This is the page for characters introduced in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. For characters seen throughout the Black Ops sub-series, such as Alex Mason, Frank Woods, Jason Hudson, and Grigori Weaver, please see here.
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CIA Safehouse "Die Landebahn" Crew
Main Team
"Bell"
"Bell"
Click here to see Bell as Perseus' lieutenant.
The main Player Character of Black Ops Cold War, being able to be customized before their first in-game mission, including the choice of their gender.
- Always Someone Better: Bell is apparently this to Alex Mason and Frank Woods. After the previous entries in the series established just how lethal these two men are in a fight, Bell has absolutely no trouble killing the both of them in the game's bad ending. This is best seen if you choose to do it with a takedown, where for all their prowess as elite operators, you will still proceed to effortlessly murder them just like any other enemy in the game.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- In the epilogue of the good ending, Adler attempts to kill Bell, since the latter became a loose end after The Reveal, but as Bell manages to pull their gun just in time to react, the screen goes black as a gunshot is heard, leaving the conflict's conclusion unknown.
- During Bell’s memory trip, it’s heavily implied Bell was also brainwashed as a Perseus operative. The first words Bell hears are Perseus telling them not to trust Adler, and going through the computer during the second to last script (if you obey Adler) results in “DONOTTRUSTADLER” printed numerous times, which sound a lot like suggestions Perseus implanted that would trigger in the event any of his operatives were compromised.
- Born Unlucky: Gunned down in the beginning of the game by Arash because he was jealous of them being the second-best Perseus operative around, kidnapped by the CIA and submitted to the hellish MK-Ultra brainwashing and torture under Adler, thrown through hell and back in the operations they did partake in, and in the American ending Adler still tries to kill them to close off any loose ends. It must all be to offset their One-Man Army capabilities, because almost nothing goes right for Bell.
- Brainwashed: They used to be one of the best agents of Perseus, having been betrayed by another one in a fit of jealousy, and then found by CIA agent Russell Adler, who, with the help of the project MK-Ultra, deeply altered his mind so he could extract information from them, creating false memories and turning the soldier to the American side, keeping them in line with a mind-control phrase, that being "We have a job to do".
- Defector from Decadence: Implied to be the case if the selected military background is ex-KGB. Ultimately subverted, however, as the "defection" turns out to be the result of mental reprogramming by Adler. But, you can decide to defect willingly.
- Even Evil Has Standards: One possible interpretation of the bad ending path where Bell doesn't set up an ambush at Duga; they may think Perseus' plan to be best for humanity, but they will not dirty their hands with the blood of their former team.
- Experienced Protagonist: The Multiple-Choice Past the player is given allows Bell to have a background as an seasoned operative in either the CIA, the MI6, or the KGB.
- Expy: To both Alex Mason and "Player". Bell is a renowned soldier who is also under the effects of heavy brainwashing and memory tampering. Adler's brainwashing makes Bell ruthless in their pursuit of Perseus, much like Mason's Berserk Button of Dragovich, Kravchenko, and Steiner, and includes the implanting of false memories actually experienced by him instead of Bell, which is extremely similar to Player's missions actually being Taylor's memories of his own missions. Bell being manipulated into hunting down Perseus when they're actually one of its agents is also eerily similar to Mason very likely being manipulated into assassinating John F. Kennedy.
- The Faceless: Bell's face is never seen ingame.
- Face–Heel Turn: If Bell decides to lie to Adler after The Reveal, they are able to defect to the Soviets if they manage to communicate with them in time.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: If after Bell finds out they were brainwashed into joining the CIA, yet you choose to reveal Perseus' true location, it might not necessarily done for moral reasons. Depending on how you answer before making this choice, it doesn't preclude the possibility Bell is still angry at Adler for brainwashing them, and may as well only be defecting just to get retribution on those who betrayed them and left them for dead at Trabzon.
- Heel–Face Brainwashing: In truth, Bell was a high-ranking officer of Perseus, whom Arash Kadivar shot and left for dead before being captured by Adler, who reprogrammed them with the help of Helen Park into believing that they are a Vietnam war veteran and CIA asset working to dismantle project Greenlight. Ultimately undone during the climax of Identity Crisis, where their old memories resurfaced, though whether they remain a Face or revert back into a Heel is left up to the player's decision.
- Heel Realization: A potential interpretation for if Bell decides to betray Perseus and reveal his plans, as the knowledge you will be responsible for the deaths of millions can be a pretty heavy toll on somebody's conscience.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Right before you assume control of them, you get to name them. Or rather, name their cover identity. You go by the callsign "Bell" throughout the game.
- The Hero Dies:
- If Bell turns Perseus over to the Americans, Adler attempts to shoot them as a loose end. The scene cuts to black before the results of their final gunfight are shown, but given that Adler is unambiguously alive during Warzone and Mobile, the prognosis for Bell is grim.
- If Bell defects back to Perseus and leads the CIA on a wild goose chase but doesn't set up an ambush, when Adler realizes what they did he guns them down on the spot.
- Hero Killer: If Bell remain loyal to Perseus, they will get the opportunity to personally execute every single member of their team at Duga, including series staples Woods and Mason.
- Heroic Mime: Subverted. Although during the entire story they don't speak a word, Bell can "talk" through dialogue choices from the player.
- Incapable of Disobeying: Thanks to the help of MK-Ultra, Adler successfully brainwashed one of Perseus' agents to the American side, after the said agent was found dying in a car, left in that condition by the jealous Arash Kadivar, who pointed them as "Perseus" favorite. They were then nicknamed as "Bell", implanted with false memories for the sake of creating trust with Adler, and now could be controlled by certain CIA members when the phrase "we have a job to do" was spoken.
- Ironic Echo: In "Ashes to Ashes", should Bell manage to communicate with Soviet command to set up an ambush at Duga prior to departing the safehouse for the mission, when the time comes to signal the Soviet troops to attack, indicated by all three dialogue options being preceded with [SIGNAL], one of these options will have Bell apologize to Adler before telling him that "I've got a job to do".
- Made of Iron: As per usual for a Call of Duty protagonist, to the point that even someone like Adler actually feels bad for the hell Bell's put through. Heck, they start the game off being capped twice by Arash and surviving, and in the Perseus ending they even get back up from an RPG rocket detonation mere feet away from them, all on their own if their visions of Perseus were fake, where Adler in the same situation was fatally wounded. In the 'good' ending, Bell withstands an airstrike and being covered in rubble.
- Misplaced Accent: Implied. If Bell’s background is made MI6, it results in Bell inexplicably adopting Helen Park’s accent, which Adler points out. But being a Silent Protagonist to our ears, we wouldn't know what's the case.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
- One interpretation when choosing the American ending; Bell was left for dead by their one of their own, Perseus has his associates kill rather than try to rescue the agent after they turned out to be alive, and Perseus being a complete sociopathic lunatic who only cares about himself and not even his own leaders (which is proven by the man’s last lines of dialogue in the bad ending) are more than enough reasons to turn on their former allegiance.
- Also an interpretation for the Soviet ending, given that Bell was literally tortured by Adler into becoming his Unwitting Pawn to find and kill Perseus.
- In a bit of a meta-twist, THE PLAYER can prompt Bell into engaging in this during second playthroughs by selecting the bad ending if they’re feeling spiteful about how the good ending went for them.
- One-Man Army: A standard for any protagonist in the franchise.
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: Bell, who can be played as male, female, "classified", or non-binary. The only thing it changes is the pronouns he/she/they are referred to with and their clothing, as they remain The Faceless throughout the game. Bell's actual appearance in the opening mission seems to indicate he's a Caucasian Soviet male, however Bell has masculine and feminine grunts when getting shot in the flashback scene.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Subverted in the American ending, as Adler's attempt to kill Bell at the end is strictly for his own pragmatic reasons than for anything relating to Bell betraying Perseus. And betraying the team in the Perseus ending doesn't quite fit the guidelines, though Adler will kill you for the betrayal unless you managed to contact the KGB for an ambush ahead of time.
- Redemption Rejection: If Bell chooses the Soviet ending and leads Adler's team into an ambush at Duga, if present, Park or Lazar will beg Bell to stop what they're doing and come back to the team. It doesn't work and Bell's Soviet strike force wipes out the entirety of their former team.
- Reused Character Design:
- Bell's male first person model that's used the most is recycled from the multiplayer character Harry Stone, who is also The Faceless. This does not necessarily have any plot significance, as reused models are fairly common even in the very high-budget Call of Duty (i.e. Woods and Menendez own the exact same wristwatch).
- Female Bell reuses Helen Park's first person hands during "Brick in the Wall" and her third person model in "Break on Through".
- Skilled, but Naive: Is way too trusting while being a member of a top secret organization while thy were a part of Perseus. They trusted some of the scummiest people on the planet and got shot by a jealous ally. By the end of the game, they give Alder the courtesy to not pull their pistol until Alder starts to do it first, learning from Arash's betrayal that another was coming.
- Token Minority: If the player chooses for Bell to be female or non-binary, they turn out to be the only member of those demographics in Perseus' clique.
- Villain Protagonist: If "Bell" reverts to their Soviet allegiance.
- Walking Spoiler: The very nature of Bell's past is why much of their section is behind spoiler tags.
- You Nuke 'Em: In the bad ending, Bell under Perseus' command orders the detonations of the Greenlight Nukes, devastating Western Europe and ensuring Soviet Victory in the Cold War.
Russell Adler
Russell Adler
"I just want you to know that this little thing that's happened between you and me... It was always for the greater good."
- Voiced by: Bruce Thomas (English)note
The deuteragonist of Black Ops Cold War. A legendary CIA agent charged with stopping the mysterious Soviet agent known only as Perseus. The many, many ruthless actions he has taken in the name of national security has led to him being nicknamed "America's Monster".
- Adrenaline Makeover: After being interrogated and deprogrammed by Mason and Hudson, he gears up to bring the fight to Perseus. Clearly he cares more about hunting down Perseus than his appearance because his iconic hair is disheveled and messy, his shirt is dirty and torn, and his famously scarred face has a bit more to add to the collection with some bruises to boot. Oh, and he loses the shades.
- Ambiguous Situation: In the good ending of the game, he and Bell pull their guns on each other, leaving the outcome unknown. He appears in multiplayer, which is set after the campaign, and an older version of him appears alongside Captain Price in the Call of Duty: Mobile comic, indicating he survived.
- Anti-Hero: Boy is he ever. There's no denying he's on the side of good, he just happens to be the kind of person who will cross literally any line in service to the mission, with supplementary materials outright referring to him as "America's Monster".
- Badass in Distress: Stitch successfully captures him at the end of Season 1. Season 2 has Woods and his team travel to Laos in order to rescue him, but they were mislead by Naga. They finally rescue him mid-Season 3.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Adler is extremely amoral and cheerfully hops over the
Moral Event Horizon in his quest to find and kill Perseus. Given that Perseus' endgame involves literally nuking Europe into oblivion, one can at least understand why Adler does this, even if they don't agree with him. - Brainwashed and Crazy: He was kidnapped by Stitch and forced to undergo the exact same numbers programming Mason did in the '60s. After being rescued by Woods' team, he goes rogue and steals a data recorder during a mission in Algeria and lies about it being burnt up in the crash site. Once Hudson becomes aware that he's up to something, he orders Woods to get Mason and snap him out of it in the best way they know how.
- Characterization Marches On: Adler back in Vietnam was a bit more personable, being rather playful around Sims when they aren't on a mission. 12 years later, he's a cold-hearted soldier who's the embodiment of Good Is Not Nice.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Looks quite a lot like Robert Redford, minus the scar, taking particular cues from Three Days of the Condor and Spy Game.
- Cool Shades: He wears a pair of sunglasses just about everywhere, even at night.
- Creepy Good: He's a man who's referred to as "America's Monster" and regarded as a complete enigma by people who have worked with him for years, to the point where not even the highest levels of the CIA know his exact origins and activities.
- Cutscene Boss: If you defect back to Perseus, he is the very final enemy faced. You can try to give him one last smoke, leading to him trying to knife you in a quick-time event, or you can just shoot him in the face.
- Cynicism Catalyst: The Adler of today is very different from the Adler glimpsed in 'Fracture Jaw'. Between Adler's dialogue and flashbacks that show him being reluctant to discuss his time in Vietnam, it's pretty clear that the Vietnam War was the defining event that turned Adler from a gruff, if somewhat lighthearted man into The Unfettered Anti-Hero that he is today.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Adler prefers dark clothes, wears shades and does a number of really grim things to people who cross him, but he always looks out and cares for his team and sincerely cares about America's well-being despite being happy to cross every moral line to ensure its dominance.
- Eagleland: A mixed flavor, he is willing to do anything for his country and is amicable among his men (Type 1) but is also willing to use less than savory means to ensure the safety and future of the country. (Type 2). In the Tracer Pack: Fireworks bundle, most of items are based on the American flag, including his shades and shorts.
- Expy:
- He's basically General Shepherd from the original Modern Warfare trilogy, being a ruthless, results-driven military man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, which in this case is Perseus being taken out permanently. That said, he's slightly nicer, because he personally fights alongside his men, actually looks out for them, and his betrayal of Bell comes after the world is saved.
- In the context of Black Ops itself, he's just like his subordinate, Jason Hudson, in that he is a deadly, patriotic CIA agent who's not above dirty, off-the-books methods to ensure the safety of the free world at the height of the Cold War. Don't forget those Cool Shades and the low voice.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- He seems genuinely troubled by the ordeals that Bell gets put through over the course of the campaign and should Bell choose to help save America by leading the team to Solovetsky, he takes the time to reassure Bell and offers a few words of comfort.
- He thinks that Imran Zakhaev is an asshole, and coming from Adler, that says a lot.
- Face Death with Dignity: Should Bell turn on Adler and lead the CIA team into an ambush, a mortally-wounded Adler will calmly request Bell give him his cigar lighter so he can have one last smoke before he bleeds out. If you actually go for it, Adler actually attempts to stab you in one final act of defiance. He seems a lot more genuine and remarkably calm about the concept of dying in a duel with Bell in the good ending of the game.
- A Father to His Men: He genuinely cares for his team's well being, offering words of reassurance and personally taking to the field alongside them.
- Good Is Not Nice: Russell wants what's best for America, which at present involves stopping Perseus from literally nuking all of Europe and pinning it on the United States. If he has to torture prisoners, blow up enemy platoons with heavy weapons fire, sneak into the very heart of enemy territory or brainwash Perseus's best soldier and turn them against him, then so be it.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has quite the nasty scar on his face, but he's one of the good guys. Though that can change depending on if Bell sides with the Soviets or not.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: His trying to dig up Bell's suppressed memories about Perseus and the locations of the Greenlight nukes can end up biting him in the ass should the player decide to side against him. Feeling resentful over being deceived and used as a CIA pawn, Bell either set Adler and his team up for disappointment, or death, both of which result in the devastation of Western Europe and the United States being blamed for the deaths of millions.
- Jerkass Has a Point: After Bell finds out that they were brainwashed, a possible line of dialogue would have Bell tell Adler how messed up what he did was. Adler however, will point out Bell isn't exactly innocent themself. Considering there's no option for a response to that remark, it means Bell doesn't argue and likely concedes that they have committed numerous crimes under Perseus.
- Kick the Dog: In the American ending, even after Bell decides to consciously sacrifice their old identity, Adler will attempt to execute them in the epilogue, due to the soldier being a loose end.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Adler is above and beyond the average Anti-Hero, willing to take any means to stop Perseus no matter what boundaries and laws he has to tread to do so. This includes brainwashing Perseus's right-hand soldier, who becomes Bell under Adler's wing, and then killing them whether he's successful in stopping Perseus or not. Opt to totally betray Adler and set up the KGB ambush for him, however, and his own disposable protégé personally kills him as payback for the hell he put them through. It's also ambiguous who dies in the good ending, though his appearance as an operator in multiplayer suggests that at least he survived.
- He's canonically on the receiving end of this in the post-campaign story of Multiplayer and Warzone. After what he did to Bell, Stitch kidnapping and brainwashing him is basically reaping what he's sewn.
- The Leader: Mixes the levelheaded and mastermind type. He's the one who formed the team, personally handpicking his assets based on experience and trust. He's intensely focused on the mission and never lets his emotions get the best of him, even when under extreme duress.
- Noodle Incident: The scars on his face. If asked about it, he changes his answer every time, with the source of the scars ranging from battlefield injuries to being attacked by a tiger.
- Not So Above It All:
- In deadpan fashion, one conversation with Bell about his scars will conclude with him telling Bell to always know where the utility poles are, should they ever choose to jump off a roof while chasing someone.
- If Bell chooses to kill Volkov, he casually shrugs off Park's indignation with what basically amounts to "win some, lose some".
- If Mason chooses to detain Qasim rather than kill him, Adler informs Hudson that he's "bringing a present" to the CIA Agent in question.
- If Bell asks about his scars, he asks if the scars are really that noticeable, with a tone of faux-offense in his voice.
- He offhandedly mentions that his ex-wife is like the CIA, in that they "never throw anything out".
- His way of letting Belikov know that his team is ready to infiltrate KGB Headquarters is to call him up and mistake KGB HQ for the Singapore Embassy.
- Nothing Personal: Tells Bell this when he attempts to execute them in the good ending.
- Oh, Crap!: He immediately realizes Bell's gone rogue if you manage to contact the KGB in time and set up an ambush on the bad ending path, with Bell's arm signal giving way for an RPG-wielding Soviet soldier to bust you out of a hopeless situation.
- One Last Smoke: If you defect back to Perseus, he is mortally wounded and requests one last light from Bell before he expires. You don't actually have to indulge him, and you even get to skip his last attempt to kill you if you just shoot him.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: He does this by default with just about anyone who has the misfortune of ending up on his bad side. And if Bell betrays the team so Perseus can detonate the Greenlight nukes across Europe, but fails to contact the KGB in time to set up an ambush, Adler just cuts the conversation off and unloads his weapon into Bell at point-blank for it.
- Pet the Dog: Before he outright shoots Bell to tie up loose ends, he compliments Bell with words of comfort and calling him a hero that saved the world.
- Pragmatic Hero: There are very few lines he isn't willing to cross in the name of defending democracy.
- Revenge by Proxy: He takes out Stitch's eye for Kravchenko taking out Weaver's.
- Rogue Agent: This is what he becomes starting in Season 4. He's been rescued from Perseus but Stitch has successfully brainwashed him with the numbers program. Once he's assigned to a mission to investigate a crash site in Algeria, he moves way ahead of his team and steals a data recorder, lying about it being destroyed upon impact. He then gets ready to wreak havoc in Verdansk until Hudson catches on and gets Mason involved. Thanks to them, he's freshly deprogrammed and ready to end the fight with Perseus once and for all.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Though he does a very good job of hiding it, flashbacks in 'Break On Through' and background dialogue indicate that the Vietnam War took a severe toll on his mental health, with him outright stating that he's been living with the nightmares of Vietnam for over a decade.
- Shoot the Dog: Even if Bell helps save the free world from Perseus' plans, Adler walks off alone to talk with them as he commends their sacrifices and heroism - and then proclaims it's Nothing Personal as he draws his sidearm to shoot Bell dead, presumably to clean up any loose ends and potential complications from an ex-Perseus lieutenant still standing. Of course, whether due to a barely-hidden grudge or their own reflexes and expectation, Bell pulls a gun at the same time and it's ambiguous who shoots first aside from Adler surviving.
- Smoking Is Cool: If there's one character that is smoking in the background, you can bet that it's Adler most of the time.
- The Stoic: Even when things go very, very wrong, Adler keeps his calm and issues orders in a collected and detached manner. He was a bit more playful and forthcoming back in Vietnam, but 12 years or so must have done a number on him, as he no longer shows any playfulness on the field and he plays his cards very close to the chest.
- Tempting Fate: Regarding Park, Adler advises Bell to "Keep it professional". Like the players are going to listen....
- The Unfettered: There is no line Adler won't cross if it benefits the mission, to the point where torture and execution of his enemies is considered to be on the lower-end of the spectrum for him.
- Unscrupulous Hero: He may be fighting for good intentions, but he is willing to do everything and anything to get to his goals. Torture, execution, and manipulation: if it's an option, he will use it.
- The Vietnam Vet: He and Sims fought in Vietnam, and it's strongly implied that Vietnam is the reason that he ended up the way that he is today.
- You Have Failed Me: In the "Lie" ending of the game, if Bell doesn't call the ambush, Adler simply kills them for failing to tell him the true location of the broadcast.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: If Bell gives him the location of Perseus' nukes, he rewards them for saving the free world with a bullet to the face.
Helen Park
Helen Park
- Voiced by: Lily Cowles (English)note
An agent from the UK's famed intelligence agency, MI6. She joins Adler and his team in taking on covert operations around the globe.
- Action Girl: She participates directly in the action in "Brick in the Wall", "End of the Line" and "Ashes To Ashes" where she gets killed if certain choices are made., and is also an Operator in multiplayer.
- Brainy Brunette: She's one of the best from MI6.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She got into MI6 after her brother was killed by an IRA Car bomb.
- Final Boss: If you save her and then defect back to Perseus, Park is fought in the final gunfight of the game alongside Woods and Mason.
- Flirting Under Fire: Somewhat with Lazar in "End of the Line", shortly before you're forced to save only one of them. He actually does most the playful flirting to no avail, while she agrees to a drink at the end of the mission, mostly on account of I Need a Freaking Drink.
- Mission Control: She acts as this in several missions.
- Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Foreshadowing what will happen to Harper and Farid forty-four years later, she and Lazar fall victim to this, with Bell deciding who walks out of it alive. It gets turned on its head if you choose to save neither instead.
- Noodle Incident: There was a past mission that Adler and Park were involved in, but we don't get much about it other than Adler trusts Park enough for him to bring her on to the Perseus mission.
- Physical Scars, Psychological Scars: Most of the time, Park covers a large mark on her neck with a scarf, afraid that people will notice it and discover what she considers a past moment of naïveté on her part, caused by a once-trusted fellow agent of the MI6 called "Madam Shell", and once the former figures that Lazar killed her recently in a similar manner as the way she tried to kill Park, she then reveals the scar and thanks him, being replied that the situation was a "poetic justice".
- Saved by Canon: She appears as a playable operator in Multiplayer, therefore making the "save Park" choice in End of the Line canon.
- The Smart Girl: She's the one that handles most of the intel for the team.
- Ship Tease:
- Only a hint, but with Bell some dialogue choices can lightly flirt with Park. Based on her response she doesn’t seem to mind.Park: Being cheeky, are we Bell?
Park: You're cute. - She also has a bit with Lazar, though it's mostly one-sided, with Lazar doing most of the flirting.
- Only a hint, but with Bell some dialogue choices can lightly flirt with Park. Based on her response she doesn’t seem to mind.
- Smoking Is Cool: Not as much as Adler, but she sometimes smokes during points in the campaign.
- The Smurfette Principle: If Bell isn't female then she's the only woman on the team.
- Sunglasses at Night: One of her outfits in the Campaign has her wearing aviators, and several of her Multiplayer skins gives her a pair of sunglasses.
- Wolfpack Boss: She is fought alongside Mason and Woods if you save her and then defect back to Perseus.
Eleazar "Lazar" Azoulay
Eleazar "Lazar" Azoulay
- Voiced by: Damon Dayoub (English)note
A former Mossad operative known for his unflappability and fondness for explosives. After years of working with the CIA, Azoulay decided to leave Mossad and joined the CIA as a Middle East specialist.
- The Big Guy: He's physically imposing and one of the larger members of the team, and he spends a good chunk of his time working on a punching bag in the safehouse.
- Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: If Bell saves Park during the op in Cuba or fails to save either of them, he falls victim to this.
- Close-Range Combatant: Lazar is clearly very capable in close encounters, as shown by a couple of scripted events where he'll take down opponents in hand-to-hand combat and his weapon choices, which tend to be shotguns.
- Cutting Off the Branches: The appearance of Park in multiplayer, which is after the campaign, would mean Bell saved her instead of him.
- Demolitions Expert: It's mentioned that he's a trained bomb technician and part of the reason he's on the team is that he knows how to disarm a nuclear device.
- Final Boss: If you save him and then defect back to Perseus, Lazar is fought in the final gunfight of the game alongside Woods and Mason.
- Flirting Under Fire: With Park in "End of the Line", shortly before you're forced to save only one of them.
- Informed Ability: Despite being a Demolitions Expert, we never get to see his abilities coming to use.
- Last-Second Chance: If Bell chooses to betray the team in the endgame and lead them into an ambush at Duga, he offers them this. It goes unheeded and he dies in the ensuing gunfight.
- Mutually Exclusive Party Members: He and Helen Park end up becoming this, with Bell as the deciding factor.
- Not Quite Dead: Subverted. In a later update, he was added as a Multiplayer playable character, but his bio stops right before the events of the Campaign, indicating that his appearance is non-canonical.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: He has a convincing Israeli-American accent in the campaign, but it seems to be much more Americanized in Multiplayer.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: He likes to use shotguns in combat, specifically the Hauer 77.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: When Park asks him about a rogue agent named "Madam Shell", he claims that he did not know her, did not cross paths with her, and that he did not kill her in such a manner that allowed her body to be found in one spot and her head in another. Park (whom Madam Shell had previously attempted to decapitate) figures out he was involved anyways and thanks him.Lazar: There are a lot of coincidences in our line of work.
- Ship Tease: He has a bit with Park, opining during the mission in Berlin that he wanted to buy her dinner, but all the restaurants were closed, and then sputtering repeatedly if Bell asks him what he thinks of Park, before giving a very generic and rehearsed answer about how she's 'one of the guys'. It hits the climax during the mission in Cuba, where he abandons subtlety and flirts with her outright.
- Trademark Favorite Food:
- He's often seen eating a box of Chinese take-out.
- And in a bit of Mythology Gag, he also likes himself some Burger Town.
- Wolfpack Boss: He is fought alongside Mason and Woods if you save him and then defect back to Perseus.
Lawrence Sims
Lawrence Sims
- Voiced by: Reggie Watkins (English)note
A brutally honest and sarcastic soldier, Sims' first major assignment was with Russell Adler's MACV-SOG team in Vietnam. Going on to become one of Adler's most valued cohorts, Sims has accompanied Adler on covert missions around the globe since then.
- Black and Nerdy: He's the team's quartermaster and Mr. Fixit, is extremely gifted with military and consumer technology, is known for his overall keen intelligence, and is a valued member of the CIA.
- Black Dude Dies First: Inverted; Sims is the only member of Adler's team who survives the events of the game no matter what, whereas Park/Lazar can die in the latter half depending on your actions, and Adler himself and even Mason and Woods can die in the bad ending.
- Deadpan Snarker: He has a certain dry wit to him, which he notably developed after his father's passing.
- Generation Xerox: Part of his motivation for expanding his technological knowledge is to follow in his late father's footsteps.
- Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: Sims claims that part of the reason he's so valuable to the team is because if he doesn't know how to do or get something, he knows someone who can. He goes so far as to boast that he has a list of connections "longer than the Great Wall".
- The Lancer: He's known Adler the longest out of all the team members (going back to their time in Vietnam), and seems to be Adler's number two man.
- Non-Action Guy: He sits out the action most of the campaign, stating that his role in the op is "running the shop" and providing the team with the gear they need, not direct combat. Subverted in Multiplayer due to being an Operator and thus kicks as much ass as the rest of the team.
- Saved by Canon: Thanks to being a multiplayer Operator, he'll survive the events of the Campaign.
- Southern-Fried Genius: He hails from North Carolina, and followed in the footsteps of his father, becoming gifted in the technological field and graduating as a scholarship student from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
- Those Two Guys: He has this dynamic with Adler and Lazar.
Associates
Dimitri Belikov
Dimitri Belikov
- Voiced by: Mark Ivanir (English)note
A CIA mole in the KGB. Belikov first started working for the CIA in late 1967 when he came into contact with Jason Hudson while helping train the North Vietnamese military in how to fly Soviet-made helicopters.
- Ace Pilot: It's indicated that he and General Charkov are former Soviet air force pilots; apparently, he and Charkov are the only remaining survivors of his old unit.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Belikov has a good sense of humor and likes to crack jokes, he's literally introduced geeking out over a baseball cap, and Woods has to tell Mason that not to mind "the smell of vodka and cheap caviar" that apparently follows Dimitri around. At the same time, he's a general and the head of security for the entire KGB, a talented pilot, he's able to acquire a number of items for Adler's team on short notice, and while it's up to player choice, he can kill a number of fully-trained soldiers with nothing but a knife, and he's ruthless enough to poison his best friend with Nova-6 if the mission calls for it.Woods: Dimitri's the real deal.
- Chummy Commies: Subverted, he's a CIA asset, and not truly a Soviet ally.
- Every Year They Fizzle Out: Belikov seems to be a huge fan of American baseball. In "Echoes of a Cold War" Woods gives him a baseball cap with a logo that appears to resemble the logo for the Chicago Cubs, a team that went over a century without winning a World Series (they finally won a World Series in 2016, their first since 1908). Belikov jokes that if they actually win this season, it might be worth facing a firing squad for treason.
- Given Name Reveal: Eagle-eyed players will notice that his full name is written out on his PC in the beginning of the Seventh mission "Desperate Measures". It's Dimitri Ivanovich Belikov.
- Heel–Face Turn: Belikov was a loyal Soviet/KGB agent until meeting Jason Hudson, which led him to question his allegiance and beliefs.
- The Mole: He's the inside man for the CIA.
- Token Enemy Minority: A KGB security officer secretly working for the CIA.
- Token Good Teammate: Of the KGB, though it's also subverted in that his true leaning is towards the CIA.
- White Sheep: Dimitri Belikov is a double agent that has been recruited by the Americans after he's got a change of heart about his allegiance. He is a surprisingly friendly fellow, is a fan of the Chicago Cubs, and is willing to risk his life for the sake of a critical mission.
US Government
Emerson Black
"Emerson Black"
- Voiced by: Creed Bratton (English)note
The Deputy Strategist in the CIA's Directorate of Operations, and Jason Hudson's superior.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: He's Adler and Hudson's superior in the CIA, and comes across as an incredibly shady character even compared to Adler and Hudson. At the same time, his opposition is a group of ultranationalists who want to nuke Europe so the Soviet Union will Take Over the World, so he's one of the good guys by default.
- The Voice: Never seen ingame, but can be heard talking to Hudson and Reagan.
- Remember the New Guy?: Black is Hudson's direct superior, but he’s never been heard of prior to Cold War.
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
- Voiced by: Jeff Bergman (English)note
The 40th President of the United States.
- Big Good: He kicks off the overall plot and oversees the team's progress in their mission.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: In the bad ending, mostly because Perseus detonated American-made nuclear weapons in every big city in Europe.
- Historical Domain Character: Yes, Ronald Reagan himself is in the game, as both a character who gives you your marching orders and as his actual self through archive footage.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: He will gladly refer to a non-binary protagonist by their correct pronouns despite the real Reagan intentionally letting the AIDS Epidemic spiral out of control to kill off America's LGBT community.
Perseus Group
Perseus
"Perseus"
- Voiced by: William Salyers (English)note
- Affably Evil: Appears to have a sincere Villainous Friendship with "Bell".
- Big Bad: Of Black Ops Cold War.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: The photo of his younger years bears a resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- Dead All Along: It is reavealed he had been dead for the whole Warzone storyline, 2 years after the Campaign, leaving Stitch to assume the identity of Perseus
- Expy:
- Unintentionally or not, Perseus looks and acts a bit like Revolver Ocelot. Both are Soviet agents who were active since the 1960s, possess a Badass Longcoat and mustache, and both are involved in larger conspiracies that would go on to shape the world.
- He also looks very similar to General Shepherd, who was similarly conspiring with Russia to start a war in the United States. Funnily enough, he isn't the one who gives Bell the "Loose Ends" treatment..
- Greater-Scope Villain: It's indicated in Warzone that he was responsible for radicalizing Imran Zakhaev, which would make him one for Modern Warfare. He was also the one who rescued Stitch from the Petropavlovsk Gulag and took him under his wing.
- Imaginary Friend: It's strongly suggested that Perseus doesn't even exist at all, but rather is a hallucination produced by the Soviet mental-programmings in some specific agents, containing the intent of accomplishing specific tasks that could turn the tide of the Cold War in the favor of the Soviet Union, though he might not be related to the actual government of his country, and instead being from a separate group with extreme intents. Arash does talk about him like an actual person, however. Adler also notes Perseus' presence should Bell linger before killing him in Ashes to Ashes.
- ZigZagged as of the Season 6 outro cutscene. Stich explains that Perseus is an identity, not a man. But the man we know as "Perseus" did exist as a real person in the game, ultimately Subverting this trope.
- Karma Houdini: Perseus remains The Unfought regardless of which ending path you choose. If you side with the Americans, he's completely absent from the final battle and is likely still plotting the downfall of the West. If you side with the Soviets, then The Bad Guy Wins. He even remarks that "Perseus" is more than himself as an individual, so even killing him might not be enough anyway. And then it turns out he passed away before Adler could finally get him, leading to someone even worse succeeding him.
- Life Will Kill You: Died of Cancer of all things in 1983.
- Legacy Character: As it turns out, he was not the first Perseus. Perseus is an ideal, not a man, as Stitch points out.
- Not Quite Dead: When Perseus' name is first mentioned, Adler seems pretty certain that he killed him in Vietnam. It appears that Perseus is still alive after all. Until 1983, that is.
- Rogue Agent: It's indicated that, even though Perseus is operating for the benefit of the Soviet Union, he and his organization are acting on their own without the approval of the Soviet higher-ups.
Anton Volkov
Anton Volkov
- The Mafiya: He is the leader of the Russian Mob in East Germany
- Arc Villain: For the mission "Brick in the Wall", which revolves around him being hunted by Adler's team.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: He bears a striking resemblance to Alan Ford in his role as Brick Top in Snatch..
- Defiant to the End: Once finally confronted by Bell, he all but dares them to kill him, claiming it's the only thing they're good at.
- Death by Irony: He's a member of the Perseus group. He can be killed by Bell, a former member of that very same group.
- I Surrender, Suckers: He throws down a gun and fakes having surrendered once Bell and company wipe out his men and find him trying to escape. If Bell hesitates to either arrest him or execute him, Volkov brings out a spare gun and shoots Bell dead, forcing a restart. Unless of course, the player is quicker on the draw, in which case they must kill Volkov in self-defense, obviously netting the "Kill Volkov" outcome of the mission.
Arash Kadivar
Arash Kadivar
- '70s Hair: The thick glasses and Porn Stache compliment his impressive mane. Justified as the campaign takes place in 1981, and therefore the typical '80s Hair wouldn't have caught on just yet.
- Green-Eyed Monster: He betrays and guns down Bell, a fellow Perseus member, out of pure spite and jealousy for being considered a better operative overall.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He guns down his own men for seemingly no reason though it was really to murder Bell out of petty spite, and he's not long for the world as he's executed by Adler shortly thereafter.
- Middle Eastern Terrorists: Was involved in the 1979 Revolution when he took Americans hostage in Tehran before he left Iran to work with Perseus alongside Qasim Javadi.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His revealing Perseus getting ready to "burn the West" in the first mission and bragging that the CIA knows nothing of what's to come is the plot-triggering catalyst of the rest of the game, undermining everything he should be trying to conceal. His selfish desire to be the best Perseus operative also ends up leaving a wounded Bell in the CIA's hands, which gives them the opportunity to compromise the entire Greenlight plan altogether.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If the American ending is picked, it can be said that by having attempted to kill the agent that would become "Bell", he unintentionally ruined Perseus' plans just because of his jealousy.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: You don't really get to know much about him before he kicks the bucket and kicks off the plot. He is revisited a little later, but only in so much as explaining why he shot his own allies in the beginning.
Robert Aldrich
Robert Aldrich
- Didn't See That Coming: For his betrayal, Aldrich gets jumped by legendary CIA operatives Frank Woods and Alex Mason, who predictably massacre all of the men under his command and then shoot him dead. Woods outright claims that Aldrich's failure to predict them going after him was his big mistake.
- Dirty Coward: The instant that Mason and Woods come after him, Aldrich books it, leaving behind about fifty people to cover his escape. It doesn't work and Woods and Mason chase him down and kill him.
- Named After Somebody Famous: His name is a combination of two real-life American informants on KGB's payroll, Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames.
- Too Dumb to Live: Mason and Woods regard him as such, especially because he betrays the CIA while still being on American soil. That, and rather than run for the nearest vehicle and book it, he opts to hide out in a hotel bathroom, relying on his fifty-something guards outside to protect him. All it does is point a trail to where he's gone, and as such, Mason and Woods slaughter his entire security contingent, kick in his door and turn him into Swiss cheese for it.
Vadim Rudnik
Vadim Rudnik
- Dirty Coward: A somewhat more prominent example compared against Aldrich. He hides himself in a remote mountain base with an army of soldiers to protect him, and when Mason finishes massacring all of his soldiers and finds his hiding place, he flees for a secondary location that Mason must chase him down to. Then, Mason has to fight through another building's worth of soldiers and kick down an armored door to get at Rudnik, who flips a table and tries to hide behind it while trusting in the one guard he brought with him into the room to protect him. Mason being ''Mason'', it goes about as well as expected.
- The Spymaster: He runs one for Perseus. Part of taking him down involves identifying his three key assets, who will then be eliminated offscreen by another CIA team.
- Miles Gloriosus: He's a Major in the KGB, so in theory, he should be a very scary person to face in combat. He's not. He hides behind a literal base full of soldiers and the moment that Mason lays eyes on him, he runs, setting off a chase that culminates in him locking himself behind an armored door, with a number of soldiers outside to protect him. Mason saws through all of them, breaks into Rudnik's room and kills him.
Soviet Government
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
- Artistic License – History: By 1981, while he was a Secretary of the Central Committee, he was still a part of the Central Committee's Secretariat for Agriculture, which would make his meeting with the KGB rather odd as his role had nothing to do with the KGB or internal security.
- Historical Domain Character: He is a very real former General Secretary of the USSR, and appears in-game to hold a conference meeting in the mission "Desperate Measures"
- Ironic Echo: In "Desperate Measures", he repeats one of Kennedy's lines to Mason from the briefing scene in Call of Duty: Black Ops to Dmitri Belikov verbatim, with the only changes being due to his different political allegiance:Gorbachev: Comrade Belikov, we are in grave danger from the capitalists. Our collective, our very way of life is at risk.
Spoiler Character
Imran Zakhaev
- Voiced by: Dan Donohuenote
A "Cold War Hero" and high-ranking official in the Interior Ministry of the Soviet Union. For more information on him, check this page.
- Butt-Monkey: Downplayed, but unless specific choices are made so that he doesn't suspect anything, Zakhaev's appearance ends with him being beaten senseless or choked out.
- Canon Immigrant: The character is a very convincing portrayal of what a younger Imran Zakhaev would look like, implying a possible connection between the Black Ops universe (or a new timeline of it) and the rebooted Modern Warfare universe.
- Evil Genius: He comes across as a sort of evil intellectual in the KGB headquarters, talking and behaving much like an evil psychiatrist, in sharp contrast to the more The Brute personality of Colonel Kravchenko. Notable as he had received very little characterization in previous games.
- Faux Affably Evil: In regards to his psychiatrist-like demeanor to a point Kravchenko at his own Faux Affably Evilest refers to him having "beautiful sentiments."
- Older Than They Look: Or Younger Than They Look. His hair is black here while it was white in Modern Warfare. In this picture
, taken only a year after his appearance in this game, it has already became grey/white. He was praised as a "Cold War Hero", so it's not clear exactly how old he is, or how he aged so fast. - Psycho Psychologist: His general demeanor is basically that of an evil psychologist.
- Walking Spoiler: Talking about his true identity in any way spoils the fact that this version of the Black Ops continuity is set in the same universe as the rebooted Modern Warfare continuity, connecting the two series.
Multiplayer
NATO
NATO or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a military alliance created by the North Atlantic Treaty signed on April 4, 1949. NATO constitutes a system of collective security whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. Its main headquarters are located in Evere, Brussels, Belgium.
Within Black Ops continuity, NATO appears as a supporting faction against the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact and later Chinese-led Strategic Defense Coalition. Somewhere in 2028, NATO dissolved due to to internal deadlock and soon would be replaced with the Winslow Accord.
For Frank Woods, Grigori Weaver, Alex Mason, and Jason Hudson, click the above page redirect. For Helen Park, Russell Adler, Lawrence Sims, and Eleazar "Lazar" Azoulay, see the "CIA Safehouse" category above.
Jason Hunter
- Voiced by: David Chennote
- Butt-Monkey: Most of the Finishing Move demonstrations have him being maimed in all types of creative ways.
- But Not Too Foreign: He's the first-generation American child of a Korean family.
Kwan Song
- Voiced by: Judy Alice Leenote
- Action Girl: She is an expert in SCUBA and air-assist operations.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Some of her in-game dialogue consists of Gratuitous Korean.
- The Smurfette Principle: The "canonical" Requiem Strike Team consists of herself, Hunter, Vargas, and Garcia.
John Baker
- Voiced by: Michael Marc Friedmannote
- Cold Sniper: Subverted; his backstory and operator challenges show his preference for sniper rifles but cold-blooded he is not.
- Generation Xerox: His bio states his father was in the military - possibly the American paratrooper with the same surname from the original Call of Duty. He might even be the grandfather of Erin "Battery" Baker of Black Ops III and 4.
- Hot-Blooded: He's described as having a short temper in his bio.
- Mythology Gag: One of his quips in Zombies is "Mess with the best, die like the rest", which was one of Battery's quips from Black Ops III. With the implication that he is Battery's grandfather, this is very likely intentional.
- The Quincy Punk: He makes a punk rock gesture when selected in the menu, and his default outfit has him wear a spiked bracelet.
Zeyna Ossou
- Voiced by: Mara Junotnote
- Generation Xerox: Her father was a rally driver, which inspired her to have a fondness for automobiles.
- Gratuitous French: Naturally, as a Sengal native and DGSE agent, she peppers a lot of French into her speech.
- Wrench Wench: To the point that she jokes about having gasoline in her veins.
Wyatt "Bulldozer" Jones
- Voiced by:: Jeff Schinenote
- The Faceless: His face is always covered by his helmet.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Subverted. He wears intimidating full face masks, but his bio states that he strives to defend the defenseless, is a consumate soldier and an expert in hostage rescue.
Terrell Wolf
- Voiced by: Zeke Altonnote
A deadly Delta Force sniper who enlisted on his 18th birthday in honor of his deceased brother.
- Animal Motifs: Take a wild guess. He has a more general canine motif as much of his promotional artwork has him alongside a rottweiler (serving as the K9 Unit killstreak), much of his bundle is littered with canine puns, and his base skin is named "Alpha".
- Cold Sniper: He is known for hunting "the most dangerous prey" and the decorations on his weapons (not to mention the blood splattered on his fatigues) back it up.
- Scary Black Man: Being a huge guy with a equally large body count and excellent sniping skills sure makes him scary.
Karla Rivas
- Voiced by: Krizia Bajosnote
A Contras guerilla soldier who grew up around the chaos of the Menendez Cartel. Growing up, she knew she wanted to liberate her home of Nicaragua from Menendez's influence.
- Action Girl: Natch. It's also Truth in Television, as the Contras did indeed have plenty of women fighting in it.
- Torture Technician: In the outro cutscene of Season Two she's shown torturing one of Perseus' men to gain intel of Adler's whereabouts.
Samantha Maxis
- Voiced by: Julie Nathansonnote
A BND agent known for frequently going rogue and her mysterious past. See here for more information on her.
John Price
- Voiced by: Barry Sloane
An SAS Captain and commander of the elite Task Force 141. See here for more information on him.
To differentiate him from the standard MW Price, he's also given the moniker of Price '84 in Warzone.
- Adaptational Curves: He looks a bit chunky compared to his Modern Warfare counterpart.
- Composite Character: He's based on the reboot's Price in terms of looks and voice, and wears an 80's approximation of the outfit the original Price wore in "Crew Expendable" in the original Modern Warfare.
- Guest Fighter: The third instance of the Modern Warfare and Black Ops universes colliding in Multiplayer, following Classic Price in Blackout and Woods in Modern Warfare (2019).
John James Rambo
- Voiced by: Sylvester Stallone (likeness and archive audio)note
A traumatized veteran of The Vietnam War, and a jaded drifter. Thanks to his massive battle with law enforcement, he was slapped with a lengthy prison sentence. However, he's been given an offer in the form of a full presidential pardon if he can help in the battle against Perseus..
- Badass Bandolier: Helps justify where the player gets all this ammo from.
- Badasses Wear Bandanas: One of the most famous examples in media (and one to rival Woods). He even has some wrapped around his bundle's weapons.
- Barbarian Longhair: That iconic, scruffy mullet of his. Doubles as '80s Hair, natch.
- The Drifter: Thanks to his PTSD and the prejudice against veterans of the Vietnam War, he is homeless and unemployed.
- Guest Fighter: From Rambo, natch.
- Major Injury Underreaction: One of his quotes for when he gets downed really makes it seem like it's more annoyed by being critically injured than anything."Tough night."
- More Dakka: He wouldn't be Rambo if he didn't have his trusty M60.
- The Vietnam Vet: Alongside a few of the other NATO Operators.
John McClane, Sr.
- Voiced by: Bruce Willis (likeness and archive audio)note
A New York City police officer with a tendency to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- Agony of the Feet: He was told to remove his shoes for a post-flight stress relief exercise.
- Big Applesauce: He flew into Los Angeles from New York, if his strong accent doesn't tip you off.
- Cowboy Cop: Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker. Funnily enough, Hans Gruber actually calls him "Mr. Cowboy" until he learns his name.
- Guest Fighter: From the Die Hard franchise. His appearance is taken from the first film, befitting the '80s theme.
- Refuge in Audacity: His usual reaction to deploying certain support weapons, such as the Combat Bow."Oh, John, what the fuck are you doing?!"
- Spanner in the Works: As stated above, he tends to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. He probably didn't expect to be dropped into classified operations during the Cold War, or zombie outbreaks all over the globe.
Jabari Salah
- Voiced by: Ayman Samman
Colton "Stryker" Greenfield
- Voiced by: Christian Rummel
- The Faceless: The upper half of his face is covered by a Cool Mask.
- Generation Xerox: He is said to have joined the military just as his father, a disabled war veteran, did.
- The Perfectionist: He is described to be a very perfectionistic person in his bio.
- Super-Soldier: He has been touted by the Military Leadership as the world's first super soldier due to his synthesis of advanced military theory and technology.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: The name is Stryker with a y.
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact is/was a military alliance created on May 14th, 1955 as the response of West Germany joined NATO, and as such, the organization established as a counterweight to NATO. The Warsaw Pact serves as a supporting opposition faction within Black Ops continuity. After the Soviet Union had started to collapse and withdraw from the Eastern Bloc, the Pact began to weaken into the 1980s. Once the Eastern Bloc nations underwent social revolution in 1989, the Pact formally disbanded in early 1991 prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Sebastian Vargas
- Voiced by: Orion Acabanote
- Defector from Decadence: He was originally a member of the Colombian Military, but due to his beliefs that the Colombian military was inept and corrupt and disturbed by the growing power of the cocaine cartels, he defected to the anti-government M19 guerrila group.
- Jungle Warfare: Described as an expert in this field.
Jada Powers
- Voiced by: Erica Luttrellnote
- Create Your Own Villain: Being accused of spying for the enemy caused her to flee to the USSR and join the Warsaw Pact.
- Double Agent: Her biography speculates that the CIA may have engineered the scenario to make her one, perhaps unwittingly on her part.
- You Can't Go Home Again: She was accused of being a foreign spy and had to flee the United States for the USSR.
Yirina Portnova
- Voiced by: Kari Wahlgrennote
- Badass Bookworm: A mathematical prodigy, she was quickly recruited into the KGB when she came of age and became an expert cryptographer. She has no issue getting into gunfights, and fights just as well as the rest of the operators.
- Child Prodigy: She was a mathematical genius in her youth.
- Dark Action Girl: She's a member of the Warsaw Pact and takes a liking to dark, gloomy clothing.
- Fiery Redhead: Inverted. She's actually pretty calm and level-headed most of the time.
- Perky Goth: She stands out for her rather dark choice of clothing. Her default outfit consists of a spiky leather jacket and fingerless gloves, and then there are her two purchasable skins, "Tactical Goth" and "The Ghost" that accentuate this even more.
Ingo Beck
- Voiced by: Kaiser Johnsonnote
- Deadpan Snarker: Being so experienced with handling explosives gave him a dry, witty sense of humor, as it's not such a big deal to him anymore.
- Demolitions Expert: Described as one.
- Dissonant Serenity: His bio implies that he has a sarcastic sense of humor completely at odds with his line of work as special operative for East German Diensteinheit IX.
Mendo Garcia
- Voiced by: Jason Canelanote
- Psycho for Hire: Described as one by his bio.
- Recruiting the Criminal: Originally a brutal enforcer in a Cuban pro-revolutionary street gang, Garcia eventually became a highly skilled hitman who now works for the Cuban intelligence service, the DGI.
Harry Stone
- Voiced by: Damien Gerardnote
- Create Your Own Villain: Being dishonourably discharged from the SAS caused him to seek out mercenary work and eventually be recruited into the Warsaw Pact.
- Evil Brit: He's of British origin and fights for the Warsaw Pact now.
- Expy: Comparisons are made to Simon "Ghost" Riley, being a deadly British soldier with a balaclava.
- The Faceless: His face is hidden by his green balaclava, and all of his skins so far similarly have him don masks.
- From Camouflage to Criminal: A dishonourary discharge triggered his Face–Heel Turn, ending up being a Hired Gun.
Maxim Antonov
- Voiced by: Elias Toufexisnote
A former Russian mobster who got a life sentence after he took the blame for his boss' son. After refusing to admit what actually happened, the mob got the authorities to commute his sentence into service for the Spetsnaz as a gift for his loyalty. His Warsaw Pact allies don't really trust him due to his mob ties and thus is given the more dangerous tasks such as bomb defusal and hazmat work.
- Fall Guy: A self-inflicted example. He decided to take the fall for his mob boss' son and was awarded a position in the Spetsnaz instead of serving the rest of his sentence.
- The Mafiya: He was a Russian mobster before being sent to jail.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Being a former Russian mobster trusted with the dirty work no one else wants to do definitely makes him count as one.
"Ghostface"
- Voiced by: Roger L. Jacksonnote
One of many serial killers donning the "Ghostface" mask and identity.
- Anachronism Stew: Scream came out (and takes place) in 1996, while the main events of Black Ops Cold War take place in 1984.
- Ax-Crazy: And how.
- Big Bad: Of "The Haunting" of 1984.
- Easter Egg: In Warzone, during "The Haunting", if any Operator answers a phone, Ghostface will actually directly acknowledge and make personal threats towards them. If Ghostface himself picks up, he calls the playable Ghostface an impostor.
- Legacy Character: As in his home series, he's just one of many psychopaths taking up the "Ghostface" mantle.
- Manchild: Wouldn't be Ghostface if he weren't.
- Mysterious Past: True to fashion, his identity is completely hidden by the Ghostface mask and cloak. All that can be presumed about him is that he's male, American, and very crazy.
- Mythology Gag: If the player is using Ghostface in Warzone and answers his call, the Ghostface over the phone will accuse him of being an impostor.
- Troll: In true Ghostface fashion, he gets off on causing mischief and will mock the Operators personally over the phone.
Multiplayer/Warzone Antagonists
Vikhor "Stitch" Kuzmin
Vikhor "Stitch" Kuzmin
Kill the rest.. Adler is mine..
- Voiced by: MJ Kreyzernote
- The Bad Guy Wins: He successfully captures Adler at the end of Season 1 and Naga distracts the rescue team into a decoy site while they haul Adler to Verdansk. When Adler is rescued in Season 3, Stitch doesn't sweat it because "their work is done".
- Big Bad: For Multiplayer and Warzone.
- Broken Ace: His chemical knowledge made him one of Kravchenko's most trusted allies. After being caught by the CIA and sent to the gulag, Perseus found him a broken man questioning his loyalty to the homeland that betrayed him.
- Broken Pedestal: After being sent to the gulag by Kravchenko for being captured and tortured by the CIA, he has a hatred for him just as big as his hatred for Adler.
- Create Your Own Villain: Working on Nova 6 under Lev Kravchenko doesn't exactly make him a good guy (though it's anyone's guess if this was by choice), but being sent to the gulag by him undoubtedly made him much, much worse.
- Dragon-in-Chief: He’s a top dog in Perseus, and he is considerably more dangerous than the leader himself. Case in point, his whole scheme was far more damaging than Perseus’ plan to nuke Europe and blame the U.S. on it. Then it’s subverted when it turns out the man we know as Perseus passed away in 1983, a good two years after the Campaign. Stitch succeeded him and took the mantle of Perseus since, making him a full on Dragon Ascendant of the organization the whole time.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Unlike many villains of the previous games, Stitch doesn't seems to care where his underlings came from, as long as you're useful to him you're in. This is especially poignant since the previous Perseus were revealed to be passed away before the events of Multiplayer, which means the cosmopolitan composition of the current Perseus organization were entirely due to Stitch's own preferences or interests.
- Eye Scream: He has his eye taken out by Adler out of revenge for Kravchenko taking out Weaver's.
- Face Death with Dignity: He is very calm even when he is about to get executed by Adler.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: This could be some Remember the New Guy? at play, but Stitch was pretty much only a random scientist under Kravchenko's command. After being rescued from the gulag by Perseus, he becomes a deadly soldier now calling his own shots.
- Genius Bruiser: He is a graduate of the D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia and worked in the KGB's Laboratory 12. Eventually, he managed Nova 6 production on Rebirth Island under Lev Kravchenko.
- It's Personal: Understandably, he is out for Adler's blood.
- Mad Eye: His left eye has permanently become this as a result of being stabbed in it by Adler out of revenge for Weaver.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Being sent to the gulag for the crime of being captured and tortured by the CIA motivates him to defect from Kravchenko and join Perseus.
- My Nayme Is: It's not "Viktor", it's not "Ihor", it's... not a Russian (or Ukrainian) name at all.
- Trauma Conga Line: His backstory isn't pretty, which perfectly explains why he's such a vengeful monster by the events of Season 1. He was originally one of Kravchenko's lieutenants until he was captured and tortured by Adler, then being found by Kravchenko, having his rank stripped from him, and being sent to the gulag for his failure. By the time Perseus found him, he was left a broken shell of a man.
- You Have Failed Me: Being captured by the CIA gains the disapproval of Kravchenko, getting him sent to the gulag.
- You No Take Candle: Naturally, as a Russian, he speaks a broken style of English, omitting articles such as "the" and "a".
Kapano "Naga" Vang
Kapano "Naga" Vang
- Voiced by: Greg Chunnote
- Animal Motifs: Serpents. His name, "Nāga", is the name of a serpent deity in South Asian folklore, and the writing on his headband, "ตํานานพญานาค", translates to "legendary serpent". He also wears a pendant of a snake on his dog tags and his character select animation has him "slither" up to the camera.
- Bad Boss: According to his bio, his men are terrified of him due to his bad temper and brutality.
- Blood Knight: He has the time of his life on the battlefield.
- The Dragon: To Stitch.
- The Dreaded: He is feared for his time as a drug trafficker and warlord in the Golden Triangle. This is what got him recruited into Perseus.
- Insistent Terminology: He refers to the zombies and various other Dark Aether abominations as "demons".
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Downplayed. He wears a headband with Thai writing on it despite being Laotian.
- Meaningful Name: "Nāga" are divine deities in Asian folklore which resemble serpents, and Naga is indeed cunning and cold-blooded much like a snake.
- McNinja: His outfit basically makes him a Laotian ninja.
- Sinister Shades: He wears a pair of aviators. In the Season 2 trailer, we see the lifeless body of his victim in its reflections.
Freya "Wraith" Helvig
Freya "Wraith" Helvig
- Voiced by: Michelle Viscusinote
- Badass Longcoat: Her "White Queen" attire (and its related "Furious Queen" and "Sand Queen" palettes) has her sporting a pretty impressive one.
- The Comically Serious: Some of her lines in Zombies definitely come off as this. Particularly when handling the Cymbal Monkey."Priming explosive... primate?"
- Composite Character: To Battery and Seraph. She has the former's hairstyle (particularly in her Black Ops 4 outing) and the latter's personality traits and overall attire.
- Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Her default outfit has her wearing a skintight stealth suit.
- Kubrick Stare: Gives a pretty nasty one every time she's selected as a playable character.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For all intents and purposes, she's essentially a Norwegian Seraph.
- White Mask of Doom: Her "Havoc" skin has her wear one, which coupled with the stringy hair makes her look like Joey Jordison.
Roman "Knight" Gray
Roman "Knight" Gray
- Voiced by: Mark Sheppardnote
- Downloadable Content: Knight is unlocked by purchasing his operator bundle pack in the COD Store as well as Fuze, unlike the rest of the Perseus operators.
- Face–Heel Turn: In 1980, Knight was dismissed from M16 due to “conduct unbecoming” in Afghanistan while supporting the Mujahideen operations against the Soviets and was soon enlisted to Perseus and was given free rein to exact his revenge on NATO.
Owethu "Jackal" Mabuza
Owethu "Jackal" Mabuza
- Voiced by: Gabe Kundanote
The ruthless leader of his own PMC. He specializes in getting rid of his competition, recruiting the strongest and executing the weakest. Over time, he's become such a prolific warlord that Perseus got in contact with him, greatly expanding his power.
- African Terrorists: A particularly lethal one.
- Expy: His "Beast Master" skin makes him resemble Black Panther. His general look comes across as a combination of Mace and Ghost.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: It's stated that his sudden rise to power came out of absolutely nowhere.
- Guns Akimbo: His promotional artwork has him wield dual PM63s.
- Hand Cannon: The Season 4 introductory cutscene has him wielding a Desert Eagle (actually named the "Hand Cannon" in this game, funnily enough).
- In the Hood: His Tier 100 skin and its variants give him a reactive, holographic jacket and matching outfit.
- Malevolent Masked Men: He has a scary-looking mask that makes him look like he just came from Army of Two.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Nobody can pin down his true origins.
- Scary Black Man: Oh yes.
- The Social Darwinist: He hunts down rival PMCs to recruit their strongest soldiers while brutally executing those he deems weak.
Kaori "Kitsune" Tanaka
Tanaka "Kitsune" Kaori
- Voiced by: Erika Ishiinote
The daughter of a notorious Yakuza boss in Kobe who made a name for herself and was eventually recruited into Perseus. She is excellent with technology and works as their appointed hacker. She specializes in weaponizing numbers stations to sabotage via sleeper agents, nearly killing Woods.
- Animal Motifs: Foxes. Her moniker, "Kitsune" is "fox" in Japanese, and she has a deceitful, cunning nature that helps her make for an effective burglar and hacker.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Her exclusive "Kyubi" skin has her dress up in business attire fitted with blood, a cape with an oni design, and a matching oni mask.
- Classy Cat-Burglar: This was her occupation before being recruited into Perseus. Even long after, she still clearly has money on her mind and is constantly chasing the big dollars.(after killing a group of zombies) "Maybe I should start taking their wallets.."
- The Cracker: She is introduced hacking into a numbers station to activate sleeper agents in Woods' CIA team, very nearly getting him killed. Her dialogue also has countless technological references and humor.
- Dragon Lady: As a deadly female Japanese hacker, she definitely qualifies.
- Eye Scream: Considering her criminal background and Eyepatch of Power, something along these lines is very likely to have happened.
- Finger Gun: This is her schtick. Notably, she loves to do this whenever activating her sleeper agents or any type of ambush.
- Gratuitous Japanese
- Guns Akimbo: Her promotional artwork has her wielding dual TEC-9s. Sadly, since it's classified as an SMG in-game and not a pistol, you cannot do this yourself.
- Money Fetish: In Zombies, a lot of her dialogue alludes to her wanting supple payment for her work. Back when she was still a petty crook in her native Kobe, she was an infamous cat burglar."Okay, Weaver, let's talk bonus payment."
- Self-Made Woman: She was frustrated with the idea of not being able to join the family business due to being female and didn't want to be given opportunities purely based on her family name, so she studied cybersecurity and trained in martial arts on her own time and earned the respect of the criminal underworld on her own terms.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: Most of her skins lack a sleeve.
- Techno Babble: A lot of her quotes have her using computer tech as euphemisms.
Benito “Fuze” Ortega
- Voiced by: note
- Downloadable Content: Fuze is unlocked by purchasing him in stores just like Knight.
- Handicapped Badass: He is still able to fight in combat with his prosthetic legs after he lost his human legs.
Pawn Takes Pawn
Pawn Takes Pawn
For Bruce Harris, click the above page redirect.
The late, great Joseph Bowman's son. He is behind the "Pawn Takes Pawn" viral marketing campaign, desperately in search for answers concerning his father’s death.
William Bowman
- Cold-Blooded Torture: He inflicts this on Bruce Harris, a CIA agent who served with Hudson back in "WMD" for Information regarding Perseus.
- Foreshadowing: His briefing to the player includes a phrase eerily similar to Adler’s Catchphrase of which he uses as a Trigger Phrase to Bell.William: We still got a lot of work to do.
Adler: We’ve got a job to do. - Hacker Cave: We can only find him in such a room so far.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Ends up being one for his mother, Angela Bowman, after her husband and his father gets killed in Vietnam while she is pregnant with him.
- You Killed My Father: He’s on a warpath, attempting to find answers pertaining to his father’s death.
