Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Difference between revisions

On May 10, 2011, gaming blog Kotaku released a leaked list of ''Modern Warfare 3'''s features, including locations in the main story, new characters, and basically the entire plot of the game. Before the game was even announced. And of course, several hours after this, the game was officially announced, showing that some locales in the game include [[New York]], [[London]], [[Paris]], and [[Berlin]]. The new game was developed jointly by what's left of Infinity Ward [[Executive Meddling|(which fell apart amid a dispute with Activision over royalties from the second game)]] and Sledgehammer Games, a studio that was supposedly working on a third-person version of [[Call of Duty]].

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=== [[Say My Name|RAMIREZ]]! Take out that BTR and add more tropes to this page! ===

== Alpha to Delta ==

* [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]: We're not sure on how, in multiplayer matches, Brazilian gangs, African militia, or the Afghan Taliban... er, "Op For"... get ahold of Harriers, Pave Lows, Russian choppers, UAVs, NATO weapons, and nukes, or how they're able to defend their turf from highly-trained Black Ops, but unless one likes having their multiplayer turned into a curbstomp...

* [[AKA-47]]: Mostly averted, only some weapons appear without their real names.

* [[All There in the Manual]]:

* [[Authority Equals Asskicking]]: Cpt. Price and his absolute inability to die throughout ''MW 1'' (or due to being shot in the head aboard the ''Tirpitz'' during [[World War II]], for that matter). This carries over to {{spoiler|1=Captain MacTavish}} in ''MW 2''.

* [[Awesome Personnel Carrier]]: A lot of the real world carriers make it into the game like the BTR, BMP, M2 Bradley and Humvee.

* {{spoiler|[[The Bad Guy Wins]]}}: Sure, by the end of ''Modern Warfare 2'', Soap and Price have {{spoiler|killed Shepherd}}, but that doesn't change the fact that his [[Batman Gambit]] has already succeeded. {{spoiler|1=If MW3's leaked plot is any indication, Makarov was also able to escape Shepherd's men in MW2's ending and causes more havoc amongst both the Russians and Americans in MW3.}}

* [[Badass]]: Soap, Price, Gaz, Griggs, Jackson, Vasquez, Roach, Ghost, Ramirez, Sgt. Foley, Dunn, Sandman, Truck, Grinch, Frost, Yuri...basically the entire main cast.

** Continues in ''Modern Warfare 2'', when the game opens with the player at an American base in Afghanistan, where he trains some local militia, runs an obstacle course, and can walk around and observe the other soldiers.

* [[Blind Idiot Translation]]: The Japanese version has multiple translation issues, especially the eponymous line in "No Russian". Instead of being translated to the Japanese equivalent of "Do not speak any Russian," it ended up as "Kill the Russians."

* [[Bolivian Army Ending]]: In Modern Warfare 3: {{spoiler|Sandman and the rest of the delta team stay behind to allow the others to escape, fending off a large amount of soldiers. To make matters worse, the diamond mine collapses on them.}}

* [[Book Ends]]: Roach's story begins and [[Tear Jerker|ends]] with someone tossing a lit cigar. (Soap tosses one at the start of "Cliffhanger" and {{spoiler|[[Tear Jerker|Shepherd drops one on to Roach's body after it's been doused with gasoline]] at the end of "[[Wham! Episode|Loose Ends]]"}})

** ''Modern Warfare 2'''s multiplayer map "Wasteland" has an identical layout to that of ''Call of Duty 2'''s "Brecourt" map, combined with the general appearance and atmosphere of ''Modern Warfare 1'''s Chernobyl missions.

* [[Cash Cow Franchise]]: In spades. ''2'' had the largest first-day gross in entertainment history. Not just video games -- ''all'' of entertainment, including movies and music.

** The developers certainly said they would want to continuously make more games even after Modern Warfare 3 in a live interview.

* [[The Cavalry]]: Normally, the extraction copter has a squad of soldiers inside it that immediately pours out and begins shooting anything that moves. This is normally when you're in a tight spot, as in the second part of the Pripyat sniping mission in ''Modern Warfare''.

** And in ''MW3'', {{spoiler|Price places it upon Soap's body in tribute after he dies.}}

** A subtle example in the third game: Baseplate is {{spoiler|1=Captain MacMillan}} from ''MW1. At one point, Price says, {{spoiler|"You still owe me for Pripyat."}}

* [[Controllable Helplessness]]: The level "The Coup" in ''Modern Warfare''.

** And the "Aftermath" level, where you get to control the {{spoiler|dying American}} protagonist after the nuclear explosion, as well as the [[Fission Mailed]] sequence near the end of the game, at least until Price throws you a pistol.

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: In "Heat": 6 SAS operatives vs. an army of angry Ultranationalists. The SAS lost a man from tank fire. The Ultranationalists lost several hundred men, five tanks and eight helicopters. The Ultranationalist leaders, unsurprisingly, were pissed.

** The first part of the last level in MW3. Dozens of guards in suits with pistols against two men {{spoiler|In juggernaut suits with belt-fed machine guns}}.

** Also {{spoiler|Makarov}} in MW3.

* [[Cycle of Revenge]]: Zakhaev hated the Americans and Britons for ruining his country, so he started a terrorist campaign against them. They blew his arm off. {{spoiler|He assisted Al-Asad, who also thought the Americans weakened his country, in the violent coup of his country and gave him a nuke. The Americans Marines invaded the country and defeated Al-Asad's army. He detonated the nuke that killed thousands of them. The SAS tracked down, interrogated, and executed Al-Asad. Zakhaev sent an army to kill them, they killed the army. They tried to use his son against him, who committed suicide. He launched more nukes at them and when that failed , killed whoever he could. Soap killed him for that. Now Makarov and the whole Russia hated Americans for it, complete with Makarov revealing photos of three SAS troopers and a US Marine involved in his death. Also, Shepherd hates the Ultranationalists for killing 30,000 of his men. The subsequent Russian-American War results in thousands of civilian deaths on both sides (though more on the Americans'). Soap and Price kill Shepherd in retaliation. But someone else will surely pick up the command of the American forces, now targeting both the Russians and them too...}}

** It makes a comeback in 3 when {{spoiler|you play a dad on vacation with his family, filming your little daughter. Suddenly, a truck parks near where your daughter was playing and detonates, releasing a chemical agent all over the city.}}

* [[Deadly Lunge]]: Com-fucking-mando (Pro).

** A selectable 25 [[Kill Streak]] in ''Modern Warfare 2'' multiplayer drops a tac nuke, winning the game for whoever achieved the streak, regardless of score. That is, if you have it.

*** Other kill streak rewards do this to a lesser degree by calling in Predator UAVs with missiles, Harrier Jets, helicopters or an AC-130 'Spectre' Gunship.

** There is also an {{spoiler|inflatable sex doll}} found in a bathtub in {{spoiler|Makarov's hideout}}. No telling whose it was.

** The {{spoiler|inflatable sex dolls}} are also in multiple places in the Multiplayer and Spec Ops, albeit usually tucked away out of plain sight...

* [[Enemy Mine]]: After {{spoiler|Shepherd's betrayal, Price invokes this to get Makarov to divulge the location of Shepherd's hideout}}.

* [[Everybody's Dead, Dave]]: {{spoiler|Everyone but Soap and Price dies at the end of ''Modern Warfare''. And '''again''' (though only for Task Force 141 this time) in ''Modern Warfare 2''.}}

* [[Evil Sounds Deep]]: The {{spoiler|Shadow Company}} soldiers' voices, which are pretty damn scary.

** Inverted with Makarov, who speaks in a somewhat high-pitched rasp. Doesn't make him sound any less scary, though.

* [[Executive Meddling]]: [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Bobby Kotick]] has been busy breaking up the dev team due to drama over royalty payments, and has charged development of the series' sequel to another, unknown developer.

* [[Explosions in Space]]: Played ''painfully'' straight during the sequence in which {{spoiler|a nuclear warhead ICBM is launched by Price and detonates above the atmosphere over Washington DC, creating an [[Electro Magnetic Pulse]] that disables the invading Russian vehicles... [[You Fail Physics Forever|and other things]].}} Not only does the resultant explosion have a [[Planar Shockwave]], but there's also a delayed ''air pressure shockwave'' that destroys the observing International Space Station.

** When Sandman is first introduced, there's a picture of him and two guys with blacked out faces. They're {{spoiler|Price and Ghost, and the picture is the [[Fatal Family Photo]] of Operation: Kingfish.}}

** An unintentional example: also in "Persona Non Grata", when taking control of the UGV, looking back at the control station reveals Yuri using Kamarov's model from ''Call of Duty 4''. {{spoiler|Kamarov shows up to help later on, though he doesn't actually do much before he dies.}}

* [[A Friend in Need]]: Nikolai comes to Soap's rescue in Brazil and then remains the only one to stand by Soap {{spoiler|and Price}} when they {{spoiler|are framed as terrorists}}. Guess he [[The Power of Friendship|takes care of his friends, too, even when the whole world is against them]]. The fact that it isn't [[Lampshade Hanging|pointed out]] anywhere in the game, makes it [[True Companions|ever more awesome]].

** Then again, five years before, guess who personally "walked him out of there" when he had been caught and tortured by the Ultranationalists? That's right, Soap himself.

* [[Funny Background Event]]: If you stealthily approach the VIP's house in Arcadia, you can surprise a Russian soldier inside, who is busy raiding the fridge, despite wearing a full gas mask.

* [[Gatling Good]]: You [[Best Level Ever|know]] the part in CoD4. Also, Modern Warfare 2 seems to be in love with this trope. Gatling guns as sentry guns, Gatling guns on helicopters, Gatling guns on planes, player-used Gatling guns, Gatling guns on SUVs, Gatling guns on Humvees, about the only thing a Gatling gun isn't attached to is [[Tank Goodness|tanks]] or being as a [[BFG]].

** Also worth noting is that the HQs (Baseplate and Overlord for MW and MW2, respectively) are played by the same guy. The same guy (Dave Mallow) also voices most of the helicopter pilots.

*** Mallow also fulfills a similar role to his HQ persona in the movie ''[[Black Hawk Down]]'' as the air operations commander issuing most of the radio commands to the Army helicopter pilots.

*** Dunn not using [[Saving Private Ryan|a sniper rifle]] is somewhat disappointing.

** Soap MacTavish is played by [[Rome|Kevin McKidd]]. In what would be a somewhat recursive instance, McKidd has stated that Infinity Ward expressed interest in having him play Soap in a movie adaptation, but since the movie is still hypothetical, it's not a certainty.

*** Hell, the game itself could be a movie!

** Captain MacMillan is voiced by [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31 E10 Vincent and The Doctor|Vincent Van Gogh]]

* [["Hey You!" Haymaker]]: Captain MacMillan does this to a soldier (who drops the only accessorized P90 in single-player) with his rifle during the level where you play as Captain Price in the past during ''CoD4''.

* [[Hide Your Children]]: Horribly averted in the third game with the Davis Vacation Scene. {{spoiler|It's a video from the perspective of a camcorder showing a family on vacation in London. A little girl is playing with some birds when a terrorist bomb in a truck next to her suddenly explodes.}}

** Played straight in {{spoiler|the infamous No Russian level of the second game. Despite being a major Russian airport, not a single child can be seen among all the civilians. Most likely since the nature of the level was controversial enough.}}

* [[Hold the Line]]:

** In ''Modern Warfare'', {{spoiler|after killing al-Asad}} you have to defend your position against enemy troops until your ride out of there arrives, steadily falling back after to more defensible positions towards the primary landing zone (LZ). This is turned around later in the mission, {{spoiler|where you have to advance through the same territory you'd conceded to the enemy earlier}}, and reach the new LZ before the helicopter reaches "bingo" fuel. Gaz is not happy.

** A ruthless American General-turned-bad who has a team of black-clad mercenary commandos called Shadow Company? Lethal Weapon, anyone?

** Chasing Rojas through Rio in "Takedown" recalls a different team of commandos chasing Bruce Banner down those same alleyways in 2008's ''[[The Incredible Hulk]]''.

* [[Hope Spot]]: "Checkpoint Reached". The game's auto-save feature is pretty good at avoiding "unsurvivable" moments.

** Story-wise, there's a small moment in "Loose Ends" after Roach {{spoiler|1=has been hit by a mortar, where it seems like he's going to make it out all right, complete with the enemy suddenly going [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]] while he's magically handed a whopping ''nine'' magazines and 40mm grenades to go with his new AK. Then Shepherd shoots him}}.

* [[Implacable Man]]: In multiplayer, anyone who knows how to properly use the riot shield. Quickly becomes the bane of the other team in Headquarters Pro matches, as the headquarters may only be captured or destroyed if no opposing players are within range.

** The last level of MW3 starts with Yuri putting on a juggernaut suit and picking up a machine gun. And turns out, so do you! Then you kick the door of the van open and jump out in front of Markarovs Hotel. The guards in their fine suits [[Curb Stomp Battle|don't stand a chance]].

** Okay, think about this for just a moment: {{spoiler|Soap rips a knife out of his chest and tosses it into Shepherd's face. Pretty awesome, right? Wait, where did that knife hit Shepherd? In the eye? ''Soap'' just got in his eye?}} Intentional or not, this is a great way to ruin the atmosphere of MW2's climax.

* [[Infant Immortality]]: {{spoiler|Averted in Modern Warfare 3. We see a little girl on vacation with her family get killed by a truck bomb full of poison gas.}}

* [[Join the Army They Said]]: Unintentional ([[Do Not Do This Cool Thing]]) or no, under a certain light the game can be seen as recruitment software. It succeeds too.

** Kind of undone when you realize that one level involves {{spoiler|the player killing a corrupt American general.}}

* [[Jump Scare]]: During "Crew Expendable" if Soap moves too far away from Price while in the first cargo hold, a mook will usually leap out of nowhere, screaming and firing a Desert Eagle. This is practically guaranteed to make any player who encounters it for the first time brown their pants, especially because the mook can kill you in a couple of shots.

* [[Justified Tutorial]]: As per the habit of the parent series, the tutorial is presented as having your character on a shooting range and training course where an instructor gives you a run-down on what are obviously game mechanics, with dialog written to [[Painting the Fourth Wall|sound like]] training instruction. The player's performance in the training course prompts the game to suggest a difficulty setting. The obvious fourth wall breaks like explaining aim assist or checking if you know how to switch weapons (tick box: recruit ''does'' have arms) do tend to swing these into unintentional hilarity; particularly when it's assumed you'll do something you don't have to, such as "he's spraying bullets all over the place" which can follow a controlled burst with every round on target.

** Though in MW2, you get to blow open a number of doors with breaching charges.

** There are three instances where you can open a door, without a breaching charge, in MW3, and something bad happens each time. {{spoiler|Andrei Harkov opens a door on a helicopter, only to met by Makarov who promptly shoots him. Yuri kicks down a door in Sierra Leone and is attacked by a hyena. Yuri opens another door in Prague, only to to be punched down a flight of stairs by Price.}}

** And again in the third game: "[[Determinator|The will of a single man.]]" The only difference in usage is ''which'' man is being referred to.

** From the training mission of ''Call of Duty 4'': "What the hell kind of name is Soap?" From Soap's Journal released with ''Modern Warfare 3'': "What the hell kind of name is Ghost?"

** According to the official comic miniseries, {{spoiler|the "Ghost" who appears in ''Modern Warfare 2'' is a separate and clean-shaven British operator named Simon Riley}}.

** It's played straight with Roach and the absurd amount of abuse he endures to that the rest of TF141 either avoids or is killed by. He nearly falls to his death after missing a jump between cliffs, then doesn't make a subsequent jump and gets knocked out from the fall, flees a horde of angry gunmen on foot while unarmed after waking up and with no support at all (he to literally jump off of a rooftop ''again'', this time into the air from even higher up, towards a flexible ladder suspended below a helicopter), has part of a gulag collapse on him, {{spoiler|gets punched in the face by Price}}, survives a minefield ambush, and holds out for several minutes against ongoing siege with only small arms and claymore mines, and ''still'' manages to sally from the building and break through. {{spoiler|He only dies after being clipped by a mortar blast -- from which he wakes up and is still able to aim and fire a weapon -- being shot in the stomach with a high-caliber handgun, and ''being set on fire''.}}

* [[Melee a Trois]]: The airplane graveyard level features a 3-way shootout between the player, Makarov's men, and Shadow Company. Though, Makarov's men and Shadow Company are rather eager to ignore each other and focus on the player instead.

* [[Mercy Invincibility]]: The "Pain Killer" [[Consolation Prize|Deathstreak perk]] in MW2, except it's simply increased health for the first ten seconds after respawning. Unfortunately less than completely effective, as while spawn-camping is not necessarily rampant nor possible, spawn-kills are very possible, ''especially'' from player-controlled air support.

*** In the first Russian mission of the original "[[Call of Duty]]", you (as Alexei) team up with a sniper named Borodin to take out German MG nests. In the Red Square mission right after, you team up with a Sgt. Makarov to flank another MG nest.

* [[Nerf]]: The Model 1887 shotgun. All shotguns in the online mode lose reach and accuracy when used in akimbo. [[Game Breaker|The Model 1887 shotgun lacked this reduction]]. It was fixed, though, in subsequent patches, turning it from a [[Game Breaker]] to a regular gun, and then to a [[Joke Item|Joke Gun]].

* [[Never Speak Ill of the Dead]]: Invoked by the Ultranationalists in ''2'' to diabolical effect; after Zakhaev is killed, they portray him as a hero and martyr gunned down by evil Americans, and gain control of Russia as a result.

* [[New Meat]]: Soap starts off like this in ''Modern Warfare'', as he's whisked off to his first mission hours after reporting to Captain Price on his first day in the Regiment. Ironic to be treated so, considering that he'd had gone through and passed [[wikipedia:United Kingdom Special Forces Selection|Selection]].

* [[Red Herring]]: {{spoiler|1=In the cutscene preceding the 'Turbulence' level in MW3, Harkov's name is labelled 'inside man', implying that as the Russian President's bodyguard, he's actually working for Makarov. Nothing comes of this, however, as Makarov murders Harkov just like the other bodyguards at the end of that level.}}

* [[The Red Stapler]]: Many manufacturers of airsoft replicas have become absolutely drained because of these games. KWA, a former specialist in gas-powered pistols, has stated that their entire stock of Beretta 93R pistols flew out the door in record time, with the reason "thanks to MW2, these things go quick like hotcakes."

* [[Renegade Russian]]: Zakhaev and his protege Makarov.

* [[Reporting Names]]

** If you didn't shed a few [[Manly Tears]] over it, then turn in your passport, ''tovarisch'' ("comrade").

** In ''MW3'', multiple European cities get torn apart by fighting. [[The City of Light|Paris]] tops it, with the {{spoiler|collapse of the [[Monumental Damage|Eiffel Tower]].}}

* [[See You in Hell]]: {{spoiler|Price and Makarov wish each other good luck this way after Shepherd double-crosses both. Price even asks to give his regards to Zakhaev, if Makarov gets there first}}.

* [[Sergeant Rock]]: Foley in ''Modern Warfare 2'' is willing to put his squad (and himself) at great personal risk to get the job done. For instance, refusing to pull back when ordered, so that they could continue to cover evacuating civilians, and ordering that a crippled Blackhawk be positioned to take out as many surface-to-air missile launchers as possible before it could go down; {{spoiler|he maintains his cool after the EMP starts causing aircraft to fall out of the sky, gets the squad under control, and continues to lead the squad through the rest of the Second Battle of Washington, D.C.}}

* [[Short-Range Long-Range Weapon]]: The main reason helicopters were considered overpowered in the original was because of the notoriously poor accuracy of the RPG-7 (the only real anti-vehicle weapon available), making it impossible to reliably hit anything beyond 5-10 meters. Of course, the splash damage meant that using it at that range was a [[Yet Another Stupid Death|bad idea]].

** In real life, the RPG-7's range is... bad... compared to other launchers. In any case, ''inverted'' with the other weapons - you can shoot across the map with a [[Sniper Pistol|pistol]], and hit far and away in large maps with assault rifles.

* [[Shout-Out]]: Many, many references.

** ''[[Airplane!]]!'' - Before "Mile High Club"

SAS Soldier: "Surely you can't be serious."<br />

Gaz: "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley." }}

*** Price gets back at it in ''2''. "Whatever you're going to do, Soap, do it fast!"

*** A Ranger over the radio in "From Their Own Accord" also goes "We - are - leaving!"

** ''Collateral'' - At the beginning of Takedown, the main villain waxes two NPCs in a re-enactment of the "Hey homie, is that my briefcase?" scene.

** ''[[Command and Conquer]]'' - The TF141 uniform from "Loose Ends" is nearly identical to that of GDI soldiers from ''Command & Conquer: Renegade''.

** ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' - A level named "No Fighting In The War Room" in Call of Duty 4.

** ''[[Fallout]] 3'' - ''MW2's'' damaged Washington Monument recalls the one in this game; both have exposed metal reinforcing rods, while the real monument is solid stone.

*** And the fact that every enemy infantryman is a "foot mobile."

*** Not to mention the Rangers' Humvees bearing a striking resemblance to the 1st Recon's "Ghetto Hoopties" right down to the "B[/]" identifier marking and the custom paint job the marines added themselves before the invasion.

** ''[[Mass Effect]]'' - Shepherd is voiced by Lance Henriksen and is your overarching commander. Foley is voiced by Keith David and is your direct superior in the American campaign. With names, voices, and roles like that, it's too big to be a coincidence.

** ''[[Predator]]'' - The mission Of Their Own Accord, where you [[Memetic Mutation|get to tha choppa]].

** ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'' - One of the achievements in ''Modern Warfare 2'' is called "[[Pulp Fiction|Royale With Cheese]]".

** ''[[Star Wars]]'' - ''This decryption code better be worth the [[Meaningful Name|price]] we paid...''

*** In the same mission, a suddenly missing patrol squad is blamed on [[A New Hope|a bad transmitter.]]

** ''[[Terminator]] 2'' - There is a certain scene in ''Modern Warfare'' with Sgt. Paul Jackson entering a playground that looks eerily similar to the one seen in the dream sequence of ''[[Terminator]] 2''.

*** The Winchester 1887 shotgun is a reference to ''Terminator 2'', being [[Arnold Schwarzenegger|Arnie]]'s choice of gun for half the film; the gun in the game is a replica of the T2 prop, including having an enlarged lever for easier spin-cocking. Going [[Guns Akimbo]] with them results in the character working the lever action by flipping the whole gun around on his finger like Arnie did.

** ''[[Tron]]'' - Calling in 5 Tactical Nukes (a killstreak reward earned by amassing a 25 kill streak) unlocks a title with a [[Tron Lines]] background and the text "End of Line", the MCP's [[Verbal Tic]] from the movie.

** ''[[True Lies]]'' - Getting the game-winning kill with a Harrier unlocks the multiplayer title "[[True Lies|True Liar]]"

* [[Southern-Fried Private]]: Cpl. Dunn in MW2.

* [[Space Does Not Work That Way]]: {{spoiler|The destruction of the space station by an [[Explosions in Space|apparent blast wave]] in Modern Warfare 2. Nukes don't have the same effects in space that they do on Earth.}}

* [[The Squad]]: Too many to count.

* [[Stay Frosty]]: Soap says this quite often in ''Modern Warfare 2'', Sgt Foley several times, and once by a Shadow Company trooper, to the point of absurdity.

* [[Take the Wheel]]: In the second game, when Price and Soap escape the Shadow Company in a Jeep and their driver gets hit by a stray bullet. This can be a very [[Unexpected Gameplay Change]], as you are thrust from [[Rail Shooter]] into [[Driving Game]] with no warning whatsoever.

* [[Take Your Time]]: Many missions feature countdowns, but one notable exception is when you're chasing Rojas in "Takedown." Despite Ghost and Soap yelling frantically at you during the chase, you have as much time as you need to fight your way through the alleys.

** "Of Their Own Accord" from MW2 gave us this awesome line:

{{quote| Sgt. Foley: ''[after the helicopter is hit by a missile]'' Take us up! If we're going down, we're taking those SAM sites with us!}}

* [[Torture Always Works]]: "Did he talk?" "They always talk."

* [[Tranquil Fury]]: In the briefing for the penultimate mission of ''Modern Warfare 2'', {{spoiler|Soap angsts about how it's just him and Price up against Shepherd's entire Shadow Company. Price is simply checking inventory and explaining, ''in a voice so calm that it sends shivers down any player's spine'', that there's a certain satisfaction to knowing when you will die, and that Shepherd's number is up.}}

* [[Tricolours With Rusting Rockets]]

* [[Troubled Production]]: The long-brewing conflict between Activision and lead elements of Infinity Ward finally came to a head during the development of ''Modern Warfare 3''. A large portion of Infinity Ward's staff ended up leaving or being forced out, forcing Activision to bring in Sledgehammer Games to finish development of the title. Famously, one of the disgruntled employees leaked the complete plot of the single player campaign almost a year before release, which was widely published by the gaming press. This, on top of a lot of Infinity Ward leaving during the LAST game...

* [[Universal Driver's License]]: Averted, in that you can either fire weapons from a vehicle but not drive it (both games) or the vehicles you can control are relatively simple to do so in real life (MW2, using a snowmobile and a small boat; in both cases, you can only fire a small machine pistol).

* [[Unexpected Gameplay Change]]: ''All Ghillied Up'' and ''[[Death From Above]]'' in ''Call of Duty 4''. Some of the levels in ''Modern Warfare 2'' also qualify.

* [[Up to Eleven]]: Seems to be the line of thought behind development of ''Modern Warfare 2'': "how can we take everything from the first ''Modern Warfare'' and make it ''AWESOME''?" Whether the results are indeed awesome is in the eye of the beholder.

** Also lampshaded in the achievements: getting one star in eleven different Special Ops missions unlocks one called "It Goes Up To Eleven".

* [[Walk It Off]]: Both games have a now-standard regenerating health model.

* [[The War Room]]: the penultimate level in ''Modern Warfare''.

* [[Weaponized Animal]]: In Survival Mode in MW3, on harder maps, attack dogs may have C4 strapped to them.

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: {{spoiler|Shepherd}}'s end goal is to snap average American citizens out of what he sees as willful ignorance towards how much sacrifice is necessary to maintain everything they take for granted, {{spoiler|giving him a near-endless supply of volunteers and the funds to load them out for bear with.}} To say he does some extreme things to achieve this, crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]] multiple times in hindsight, is an understatement.

* [[Wham! Line]]: ''[[Title In|Of Their Own Accord:]] {{spoiler|[[Title In|Washington, D.C.]]}}''

** Two from "Blood Brothers": "Captain Price, Hell awaits you" and "Yuri, my friend. You never should have come here."

** What exactly was in that briefcase in the panic room in ''Modern Warfare 2'', and who was the man there?

** Frost disappears after Scorched Earth. There's no rhyme or reason as to why this is; he just completely disappears after the mission and is never heard from or seen again. The Wiki says, however, that he is still alive. Aside from this, he just disappears and gets no closure in the story.

* [[Wretched Hive]]: The ''favelas'' of Rio de Janeiro, where hundreds of armed men are mobilized to hunt you down within minutes, rather reminiscent of ''Black Hawk Down''. This is actually [[Truth in Television]] to some extent: the Brazilian police rarely (if ever) enter the neighborhoods with anything less than fully armored SWAT teams because the gangs are so well equipped.

** And the SWAT teams that do get there [[The Elite Squad|have a skull/dagger/pistol emblem]] that pretty much symbolizes how much of a [[Badass Army]] you need to be to pull it off. One of the favelas was recently occupied - with the handy assistance of the ''Navy''.

** {{spoiler|And ends with [[An Aesop]] about why committing so much force against a foe backed into a corner with access to nuclear weapons is a bad thing.}}

* [[Yanks With Tanks]]: Many of the missions involving the U.S.M.C. or U.S. Army feature this heavily. Particularly, the mission "War Pig" from the first game is all about this.