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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare blew away both critics and players when it released in 2007,

and it went on to spawn one of the largest trilogies in video game history.

After ten years, the Modern Warfare Trilogy is still held in high regard for its groundbreaking

gameplay, but what about the story?

Well, we here at Suggestive Gaming figured now was a good time to take another look.

This is what you need to know about the Call of Duty Modern Warfare storyline.

Modern Warfare

The story begins in 2011, where a group of ultranationalists in Russia are

engaging in a civil war with the government.

In order to distract the United States from intervening, one ultranationalist, Imran Zakhaev

funds a coup in the Middle East to catch their attention, organized by Khaled Al-Asad, military

commander and ally of Zakhaev.

Meanwhile, Sergeant John “Soap” MacTavish joins the Bravo Team of the British Army’s

Special Air Service.

Soap, along with other Bravo Team members Lieutenant Gaz and Captain John Price are

then sent to the Bering Strait to intercept a freighter to search for a suspected nuclear

package.

After infiltrating the cargo hold, the team find a nuclear warhead covered in Arabic writing.

They are then attacked by enemy fighters, but are able to narrowly escape with the ship

manifest, pointing to Al-Asad as the owner of the package containing the warhead.

Meanwhile, Al-Asad continues his revolution by killing the President of a Middle Eastern

country, Yasir Al-Fulani on national television.

Afterwards, Soap, Gaz, and Price, along with Russian Loyalists led by the team’s old

friend Sergeant Kamarov set off to rescue the Russian informant who supplied them with

the information about the cargoship.

Meanwhile, Al-Fulani’s death has caused the US Marine Corp to send in their 1st Force

Recon team to the Middle East in search of Al-Asad.

They believe him to be in a TV station, broadcasting propaganda, but upon clearing and invading

the building, they find no sign of him, but instead find his broadcast to be a recording.

Elsewhere, Bravo Team have successfully found and rescued their Russian informant, but upon

escaping, their helicopter is shot down.

Fleeing on foot, they eventually make their way to a second escape helicopter thanks to

friendly air support.

Back in the middle east, the 1st Force Recon team end up finding and recovering a tank,

codenamed War Pig, and head to the capital city where they believe Al-Asad has fled to.

There, they are informed that there is a nuclear warhead in the area.

They prepare to evacuate, but their escort is shot down.

They go back to save her, but do not escape in time before the nuclear bomb goes off,

killing the team along with all of the other servicemen in the area.

One member of the team, Griggs, survives, as he was separated from the team.

The informant, Nikolai, tells Price about Al-Asad’s safehouse in Azerbaijan.

The SAS head there and eventually find Al-Asad.

Price interrogates him, and he informs the SAS that the true owner of the nuclear package

wasn’t him, but Zakhaev.

Price then executes Al-Asad.

As it turns out, Price was once assigned to assassinate Zakhaev with his commanding officer

Captain MacMillan.

However, the plan failed, and Price only managed to sever Zakhaev’s arm.

Expecting him to die of blood loss, the two evacuated, but not before MacMillan lost his

leg, causing Price to carry him out.

The SAS, USMC, and Russian Loyalists then set out on a join mission to try to capture

Zakhaev’s son Viktor in order to lead them to his father.

They give chase, and he is eventually cornered on top of a building.

However, in order to avoid capture, he shoots himself before Soap can restrain him.

Angered by the death of his son, Zakhaev threatens to launch nukes at the U.S. Prive leads a

joint British-American operation to stop this.

After invading the facility, the team see two nuclear missiles being launched towards

the US with the potential of killing over 40 million civilians.

They reach the control room and Soap uses abort codes provided by command to destroy

the missiles in flight.

The team then reach a vehicle depot and make their escape using Russian trucks.

Followed by enemy vehicles, the team escape down a Russian motorway.

However, an oil tanker explodes, leaving everyone except Griggs incapacitated.

Griggs drags Soap to safety, but is shot by Zakhaev’s guards in the process, killing

him.

Zakhaev himself eventually kills Gaz, but Price is able to give Soap his gun, allowing

Soap to shoot Zakhaev and his guards.

Kamarov and the Russian Loyalists arrive shortly after to take Soap and Price back to safety.

The media then arrive to cover up the story as a series of nuclear tests in Russia.

Modern Warfare 2

Five years later, the Ultranationlists have successfully seized control of Russia, and

Zakhaev has since become seen as a martyr by the group.

One of his former lieutenants, Vladimir Makarov, has also started staging various terrorist

attacks against Europe.

US Army Ranger Joseph Allen impresses the leader of a special ops team, Task Force 141,

General Shepherd, who recruits him as a CIA operative and tasks him with joining Makarov’s

terrorist organization as an undercover agent.

Meanwhile, the SAS send Soap MacTavish and Sergeant Gary ‘Roach’ Sanderson to recover

an Attack Characterization System module from a downed satellite at a Russian airbase.

The two are compromised and attacked by enemy forces, but manage to escape with the module.

Later, Allen, having joined Makarov’s ranks, participates in a massacre of civilians in

a Moscow Airport.

Makarov instructs his crew to speak English and use NATO weapons to convince the Russians

that this was an attack on them by Americans.

To further cement this, Makarov kills Allen, whose true identity as a CIA agent he had

known.

They leave Allen’s body behind to be identified as American, causing Russia to retaliate with

a surprise attack on the US, revealing that the ACS module Soap and Roach retrieved was

compromised.

This invasion starts World War III.

Army Rangers: Sergeant Foley, Corporal Dunn, and Private James Ramirez (Allen’s replacement)

are sent to defend Washington DC.

Task Force 141 shifts their attention to Makarov and heads off to Rio de Janeiro to capture

and interrogate Makarov’s contact, Alejandro Rojas.

Rojas reveals that the Russians are holding one of Makarov’s most hated enemies, whom

they codename Prisoner 627.

The group are left stranded due to air support being cut by the invasion in the US, but they

are later rescued by Soap, with help from the Russian informant he had previously helped

rescue: Nikolai.

Soap, convinced that breaking out Prisoner 627 will draw out Makarov, leads Task Force

141 to The Gulag, the prison holding the prisoner, to break him out.

Upon doing so, they find out that he is none other than Captain Price, who was captured

during a raid on an UItranationalist base, called “Operation Kingfish”, three years

earlier.

The group escape the prison, and Price agrees to help Task Force 141 to track down Makarov.

Believing that something extreme must be done to end the war in the US, Price convinces

Task Force 141 to infiltrate a Russian submarine base, where he ignores orders and hijacks

a Russian nuclear sub.

He uses it to launch an ICBM at Washington DC, but programs the warhead to explode in

the atmosphere, destroying the International Space Station, sparing Washington from the

attack, and creates an electromagnetic pulse, stopping both US and Russian militaries in

their tracks.

In DC, Sergeant Foley and his team discover that the Air Force intends to carpet bomb

the capital, believing it to be lost to the Russians.

The team fight their way to the roof of the White House and set off green flares just

as the fighters arrive, indicating that the city is in-fact not lost and effectively calling

off the attack.

Meanwhile, Task Force 141 is informed of two possible locations Makarov might be hiding,

and the team splits up to search both.

Soap and Price go to an aircraft scrapyard in Afghanistan, and Roach and Ghost head to

a safehouse in the Caucasus Mountains.

The safehouse turns out to be a trap, but Roach and Ghost are able to fight their way

through and obtain vital intelligence containing Makarov’s entire plan.

General Shepherd arrives to retrieve the intelligence, then kills both Ghost and Roach, betraying

them to take all the glory for himself intending to become a war hero and gain the support

of the American populace.

Price and Soap are able to avoid an ambush by Shepherd’s “Shadow Company”, as well

as what’s left of the Ultranationalists, who converge and engage in battle with each

other.

They get in contact with Makarov, who reveals Shepard’s location to them.

The two agree to go find him in Afghanistan to take him out in one final suicide mission.

They arrive at his base, but Shepherd attempts to escape in a boat.

They give chase, and Price eventually shoots down a helicopter Shepherds attempts to use

to escape.

The two then fall down a waterfall.

Washing up on land, a wounded Soap attempts to chase Shepherd but he is bested as Shepherd

stabs him.

Just as he is about to shoot Soap, Price tackles him and the two fight.

Soap pulls the knife out of his own chest and throws it at Shepherd, impaling his eye,

killing him instantly.

Nikolai arrives for the extraction, and the three head out.

Price warns Nikolai that by killing a US Army General, the two are now international fugitives,

but Nikolai tells him he knows of a safe place they can go.

Modern Warfare 3

Meanwhile, World War III continues, and Team Metal, a US Army Delta Team, are sent to New

York to hijack a Russian submarine to using against its own fleet to drive the Russian

Army out of the city.

Nikolai arrives at safehouse in India run by his Loyalist allies with Soap and Price.

They begin to give an unconscious Soap medical attention, but shortly thereafter, Makarov’s

forces invade and storm the safehouse.

Nikolai’s best soldier, Yuri, helps Price and Nikolai escape while keeping Soap alive,

and what remains of Task Force 141 go into hiding, while Makarov does the same.

Two months later, Boris Vorshevsky, the Russian President, announces at a summit to make peace

with the United States.

This is foiled by Makarov, however, whose men hijack the president’s plane on the

way.

Makarov kidnaps the president, and plans to abduct and torture his daughter in order to

force him to hand over the launch codes for Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

Meanwhile, Soap has recovered enough to rejoin the fight, and he and Yuri, along with help

from MacMillan, Price’s former commanding officer, trace Makarov’s actions to an arms

deal in Sierra Leone.

However, they are unable to intercept the cargo from the deal, and it instead distributed

to Paris, Berlin, and London, where it is revealed to be biochemical weapons, which

are detonated, killing civilians across Europe.

The Russian Army uses these attacks as openings to invade the various countries, and Team

Metal is deployed to Hamburg to rescue the US Vice President.

They are then supplied intel by Price, who obtained the information from a warlord involved

in the chemical attacks.

The intel sends them to Paris, to capture a Russian bomb maker named Volk.

The team capture Volk, and escape Paris as the Eiffel Tower collapses due to a bombing

run.

They learn of Makarov’s location from Volk: the Hotel Lustig in Prague.

They inform Price of this, and his team invade the city.

There, the group are reunited with Kamarov, who is currently leading a local resistance,

and they set off to try to assassinate Makarov.

The plan goes south when Kamarov is taken hostage and strapped with explosives, and

Price narrowly escapes the hotel as they are detonated, killing Kamarov.

Makarov also reveals that he knows Yuri, and had predicted the sniping position he and

Soap are occupying, and rigged that with explosives as well.

They detonate, and Soap pushes Yuri to avoid the explosion.

However, as he falls, a large chunk of debris falls on him, reopening his stab wound from

Shepherd.

Price arrives and removes the debris from Soap, and helps Yuri to his feet.

Yuri carries Soap as Prices shoots a path through Makarov’s men.

Soap, dying from blood loss, tells Price of Yuri and Makarov’s relationship in his final

moments.

Price leaves Soap’s body, taking his journal and dog tags, and confronts Yuri at gunpoint,

demanding him to explain his connection with Makarov.

Yuri reveals that he was a former Ultranationalist who befriended Makarov.

He was with Makarov during the detonation of the nuclear bomb in the Middle East that

killed Shepherd’s men, and the horror of the event caused him to turn on Makarov and

attempt to stop the massacre at the airport years later.

He was found out, however, and was shot by Makarov before the attack.

Price is convinced that the two are fighting for the same thing, and keeps his alliance

with Yuri, and the two invade Makarov’s castle near Prague.

There, they discover where Vorshevsky, the Russian President, is being held captive.

They relay the information to Team Metal, who are able to save the President and his

daughter before Makarov is able to get the nuclear launch codes.

Several members of the team are killed during this rescue, but their efforts led to the

safety of the President, and his ending of the conflict between Russia and the US, putting

an end to World War III.

Three months later, Price and Yuri finally track Makarov to a hotel on the Arabian Peninsula.

There, the two are able to invade the hotel and once at the top, see Makarov escaping

to his helicopter on the roof.

Another helicopter shoots the hotel, however, and the roof begins to collapse.

After regaining his footing, Price finds Yuri pinned down and impaled by a piece of debris.

He tells Price to leave him and not let Makarov get away, and Price runs to catch up to Makarov.

Makarov boards his helicopter, but Price is able to jump on and kill the two pilots.

This causes the chopper to crash back onto the roof.

Makarov and Price, climbing out of the wreckage, race to a desert eagle they see on the ground,

with Makarov getting to it first.

He holds the gun up, about to shoot Price, when he is subsequently shot in the shoulder

by Yuri.

Taken by surprise, Makarov turns and shoots Yuri, finally killing him.

Price takes advantage of his friend’s final distraction, and tackles Makarov, wrapping

a steel cable around his throat and breaking through the glass roof beneath them, causing

Makarov to die by hanging.

Price falls to the floor below and survives.

He sits up and gazes upon Makarov’s hanging, lifeless body.

He quietly takes out a cigar and lights it.

In the distance, sirens are heard as the police begin to arrive at the scene.

This is the last we see of John Price, with his vengeance fulfilled, but his future unknown…

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