50 Fun Facts About Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Which Modern Warfare 2 mission, set during an airport massacre, can players skip without any penalty?

No Russian polarised the studio that made it, and the skip option was added after a tester refused to play the level at all. Players can also walk through it without firing at a civilian.

In Modern Warfare 2, which SAS veteran turns out to be Prisoner 627 when Task Force 141 storms a gulag?

Captain Price had been locked away since a failed attempt to seize the game's villain. Once freed, he rejoins the task force and leads its raid on a Russian submarine.

Which American commander betrays Task Force 141 in Modern Warfare 2, shooting two of its men?

General Shepherd leaked an undercover agent's identity to start a war that would make him a hero. He had lost his own troops to a nuclear blast five years earlier.

Which 25-kill reward in Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer ends the match and hands its user's team the win?

The Tactical Nuke freezes the score the moment it is called in, so a side that is losing badly can still come out on top. The Hardline perk cuts the kills needed to 24.

Which Hollywood film composer wrote the main theme for Modern Warfare 2?

Hans Zimmer wrote only the main theme, yet the soundtrack's iTunes page wrongly credited him as its sole composer. The rest of the score came from a colleague at his studio.

Which Task Force 141 lieutenant in Modern Warfare 2 hides his face behind a skull-patterned balaclava?

Ghost proved so popular that he got his own six-part comic prequel. In 2011, readers of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition voted him 40th among the top video game characters of all time.

Which Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer map, the game's smallest, is set in a desert oil yard?

Rust is the spiritual successor to Call of Duty 4's Shipment. Its yard also shows up in the campaign's closing scene, as the survivors are flown out by helicopter.

Which landmark do Rangers retake in Modern Warfare 2's Whiskey Hotel, lighting flares on the roof to stop an air strike?

The White House is spelled out by the mission's title in the phonetic alphabet: Whiskey for W, Hotel for H. It still has power after the electromagnetic pulse, so the Rangers can use it to reach their command.

Which rapper recorded squad voice lines for the multiplayer of 2009's Modern Warfare 2?

50 Cent voiced an ordinary squad member, so players hear him calling out enemies in online matches and co-op missions rather than meeting him in the story.

In Modern Warfare 2, what does the warhead that detonates high above Washington destroy in orbit?

The International Space Station is torn apart by the shockwave while the player watches as a spacewalking astronaut. The same blast knocks out electronics below and drops helicopters from the sky.

Which Ultranationalist leader, a protégé of Imran Zakhaev, is the terrorist hunted throughout Modern Warfare 2?

Vladimir Makarov knows the undercover agent in his crew is American and leaves the body behind on purpose, so that the massacre is blamed on the United States.

Which Task Force 141 commander ends Modern Warfare 2 by pulling a knife from his own chest and throwing it?

Soap MacTavish was the playable sergeant of Call of Duty 4, promoted here to captain. His throw kills the traitor while an old friend is losing a fistfight to him.

Which Task Force 141 sergeant does the player control on the ice climb in Modern Warfare 2's Cliffhanger?

Roach is the main playable character of the campaign. On this climb he misses a jump and nearly falls to his death before his captain grabs his hand at the last moment.

In which Brazilian city does Task Force 141 chase an arms dealer through the slums in Modern Warfare 2?

Rio de Janeiro hosts two missions, Takedown and The Hornet's Nest. With America under invasion and no backup coming, the team has to fight its way out to a friend's helicopter.

In which capital city does the airport massacre of Modern Warfare 2's most controversial mission take place?

Moscow is where the gunmen speak only English and carry Western weapons, so that the attack looks American. Activision cut the level from copies sold in the country it depicts.

In which country does the Modern Warfare 2 campaign both begin at a training base and end in a mountain hideout?

Afghanistan bookends the story: it opens with Rangers training local soldiers at Fire Base Phoenix and closes with a boat chase out of a traitor's base in the mountains.

Which vehicle carries the player down the mountain at the end of Modern Warfare 2's Cliffhanger mission?

The snowmobile escape has the player steering and firing a machine pistol at the same time, then taking a giant gorge at full speed to reach the pickup point.

Which Scottish actor voiced the commander of Task Force 141 in Modern Warfare 2?

Kevin McKidd grew up in Elgin and has voiced other Scots too, playing Lord MacGuffin and his son in Pixar's Brave. He came back to the role for the 2011 sequel.

Which game's launch record did Modern Warfare 2 beat by earning $310 million in its first 24 hours on sale?

Grand Theft Auto IV had held the record for the biggest launch in any medium, films included. Modern Warfare 2 went on to pass $1 billion in sales about two months later.

Which studio did Infinity Ward's two ousted bosses found in 2010, months after shipping Modern Warfare 2?

Respawn Entertainment was set up weeks after Activision fired Jason West and Vince Zampella for insubordination. Its first game, made with EA, was Titanfall.

Which bolt-action Modern Warfare 2 sniper rifle, a real CheyTac design, kills with a single shot to the upper torso?

The Intervention is named on screen as a CheyTac anti-materiel rifle in a late campaign cutscene. It later returned in Infinite Warfare and in the 2022 reboot.

Which lever-action shotgun in Modern Warfare 2 had its range cut by a patch after players dual-wielded it?

The Model 1887 could kill from further away than any other shotgun, and firing a pair at once doubled the damage. Complaints from players led to the 1.07 patch that drastically shortened its reach.

Which bulletproof primary weapon in Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer fires nothing and takes two bashes to kill?

The Riot Shield deflects every bullet and even earns bonus experience for soaking up fire. A sticky grenade stuck to its carrier is still lethal.

Which Modern Warfare 2 attachment adds a second copy of the same gun but stops players aiming down sights?

Akimbo works on handguns, machine pistols, submachine guns and two of the shotguns. Because the sights are disabled, any optic fitted alongside it becomes useless.

Which Modern Warfare 2 attachment folds out a small screen showing nearby enemies, unless they use the Ninja perk?

The Heartbeat Sensor is first used in the blizzard of the Cliffhanger mission. In multiplayer an EMP turns its screen to static.

Which Modern Warfare 2 perk extends melee range into a dash so fast that players nicknamed it a teleport?

Commando stretches the melee reach from 3.2 to 4.4 metres. Its Pro version, earned with 20 melee kills, also cancels all damage from long falls.

Which Modern Warfare 2 perk trades the secondary weapon for a bag that swaps classes without dying first?

One Man Army was meant for adapting a loadout mid-match, but players mostly used it to refill grenade launcher rounds. The swap takes five seconds, or three with the Pro version.

Which Modern Warfare 2 deathstreak lets a struggling player withstand triple damage for ten seconds after spawning?

Painkiller activates after three deaths in a row without a kill. The game's other deathstreaks need four, including Copycat, which borrows the class of whoever just killed the player.

Which four-kill reward in Modern Warfare 2 airdrops a crate holding either ammo or a random killstreak?

The Care Package can hold anything up to an EMP, though that prize turns up in fewer than 1 in 100 crates. A helicopter lowers it onto a smoke marker thrown by the player.

Which Modern Warfare 2 map, reissued as free DLC for Modern Warfare 3, lets players fight inside a parked plane?

Terminal reuses the airport from the campaign's most notorious level. The plane is the safest spot on the map, well protected from airborne threats.

Which Call of Duty 4 map returned alongside Overgrown in the first downloadable map pack for Modern Warfare 2?

Crash came back in a five-map pack that was downloaded over a million times in 24 hours and 2.5 million times in a week, breaking Xbox Live records.

Which co-op mode in Modern Warfare 2 offers 23 standalone missions that award stars by difficulty?

Special Ops missions are grouped into five tiers, Alpha to Echo, unlocked by earning stars. Two of them need a second player, who flies air support for the first.

Which heavily armoured enemy in bomb-disposal gear first appeared in Modern Warfare 2's co-op missions?

Juggernaut soldiers soak up enormous damage while advancing with a light machine gun. They never turn up in the story itself, only in co-op and a bonus level.

Which bonus Modern Warfare 2 level, unlocked by finishing the campaign, shows its cast as dioramas that can come alive?

Museum has a red button that players are warned not to press: pushing it sends every figure in that room after them. Its display cases also hold many of the game's weapons.

What is the name of the timed training course in Modern Warfare 2 whose result suggests a difficulty level?

The Pit has players clear enemy targets while sparing civilians, then recommends a difficulty from their time. The course returns as the first of the co-op missions.

In the Modern Warfare 2 mission Wolverines!, which fictional fast-food chain do Rangers fight to secure?

Burger Town outlived the mission: the chain turns up again in Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone, and Advanced Warfare gave it an animatronic mascot called Bubby.

The Modern Warfare 2 mission title Wolverines! nods to which 1984 film about teenagers resisting an invasion?

Red Dawn's guerrillas take their name from a high school mascot. The game also names an achievement after the film, earned by beating two suburban missions on Veteran.

Which private military outfit, loyal to a rogue commander, wipes out most of Task Force 141 in Modern Warfare 2?

Shadow Company is the main enemy of the final missions. The name came back in the 2022 reboot for another band of contractors working with the same unit.

Which Ranger private, playable in Modern Warfare 2, became a meme for the endless orders his sergeant shouts at him?

Ramirez is given scripted orders 56 times in the campaign, mostly by Sergeant Foley, which inspired fan posters of the sergeant demanding ever more absurd tasks.

What working gadget came with Modern Warfare 2's Prestige Edition, along with a stand shaped like a soldier's head?

Night vision goggles in the Prestige Edition really worked: they ran on five AA batteries and could see up to 50 feet in total darkness.

Which actor, the android Bishop in Aliens, voiced the commander who turns traitor in Modern Warfare 2?

Lance Henriksen has been killed on screen by a Terminator, an Alien and a Predator. His other game work includes the Mass Effect trilogy.

Which actor from The Thing and Platoon voiced Ranger squad leader Sergeant Foley in Modern Warfare 2?

Keith David had a busy 2009: in the same year he voiced the villain Facilier in The Princess and the Frog and the Cat in Coraline.

Besides Germany, which country's version of Modern Warfare 2 fails players who shoot civilians in the airport level?

Japan's edition also rewrote the villain's opening instruction so that it told the gunmen to kill the bystanders, a change some players there criticised.

Which league's playoff broadcast on TNT carried the first full-length Modern Warfare 2 trailer in May 2009?

The NBA Eastern Conference Finals carried the reveal on 24 May, the first time extended in-game combat was shown. Two short teasers had come before it.

Which Activision studio remastered Modern Warfare 2's campaign for its 2020 re-release on newer consoles?

Beenox rebuilt the campaign with remade cutscenes and new motion capture, but left out both the multiplayer and the co-op missions.

Which long-standing PC feature did Infinity Ward drop from Modern Warfare 2, sparking a 150,000-signature petition?

Dedicated servers gave way to a matchmaking service called IWNet, which capped matches at 18 players. The protest petition passed its headline figure in just ten days.

Which fictional capital was both a setting in Modern Warfare II (2022) and the new map of Warzone 2.0?

Al Mazrah is the capital of the invented United Republic of Adal. Its extraction mode, DMZ, sent teams of three in to complete missions and get out with their loot.

Which Iranian Quds Force major, armed with American-made missiles, is the villain of Modern Warfare II (2022)?

Hassan Zyani wants revenge for a commander killed by a missile strike at the start of the story. The plot draws partly on the real assassination of Qasem Soleimani.

Which Mexican colonel leads the elite Los Vaqueros unit alongside Task Force 141 in Modern Warfare II (2022)?

Alejandro Vargas learns that the cartel boss he is hunting is a former special forces comrade. His deputy later helps to free him from captivity.

Which private military commander turns on Task Force 141 in Modern Warfare II (2022) after a joint oil rig raid?

Phillip Graves seizes the base of his Mexican allies on a general's orders. He seems to die when it is retaken, but the later seasonal story reveals that he faked his death.