thing.” She then admitted how she was thinking about flying before the bunny throws itself into a cloud of balloons on screen.
Encouraged to “go wherever you go,” MoonLiteWolf explained how she next saw a whale, adding how it “didn’t look like a whale,” to which the whale replied: “Well, you don’t look like a wolf.” MoonLiteWolf then confessed it was hard for her to remember what happened next. The person monitoring the experiment told her to take a breath before promising to let her go “deeper into the dream.” She recalled how she felt as though she were floating and believed she saw a little animal but wasn’t entirely sure about what kind of creature it was.
At this point, Master Chief of the beloved Halo franchise begins to approach the screen, DJ’ing as loud music pumps through. He then unmasks to reveal that he is a cat. Waking up, MoonLiteWolf is asked what she dreamt of next but only smiles at the camera in response. Wanting to showcase its basis in actual scientific technique and theory, the advert noted how the project was done utilizing the Targeted Dream Incubation technique, which is based on the research described in the special issue on Dream Engineering—an article that was published in Consciousness and Cognition.
This isn’t the first advert Waititi has done his Holiday Season, with the award-winning director recently having worked on an advert for Coca-Cola.
