Simon Riley
Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley appears with a funny inside joke — he has no picture on his file. Captain Price even says, “no, never’ when asked about it. Ghost is the SAS operative that always wears a skull balaclava. He’s a mysterious character, and he’s killed by General Shepherd near the end of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Will Simon Riley be sacrificed again? Maybe, but I doubt General Shepherd will pull the trigger again. The interesting part is how much history Modern Warfare is suddenly bringing back into the franchise, and I’m guessing they don’t want to simply squander that legacy by killing off such an iconic character. Or they could throw him into a ditch and burn the body a second time — Ghost can come back from worse.
Task Force 141
Finally, we come to the last reference at the end. ‘Task Force 141’ is the name of the special group of soldiers that travel the world, attempting to stop rogue Ultranationalist leader Makarov as he perpetrates WW3 in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The group doesn’t last very long, it’s disavowed after they kill General Shepherd in retaliation, but are reinstated in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. In that game, they finally hunt down and defeat Makarov, Captain Price’s nemesis.
Makarov is the biggest enemy in the entire Modern Warfare franchise, and what’s most interesting is that his name is never brought up. Task Force 141 is completely linked to the Makarov storyline — the successor to Irman and Victor Zakhaev. We might have to wait for a thirdquel before hearing that guy’s name again.
What’s Next For The Story?
Barkov is dead, Hadir is in the hands of evil Russian Victor Zakhaev, and Task Force 141 is in play. The next game in the series sounds like it will delve into familiar villains and themes — perhaps even an Ultranationalist uprising? But, I’m going to guess we’ll continue to fight Proxy Wars — Victor might even replace Makarov as a scheming terrorist that uses dirty tricks to instigate war between the major powers.
That’s just my best guess, and after this impressive narrative, I’m curious to see where the Modern Warfare franchise takes us next.