History Fridge / ModernWarfare

* Since there's no such thing as Fridge Humor (is there?), considering what happened in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare3'', [[spoiler:it looked like Makarov... [[IncrediblyLamePun dropped the Soap.]] With explosives, no less.]]

* There's been much talk about the Russian Army having incorrect firearms such as the AK-47, which has been obsolete since the 70's. But, read into the games and the answer comes to you. The Russian government is now Ultranationalist, and one of their defining features is their extreme nostalgic patriotism. Since the AK-47 is considered to be THE Russian gun, it somewhat makes sense that they'd reintroduce it.
** There could also be plenty of old weapons lying around that are still serviceable. It’s much cheaper to arm troops with existing weapons rather than manufacture new ones. It’s not like the AK-47 is a horrible gun, especially for its original price tag.
*** Also, as has been pointed out elsewhere, the rifle in question is actually the slightly more modern AKM, just misnamed as an AK-47, which was more recently made.

* In Of Their Own accord, more observant players may notice a room near the entrance of the bunker. In it is the dead body of Ranger. All indications point to him being interrogated and executed-which might seem odd since he's an American in an American held position. Fast forward to Second Sun, and the sign/countersign encounter with the Runner, which seems to indicate that the Americans have had to deal with Russians in American uniforms elsewhere on the front. Now go back to the dead 'Ranger'. It's likely he was a Russian agent who got caught in American uniform and executed.

** There could also be plenty of old weapons lying around that are still serviceable. Its much cheaper to arm troops with existing weapons rather than manufacture new ones. Its not like the AK-47 is a horrible gun, especially for its original price tag.

* We see the Ultranationalists killing fellow countrymen in the game, however it may seems weird until the realization that these missions takes places in areas like Altai or Siberia, where there are non-Slavic ethnic minorities, and we see that the Russians in-game are all Slavic. The Ultranationalists are doing ethnic cleansing to make Russia more ethnically homogeneous.

* FridgeHorror: Those transport helicopters evacuating civilians you spent the entire mission Of Their Own Accord protecting? [[spoiler:Price killed them all when he set off the E.M.P., which would have caused all the copters to shut off mid-air and crash. Talk about [[ShootTheDog Shooting the Dog]].

** The Second point might Possibly have been somewhat averted however, as USAF jets were immediately sent to conduct the hammerdown protocol. Given how the emp seems to have affected nearly the entire eastern seaboard and Considering that those jets would have had to be in the general area or a short distance away from it (still within the range of the emp blast), there's a good possibility that a portion of U.S airpower the emp and in turn were rerouted to conduct the hammerdown protocol.

** the Second point might Possibly have been somewhat averted however, as USAF jets were immediately sent to conduct the hammerdown protocol. Given how the emp seems to have affected nearly the entire eastern seaboard and Considering that those jets would have had to be in the general area or a short distance away from it (still within the range of the emp blast), there's a good possibility that they survived the emp and were rerouted to conduct the hammerdown protocol.

* the Second point might Possibly have been somewhat averted however, as USAF jets were immediately sent to conduct the hammerdown protocol. Given how the emp seems to have affected nearly the entire eastern seaboard and Considering that those jets would have had to be in the general area or a short distance away from it (still within the range of the emp blast), there's a good possibility that they survived the emp and were rerouted to conduct the hammerdown protocol.

** the Second point might Possibly have been somewhat averted however, as USAF jets were immediately sent to conduct the hammerdown protocol. Given how the emp seems to have affected nearly the entire eastern seaboard and Considering that those jets would have had to be in the general area or a short distance away from it (still within the range of the emp blast), there's a good possibility that they survived the emp and were rerouted to conduct the hammerdown protocol.

** The guys in the air are in trouble. Even if you know how to do a reasonably good crash landing you're not going to have much time to react. The guys in the tanks, [=IFVs=] and other vehicles will be just fine, though, assuming nothing lands on top of them. Those hatches operate on hydraulics, not electronics. You do not need power to open those things even if power fails. That particular Russian vehicle in the game, if I remember correctly, was designed with electronic locks that need power to unlock. Those guys have a problem. Everyone else should be just fine, assuming they aren't killed by the rain helicopters.
** Price's EMP is going to not only cripple the Russian military offensive, since it relies on airpower and ships to move its troops but it also is going to wipe out all of the American airpower in the area as well as the evacuation choppers. Price's statement, "Do anything to stop the war" wasn't hyperbole.

* FridgeHorror: Those transport helicopters evacuating civilians you spent the entire mission Of Their Own Accord protecting? [[spoiler:Price killed them all when he set off the E.M.P., which would have caused all the copters to shut off mid-air and crash. Talk about [[ShootTheDog Shooting the Dog]]. Not to mention all the U.S. servicemen who would have suffocated inside their tanks and armored fighting vehicles, just like the Russian soldiers suffering the same fate in Second Sun.]]

* The introduction screen, with all the various connections being made across the map, was Fridge Brilliance in a way: [[spoiler:[[NotSoDifferent General Shepard and Makarov were really two sides of the same coin]]: Makarov hated Americans, and building on the Russia Zakhaev built up, he faked a terrorist attack to insight Russia to war. Shepard on the other hand, made sure the defenses where down enough to allow the war to begin; he wanted a reason to invade Russia as vengeance for Zakhaev. Zakhaev in turn nuked the American soldiers in Iraq as vengeance against Captain Price, would blew his arm off with a sniper rifle. It's fridge brilliance because 1 shot changed the fate of the world in a way, showing how one event can lead to hundreds of unforeseen possibilities.]] - The Great Cool Energy

* At first, ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2'' seems to have a ton of plot holes, until you go back through the game and look at everything from the perspective that [[spoiler:General Shepherd is plotting to betray everyone by working with Makarov, and the Russians were planning to invade the US anyway.]] Suddenly, a lot of stuff makes a whole lot more sense, like how [[spoiler:PFC Allen joins Makarov's group so quickly, how Shepherd knew how to reach Rojas, how the Russians managed to get inside the United States so quickly even without the ACS, how the Russians so quickly latched onto the presence of an American agent as an excuse to invade the US,]] and why [[spoiler:Shepherd kills Ghost and Roach once they have Makarov's intel cache - which would doubtless implicate Shepherd in assisting Makarov.]]

*** According to MW3, they lost most, if not all, of the strike force.

* An odd case of multiplayer having Fridge Brilliance: why do knives one-hit kill people? Surely if the characters can withstand several rifle rounds before dying then a knife shouldn't be enough. Then it dawned on me. ''Modern bullet-proof and bullet-resistant equipment is pretty much worthless against knives''. This is because the extra-strength fibers in vests and the like are designed to spread out the impact of a bullet, which is a relatively dull impact, but like most any type of cloth, a good knife will be able to pierce through it. The series isn't exactly known for its realistic portrayal of injuries, but if deaths are sped up greatly, then it still works: knives take out armor and hit vital areas faster than bullets.

* [[spoiler:Soap]]'s death seems to come out of nowhere initially, because he's the walking embodiment of MadeOfIron and falling off a building alone shouldn't be enough to kill him. But keep in mind that [[spoiler:the injuries he suffered at the end of the second game never had time to fully heal, and he's still running around on those barely-patched up wounds.]] The fall just exacerbated that condition to the point that his body couldn't take it anymore.
* Makarov, despite being almost always [[BadassInANiceSuit impeccably dressed]], never wears a necktie of any sort. [[spoiler:Price finally puts one ([[UnusualEuphemism of a sort]]) on him in the climax of the third game, leading directly to the villain's death.]]
* All the games' endings are examples of Call of Duty's motto "No One Fights Alone" in action: In 4 [[spoiler:You need Griggs to drag out of the flames from the car and (unintentionally) into a position to shoot Zakhaev, the Loyalists to distract Zakhaev, Price to give you the pistol, and the Loyalists again to extract you. In [=MW2=] you need Price to save you from Shepherd, and then you need to save Price, then you need Price and Nikolai to save you. In [=MW3=] Yuri distracts and wounds Makarov, allowing Price to finish him off. They both needed Nikolai and juggernaut suits for their rampage to work.]]
** Another way you could spin it is that the reason why the antagonists of the series, Zakhaev, [[spoiler:General Shepherd]], and Makarov all failed because they were lonely men with lofty ambitions. When you spend too much time looking over your shoulder for an enemy you lose sight of the friends you have right in front of you, they made enemies of everyone and didn't rely on anyone but themselves, their plans were doomed to fail as a result.
** "It doesn't take the most powerful nations on Earth to create the next global conflict. Just the will of a single man." -Makarov. Technically correct, but also his eventual downfall.
** Double fridge brilliance: The only group of antagonists to work together were the Four Horsemen of Call of Duty 4. And who had the most success of the enemies you faced?

* Makarov is pretty much the Angel of Death of the Call of Duty series. Whenever he shows up, someone important (usually a PC) dies. Chronological order: [[spoiler:He was the driver from The Coup. Al-Fulani dies. He detonates the nuke that kills Jackson (and Vasquez). He's there (duh) at No Russian, a massacre, and kills Allen, after attempting to kill Yuri. He gives Price and Soap the intel that allows them to kill Shepherd (and the wound Soap suffers in the process certainly doesn't help him). During Turbulence, he kills Harkov and his squadmates. During Blood Brothers, he kills Kamarov and Soap (moment of silence). During the last level, he kills Yuri before meeting his end.]] The one exception is [[spoiler:during One Shot, One Kill. This is double fridge brilliance: first of all, it's before his descent into violent insanity. Second of all, even the Angel of Death spares people.]]

* Why does Vorshevsky and Vorshevsky alone have the Russian nuclear launch codes? Because Russian nuclear security has been compromised ''three times already''; twice by Zakhaev (the nuke in al-Asad's capital and the silos) and again by Price. By keeping absolute personal control over those codes, he ensures that another incident like Zakhaev or Price launching missiles won't happen again. ''And it works''.
* The SAS in the level you played survived. Why? If you look closely you can see that they are all wearing gas masks. The blasts weren't that large, so only the ones that were close to the truck died. There's still a large SAS squadron out there.
* An odd case of multiplayer having Fridge Brilliance: why do knives one-hit kill people? Surely if the characters can withstand several rifle rounds before dying then a knife shouldn't be enough. Then it dawned on me. ''Modern bullet-proof and bullet-resistant equipment is pretty much worthless against knives''. This is because the extra-strength fibers in vests and the like are designed to spread out the impact of a bullet, which is a relatively dull impact, but like most any type of cloth, a good knife will be able to pierce through it. The series isn't exactly known for its realistic portrayal of injuries, but if deaths are sped up greatly, then it still works: knives take out armor and hit vital areas faster than bullets.
* Between Makarov and Yuri, you might eyeroll and go 'how many ex-Spetsnaz ultra-badasses did Zakhaev have on his payroll back in the 90s anyway'? And then you think about it a little more and realize that these are the two mooks he had as driver and shotgun in his own car, i.e., as his personal bodyguards. Of ''course'' that job is given to the two most experienced/best-trained guys he has.

* When Makarov shows up at the end of Turbulence, his name is green. This is commonly considered a glitch or technical limitation, until you realize Agent Harkov (the PC) is listed in the intro of the mission as "Inside Man?", along with dialog from the FSO agents saying there was a traitor. This means that you became an FSO agent, flipped over to Inner Circle, then flipped back to the FSO, all while not tipping off anyone but Captain Price until the incident takes place.

* An in-universe one is going to happen with the Russian side once all of this comes out. No matter what [[spoiler:Shepherd's role]] in this all is, they're going to left with the realization they launched an unproved attack on both Europe as well as the United States which resulted in millions of innocent deaths orchestrated by one of their own countrymen as a FalseFlagOperation. It's the equivalent of Americans discovering 9/11 Truthers were right. Even if they don't care about the American or European casaulties, all of the dead Russian soldiers are going to be the case there.

* Makarov is pretty much the Angel of Death of the Call of Duty series. Whenever he shows up, someone important (usually a PC) dies. Chronological order: [[spoiler:He's probably around for the Coup. Al-Fulani dies. He detonates the nuke that kills Jackson (and Vasquez). He's there (duh) at No Russian, a massacre, and kills Allen, after attempting to kill Yuri. He gives Price and Soap the intel that allows them to kill Shepherd (and the wound Soap suffers in the process certainly doesn't help him). During Turbulence, he kills Harkov and his squadmates. During Blood Brothers, he kills Kamarov and Soap (moment of silence). During the last level, he kills Yuri before meeting his end.]] The one exception is [[spoiler:during One Shot, One Kill. This is double fridge brilliance: first of all, it's before his descent into violent insanity. Second of all, even the Angel of Death spares people.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fridge Logic]]

* The story of [=MW2=] (and by extension, [=MW3=]) suffers from this. [=MW2=]'s basic plot is: [[spoiler:Shepherd is furious that the soldiers and marines that were killed in [=CoD4=] by the nuke were more or less forgotten by the general public, so he wants to work with Makarov to make war between the U.S. and Russia before double-crossing Makarov; in this manner, he supposedly intends to get revenge on Makarov for killing his people, while also reminding America who protects it and reviving the nation's patriotism.]] Not incredibly outlandish or anything, compared to some other video game campaigns. However, the first step of this plot: American TF 141 member Joseph Allen, who has joined Makarov under the cover of Alexei Borodin, is killed after participating in the massacre at Moscow Int. Airport, causing Russia to immediately declare war on America...wait, what? Russia may be recovering from the recession that it was in during [=CoD4=], but it still probably wouldn't be in a state to go to war with the U.S. at the drop of a hat. And even if Russia ''could'' afford to go to war, [[FridgeLogic there would first be a considerable amount of investigation concerning who Allen was, whether or not the American government was actually involved, and why he was mysteriously found with a bullet in his head, lying a considerably fair distance away from where he actually encountered resistance, without any of the associates that he would have needed to kill the number of law enforcement officers that were found throughout the airport.]] There certainly wouldn't have been an attack ''the next day''.
* [=MW3=] has its own variant with the Russian invasion of not only America, but Europe. Yes, you read that right, ''the continent of Europe''. The story behind this is that Russian premier Boris Vorshevsky has been kidnapped by Ultranationalists while en route to talk peace with the U.S. Well then......if he was going to make peace with the United States, who sent the order to invade Europe while he was gone? And Europe is invaded nearly as quickly as the U.S. was, an occurrence that does not seem at all possible, [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation unless you've made alliances with any galactic empires lately...]]

* World-politics are screwed as well with the United States potentially having a far nastier view of Europe due to the fact NATO doesn't seem to have involved itself directly in the war (albeit, it was over in five days so it could have been they were just prepping a counterattack). Either way, both Europe and the United States will definitely have a much-much less pleasant view of the Russian Federation. It could well be this is just the first in a series of wars between the various sides from this point on.