WMG / Modern Warfare

Wild Mass Guessing for Modern Warfare.

The next Infinity Ward Call of Duty will be Future Warfare

Although there are still a few loose ends, Modern Warfare is basically concluded story-wise. After what was done in three games, it would be pretty hard to top without a dramatic change. They've done the past, they've done the present, the future is the next logical step. It would be a hard-ish sci-fi set in the near future, most likely. Potential things that will be in it include:

• Captain Price, the third. Either the daughter or granddaughter of MW Price. Yes, you read that right. Daughter.
• Continuing the above, women will finally fight alongside their Spear Counterpart
• Walkers and mechs, a la Battlefield 2142
• Space combat! Similar to Shattered Horizon, except mainstream. Expect a multiplayer gamemode for this
• China will play into it, since both Russia and the Middle East have been done.
• Russia will be an ally, not an enemy.
• There will be a future equivalent of TF141.
• John Price will have died from lung cancer during or shortly before the events of the game -or-
• John Price will return briefly, and die in a https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WMG/ModernWarfare?action=editHeroicSacrifice since he is dead anyway
• There will be an old guy with half his jaw missing and heavy scarring all over his body Gaz/Ghost/????

Oops, someone already predicted this.

The toughest enemies in Survival are robots

• It would explain their extreme resistance to bullets and lack of any facial features, as well as those radio antennas on their backs. The Russian military must get tired of losing so many men after the hundreds you gun down in the first 20 rounds or so.

The First Horseman is Makarov.

• That's why the achievement pops after the nuke goes off. In the third game we see that he is the one that activated the nuke. I realize they probably didn't come up with him by then, but add them together and it makes sense seeing as Makarov was part of the Ultranationalists from the start. Heck, he could even have been somewhere at Al-Fulani's execution.
  • At least as far as the CoD Wiki is concerned, this has been confirmed as true.

The reason why Frost was nowhere to be found during "Down The Rabbit Hole"

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Years ago, when he was a teenager, he and his sister were walking back home from school. They were set upon a group of thugs, who when proceeded to beat both of them and sexually assault his sister, which he was helpless to stop. In spite of this traumatic experience (or, perhaps because of it) he joined the military and eventually entered into the elite Delta force. His name "Frost" was due to his nature as The Stoic. He suppressed his anxiety for several years during his service, but when he heard Alena screaming as she was dragged away by enemy soldiers it brought back his memories and caused him to trigger. Directly after "Scorched Earth" ended, he had a Freak Out and pointed a gun at Sandman's head, demanding that he call in a helicopter to pursue Alena's captors. After this incident, he was deemed unfit for duty was not sent to rescue Vorshevsky.
  • He has a sister?

The Modern Warfare trilogy was planned to follow traditional hero-villain story structure, if you take the countries as characters.

A traditional story structures is that the beginning of a story introduces a hero and conflict, which builds into a climax where the hero is weakened and almost beaten, only to rise up again and triumph over the villain at the end. In Modern Warfare, the hero is America and the villain is Russia (yes, don't even try to deny it). Britain is the Hypercompetent Sidekick. Modern Warfare 1 introduced the conflict and the players, in Modern Warfare 2 America gets invaded and badly beaten by Russia, and Modern Warfare 3 was planned to have America's counter-attack that beats Russia (including that invasion of Moscow). This also explains why you play so many different characters and why they're all faceless non-entities: they're all just parts of Composite Characters.

Of course, now that Infinity Ward is staffed by entirely different people who knows what Modern Warfare 3 will end up looking like.

• So in other words, the Modern Warfare games are basically an Hetalia: Axis Powers Dark Fic from the viewpoint of the Nations' citizens? It all makes sense!

Ramirez from Modern Warfare 2 is Mexican.

And he has a moustache. Not that a wild guess.

• Or you know, could be Puerto Rican, because he's working for the US military and Puerto Rico is a US province. But then again, he could just be a latino from any other country from Latin America.
  • Or even simply an American of Hispanic descent. As of the 2010 US Census, there were a little over fifty million Hispanic and Latino Americans living in the United States.

The MW2 Spec Ops mission Terminal takes place in an Alternate Universe where Allen was shot but not killed by Makarov

• The MW2 Spec Ops mission Terminal takes place in an Alternate Universe where Allen was shot but not killed by Makarov, earlier in the mission instead of right at the end. He wakes up, picks up his weapons, and winds up fighting the authorities who have no idea of his undercover position. He reaches the elevators and is about to leave, until Yuri, from MW3 regains consciousness from where he passed out, and shoots Allen dead before passing out himself.
  • This would actually make more sense from the perspective of "framing the Yank for the bloodshed". If Yuri was at the metal-detectors when he shot Allen in this scenario, that would not only place Allen closer to where he actually encountered resistance, but his fatal wounds would match the security guard's pistol (because that's what Yuri was using) in forensic ballistics. These facts would be more convincing of "the Yank did it" than leaving him for dead by one of the attackers' own bullets a distance away from the fighting.

Makarov's fixation on a "single man" is a purposeful inversion of the series' original motto of "In war, no one fights alone."

• Makarov is obsessed with the idea of a single man, his entire philosophy, as based upon the earliest Modern Warfare 3 trailers, is that "The will of a single man is all that is needed to create a global conflict." However, Call of Duty has always been about the group - it was its original selling point way back when to differentiate it from Medal of Honor - and it is rare that you are alone for an extended period of time. So while Makarov is trying to achieve his goals alone, with few allies and even fewer friends, he is doomed to fail, because in war, no man fights alone.
  • I daresay that qualifies as Fridge Brilliance. In fact, it looks like it already is on that tab. Essentially, the villains failed because they were all out for themselves and their own goals, while the heroes were able to work together, despite what were implied to be some major differences (Kamarov and Price don't seem to have much love lost between them...)

John "Soap" MacTavish's father is the Demoman

I wonder why no one noticed that they are both Scottish, black, and an explosive specialist.

• Soap's not really an explosives expert and is definitely not black.
  • On the other hand, though, the Demoman is surprisingly reasonable when he's sober. Maybe Soap turns into an effing lunatic if he's had too much to drink.
  • He may not be a demolitions expert specifically, but he is still the guy Price hands all the claymores and C4 to. Certainly there's a reason for that (beyond the usual "player has to do this because they're the player", I mean).

Captain Price was sent to get Nova 6

He was only wounded on the Tirpitz, and the rescue during the credits of CoD 2 was canon. Being a crazy badass, he rejoined the SAS and went on the ship. He escaped there too, just because.

Nova 6 gas in Modern Warfare 3

.In the trailer for Paris (or was it Berlin?) for a few seconds there is a shot that has a lot of greenish gas covering the streets. Also the Russian government created Nova 6 and Makarov may know where hidden caches of it are. There have also been leaked details saying that in one level on Britain you are playing SAS trying to stop a terrorist attack...

• No Nova 6 in Modern Warfare 3. Although the gas used by the Russians is very similar, just as deadly but not quite as messy in what it does to its victims.
• This troper suspects that was Nova-6, or more accurately a more degraded variant (Nova-5?) since Makarov didn't have the same technical knowledge as Dragovich...
  • If it was Nova-6 it must have been a really weak version. Nova-6 destroys exposed skin, and the gas attack victims look fairly intact. Plus it's apparently possible to survive exposure to Unnamed Chemical Agent with just a gas mask instead of a full hazmat suit like you needed in that one level of Black Ops. And Nova-6 is more yellow than green.
  • The Gas could be the Nova Gas from COD: Black Ops multiplayer.
• Perhaps a more advanced, less-messy version, Nova 7?

The campaign levels of Modern Warfare 3 involving Paris and Berlin will contain no depiction of French or German soldiers

.The result of this will be people from those countries getting pissed off. The game may contain a Hand Wave of "The EU forces have been completely decimated" or something to that effect.

• But the trailers have shown GIGN commandos in France and German Leopard 2 tanks in Berlin. I think it's safe to say that there will be no French or German player characters, but soldiers of both countries are definitely present, most likely as NPC allies.
  • French and German forces both appear in Modern Warfare 3, as NPC allies.
  • And they are pretty competent as well. The only reason the French forces are so few in number is because the surprise chemical warfare attack killed most of the GIGN before they could deploy, and the German tanks that aid you are only stopped because they literally have a building fall on them.

Shepherd's betrayal of TF141 had nothing to do with the DSM; it was a case of You Have Outlived Your Usefulness.

Simply put, once he had Shadow Company stocked with all the best equipment money could buy, he no longer needed the 141. He knew there was no way they would get on board with his plan, and he knew that they would inevitably turn on him when they found out sooner or later, so he considered them a "loose end" and decided to remove them.

The American Modern Warfare 2 campaign is an autobiographical movie on Pvt. Ramirez' time in the war.

• I mean, come on. The way the action is so OTT, and how Ramirez is always the big damn hero in his missions. It's clearly the autobiography of a delusional, egotistical and arrogant US army private, trying to tell the world he won the war on his own.

Price died at the end of CoD: Modern Warfare

• Soap got pretty messed up in that fight, probably suffered a nasty concussion in the explosion. As for why Roach can see him too... uhm.... Ramirez did it.
  • No Roach was hit by shrapnel caused by the multiple breaches and the stress caused him to hallucinate.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon will take place in the same universe as Modern Warfare 2.

A little tenuous on the basis of a single trailer, but what the heck: It's set in our world, the protagonists are American, the invading bad guys sound Russian and fly Russian planes. Plus, it fits both franchises tendencies to have the fate of entire conflicts resting on the shoulders of a few apparently-normal soldiers.

• Jossed; there is no narrative link. It's just another game taking a cue or ten from MW2.

The Juggernauts are Russian Mercenaries hired by the U.S

Notice how the Shadow Company speak American English and the Juggernauts seem to speak Russian.

Spec Ops is a VR training exercise

Think about it. When you take a sniper round to the head or get riddled with bullets from an LMG, Your officer wouldn't actually say "That was a failure. Let's run it again". Therefore, it is just a simulation.

The two flashback missions in Call of Duty 4 are an exaggerated account.

• Think about it. It's 2 men versus an entire army that's well equipped with weaponry that hadn't even made it to the German military (The G36C was used by these terrorists? Doubtful). Think about it: Price tells a story. Due to the length of time between the event (15 years) and probable head trauma since then (he's probably bumped up his head a few times since), the details decay. So, sure, Price and MacMillan might've killed some people on their way to the hotel, but sneaking under the noses of 10 APC's and about 50 troops? then running across an open field that's being guarded by 50 troops and a helicopter? Not to mention that, in the escape, they must kill at least 150 people before the heli arrives. So, the theory is that they killed troops on their way to the "APC and Troop field", sneak by maybe 15 and a few APCs, run across an open field that has maybe 20 people and an unspinned heli protecting it. Then, for extract, they might kill 50 or 60 people before extraction. It's still out there, but quite a bit more plausible than facing a future(at the time)-tech army.
  • COD4 probably takes place in the near-future, thanks to the G36C. It was introduced in 1996, Price's missions take place 15 years in the past, therefore the game is set in 2011 (and MW2 would be set in 2016). Or it's Gameplay and Story Segregation. And the whole game is exaggerated, you kill hundreds of guys in every mission.
    • It was produced in 1996, it was introduced in 1997. Do you really think that the audience is expected to believe that Zakhaev's thugs could really intercept hundreds of newly-produced, yet-to-be-introduced-to-an-organized-arm-force weapons? That's on the same page with, say, the Taliban suddenly having a few hundred SCARs. Therefore, Price is lying due to age or trauma. He got the gist right, but he mucked up the details.
    • Actually, yes.
    • Damn you and your response, although I expected more of this to make your point. With that, I say that had there actually been G36Cs in their hands, then Zakhaev was more than a munitions handler, he was an arms dealer.
    • You're forgetting the fact that this is CAPTAIN PRICE we're talking about.

At the time of COD 4, The Ultranationalists were already winning the civil war

If the Ultranationalists are an insurgency, how is it that they have tanks, helicopters, APCs etc?. Because they've already seized most of Russia and its military equipment. The Loyalists just have light infantry and a few helicopters. they are actually the insurgents. Now, the reason why the West was so shocked the Ultranationalists won was because they believed that as soon as Zakhaev was killed, they would collapse due to internal power struggles. There were indeed power struggles, but Makarov and/or Vorshevsky assumed control and Russia fell to the Ultranationalists.

Modern Warfare 2 takes place in the same timeframe as Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Y'see, Shepherd convinced NORAD to send Bad Company to Russia at the same time Soap and Roach were retrieving the ACS module from Kazakhstan. They're both called back and sent to South America. Whereas Soap's team invades Russia again, Bad Company tries to hunt down the traitor to them, who just so happens to be one of Shepherd's accomplices. The Russian colonel, however, worked for Makarov and got orders to cap Aguire and invade America to assist in the country's downfall. At the end of Bad Company 2, they're sent to Canada, where they will meet Ramirez and Foley and Dunn.

• If that's the case, it's interesting that at the end of the day it didn't matter that Kirilenko was stopped from using the scalar weapon: Price dropped an EMP on the U.S for them.
  • Which also helps explain how Soap and Price go from Black Ops to International Terrorists in the blink of an eye.
    • Except that the U.S. is already fighting a full scale war in Russia with nothing going on in the U.S. throughout most of BC2...
    • Where's it say that in BC2? All I ever got was, "Russians making EMP."
    • BC 2 clearly shows the Americans trying to stop Russians from invading South America and Alaska, and failing. Cutscenes show Europe, China, and everywhere else falling to Russia.
    • This actually fits in with a different theory I had which may or may not be on this page where, basically, Modern Warfare 2 takes place over about... oh, say, 9 months? That would fit, wouldn't it?
    • Dear god, I think you may be on to something.

Ghost from Modern Warfare 2 is Gaz

They have the same voice actor, are both from the SAS, and Ghost covers his face. If Price managed to survive the Ultranationalist attack on the bridge why not Gaz? We didn't SEE Gaz get shot in CoD4, so it's possible.

• You can quite clealy see Gaz get shot in the head while he's struggling to get back up. Also, when you meet Captain Price in Modern Warfare 2, he talks to Soap about their past experiences but doesn't seem to recognize Ghost at all. Not that it really matters whether or not he was Gaz...
• I assumed that was some random red shirt, since I couldn't look directly at the guy (and thus bring up the name), and I tend to focus more on the guys shooting me than what my allies look like. Besides, people can survive gunshots to the head.
  • Usually not shots that are point blank with a Desert Eagle, though. Really, just think about what Gaz's head would've looked like if the game had allowed for a realistic rendering of what that would do.
  • It is a well known fact that SAS operatives have special training that allows them to resist headshots. They're also fireproof.
  • Gaz was propably heavily scarred from the bullet. That's why he wears a mask.
• Jossed by the Modern Warfare: Ghost comic miniseries, where Ghost is revealed to be a brand new character, Sergeant Riley.

• The comic is Ghost's fictional background, as he was Faking the Dead after MW. When Zakhaev shot him, he survived, but was hideously scarred (like Arseface from Preacher) and wears the mask to disguise this fact. The skull on the mask is a bit of dark humour, as bone was exposed by Zakhaev's shot.

• Or maybe he's Gaz's ghost.
• according to CODwiki: "The player can use the "noclip" console command on the PC to see Gaz's death from a closer angle. From the side, it appears that Zakhaev shoots Gaz in the upper back, but from Soap's view it appears he was shot in the head. In some cases, Zakhaev will shoot the ground almost a foot behind Gaz, yet it still causes his head to explode with blood." So....in other word,He's Ghost

  • No matter which way you look at it, Gaz is (a) Ghost!

  • Possible fuel for the theory: in the training level for CoD4, Price mentions that Gaz holds the squadron's record for the CQB test, 19 seconds. In the training level for MW2, a Ranger makes reference to a creepy dude in a skull mask (read: Ghost) beating the Pit in 18.2 seconds. Yes, the Pit is about a dozen times easier than the CQB test, but still.

Ghost from Modern Warfare 2 is Gaz, and Captain Price is the same Price from the World War II installments.

Both Price and Gaz are immortal, which is why Price has been around since World War II and his own on-screen death. Gaz has to hide his face and go by a different name because Soap isn't in on the secret, assuming he's not also disfigured from the gunshot that killed him. The backstory about Ghost detailed in the comics is completely made-up as a cover story he can tell if anyone ever asks him about his past exploits.

• Possible crossovers that would fit this:
  • Price and Gaz are immortal.
  • Price found Shambala during his World War II exploits and kept himself a large enough supply of the Tree of Life's sap to take every once in a great while for longevity without the insanity. He gave some to Gaz just before the fuel tanker on the bridge exploded, which is why when Zakhaev shoots him at point-blank range, his head remains intact instead of going splat on the pavement.
  • Price isn't really immortal. He was sent on a mission to stop the creation of the atomic bomb, and he was stranded in World War 2 after running out of go-back-in-time potion.
  • Or perhaps "Captain Price" is an alternate form/avatar of Arthur Kirkland/England.

Captain Price is a Time Lord

Someone had to say it. But how else could he fight in World War 2 and 2011?

• Yup. His hat is his TARDIS, y'know. As for the voice change, that was just a very, VERY specific regeneration.
• No, his mustache is obviously his TARDIS.

General Shepherd is working with Liquid Ocelot.

That is, if the theory that Shadow Company (Shepherd's goons at the end of Modern Warfare 2) are mercenaries (and they do look similar to, say, Raven Sword or even Praying Mantis), not to mention that Shepherd has The Plan or some sort. Maybe they're taking control of the Armed Forces - Shepherd, for the US Military, and Ocelot, PM Cs - to try and get rid of the Patriots.

• This troper thinks that General Shepherd is more likely an agent of the Patriots, and that Shadow Company is a black op unit under the Patriots' command. Shepherd's rhetoric about history being written by the victors (ie. him) seems to suggest that the General's goals are very much well-in-line with the Patriots' obsession with controlling the digital flow of infomation.
  • One can even say that the loading screens before each mission represent the POV of the proxy A.I.s that run the Patriots.
• However, it's possible that General Shepherd may be following a warped vision of Big Boss's dream (note: he wants moar soldiers and patriots to serve), and is only allied with Liquid Ocelot to help along this goal (unaware of his true motive). He may even be a Patriot mole in the first place.

• Also, the protagonists are using stripped-down versions of the SYSTEM nanomachines. Explains why they regenerate and have HUD.
  • Explains why Allen could kill civilians without a second thought; his nanomachines suppressed the trauma. He'd have been in for one hell of a Heroic BSoD if he'd lived long enough to see Liquid use Guns of the Patriots.
• Also, Price knew Snake. CQC, anyone?
  • Roach certainly seems to know it, too; the pistol/tactical knife combo looks a lot like Naked Snake's CQC stance.
    • Probable that Snake taught Price, then Price taught Soap, who taught Roach...
    • It's worth mentioning that Hideo Kojima and Infinity Ward are on very good terms with each other (Kojima going as so far to say it's his favorite development studio)...
• "Tomorrow there will be no shortage of volunteers. No shortage of Patriots"...

General Shepherd conspired with Makarov all along

Arguments pro (spoilers ahoy):

1. Shepherd chose Allen to go undercover under Makarov and succeeded without a glitch.
2. ...right until the last moment where Makarov SUDDENLY knew that Allen was an American and used him for a False Flag Operation.
3. In most missions where 141 targeted Makarov's organization, the latter somehow always knew of them in advance.
4. Makarov knows where General Shepherd is when Price asks.
5. In the end, however, he double-crossed his ally judging him unreliable but in one way or another, everything played right into his hands (and once, into his eye).

Arguments against:

1. Makarov loathes Americans. It's somewhat ambiguous, however, as it's never made clear whether or not he honestly believes his own rhetoric about Zakhaev or if he considers Zakhaev, being dead and all, irrelevant and is just using his image to get things done.

• And Zakhaev loathed Al-Asad but didn't hesitate to use him, then leave him hung out to dry when his usefulness was ended. Makarov learned from a master.

1. General Shepherd's plan has, from the start, no room for Makarov to be anything but a pawn; Shepherd's plan to use a Russian invasion to galvanize the American population into getting up off the couch requires that Russia be defeated when they invade, and Makarov would have to be stupid to think a counter-invasion wouldn't result shortly thereafter. Of course, this assumes Shepherd doesn't just simply lie to him convincingly enough to gain his trust.

• It might as well be confirmed, they both wanted war, just for different reasons.

Makarov is actually Kamarov from Modern Warfare

He pulled a Face–Heel Turn at some point after Zakhaev's death. Simply because their names are so similar and because no mention of Kamarov is made in MW2 and vice versa. Would also explain how Makarov and Price agreed to cooperate so fast.

• If that's true, though, he must have gotten some serious plastic surgery at some point, considering the two look nothing alike...then again, Makarov's probably just crazy enough to do something like that.
  • Except for the face that their facial structures look quite different and they have different sounding voices.
    • As revealed in Modern Warfare 3, Makarov and Kamarov are different people.

The sequel to Modern Warfare 2 will be Postmodern Warfare

At some point, someone will try to kill the player (and not just their character).

• And instead of the player being part of the good guys, they could be the terror- wait, that actually happened.
• There will be a bisexual flamenco-dancing vampire, as well as a reveal that the villains have been dead for a hundred years!
  • I hate you because it's so accurate.

The sequel to Modern Warfare 2 will be Futuristic Warfare.

It's the only logical progression, from WW2 to present day to sci-fi.

• No, the sequel has already come out. It's Mobile Suit Gundam.
  • A Gundam game that follows Modern Warfare's gameplay would be so awesome that it could potentially destroy the world.

Modern Wardare shares a universe with Haruka Nogizaka's Secret, with Gentou Nogizaka as one of Makarov's arm dealers.

First point, copypasta'd from the Haruka Nogizaka's Secret WMG page:

"Haruka's father made her learn Russian to facilitate his arms dealing. When he sends out his private army, we see a fighter launch from an airstrip. It is clearly a Su-27 derivative, which must have been purchased clandestinely. Learning Russian is highly unusual for Japanese people despite the countries neighbouring each other; the most likely reason for Haruka having learned it is that she is being groomed for business dealings with her father's arms suppliers."

Second point: the Ultranationalists conquered Russia by the time of MW2.

The invading Russians are a rogue pro-Ultranationalist splinter faction.

Yes, it's retarded, but it explains why the invasion force didn't get reinforcements and used non-standard equipment. It's also highly probably they were on the oil rig, too.

• Actually, it's implied that the Ultranationalists from MW1 managed to take over the Russian government in the five years between MW1 and MW2. So the invasion force is both the Ultranationalists and mainstream Russia in a sense, because the Ultranationalists are Russia now.
  • Even so, either the not-Ultranationalist government would blame America for siding with the Ultranationalists in the aftermath of Makarov's attack (which is just retarded - the Loyalists and Russian forces were fighting with America - even if they did a face heel turn, there would have been a much more serious attack than just some CIA agent helping terrorists), the Ultranationalists pin the blame on America, or Russia is angry at America, but didn't send their military after America (hence the lack of modern Russian equipment, reliance on NATO weapons, and no jets). (What the Hell was the point of the attack if the Ultranationalists were in charge, anyway? Yes, they leave an American behind as part of the conspiracy, but still.) Not to mention the Ultranationalists weren't very popular when they first began.
    • No jets? The Russians definitely had jets...They're said to be over I-95 during the invasion video, and you see them strafing American positions a few times.

Captain Price of Modern Warfare joined the army specifically to follow his great-great grandfather's footsteps.

Or however back the Price of Call of Duty goes. He join the military specifically because the older Price did.

The ending of Modern Warfare 2 is actually a reference to the climax of Half Life Full Life Consequences: Free man

"...then Shepheard went at Soap and stabed him, but Soap got nife out and stabbed Shepheard in brane."

Ghost is Rios from Army of Two undercover.

• The skull mask is pretty much Rios' defining feature.
  • Nope. TF 141 most likely would have never included mercs, no matter the credentials. I doubt Rios would have the patience to learn an accent. Ghost isn't as...wacky as Rios, either.
  • Here's a possible compromise: Maybe Ghost knew Rios and picked up a habit or two from him?

The events of Modern Warfare 2 lead to a global nuclear holocaust.

• Russia invades the US. Various countries would see this as a perfect opportunity to settle some scores whilst the the US, Europe and Russia are occupied. China would invade Taiwan; they'd probably settle the dispute over the Spratlys once and for all by invading Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia while they're at it, too. Indonesia would attempt to invade Australia. Pakistan, which may have become controlled by hardline anti-American political groups, decides to attack India. North Korea would attack South Korea and Japan. Syria and Iran would attack Israel and US-occupied/controlled Iraq. Many of these powers control nuclear weapons, and these weapons have already been used, and it's a very slippery slope from tactical nuclear weapons use, to strategic weapons use, to a full-scale nuclear attack and a retaliatory counter-strike.
  • China is known to consider or at least planned to launch EMP strikes on Taiwan.
  • North Korea has nuclear weapons, and Japan would be able to develop them within weeks of a decision being made. Each of these nations would be willing to use nuclear weapons to ensure victory, stave off defeat, and their use would cause the other side to retaliate.
  • India and Pakistan may launch such attacks on each other as a first strike.
  • The possibility of Israel using nuclear weapons on Iran is very high, as is the potential for Iran to use them on Israel.
  • And of course, the big one. United States vs Russia. A Russian sub uses a nuclear torpedo to sink a US carrier group. The US launches a nuclear Tomahawk at the Russian fleet at Petropavlovsk. Germany uses nuclear mines to destroy invading Russian land forces. Russia attacks a NATO airbase in France, France attacks a Russian staging area inside Russia. Russia launches a nuclear attack on Paris, London and Berlin and an American base in Afghanistan. The UK, France and the US retaliate with a full scale launch on all Russian military installations and cities. Russia retaliates by launching its own full scale attack with its remaining ICBMs, bombers, and SSBNs.
• This is probably what would happen in reality. It's a safe bet that Modern Warfare 3 will ignore the idea for the sake of not being titled "Call of Duty: Sticks n'Stones Warfare,'' though.
  • given that the series so far has been an ever-escalating cycle of attack, revenge, counter-revenge, and counter-counter-revenge, the possibility of the series ending in mass nuclear war is a pretty valid possibility.

And to elaborate on this...

Modern Warfare 2 takes place in the same universe as Fallout

Washington D.C in ruins by the hand of a nuclear war during the course of the 21st century. Modern Warfare 2 was just the catalyst. Soon it becomes World War III. China annexes the destroyed Russia. War ensues between America and China.

• The Fallout universe goes off on a tangent back in the 50's, the world went into 'yesterday's world of tomorrow.' The computers in Fallout are supposedly as advanced as they ever got, even a single computer monitor from the MW series disproves this. Sorry.
  • Maybe it's a specific Alternate Universe from that of Fallout. All I'm going on is that the Washington Monument has metal reinforcing rods like the Fallout 3 one, though.

Cpl. Dunn is actually Alex Mercer.

Okay, so there's a government conspiracy afoot, right? Shepherd was secretly involved in the BLACKLIGHT project as well as his own scheme. When he went to recruit Allen, Mercer snuck in and consumed Dunn, proceeding to infiltrate the Ranger battallion in hopes of getting to Shepherd. Unfortunately, they Rangers were transferred back to Virginia shortly before the Russians attacked, so Mercer; still trying to maintain his cover, played the role of Dunn. Think about it, how many times have you seen Dunn take enough bullets to kill you twenty times over, and still get up? Immediately at the start of Second Sun, he takes a bullet to the shoulder and isn't impaired in the slightest. As for why he doesn't just use a devastator or start tearing Tanks apart barehanded, since the events of Prototype, he's trying to be focus more on the "hero", less on the "sociopathic" part of being a Sociopathic Hero, and doesn't want to needlessly slaughter the Rangers (Let's assume Dunn was part of BlackWatch before transferring to the Rangers, so he had it coming).

• Alternately, Dunn wasn't Blackwatch, he was actually perfectly innocent; Alex acts scared shitless as Dunn because that's how the others expect him to act, it's part of his cover. Dunn was mortally wounded in combat and was the first such soldier Alex both found and was able to consume as a Mercy Kill without anyone seeing; this actually gels well with [PROTOTYPE] canon, which suggests via character development as the game approaches its conclusion that Alex (aka, Blacklight) is growing out of his Sociopathic Hero phase. In order to learn how to act like him, Alex would've had to have absorbed him fully with his memories intact instead of pounding his brain into paste; Dunn displays a sudden bout of patriotism after retaking Whiskey Hotel when another Ranger expresses a wish to counter-invade Russia because in taking Dunn's memories, Alex inherits his desire to serve; Alex could also wish to make up for the horrible things the real Alex Mercer did, and once someone else kills Shepherd, presumably crippling Blackwatch, sticking it out with the Rangers would be a convenient way of doing that.
• If were going with the played by the same actor Epileptic Trees I propose that Dunn is actually Dale Earnhardt◊

Modern Warfare takes place in the same universe as the Tom Clancy games.

• In both, Russia was taken over by Ultranationalists with the same goal - the restoration of Soviet Russia. The first Ghost Recon takes place in 2008 - it's highly possible the US didn't officially get involved until Al-Asad's monkey business.
  • They should have had the XM29 in Modern Warfare. I liked GR's version of that gun.

The main character of MW3 will be the Astronaut from the beginning of Second Sun.

• The nuke didn't kill him; the shockwave never would've reached the ISS. In fact, the ISS exploded because of how awesome the Astronaut was, not because of the nuke. Then, in a level cut from the game, the Astronaut surfs back down to Earth aboard one of the piece of the station, lands in D.C., and begins clubbing Russian troops with a moon rock. The only reason that he didn't take back the White House is because he was too busy taking back the Capitol, Supreme Court building, Hampton Roads, and the Lincoln Memorial; Jimmy Ramirez and his squad got to Whiskey Hotel literally five seconds before the Astronaut would've.
  • And then he eventually becomes elected as President of the United States after he beats back the Arizonan support of the Russian invasion, and gets betrayed by Richard Hawk. This explains how President Wilson knew how to surf back to Earth from orbit on a piece of the space station!
    • That means the astronaut was chuck norris, but he is called sat1, Chuck Norris' name is too awesome to change, even for a codename.

Captain Price will be the Big Bad of Modern Warfare 3.

• He's already taken a turn for the nihilistic. In Modern Warfare 3, he will put a permanent end to war by putting an end to humanity, most likely via nuclear holocaust, and he'll trick your PC into helping him do it.
  • Agreed. He lost his mind in the gulag and caused Shepherd's betrayal by blowing a nuke up over the East Coast. If you listen in on the radio conversations in Of Their Own Accord, Exodus and Wolverines! you will notice that while the war is tough, it was Unwinnable for the Russians long before Price launched the missile. And Soap plays his Dragon unknowingly.
• Alternatively, Modern Warfare 3 will initially involve the US launching a counterattack on Russia. Price will be the Big Bad, but does it to force the superpowers to have to work together to take him down and finally end the cycle of revenge.
  • So...he's going to execute the Zero Requiem?
    • Alternatively to the alternate (and most likely), the REAL bad guy will be "Suzy" (the guy MacMillian hit in the head in "All Ghillied Up") out for revenge against Price and MacMillian. After the main character (probably Ramirez) gets killed, a nuke explodes, and there's a climactic battle you'll be saved by Gaz, Ghost (who turns out to NOT be Gaz but rather his twin brother), and MacMillian.

The "place" that Nikolai refers to at the end of Modern Warfare 2 is the last remaining Loyalist stronghold.

• It makes sense, and provides a window for the conspicuously-missing Kamarov to come back. Maybe Modern Warfare 3 could even involve helping the Loyalists retake Russia from the Ultranationalists at some point...
  • And in the first cutscene of Nikolai landing the helicopter at the camp you see a heavily bandaged Gaz limping out of the hospital tent, having overheard their arrival over the radio and deciding to snap out of his five year coma so he can meet up with his CO in a Heartwarming Moment!
  • Mostly confirmed by MW3, though obviously without Gaz, and Kamarov didn't show up till much later. Said Loyalist stronghold turned out to be in India, and was promptly attacked by Makarov's goons. Also, the Loyalists end up being let back into Russia peacefully, as President Vorshevsky turned out to be farm more reasonable than the other Ultranationalists.

Gary 'Roach' Sanderson is the protagonist of Marathon.

• Look at the similarities between the two. Marathon Protagonist: Is familiar with advancing with only his weapon against an immense horde of foes, can reload a double-barrel shotgun with one hand, and is made from the bodies and minds of many dead warriors. Roach: Advances with only a weapon as backup against an immense horde of foes, reloads double-barrel shotguns with only one hand, and is dead. Don't ask me how this works but it does.

Crysis and Modern Warfare 2 are set in the same universe

• We know that in Modern Warfare 2 countries can inexplicably become far more powerful than they have any right to, and the North Koreans do so in Crysis. Meanwhile, Modern Warfare 2 takes place about 5 years before Crysis, which is more than enough time for Jake Dunn to become a commissioned officer, pass Delta Force selection, join Delta Force, and get his own Nanosuit, as well as get used to surprising happenings.
  • In addition, the reason why Ramirez and Sanderson are constantly placed on point, never shown fully, and regenerate quickly (not to mention survive normally lethal wounds, and have a HUD) is because they're wearing the basis for the Nanosuit.

Ghost is Sgt. Jackson

• While his head may have ended up looking like a knifed watermelon (poetic justice?), he still had a perfectly fine corpse from the head down. So they take a horribly scarred burn victim with prior military experience(a certain Sgt. Jackson, perhaps?) and transplant his mostly working head onto the high-end SAS body. The vocal cords were still intact, so that's why he sounds exactly the same, since during his recuperation he was in the UK and picked up the right accent. This makes what happens after you get the data quite ironic, since if he hadn't killed Ghost, he only would have lost 29,999 men.
  • "General Shepheard you let Al-Asad nuke me and turn me into radiation victim. Britishes came and put science in me to make me live and strong and big now..."

The entire plot is a Gambit Roulette by Britain

• MI6 played EVERYONE from the start. After realising that Zakheav had survived they helped him supply Al-Asad with the nuke, knowing that he would use it to bring down any invasion force with him. They then played Shepard to start the war between America and Russia. The reason that Price and Makarov co-operate so quickly is that they're both part of the plan. The next stage of the plan is for Price and Soap to somehow stop the war before it goes nuclear, but has economically and militarily crippled Russia and America. With the two superpowers gone, Britain steps in to fill the gap. China obviously isn't an issue hence why they haven't been mentioned. The final playable scene is Soap and Price being knighted or receiving some sort of medal by Her Majesty. Of course knowing Soap's track record for final scenes the medal pin will end up piercing his lung or something...

Britain is an Unwitting Pawn for China

Where have the Chinese been in all of this? You really think we'd hear nothing from them about all of this? They're using Britain to play everybody else against each other. Once Britain has played their cards, China will unleash their own version of Task Force 141, led by Fu Manchu, Captain Price's long-lost twin brother ^note  Fraternal twins, obviously.

The name of the level "No Russian" is actually an in-joke by the game designers.

• He says "No rushin'?" because for most of the mission, you can't run and only walk.

The United States would have repelled the Russians anyway.

• The Russians only had as much success in their attack as they did because they hit the US by surprise. By the end of the fighting in DC, there are American jets making bombing runs. All Price did was make things a bit easier on the American infantry.

Sergeant Foley is a tactical genius, on par with Grand Admiral Thrawn and Lelouch

• The man took back Washington D.C. with a squad of soldiers and one extremely tenacious Mexican. The U.S. force deployed to Russia will consist of two soldiers: Sergeant Foley to issue the orders, and Ramirez to carry them out.
  • RAMIREZ! TAKE THE KREMLIN!
  • If that becomes a mission objective in the climatic mission for the Foley/Ramirez/Dunn campaign, Modern Warfare 3 will be the best game ever.
    • "So there I was, doing my rounds, patrolling the Kremlin, when this Mexican guy pops out of my own hat and nearly shoots me dead! How did he even get in there? Must have taken some kind of tactical geniu-FOLEEEEEEEEEY!!"
    • Is it ever said that Ramirez is Mexican? I mean, he could easily be Filipino, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Cuban, or any other kind of Hispanic. Anyways, yes, Foley, will take over Russia, with his subordinates, the Heroic Mime of Hispanic descent, and Alex Mercer.

Cloning technology exists.

• Why does it seem Price has been in every IW game since the series started? Those are his clones. Ghost is also a clone of Gaz.
  • The first to use cloning were the Nazi's. They had perfected it between 1944-45. Which is the reason most Germans soldiers all look alike. But it to late to put it into to good use, as Germany was getting over run by the allies. Eventually it was recovered by the British when they occupied Germany.

PTSD

• Soap, suffering from post traumatic stress disorder hallucinated the entire second Modern Warfare game from inside a mental hospital. How else could you explain a plot that crazy happening.
  • Angry fanboys still raging over the dedicated servers hallucinating that Soap is hallucinating?
• Altenatively, Soap is drugged up and hallucinating/dreaming in a Russian hospital. It explains why the plot makes no damn sense, and why Price and Gaz/Ghost are there- he dreamed his dead comrades back to life.
• Or Soap died in the Loyalist chopper at the end of Modern Warfare, and the sequel is his Dying Dream. How did you think he got promoted to Captain so quickly?
  • Because he was the only one who wasn't now a war criminal or dead to take down Al-Asad and Zakhaev?

No Russian is actually a test by the government to see how many psychopaths are playing

The proof? You're never once told you HAVE to shoot at anyone. Anyone who actually followed Makarov's orders did so on the command of a terrorist.

Everything is The Plan by Burger Town

You won't be laughing at me when Modern Warfare 2 comes out.

Captain MacMillan is the Astronaut from Second Sun

After the events of CoD4 Captain MacMillan joined NASA and became a highly decorated astronaut. On his fifty-seventh mission Captain MacMillan was setting up an orbital sniping rig so he could kill every single dog on the planet in an attempt to save his fellow soldiers from hours of frustration and stupid deaths. As MacMillan was just about to line up a shot that would kill over 9000 dogs and penetrate through the Earth's core to kill both Shepherd and Makarov (who he both knew were traitors before the first game started) Captain Price's nuke goes off. Distracted by the pretty, shiny, and completely harmless light, MacMillan accidentally fires his rifle into his personal GPS satellite. As MacMillan was using Stopping Power, it annihilates the satellite, several African countries, and pushes him into space. Luckily, MacMillan has been saved by aliens and is going to save the world in Modern Warfare 3.

Makarov is pro-Loyalist.

Bear with me on this. Okay, so the Ultranationalists are winning the civil war with the Loyalists, and achieve power in the Russian government. If Makarov is pro-Ultranationalist, why does he apparently carry out terrorist attacks on the Ultranationalist government? And why does he apparently work with Shepherd to provoke Russia into a war with the US that they know is not going to end well? The obvious answer is that Makarov supports the Loyalists, and is pushing the Ultranationalists into war with the US so the US can force a full-scale regime change. This appeals to Shepherd, who wants to strengthen the US militarily. So, they cook up a plan to make the Ultranationalists attack the US and achieve both their goals.

Of course, Makarov hates Price because, in helping to kill Zakhaev, he's created a martyr that strengthens the Ultranationalists. Shepherd, of course, betrays Makarov because he's a convenient scapegoat, and killing him eliminates proof of his involvement in the plot. He tries to take out Soap, Price, and the rest of TF141 just to make sure they can't report any incriminating evidence against him they might have come across.

Makarov doesn't hate Americans. He doesn't hate anyone except the Ultranationalists, and is pushed into taking an extremely...extreme stance on bringing them down.

• Actually, there are two sects of Ultranationalists in the game, those loyal to the Russian government, and those loyal to Makarov.
  • Sure, Ultranationalists could be loyal to Makarov. Hell, that would fit this interpretation of Makarov like a glove if he made the anti-government Ultranationalists his buddies and pitted them against the government's troops. No matter who dies, he wins.
• None of which explains Makarov's criminal ties, his apparent animosity towards the remaining Loyalists, the fact that he adopts Communist symbolism, the general Lenin/Stalin symbolism between himself and Zakhaev, and the fact that most in Russia seem to believe they will defeat the US (including the Loyalist). If Makarov really IS a Loyalist plant, he is playing a very long, very strange, and very risky game.
  • Not the one who came up with the theory, but....Criminal ties: He has to support himself somehow and oppose the Ultranationalist government somehow. Animosity toward Loyalists: Where was this shown or mentioned? According to this theory, he's opposed to the Ultranationalist government that we know is currently in power. Communist symbolism: If he's faking being an Ultranationalist, of course he's going to be using their symbolism. Lenin/Stalin: Irrelevant. Russia believing they can defeat the US: Also irrelevant. According to this theory, the entire point behind him provoking a war is to push the Ultranationalist government to a breaking point by pitting it against an enemy it can't defeat.
    • The animosity to the Loyalists was more or less mentioned in his bio, in a few pieces of enemy intel, and in the EU (mainly some interviews and a few promotional maters). He is confirmed to have been a political terrorist shortly after his discharge from Spetsnaz, and it is known that Zakhaev apparently took him under his wing personally, and that he was apparently active during the Russian Civil War. The only way for a Loyalist agent to get those kinds of credentials would be as a deep undercover operative. And I mean so-deep-he-is-standing-on-the-Earth's-core-deep. Secondly, while he is clearly gunning for the Ultranationalist leadership, the theory that he is trying to topple the regime by using its hubris to smash it headfirst into the West comes across as a very, VERY risky gamble at best. From what we have seen of the Ultranationalists so far, they are remarkably powerful, particularly for a nation that should by all accounts be in abject, ruinous decline (see real world population decline + the costs of the Civil War + the continuos Loyalist issue), and it is quite likely that were it not for the decision to send a large portion of the military on an army-sized kamikaze mission to Washington DC, they might well have the upper hand. And if the Ultranationalists were somehow able to defeat the West, Loyalist Makarov's choices for aid pretty much boil down to China or some emerging superpower in Africa or the Middle East, which is hardly a solid bet considering not only the power of Ultranationalist Russia in any such case but also the probably costs to Russia itself from such "help." And while the Lenin/Stalin connection may be irrelevant in the game world save perhaps as a way for Makarov- in whatever capacity he is actually acting as- to fashion himself as Zakaev's heir, it is highly likely it does mean something here in the real world, where characters are not made entirely randomly. In short, unless Makarov is under such deep cover nobody but the probably-already-dead Loyalist bigwigs knew about him (or at least neglected to pass that information on to their Western allies) , we have no reason to believe he is a Loyalist partisan, and as such Occam's Razor kicks in.

Modern Warfare 3 will primarily take place in Europe

Think about it: The United States has just repelled a invasion of the Mid-Atlantic, and presumably the Ultranationalists are still in power in Russia. Even if Price and Soap get some indisputable evidence about Shepherd, the fact still remains that Russia invaded the United States, and, oh yes, the Russian leaders who did such an attack are still free. The ship has already left sail, for both sides. Russia, however, would be unable to go again at the Continental US (okay, maybe Alaska), so more than likely their target would be to go after Western Europe, particularly the UK (thus meaning that, for Price and Soap, It's Personal now). The "Nuclear War" scenario will somewhat occur, but for sake of gameplay they will be handwaved as being stopped by Missile Defense systems or similar things (that said, there WILL be at least one level in a city that has been nuked). The European Setting will bring the COD franchise full circle: it started in Europe during WWII, and now it's WWIII in Europe.

• As previously mentioned, the US Strike team will be Foley, Dunn/Alex Mercer/Dale Earnhardt, and Ramirez, who will be doing everything...
• And in keeping with the theme of someone getting nuked in every Modern Warfare game (Aftermath in the first, and the nuke Price launches to cause an electromagnetic pulse in the second, where Ramirez bears a good bit of a nuke as well), some poor PC will also get nuked, even if you're only given brief control like the astronaut in Second Sun or the President of Qurac.
• Partly confirmed by the new trailers; England, France, and Germany are all major locations, though America is also caught up in the action.
  • This one was actually pretty accurate. There's a pair of missions in America cleaning up the Russian invasion, then the rest takes place primarily in Europe as Russia rolls over everybody else.

Shepherd is a good guy, Price is the true big bad.

Captain Price is and has always been a Terminator (of the living humans + robot parts + control chip variety), explaining his resilience to normal gunfire throughout the games. He was sent back in time by Skynet in order to prepare the world for its coming by destabilizing the U.S. and Russia. He's been active sense world war 2, explaining his immortality and why the MW world is so different from our own. Price used his SAS cover to start the Russian civil war in the first place by shooting off Zahkaev's arm, thus driving him mad, and had all the soldiers under his command replaced with cyborgs. The only reason he stopped the nuke launch in MW 1 was because Skynet was not ready to strike yet. Jackson was also a terminator and his dead body was recovered from Quarac by Sheperd, alerting him to the threat. Soap and Roach (both of whom are cyborgs, Soap supplanting Price's position while he's infiltrating Russia) actually decoded the ACS module at the Russian base to set up the Russian attack. Makarov was hired by them to begin with (using money gained with future knowledge of the stockmarket) and was alerted by them that Allen (a reversed engineered cyborg created by Sheperd, but retaining his humanity) was a spy. Ramirez and Sergeant Folley are also reverse engineered versions of the cyborgs who have kept their humanity. The information they regain from the safe house in Arcadia shows Sheperd that almost all of Taskforce 141 have been replaced by Skynet. He thus begins sending the taskforce on suicide missions in order to kill them off, while his own trusted squad of cyborgs deals with the Russian invasion. This explains why he killed Roach and Ghost with a high powered pistol to destroy their CPU's and then set them on fire to get rid of any backup processors.

• The VIP in Wolverines was John Connor, who was on his way to debrief Price about Skynet's opening moves.
  • The nuke launched by Price was his way of trying to disable Sheperd's loyal cyborgs with an EMP, however Sheperd had noticed their weakness after the Qurac debacle and had their processors hardened to prevent this.
  • Ghost is the Gaz Terminator, who's cover of living tissue was destroyed by the headshot from Zahkaev.

Shepherd isn't dead

If you were to hit in the eye with a knife you wouldn't necessarily die instantly. Plus, Captain MacTavish was inflicted with worse injuries and will most likely survive. He'll probably show up in the next game with an eyepatch and a score to settle.

• He was dead, but Cerberus rebuilt him.
• Plus, in Black Ops, Weaver gets violently stabbed in the eye and survives to spend the rest of the game wearing an eyepatch.

MacMillan was meant to make an appearance in Modern Warfare 2...

But he escaped into the tall grass and the developers couldn't find him. They say he still haunts Wasteland, sniping unsuspecting Suzies...

Ramirez will return in Modern Warfare 3.

He's the only American PC in the Modern Warfare series that doesn't die, so he's clearly special. As for what he'll do in the sequel, it's possible he could either appear as a promoted NPC who's taken several levels in badass (a la Soap in Modern Warfare 2), or reprise his role as player character. Either way, he'll end up as America's answer to Soap: a recurring character who represents his country.

• Jossed.

Modern Warfare 3 will have two endings.

At the end of Modern Warfare 3, Ramirez or the new American PC will meet with Soap and fight him. You chose who to play as, and the story diverges from there.

• Which brings upon the question of why two people on the same side would fight, barring the terrorist charge, and even that would be stretching for an explanation.
  • Ramirez, kill that terrorist.
  • They're not on the same side, at least so they think. Soap and Price are now considered international terrorists and Ramirez is still a U.S. Army Ranger, and seemed to be under Shepherd's command (Shepherd talks to Sgt. Foley in the briefing before the first mission in the D.C. area). While they may fight for the same ideals, and would be on the same side if Ramirez knew the truth about Shepherd, Ramirez does not. At least yet. Which sets up the possibility of Ramirez, Soap, Price, and Foley working together in a Badass Unit.
    • The 'Everyone working together' ending would only be possible if you got every single piece of enemy intelligence, which now have a story-line purpose rather than just collectibles.
• Jossed.

There was going to be a betrayal anyways

Shepherd didn't betray Task Force 141 because he was bitter over the events of Call Of Duty 4, he was doing damage control. A betrayal would have happened eventually even if Shepherd helped Ghost and Roach escape. Case in point: The nuclear missile launch in 'Contingency' was all Price's idea, how could Shepherd trust Price or any TF 141 member after that? Had Shepherd not done it first, Price would have done it eventually though he might not get Soap on his side.

• Which brings upon the question that why wouldn't he- if he were on the up and up- be unduly angry over the nuke? Sure, there is the fallout from the ISS getting destroyed (both metaphorical and literal), but that seems like a fairly cheap price to pay for pretty much breaking the electronic backbone of the REF in and around Washington. It would've taken some explaining, of course, but it would probably have been accepted. That, and there is the fact that damage control doesn't explain half of what we see Shepard do.

Archer and Toad survived.

In "Loose Ends" when you are guarding the DSM, they are your sniper cover. After you leave and are fleeing, Ozone and Scarecrow (if they've survived that long) die. But Archer and Toad aren't mentioned. Perhaps they will be the PCs of Modern Warfare 3.

• Jossed. They're not.
  • doesn't necessarily mean they're dead, though.

Zakhaev was one of the first STALKERs and knew of the the Zone's activity

Why the hell would he meet in Chernobyl? He was going to use the technology of the C-Conscious as a new weapon to help restore mother Russia, the only problem is that he realized how unstable it would be eventually abandoned the project, which led to the C-Concious going rogue before 1996. At the time of the assassination attempt, he simply knew the location well, that why he decided to make the arms deal over there. This could also explain the strength of the Ultranationalists, the Zone's harsh environment has trained them well enough to fight off humans with regular ease. — Andaria

• This... makes far more sense than it should in some aspects, but not nearly enough overall. While his runins with the Ukrainian military (and their Hat of being utterly corrupt, ineffectual, and generally useless) might well have led to his disdain/hatred of an independent Ukraine (and thus support of a reabsorbtion of the Ukraine back into Russia proper), and potential conflicts with Clear Sky leading to distrust of the West (which Clear Sky is- rightfully or wrongfully- believed to be an agent of), and it would also go a fair amount towards explaining how Zakhaev can survive otherwise devastating injuries and still be somewhat combat ready and how his men can operate in and around radiation/radioactive weapons as well as they do, but it just lacks a few things to make it even remotely plausible. For one, if he is a STALKER, where did his reputation as an arms dealer come from? Did he decide to just randomly drop his lucrative arms contracts for a year or so to go spelunking around a radioactive wasteland? Or did he emerge from said radioactive wasteland and suddenly become filthy rich within a few years? And if he were a STALKR, where would he have found the time to raise get married and have a son (Viktor), or to attach himself the the Ultranationalist banner? And why are the dogs in Chernobyl fairly normal rabid dogs rather than the mutant blind ones we see in STALKER? And finally, how would he have pieced together the C-Consciousness at all when the first person to do so and get out alive (canon Strelok) also destroyed said C-Consciousness? And this is before we talk about the all kinds of strange things in STALKER that we don't see in the game (for instance, why would anybody- Zakhaev or the West- risk deploying all that they did when a sudden surge could kill everybody who isn't in shelter and do god knows what to the equipment).

General Shepherd's plan in Modern Warfare 2 had nothing to do with re-establishing America as a military power.

Instead, he provoked a war between the two biggest nuclear powers in the world, the US and Russia, so humanity would destroy itself in a nuclear holocaust. After seeing 30,000 of his troops die in "Shock and Awe" while the rest of the world "just fuckin' watched," Shepherd suffered a Heroic BSoD and realized that Humans Are Bastards, so he decides to pull a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on the entire human race. He stages the No Russian massacre, using Makarov as a pawn, in order to start World War III. Nuclear weapons would probably be used in such a conflict and most of humanity would be wiped off the map. Presumably every other country would take sides in the conflict and the whole world would be beating the crap out of each other (it's not the first time this has happened).

Ultranationalist Russia took over Europe during the five-year Time Skip.

It has been done, it could be done again. America and Britain most likely bailed out early and tried to negotiate "peace" with Russia because Britain is too weak (see the WMG above about MacMillan being an astronaut) while America has a large part of its armed force stationed in the Middle East and is scared of nuclear apocalypse. This would explain why America didn't get any intel from its NATO allies and why the Russian expeditionary forces are using weird weapons. As for the weapons that aren't currently used by any European armed forces (FAL, TAR-21 and Striker), they used the FAL because it's the western equivalent of AK-47, the TAR-21 because it uses STANAG magazine and the Striker because it's banned in America and they're huge jerks.

• Main problems: Firstly, such an offensive by the Ultranationalists would almost certainly have triggered some nuclear exchange, or at least some form of all-out war that would have been unlikely to just end. Secondly, the Ultranationalist army was bloodied and depleted from the Civil War, so who how would they get the resources to pull it off? Thirdly, this is unlikely to have resulted in an info blackout like we see in the game, because La Résistance would probably be hard at work piecing together the actions of the occupiers and any other tidbits regarding Ultranationalist intents, and you can hardly completely hide the buildup of a massive amphibious fleet, now can you? (though to be fair, that is one of the better excuses I can find for the fact that apparently nobody in Europe feels like calling Washington to tell them about the little matter of a massive Russian navy heading West) Fourthly, there is the issue of the UK. Simply put, in-game we hear absolutely nothing about Britain- where a good half of the Player Characters are from, by the way- and pretty much no evidence to explain that Soap, Roach, etc are acting as forces for a Government in Exile (say, the Free British Forces). And even if Britain has somehow escaped occupation, there is still the issue of why nobody in London saw fit to inform Washington about the aforementioned big honkin' Russian Navy passing by Dover or Scarpa Flow.
  • As mentioned before, America is scared of a nuclear apocalypse after losing 30,000 men to a single warhead, so they didn't nuke the Russian forces. The only nuclear-armed countries in Europe are Britain, which America most likely tried its hardest to discourage from sending the Vulcans on a one-way trip to Moscow, and France, which many works of fiction portrayed as Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey. CIA might've gotten some intel from resistance movements, but they're most likely denounced as fake or paranoia since an invasion of the East Coast is much less plausible than Alaska or Hawaii. Also, as crazy as they are, it's unlikely that the Ultranationalist strategists would've told the Antonov fleet to fly over America's only remaining best buddy.
    • True, the bomb Al-Asad placed in Quarac might have stopped Western nuclear retaliation, but it was unlikely to have prevented conventional deployment against the invasion, which should have happened in any case due to the Mutual defense pacts regarding NATO. Secondly, the issue is not so much of the Ultranationalists being stupid enough to fly over Britain (even THEY aren't that crazy. Yet.), but of getting the amphibious FLEET (which would have been damn well required for an operation like this after the initial airborne landing) past, because from the European ports of the Russian Navy (most likely St. Petersburg, Severmorsk, or Murmansk), the amphibious fleet is pretty much hamstrung passing either Scarpa flow in the North of Britain or the Channel Ports in the South where they are the LEAST likely to take such news lying down, with shades of Sealion and all). Granted, they MIGHT have been able to rebase at, say, the French Breton ports or the Iberian Atlantic ports, but the simple fact that such a force would have been in the middle of a nest of Allied resistance cells and intelligence assets far from home, where security would be a nightmare, seems dubious. And as for the Antonovs, the simple fact is that they wouldn't have to fly over Britain to risk being detected. Long range British recon near the channel coupled with French/Belgian/Dutch resistance would likely spot such a move and relay it to London and then to Washington (and do we have any reason to believe the communications equipment was brought down by the ACS?). That, and the Royal Navy, the USN, and whatever Exiled navies remains as well as possibly a few other allies (the Canadians would- if nothing else- be keeping a very close eye on this, since they are vulnerable in three ways- the Transatlantic, the Trans Pacific, and the Polar route) would be patrolling the Atlantic studiously, so it is hard to believe either a large fleet of very large transport planes or naval vessels would slip by unawares. The main way to avoid that- the Vladivostok-Panama-Havana-DC route- is prohibitively long, and puts the fleet at risk from the US Pac. Com, the Australians, and the Kiwis. That, and the most pressing issues inverse are not addressed: firstly, how the Ultranationalists were able to take their victorious but savagely bloodied war machine from the Civil War and Russia's devastated and Loyalist partisan ridden capacities and somehow turn them into a war machine that steamrollers European NATO and any other potential Western allied aid sometime within five years. Even if we accept the possibility of the Ukraine and Belarus rejoining voluntarily and the local Russian minorities aiding the invasion while perhaps cutting something out with Serbia and Montenegro, they STILL are facing the Baltic Republics, Germany, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Italy, and Slovenia. At least. That is quite a feat. And secondly, there is the simple matter that nowhere do we hear of this massive occupation. One would think that the Ultranationalists accomplishing what Lundendorff, Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, etc al. failed to do would warrant SOME kind of mention by the characters.
  • Except that as we see in the game, the Russian forces weren't supported by any kind of amphibious forces. And if they're strong enough to take over all of Europe, their navy, or at least their air force is probably large and strong enough to force USN and Royal Navy out of a good part of the Atlantics. Regarding the secrecy issue, they could've launched the fleet from one of the Mediterranian countries, landing at night scattered on multiple airbases (a forced curfew by an army that bombards its people with rockets for the lulz wouldn't be too implausible) or only getting mid-air refueling. Yes, it would've been longer and more resource-consuming than a trip across the Atlantic, but except they're careless enough to land too many planes in a single airbase, few people would've had any idea where they're going. As for how they were able to take Europe so quickly, let's say that it's the Rule of Cool at work. This is WMG, not Just Bugs Me. The point is having fun, not being logical.
    • Good point regarding naval basing in the Med, I hadn't thought of that. But still, that would still mean slipping out either from the Straits of Gibraltar (which would likely have been riddled with Western spies, even if the occupiers could restrict access to the coast) or the Suez Canal (which would have either required getting permission from Egypt or forcing the canal and running the risk of destruction in the confines of the Canal Zone and the Red Sea). Regarding the idea of there being no amphibious fleet, the simple fact of the matter is that Antonovs alone could not have carried what we see ingame (apparently a fully functioning army complete with armor, artillery, and airborne assets) to DC. At the very LEAST the heavy artillery and the tanks would have had to be transported by ship, particularly after the Antonovs were intercepted on their third or fourth run and either shot down or damaged so severely as to be put out of action. And yes, I do realize that WMG is to be fun, and I hope I have not hindered that. It's just that I have fun by discussing some of these things and questioning how they would actually work.
    • Al-Asad's forces could've taken North Africa during the Time Skip. From what we know, in MW1 the US forces are fighting in Saudi Arabia, while in MW2 they're fighting in Afghanistan, which most likely meant that they have been pushed back. Also, the game did show the BTRs being air-dropped from transport planes. Yes, it's not realistic, but it's relatively believable compared to some of the game's more outlandish scenes.
    • Perhaps, but the fact that Al-Asad dropped a bloody NUKE on his own capital city- which did not defeat the US but only ruined a good deal of his still-American-occupied country- probably dampened a lot of support for him. And his cowardice probably didn't do any favors. If anything, the OpFor we face in Afghanistan are far less equipped and armed than the ones we faced in Quarac in ME1, and their proximity to Russia may well indicate that THEY are the ones being pushed back, with the survivors relying upon Russian support from across Central Asia to continue the fight.

Modern Warfare shares universe with Uncharted.

A few years before the Russian Civil War, the Ultranationalist party sent Lazarevic, along with a part of their armed forces to the Himalayas to find the Shambhala and bring back the Cintamani stone to help the Ultranationalists to conquer the world.

• Sometimes before the first game, Soap found the Shambhala and drank the sap of the Tree of Life, explaining his invincibility and his mountain climbing skill.

• A couple issues with this: firstly, Lazearvic's goons are shown to be hired guns from various corners of the world, including some Americans, which doesn't fit with the idea that the troops Drake faces are some of Zakhaev's men. Secondly, Lazarvic himself is Serbian rather than Russian. Sure, I can imagine that the Ultranationalists could find a place for one of Milosevic's axe men in their organization (what with the close ties between Belgrade and Moscow due to the Yugoslav Wars and NATO), the question of how he would join them in the first place and why he would personally want to are left unanswered.
  • Lazarevic might've joined the Ultranationalist to protect himself from war crime investigations. Also, Lazarevic could've hired mercenaries along the way to the Himalayas since they're more experienced than your average Russian country boy.
    • The simple problem with your first assumption is that the world at large thinks that Lazarvic got killed when somebody dropped a few metric tons of high explosives on him during a raid. And since you can't have a corpse stand trial for war crimes (as his Real Life boss showed), that eliminates the "looking to escape" motive, because the only person with any indication otherwise is our dear Elena Fisher, who is largely treated as a quack for it.
    • A not-so-dead war criminal trying to hide by, say, pretending to be some random farmer could still be discovered. A not-so-dead war criminal being hidden by a major political party with a big, scary army, not so much. Just look at how well the Ultranationalists hid Zakhaev for 15 years after the failed assassination. Also he's probably supporting the Ultranationalist party's communist ideals or just want some power for himself.
  • Alternatively, Lazaravic never had anything to do with the Ultrantionalists; Price found Shambala shortly after World War II, and careful rationing of sap from the Tree of Life ensures he's long lived without going nuts. He gave some to Gaz at some point, so Gaz is Ghost, wearing the ski mask to keep the secret with a made-up background ("Simon Riley" doesn't exist) and this is why the point-blank Deagle shot to his head was a Pretty Little Headshot; the sap made him more durable. Is Gaz had the forethought to keep an emergency dose on him, he could've chugged it while defending the DSM and thus survived Shepard's betrayal.

Soap and Price are Author Avatars of Jason West and Vince Zampella, while Shepherd represents Bobby Kotick.

They're sick of Activision milking the hell out of the franchise they created, so they made a plan to bail out of Activision. They put a Foreshadowing in Modern Warfare 2 to make themselves feel better about fighting an Unwinnable court battle against their former employer.

James Ramirez is a the son of the "Most Interesting Man In The World" from the Dos Equis Commercial

No explanation needed; two Memetic Badass Spaniards who can do everything. It's obviously genetic.

Modern Warfare takes place in the same universe as Black Lagoon.

Balalaika more than likely was at the Cernobyl meeting where Zakhaev got his arm shot off, Foley is Dutch's illegitimate son, and Ramirez is a distant relative of Roberta, which explains everything about his ability to take down entire armies within minutes.

Modern Warfare 3 will involve...

Jetpacks. Also, The French will launch a nuke, disguised as a space shuttle and the player character's squad will use those jetpacks to infiltrate the launch facility to disarm them. During this mission, Soap will be revealed to be a Time Lord and will bring in reinforcements for the big assault with his TARDIS. My source for this? It was a dream I had about 2 weeks ago. But it was probably prophetic because something this awesome can't go undeveloped.

A CHALLENGER HAS ARRIVED! WMG FROM DIFFERENT TROPER

NO! Mechas! and Japanese! I bet they will recreate some scenes with alien battle armor in District 9, and Japanese will be involved as a backup force for Americans after the Russians invades Japan because their alliance with America while the rest of the Americans invade Russia through Europe.

You play as Americans, Soap and Price (they are mercenaries under a different name now), and Japanese. And because of trademark, they will call it Future Warfare instead of Modern Warfare.

Modern Warfare 1 is commentary on the public's view of war vs how war actually is

The game presents two views of war, the "Hollywood" glamorized view that people who know nothing about war have, and the real view. The American side of the game is the Hollywood view. They do everything the public would consider right, everything Honor Before Reason style, everything you'd see in a pro-war movie for a public who has never experienced it, "no man gets left behind" and all that. Then it shows us just how badly that can work out for you. It shows how if a war is fought like that, things will go wrong, badly. Your American character dies after going to save a wounded comrade despite knowing of the likelihood that this would be fatal, and so on. Then, on the other side of things, the SAS fight dirty, preform wetwork, do things nobody would consider honorable or right, and it's them that get things done. It's the nasty, dirty, sneaky, just-how-different-are-we-from-the-enemy sort of thing that wins a war, and that's why when they do it, they get results.

• This seems to be a bit odd, since you play as almost literally two types of soldiers in the game, and that's not even counting the other games. Possibly miscast, the Force Recon Marines are largely fighting a messy ground war. The SAS, played correctly, are swift, silent, and deadly. Their job is to complete specific assignments, many of which involve being far behind enemy lines. Two different jobs, two different ways of fighting. To me, its hard to make a commentary on something when you use completely different situations to do it.

Price dies in Modern Warfare 3

Just so I can say I called it. (Soap appears to be set up as the series' main character, so if either of them dies, it's Price.)

• Quite the opposite.

The American Protagonist of MW3 will be...

A member of group of Navy SEALs sent to track down Soap and Price, who stumbles onto evidence of the collusion between Shepherd and Makarov to start the war. Your CO, however, refuses to trust the evidence, either because he believes it to be faked by Price or because he was in Shepherd's pocket as part of the Shadow Company. There will also be an opportunity to choose which side to support at the mid-point of the game with a mini-climatic quickdraw event where you can choose to shoot either Price or your (possibly) corrupt CO. If you shoot Price, all the evidence of Shepherds bastardness dies with him, and your SEAL team comes within a hair of killing Makarov, before something suitably ironic happens to you and he Karma Houdini's his way into the history books as the one who got away. If you shoot your CO, you join up with Price to succesfully take down Makarov. The last act of the game shifts back to the Rangers, who are making Ramirez do everything about to take Moscow.

• Jossed. You play a Delta man instead and work with rather than against Soap and Price.

All the Four Horsemen along with Sheperd and Makarov are Templars from Assassin's Creed

OK, for those who don't know, the four horsemen were the main antagonists of the first game, Al-Asad, brutal dictator of an unknown arab country (AKA Saudi Arabia), Imran Zakahev and his son, Victor, leaders of the ultranationalist russian political party and military force, and an unknown fourth man (my money is on Makarov). They are all Templars, again seeking the piece of Eden. I have no evidence to back up this claim, as frankly I have no idea how taking over Russia and the Middle East or, in Sheperds case, expanding US influence has to do with finding the piece of Eden, but hey, that's why this is called Wild Mass Guessing.

• Hey, if the Templars were able to set in motion WWII with the help of the Templars Hitler, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and JP Morgan, creating a nuclear holocaust is pretty much child's play by this point. I guess that makes Price and Soap secretly Assassins.

Shepherd is a rogue Assassin.

"30,000 men" sounds a bit like a Requiescat in pace speech Ezio would give.

"23 years ago, I lost my father and two brothers in a Templar plot, and the world just <insert Renaissance-appropriate Italian oath here> watched..."

Captain MacMillian is a Superhuman

I mean the man was run over by a HELICOPTER and still was able to pull off headshots. This can only mean that he is secretly some sort of superhuman, or more likely a space alien capable of regeneration.

By the events of Modern Warfare 3, Price and Soap will have raised an army

Realizing that Price's final speech ("this is for the record") was supposedly broadcast via satellite to anyone who would listen, it makes sense that such a Memetic Badass would garner some kind of following. Many gun-nut, anti-government types would have rallied around this message and formed something of an army for Price to command. Playing as Soap, a big choice in Modern Warfare 3 comes in the form of siding with Shepherd's successor, who represents a morally questionable (but legitimate) American government, or with Price, whose grip on reality is becoming more and more tenuous as the game progresses.

The Juggernauts are superhumans.

A bomb suit can't withstand the kind of punishment that they can take. Alternatively...

• They're customized bomb suits, according to Word of God.

The Juggernauts are aliens/time travellers with super armour disguised as modern-day bomb suits.

Same as above.

The next game will have McMillian

Someone was going to say it eventually. Might as well get it out of the way now.

• Sadly, only as a voiceover in a pre-mission cutscene.

Captain Price is an Immortal from Baccano!

Sometime in the 1930's, Price encountered an Elixer and drank it, thus granting him immortality. When WWII rolled around, he signed up, knowing he couldn't be killed. 60 years later, he's still fighting. Think about it: This explains his appearance in both wars, plus the fact that he never seems to die from gunshots.

The Modern Warfare games take place after an alternate outcome of Hetalia: Axis Powers: Paint it White.

The Movie of the series basically involved an sudden alien invasion. But suppose the aliens won and succeeded in draining the world and everyone on it of their color, beauty and vitality. Fast forward a couple decades and Earth has turned into a cynical Crapsack World just a few Russian invasions short of nuclear annihilation. Of course the only reason why the whole colorless thing isn't evident in-game is because of a strong Weirdness Censor. This could also explain why the Ultra-Nationalist Russia of Zakhaev and Makarov behaves the way it is. Or why General Shepherd is so keen in making America great again.

Captain Price is actually a battlefield cover for England.

Copied shamelessly from the Hetalia WMG page, it's not that hard to imagine "Arthur Kirkland" serving alongside and befriending the aforementioned soldier at some point during the WW 2-era games. At some point, however, the original Price gets killed in action, prompting England to take his identity in memory of the man. But as the War drew to a close, he decided to retain the name and mustached appearance as his cover whenever entering combat alongside humans. Besides, how else could he survive the sort of crap he's gone through? Up to and including being locked up in a Russian gulag for three years.

Modern Warfare 3 will include a level in Space

Modern Warfare 2 originally had a plan for an entire level on the ISS, But was cut. I believe that Modern Warfare 3 will have a level set on a rebuilt ISS in the future which has been rigged up to fire warheads at targets across the world during its rotation of the earth. The player will play as an astronaut sent to disarm the warheads, but runs into trouble inside and subsequently gets into the same trouble Sat 1 got into in Modern Warfare 2 in Second Sun, and as he floats past the ship which had carried him up to the ISS with the pilot desperately trying to contact you, the warheads go off and hit the first target.

• Jossed.

Captain Price is Arnold's father from Hey Arnold!!

If we completely go by both series, completely ignoring Word of God, Price's first name is a mistery, as is Arnold's last. Also, his parents are completely missing, citing an "adventure" as the reason. This "adventure", is a cover story so Arnold doesn't have to live with the atrocities of war. The Its established that his grandfather fought in WWII, making the Price from those installments Grandpa, and the one from Modern Warfare Arnold's father.

• I know my theory is Jossed by Word of God's reveal that Shortman is his real last name, but maybe that was a cover to prevent Arnold from learning the truth?

Modern Warfare 3 will have child soldiers

• The first game had one of the two Player Characters die when a nuclear bomb is detonated. The second game's trump card was the infamous level where a undercover agent helps slaughter an airport full of innocent people. Both were confronting, both had a War Is Hell bite, fans would be wanting to see what Modern Warfare 3 has in store. With poor scared preadolescences conscripted into armies a ugly reality of war, if tastefully done this could be pulled off.
  • Jossed. However, the Kotaku leak for [MW3] says that the Russian President's daughter will be in the game as a plot device (You have to rescue her from getting kidnapped by Makarov).
  • Child soldiers do appear in Black Ops 2, though.

Any remaining members of Shepherd's Shadow Company will be forced into an enemy mine with Task Force 141 in Modern Warfare 3.

• Wasn't 141 dissolved at the end of Modern Warfare 2? They were all killed, at the very least, aside from the obvious.

  • Um, what about Price and MacTavish, don't they count as members anymore?
  • No. They're wanted by pretty much everyone in the world as a couple of rouge terrorists.
  • Until the final mission of Modern Warfare 3, when you see that the 141 logo no longer has 'Disavowed' over it. And on the prior level, Price and Sandman are fighting side-by-side.

Modern Warfare 3's other campaign faction will be the Spetsnaz

• Think about it, Call of Duty has always had a tradition of playing as Americans, and Brits or Russians. We know that the Russian government is at odds with Makarov's faction, and the game's plot will likely include proving that the airport massacare was a False Flag Operation. We also know from Kotaku that there's a plot point involving an attack against the Russan government. Therefore the only other playable faction that appears in more than one level will be the faction of the Spetsnaz working against Makarov.
• Jossed, no Spetsnaz for campaign.

Call of Duty takes place before Halo.

• Think about it, why is it that the weapons in Halo are not as advanced as they should be? maybe a event in history caused the governments of the world to put down defense funding, thus by the time of the Halo time line, Weapon technology is not as powerful as it should be, at least in the bullets used.
  • And the antics of Price, Gaz, MacMillan, Soap, and Ramirez inspired Halsey to create the SPARTAN-II project.
  • Maybe

Al-Asad's country came from Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Yemen uniting.

It would explain the jumpy satellite locators.

The PMC in Modern Warfare 3 will be analogous to Blackwater.

That is to say, they will be a band of mercenaries that will do some ugly, gut-churning stuff for the right price. Wait a second, this sounds familiar...

Al-Asad's Country is Syria

He hijacked the ongoing revolt there, struck a deal with the Syrian military, took control, and invaded Iraq, triggering a US intervention.

Makarov was the real mastermind all along.

In the last couple of trailers, Makarov says a bunch of cryptic things that seem to suggest that the whole global war thing may have been more than just a happy accident on his part. "Soon you'll see, that very move, every strike, was meant to bring us to this," from the Redemption trailer, sounds particularly telling, while his declaration of, "This is what your greed has brought you..." in the Launch trailer gives the impression that he'd wanted to "punish" the Western world for some time now. It may be possible that he was actually playing Shepherd the whole time, allowing the General to delude himself into thinking he was manipulating him, all so that he could get an excuse to start WWIII. And all of that aside...considering that he's supposed to be the main villain now, would it make much sense for a bad guy of that magnitude to be Shepherd's expendable pawn?

• Confirmed.
  • Well, kind of. He was initially a mook/midlevel officer before saving Zakhaev's life earned him his favor. Then he advanced, but was still lower than Zakhaev. MW2 leaves the Shepherd/Makarov Gambit Pileup unresolved, except for the inclusion of Soap and Price, who fortunately (for Makarov) took his side temporarily

Soap's just hiding

.I refuse to accept that he's dead.

• He fell out of an exploding building. Then part of the building fell on him. And then he bled out all over Prague. And then we got loading screens full of memorials to the guy and Captain Price outright saying "They killed Soap". I screamed at my television when it happened but, let's face it, Soap's as dead as Gaz and Ghost.
• He's survived getting stabbed in the chest, that's mild by comparison. He may have had a weak pulse, or his heart may have stopped, leading the panicked Price to conclude that he's dead. Kamarov and the rebels have something in mind for him.
  • Price? Panic? Surely you speak of some other man.
  • Or perhaps it was all staged, in order for Soap to become blacker than black and completely disappear off the grid. The whole roaring rampage by Price at Yuri was to finally get the Russian to spit out his real reasons for fighting Makarov. The M1911 was given to Soap in case he ever meets with Makarov. After all, that gun has pierced the plot armor of ever major antagonist it has killed.

Ramirez saved Soap.

• Ramirez! Use the Force to heal Soap's injuries!

The games are a Dying Dream, or at least a story told by one of the characters.

It's most likely Price, whether he's telling his son to encourage or discourage him to go into the military, or just dying of lung cancer from smoking cigars. Virtually everything is exaggerated. For the first game, the American invasion is depicted as incompetent because Price disagrees with it. The timescale is compressed across all three- the Russians didn't invade in two days or magically teleport. For that matter, the whole Shepherd conspiracy could be Price making stuff up, though it is unlikely. Soap probably didn't get stabbed right in the chest, and they probably didn't drag him through the streets. Remember the EMP that was much more destructive than it should have been, and the blast wave in space? Price doesn't know physics. The infamous airport level may be real, an exaggeration, or a fabrication caused by Price's guilt. The chemical attacks were probably real, but Price fabricates the SAS mission since he doesn't want to admit that they didn't have any idea they were coming. The manner in which Makarov is killed is probably exaggerated- most likely Price, a sniper, shot him from a thousand metres. He probably did light a cigar after that, though. There are no women- there were women originally fighting on both sides, but Price is a chauvinist and doesn't want to remember shooting them or watching them die. A similar situation exists for civilians before Price descends into darker memories. All the times when the story is not about him are based on second-hand accounts, so they are less accurate. Ramirez probably did not have to do everything. Paul Jackson was probably killed instantly when his helicopter crashed. Coming back to the "Price is a chauvinist" theory, of course they go back to rescue a woman. Classified details are omitted or changed, or maybe Price doesn't care and they're genuine. Given all that, it's most likely a story told to keep people away from war rather than push them toward it.

Captain John Price will kill himself, or be in a life long depression

• After the death of Soap, Price, having nothing else to do, with the world in hell and Makarov dead, he will end up killing himself.

The Russian Nuclear Missile System Requires Either Launch Codes To Work... OR AN AWESOME MUSTACHE

In the MW alternate universe, Stalin commissioned the original nuclear response project. But he ran into a problem... what if the west launched while he was drunk? He required a system that would be able to destroy the free world even when he was hammered. Thus the greatest minds of Soviet Russia got together, and aided by a steady supply of the finest Vodka in Russsia, devised a missile launch authorization, that could be activated by Stalin's Awesome Mustache! But clearly if Stalin were slain in the initial strike, Russia would need an alternative, but who else would be more capable of leading Russia in it's darkest hour than a person with a mustache TO RIVAL STALIN! Fast forward to the “present day”. The scientists who remained sober have devised a system to allow mustacheless leaders to launch ICBMs, using launch codes, but the old mustache authorization system remains in place. Zakhaev had an awesome mustache, thus he was able to attempt to launch ICBMs at the east coast in revenge of his son. Captain Price had sufficient mustache power, thus he could launch an EMP strike on Washington DC. However, Makarov lacked sufficient mustache power to order a nuclear strike. He thus had to kidnap the Russian President, since the President had insufficient mustache power, he had to have launch codes.

Frost was injured during the events of "Scorched Earth", leaving him unable to follow Sandman on the diamond mine mission.

As we know, it's never actually explained what kept Frost from joining the rest of Team Metal in "Down the Rabbit Hole". However, he does get into two really dangerous situations prior to then; it's possible that, either during the building collapse (recall how he was dazed and stared at his hands for several seconds after it came down) or the botched breaching sequence at the very end, he sustained some kind of injury, and tried to go on anyway for the sake of his teammates. However, between the two missions, it got bad enough that he couldn't continue, and he had to be sidelined for treatment.

The Juggernaut Armor is full body Level V Dragon Skin armor.

• The only known real life body armor that can stand up to the 7.62x51mm NATO without ballistic plates.
• Dragon Skin also has been reported of having problems in high temperatures. This would explain why in the last stage of Modern Warfare 3 you lose your Juggernaut armor when it got caught on fire.
• Except for the fact that it looks nothing like Dragonskin and everything like heavy-duty EOD armor.

Makarov is The Antichrist

I have absolutely no evidence for this, but it would be EPIC AS ALL HELL.

• Alternatively, Dragovich is The Antichrist. Why do you think his name translates to "Son of the Devil"?

The Juggernauts use prototype Powered Armor

As a part of the Halo and Call of duty in the same universe thing, this WMG is about how the armor they were is actually a prototype for a advanced powered armor which will only be perfected until a few centuries later.

• Word of God is that the Juggernauts are "customized bomb suits", not purpose-built powered armor. Still, the idea is sound....

Sergeant Foley's grandfather was Sergeant Lincoln Osiris.

Which other black American sergeant in the US Army do you know is as awesome as Sergeant Foley? That's right, Sergeant Lincoln Osiris himself. It was tales of his grandfather's exploits in the Vietnam War that made Foley sign on with the Rangers in the first place.

The Ultranationalsts were funded by Team Rocket

And Makarov is Giovanni in disguise.

• No, obviously Shepard is Giovanni.
  • (OP here) As for Jessie and James, they got the hell out of Dodge when they found out what he was up to. Oh, and Ghost is James.

Saxton Hale is the mastermind behind the events of the whole series.

He started the war because people weren't buying hats as much as they used to. It also explains why Austrailia never gets attacked—Saxton manipulated things so it would be a major power in the aftermath.

• No, it was so Russia and the US would all by MANN CO weapons and teleporters. Furthermore, he founded Infinity Ward.
• Also, he used Mason (who has an Australian accent) to try and start a war in Black Ops.

Makarov is Discord.

It would amuse me.

We get to see Makarov's grandfather in the original Call of Duty

• A Sergeant Makarov helps Alexei Ivanovich Voronin the Russian protagonist of the original Call of Duty. I say that just as the Captain Price of that game is the grandfather of the Modern Warfare Captain Price that Sergeant Makarov is the grandfather of Makarov from the Modern Warfare games.

The real name of Grinch or Truck is James Ramirez

• Ramirez may have been reassigned to the Delta Force, so that his role isn't completely forgotten.

Al-Asad's country was Yemen, and the Militia seen in Black Ops II is descended from the OpFor.

• Because...well, why not? If one voluntarily sets aside the "no Treyarch/IW crossovers" thing, it's fairly easy to imagine misguided youths 14 years after the war in COD 4 latching onto Al-Asad's former movement as a result of both the spread of Cordis Die's xenophobic, anti-West viewpoint and the possibility of an economic depression brought upon by the world's shift in dependency from oil to rare earth elements. Menendez simply gave these would-be rebels a voice and a united cause...along with copious amounts of high-tech weaponry, of course.
  • Menendez could have also been watching Zakhaev's and Makarov's actions during 2011-2017, and his movements may have been influenced by them. Having a far more personal reason to wage war on the United States, Menendez knew he had to ensure the American reputation was painted black, and was far more Crazy-Prepared than Makarov ever was.
  • What was left of Shadow Company and the Inner Circle easily could have fit itself into Menendez's Mercs.
    • And a few years later, what remained of those guys went on to join the Atlas Corporation. It all fits!

Price dies at the end of Modern Warfare 3

No, I'm not saying it was a Dying Dream, and that The Bad Guy Wins: everything that happened in Dust to Dust did actually happen, up to getting that fucker Makarov to snap his neck on a winch hook noose. But that also means all the stuff that happened to Price - nearly getting fragged in an explosion, crash-landing Makarov's helicopter, and falling through the skylight with Makarov - also happened. And even a Made of Iron Determinator like Price has his limits, especially since his Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Makarov was the only thing keeping him going. And what's the last thing he does, before his vision blacks out? He takes one last puff of his cigar. Considering how many of the series heroes are Killed Off for Real, Price would at least have the distinction of going out in the most badass way possible.

The REAL reason Frost in nowhere to be found in "Down the Rabbit Hole"

Is because he was out on duty performing other assignments. Which assignments? The Spec Ops.

Pitch for Modern Warfare 4: Civil Warfare

• The trilogy is all out war with the Russians as manipulated by ultranationalists right? Well basic pitch is that for the fourth game the threat is much closer to home.
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar is the President of the United States, and being a woman and having run as a Independent with slightly left leaning views and policies she has created massive ripples with the government and voters.
  • Congress is going over a bill on amending gun laws in a bid to make America safe again, and despite the fact the actress herself Doesn't Like Guns the President is weighing up the pros and cons of this legislation, but just the fact the ideas for changes exist has both pro and anti gun advocates, pro and anti President Gellar advocates, very much on edge and the threat of domestic terrorism and civil war is high.
  • In response Buffy allows the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff to act on what can be done to mitigate the threat, and he forms the Joint Operations Domestic Task Force, a military arm to better deal with threats at home and better aid law enforcement such as the FBI in stopping home grown terrorism. For many this is the straw that breaks the camel's back.
  • With the formation of this task force all out civil war breaks out. Some see the group itself as unconstitutional and President Gellar going too far and must be stopped no matter what. The task force itself is targeted by people on the left who felt betrayed, people on the right who fear the government is going to take their guns, survivalists who believe the end times are now and the President had become a tyrant, and everyone else is caught in the middle of the conflict and want no part of it are forced to take up arms to defend themselves from the waging factions who demand if they don't take up arms to fight the enemy (President Gellar, her supporters or detractors, the task group, the CJCOS, pro gun advocates, anti gun advocates, survivalists, ect) then they themselves are the enemy.
  • The central campaign will be all about trying to restore some sense of order or sanity to the Divided States of America, and it will not play favorites in regards to politics. It will portray Gellar as right in moral theory but going too far with the task force, her opponents right to fear her taking their guns but launching an armed uprising, independents not wanting to join a side going terrorist to protect themselves from the warring factions. Many many times you will come across scenes like a woman with her child and a gun confronting a man, or a man with a gun confronting an unarmed woman, or man, which one is really the innocent party or at threat, who is the real danger of the two? The point of the story being cause and effect and how much the nation had already boiled over and without some reason or sanity it will destroy itself, with the best the task force can do is try and protect everyone they can, settle each group down, try and get them talking, as they cause America to burn in anarchy and chaos.

Joseph Allen was the pivotal factor that ruined Yuri's faith in Makarov

Since we know that Makarov cast out Yuri right before "No Russian" started, it can be safe to assume that Joseph Allen joining the attack was what finally made Yuri realize what was really going on. Makarov had to have let his men know why Allen was really with them ahead of the attack (given that some American showing up no more than a day before they are set to launch a major attack against their own people would need some explanation from Makarov to his men) and how his death in the airport would be used to incite a war with the US. Yuri was already having doubts about Makarov's endgame, having witnessed him detonate the bomb in Al-Asad's country, and the real intent behind "No Russian" solidified that whatever Makarov was up to, it wasn't about reminding the Ultranationalists in power of Zhakaev's original message (since inciting a war against the US would only bolster the existing Ultranationalists party, not weaken them). Feeling betrayed by the cause he originally joined for, he confronts Makarov and speaks his mind about Allen, which gets him shot.

The purpose of the mission in 'Cliffhanger' wasn't to recover the ACS: It was to further increase the chances of a war with Russia

Given that we know Shepherd is working with Makarov to start a war, it likely he sent Soap and Roach in, knowing they'd be compromised and forced to fight their way out-causing heavy damage to the airbase and killing dozens, if not hundreds of Russian soldiers.

So imagine how this looks to the Russians. One of their airbases is attacked by men with American guns, and a day later No Russian happens. It'll like to them like Russia is under siege by a US backed terror campaign. Cries for calm and a proper investigation will be drowned out for calls to avenge the attack on the Tian Shan Airbase and the Slaughter at Zahekv international-just as Shepherd planned.