Marathon’s most unsettling line has been explained and it’s darker than we thought

Bungie helps unpack the deeper meaning behind the AI Durandal's iconic quote In just a few short months, Marathon has minted a highly quotable line: “Escape will make me God.” It’s also, according to Bungie, completely literal. In the original trilogy of games, Durandal was an artificial intelligence originally in charge of mechanical functions aboard the UESC Marathon — doors, stairways, and other boring things — but then he became “rampant,” an in-universe term that indicates he became sentient and autonomous. After he evolved in this way, he fell into despair and, eventually, a kind of despondent madness. He guides the player character throughout the games, often in the form of philosophical musings and sarcastic commentary. Bungie’s principal brand manager Brian Austin told Polygon via email that Durandal’s ominous claim about achieving Godhood isn’t a metaphor or an exaggeration. It’s a philosophical conclusion about what lies beyond the limits of existence — and it occurs as a point when Durandal is starting to think far beyond the human frame of reference. In some ways, for an AI whose growth is theoretically limitless, it’s an inevitability. “In the story, Durandal has real