"I'm not a patient man, Belikov. Or a compassionate one."
"This man Makarov is fighting his own war and he has no rules. No boundaries. He doesn't flinch at torture, human trafficking, or genocide. He's not loyal to a flag or a country or any set of ideals. He trades blood for money."
— General Shepherd on Vladimir Makarov, Modern Warfare 2
There's a soldier in all of us. And when facing these evil bastards, you better hope that soldier is badass.
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Modern Warfare series
Original Trilogy & Related Works
- Vladimir Makarov, head of the Inner Circle Russian terrorist group, was originally a soldier serving Imran Zakhaev and his Ultranationalists before turning into something far worse. Makarov establishes himself in the second game when he and his men cold-heartedly slaughter an airport terminal full of Russian civilians. He then follows this by shooting American Pvt. Joseph Allen in the head so that the massacre can be pinned on the CIA, triggering World War III. In the third game, Makarov hijacks the Russian President's plane to derail his peace talk and get the nuclear launch codes so he can devastate and conquer Europe. When the President resists, Makarov targets his daughter to break him. Makarov then bombs major cities across Europe with chemical weapons before invading them, killing tens if not hundreds of thousands. In addition, it was Makarov who saved Zakhaev and eventually ordered the nuking in the first game, thus making him responsible, directly or indirectly, for all the events in the series, and the deaths of tens of millions.
- Modern Warfare 2: Ghost comic book prequel miniseries: Manuel "El Gordo" Roba is the leader of the Zaragoza Drug Cartel. A target of the United States due to his drug smuggling and Human Trafficking activities, SAS operator Simon Riley was sent alongside a US squad to kill him. The entire squad was betrayed by their leader Vernon to Roba, who subjcted them to brutal brainwashing, torturing them under drug-induced insomnia, and forcing them to fight each other to break their minds, once hanging Riley from a tree with hooks because he displayed resistance. Months later, Roba kills Vernon, one of his former brainwashed victims, and buries Riley alive with his corpse. After Riley escapes, Roba sent his successfully brainwashed soldiers to the UK to take care of him, murdering his family, his shrink and his superior officer before pinning all the murders on Riley to completely ruin his life.
- Modern Warfare 3: Viktor "Volk" Khristenko is Makarov's personal bomb maker, responsible for the creation of multiple chemical WMDs. Smuggling them throughout Europe, Volk has them detonated in populated areas to grant Makarov the opportunity to initiate a bloody invasion of Europe.
Reboot Trilogy
- Modern Warfare (2019): Roman Barkov is a monstrously bigoted general from Russia who invades and conquers the country of Urzikstan by unleashing a poisonous gas upon numerous cities, killing countless citizens of all ages. During the twenty years under Barkov's dictatorship, citizens are oppressed, imprisoned, tortured, and executed, including women and children. Siblings Farah and Hadir Karim, among the many victims of Barkov's cruelty, were imprisoned and tortured for a decade by him. When Captain Price and his men storm his prison, Barkov tries to burn the prisoners alive to destroy any trace of his brutal war crimes. Despite claiming to be protecting his country and people, Barkov executes his men for incompetence, proving to be nothing more than a cowardly psychopath only out for himself.
- Modern Warfare III: Vladimir Makarov is a Russian Ultranationalist whose claims of helping his country hide a wicked sadist. Viewing his father as weak for hanging himself following the Soviet Union's collapse, Makarov joined the army in order to help regain Russia's strength, starting by assisting General Roman Barkov in the oppression of Urzikstan and the gassing of its citizens. Following Barkov's defeat, Makarov turned to terrorism, joining forces with the Konni group to launch a massive attack on the Verdansk Stadium as a cover for his plan to blow up an airport. Heavily implied to have been behind the theft of three nukes from the Shadow Company with intent to help Hassan Zyani destroy parts of America, Makarov, upon his rescue from the Zordaya Prison Complex, kills one of his own men for being sloppy and plots to kickstart a war between Russia and Urzikstan. Commencing a series of attacks meant to pin the blame on Urzikstan, Makarov has chemical warheads launched onto a Russian military base that kills hundreds; forces Farah's sister Samara to act as a suicide bomber onboard a Russian plane that sees everybody onboard die; attempts to blow up a dam to destroy an entire city; and tries to have an entire British train destroyed as a way to lure Task Force 141 into an ambush, even personally killing Soap when he tries to save John Price's life.
Black Ops series
Examples
- The first game has a pair of Dirty Communists and their ex-Nazi ally:
- Major General Nikita Dragovich is a sociopath who creates the "numbers" program that brainwashes captive American soldiers into sleeper agents to kill their own people. Dragovich first demonstrated his untrustworthy and callous nature at Stalingrad, when he deserted his own men and left them to be butchered by the German forces. After the war, Dragovich would lead an operation on the Arctic to retrieve the biochemical weapon, Nova 6, from the Germans. To test its effectiveness, Dragovich and Colonel Lev Krevchenko used it on Russian soldiers. Dragovich would later become one of the Soviet Union's most powerful members, where he would capture Alex Mason and brainwash him into becoming a presidential assassin. Dragovich's ultimate plan was to use his sleeper agents to release Nova 6 on the entire United States.
- Colonel Lev Kravchenko, the sadistic right-hand man to Nikita Dragovich, once mutilated and murdered his own sister when she rejected Dragovich's advances. Hunting down remaining German forces on the Arctic, Kravchenko would execute all the German prisoners before he and Dragovich use the lethal Nova 6 on the Russian soldiers. Kravchenko would later brainwash several American soldiers for Dragovich's "numbers" program and tortures Grigoi Weaver when he learns of his ties to the CIA, before gouging one of his eyes out. Kravchenko would also subject numerous people to Nova 6 at Vietnam, including American POWs, his own men, innocent women, and children—even infants—and later sends Frank Woods to the Hanoi Hilton prison camp after surviving his attack. Appearing in the sequel, Kravchenko becomes an Arms Dealer selling Soviet weaponry to the highest bidder, denouncing his allegiance to the Soviet Union and declaring loyalty only to himself.
- Dr. Friedrich Steiner, a former Nazi scientist responsible for the creation of Nova 6, turns out to be just as monstrous and vile as his allies. Having defected to the Soviets, Steiner helps Dragovich test Nova 6 on Dimitri Petrenko and his team, painfully killing them. Years later, while working for Dragovich, Steiner conducts experiments and psychological torture on prisoners in Vorkuta in order to create sleeper agents, while developing and supplying Nova 6 for Dragovich's plan. Steiner is fully aware that Dragovich plans to destroy the US with Nova 6, but he doesn't care, willing to calmly let millions of innocents die for his own safety. A opportunistic, slippery traitor, Steiner killed his own German bodyguards, allowing Kravchenko to execute the remaining ones, and tries to defect to the CIA when Dragovich tries to kill him.
- Black Ops III: Deimos, the Big Bad of the "Nightmares" campaign, is the demigod of dread and terror who, along with his sister Dolos, was brought to Earth from Malum by the SP/CORVUS experiments conducted by Coalescence in Singapore. Upon arriving to Earth his first act was to possess Taylor and his team via their DNIs, attempt to kill Dolos, and massacre the SP/CORVUS headquarters in Singapore, mocking Dr. Salim for thinking that Deimos, a god, should thank a mere human for bringing him to Earth. He then modifies Nova 6 to cause zombie outbreaks, turning humanity into his undead army, and breaks them out of their quarantines so they can ravage the world, stating that humanity is his to rule and destroy. Deimos would later possess Hendricks after Taylor's death in Cairo, before attacking Zurich, planning to use their SP/CORVUS headquarters to open a portal where he would then have his undead army conquer Malum for, right after killing Dolos's vessel, Kane.
- Black Ops 4: The High Priest of Chaos, the Big Bad of the "Chaos" story, plans to use the Prima Materia to control all of humanity and rule the world. Forming The Order by killing countless people before resurrecting and brainwashing them into becoming his followers with the Scepter of Ra, he would also use the Scepter of Ra to make himself immortal. Surviving into 1912, he has The Order pursue Alistair Rhodes, where he has all the people attending Alistair's mansion turned into zombies, creating mass carnage. When a group led by Alistair's daughter, Scarlett, travels to his time in Ancient Rome, he uses a Sentinel Artifact to turn all his slaves into zombies and forces the four to fend off the zombie hoard and complete the Trial of Ra before he attempts to execute them.
Examples
- Main campaign: Admiral Salen Kotch is the ruthless and single-minded leader of the SDF, and is devoted to the conquest of the Solar System, and the eradication of Earth-born bloodlines, which he sees as inferior and unworthy. Kotch introduces himself confronting wounded UNSA soldiers, briefly feigning sympathy before ordering their brutal execution. In that same scene, he casually shoots one of his own soldiers to demonstrate that by not caring, he has what it takes to win the war. He would go on to orchestrate a terror attack on a city, causing wanton destruction and thousands of deliberate civilian casualties, before going on to destroy Tigris and killing all its personnel. Throughout the campaign, Kotch sends out broadcasts to the UNSA that their cause will fail and that they should accept surrender and execution. He also sent a spy on a suicide mission to activate a beacon to signal a full SDF invasion of Earth. When the invasion begins, Kotch has his flagship Olympus Mons destroy the UNSA headquarters, killing Admiral Raines. When Reyes and his team board Olympus Mons, Kotch orders its self-destruction to wipe them out and to destroy the city beneath them in the process. Unscrupulous and fanatical to the bitter end, Kotch is willing to sacrifice civilians, his own men and ultimately his own life to the cause of Earth's devastation and further the power of SDF.
- Zombies: Mephistopheles is a demon who manipulated Willard Wyler into accepting a deal, giving Wyler the power to trap people in his horror films and have zombies and butchers slaughter them while Mephistopheles would devour their souls; among the dozens of people killed were Wyler's pregnant daughter. When the four actors defeat Wyler, Mephistopheles himself battles them so that he may enslave them and force them to collect more souls for him to devour.
Examples
- Main campaign: Hauptsturmführer Metz is the SS commandant in charge of sending hundreds of American POWs to labor camps throughout Europe, where they would be worked and tortured to death. Trying to separate the Jews from his next batch of American POWs, Metz shoots one for no reason and beats up Robert Zussman when he refuses to comply with his demands before sending him and the other POWs to his own labor camp; the 1st Infantry Division arrives there, discovering the numerous corpses caused by Metz's cruelty throughout the burned-down camp, many of whom he starved and tortured to death. Metz is last seen executing his remaining prisoners before nearly executing Zussman.
- Nazi Zombies:
- Doctor Peter Glücksbringer Straub is a Nazi instructed by Adolf Hitler himself to create a new type of soldier that doesn't rest or fear death. Finding a mystical sword hilt in Mittelburg, he used the energy from it to kill his own men, resulting in these soldiers becoming walking corpses. Believing he found his perfect soldiers, Straub would then use the sword hilt to turn the town's entire population into undead abominations, having a subordinate sewn onto one of them alive when he learns of his ties to the Allies. Leaving Mittelburg, Straub goes to the island of Heligoland where he stored thousands of his creations and takes them to his Zeppelins. He then travels to Berlin so he can unleash them and kill off every human being in the city, allowing him to reclaim what's left of it for the Nazis, while he continues to take pride in creating what he believes to be the Devil.
- The God-King was the ruler of the Thulian Civilization before he was slain by the Raven Lords to end his tyranny. However, his spirit continued to linger and influence events where through his mystical sword, he corrupted Fredrick Barbarossa into becoming a ambitious tyrant like him and would give the Nazi scientist Peter Straub the knowledge on how to create his own zombified army, at the cost of thousands of innocent lives. When Straub gets killed, the God-King takes over Straub's army where he has them ravage the world and kill untold millions. He would go on to brainwash Vivian Harris into reviving him before killing her once she served her purpose and would nearly kill her allies while declaring on his desire to rule over what's left of the world.
Examples
- Main campaign: Leo Steiner is the officer leading the German invasion of Stalingrad and is characterized by his obsession with subjugating the city and its people. For over a year, Steiner conducts terror bombings and regular mass executions against civilian targets, hanging the bodies of his victims to break Stalingrad's morale. When hunted down by Polina Petrova, Steiner cruelly mocks the deaths of her family during the invasion and promises that Hermann Freisinger will complete his mission to destroy the Soviet Union.
- Zombies: Kortifex the Deathless is a cruel entity originating from the Dark Aether, who wants to become the Construct's Archon and enslave the free wills of every being. Assassinating anyone who wanted to become the Archon, Kortifex also murdered his own parents, yet erased the memories of his bride and enslaved her as a Sister of Agony because she bore a child who could depose him. His ambitions later fueled his attempt to conquer the Dark Aether and he conducted a litany of atrocities, including the systematic execution of his men for failure and the genocide of an entire clan in the Wilds. Though defeated and imprisoned in his artifact, Kortifex would reemerge as Wolfram Von List's benefactor, raising an army of zombies under the promise that he would create a Thousand Year Reich and cleanse the world of anyone the Nazis deemed impure. Casually throwing away the lives of Die Warheit, Kortifex manipulates the Special Forces into freeing him and becomes the Archon, boasting that he will "thank" everyone by wiping out the universe, including Von List.
