With Infinity Ward’s rebooted Call of Duty: Modern Warfare saga set to conclude imminently ahead of Modern Warfare 4‘s release, here is a concise summary of the story so far. The three games in the series have delivered a complicated narrative, with key plot points playing out not only through their campaigns but also across modes such as Warzone’s Verdansk.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
The 2019 reboot tells the story of Task Force 141’s creation — the elite team of operatives led by Captain John Price. Note that this is not the same John Price from the original Modern Warfare, nor one from the first two Call of Duty games.
Before 141 exists, Price and the British SAS work with CIA chief Kate Laswell to recover highly valuable gas used in creating chemical weapons. The opening mission has players controlling CIA agent Alex Keller as an unidentified team steals the gas en route to the fictional country of Urzikstan, intensifying tensions between Russia and the West.
The next day, an Urzik-connected terrorist group called Al-Qatala attacks London’s Piccadilly Circus, bringing Kyle “Gaz” Garrick into the picture. He teams up with Price to raid a London home and locate Al-Qatala’s leader, Omar “The Wolf” Sulaman, who is found in Urzikstan’s Ramaza Hospital.
Alex has already arrived in Urzikstan after agreeing to team up with Liberation Force leader Farah Karim. She wants to remove Russian general Roman Barkov, who occupies her home country, and will aid in recovering the stolen gas — which turns out to be far closer to home than she imagined.
Alex and a Marine unit capture “The Wolf” and hold him at the US embassy, but his lieutenant Jamal “The Butcher” Rahar attacks to extract his boss and succeeds. The team then ambushes Al-Qatala along the “Highway of Death,” but Russian forces arrive and attack both sides. Farah discovers it was her own brother, Hadir, who stole the chemicals — he deploys them in a massive explosion killing both groups, leaving Alex and Farah barely alive.
Hadir’s motive is revenge: 20 years prior, a Russian invasion left him and his sister without parents. He joins Al-Qatala and distances himself from Farah. The factions’ interests align for a joint operation to find Hadir, but he and the gas are missing — however, they locate and kill Sulaman.
The fallout reaches the US, where the Urzikstan Liberation Force is declared a terrorist threat by the CIA. Alex defects to Farah’s group. Meanwhile, in Saint Petersburg, Gaz and Price capture Rahar instead of Hadir; after torture, Rahar reveals Hadir’s next target is Barkov. Price and Gaz save him and apprehend Hadir.
Hadir reveals where Barkov’s chemical weapons operation lies. The CIA arrives and takes Hadir into custody but blesses the mission, so Price, Gaz, Farah, and Alex destroy Barkov’s gas factory — during which Alex seemingly sacrifices himself. A later seasonal multiplayer update retcons this by revealing he actually lost a leg.
Barkov attempts a helicopter escape before Farah kills him. This leads Laswell to create Task Force 141, whose first mission is hunting Victor Zakhaev, a Russian ultranationalist familiar to players of the original Modern Warfare.
The story beyond the campaign
Sulaman may be dead, but Al-Qatala lived on in Special Ops mode, where senior figures were eliminated one by one. This revealed Zakhaev had been profiting from trading arms to the group.
Zakhaev was then dealt with in Warzone’s Verdansk, where it is revealed he delivered weapons to numerous bunkers. Alex returns — having only lost a limb rather than dying — joined by new recruit Simon “Ghost” Riley. Price calls in more help as they discover Zakhaev using tunnels under the city. Farah and Price’s Russian confidant Nikolai reclaim the tunnels and learn of Zakhaev’s base inside a nuclear silo.
Zakhaev threatens to launch a nuclear weapon before Price shoots him. Another new Task Force 141 member, John “Soap” MacTavish, then calls Price, completing the reassembling of the original trilogy’s core cast.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)
The game kicks off in the Al Mazrah desert, where Task Force 141 — on General Shepherd’s orders — kills Iranian general Ghorbrani. A few months later, his second-in-command Hassan Zyani aims at the United States for payback. Soap and Ghost are sent to capture him but fail, discovering an American ballistic missile at Zyani’s base.
Their chase leads to the Mexican Las Almas Cartel, which has been protecting Zyani. Teaming up with Mexican Special Forces operative Alejandro Vargas, Price and colleagues capture Zyani with help from Shadow Company — a mercenary group owned by Phillip Graves and commanded by Shepherd.
The team is forced to release Zyani to prevent war between the USA and Iran. The search for the missile’s origin continues as Russian GPS trackers are discovered in Las Almas-owned missiles. Al-Qatala kidnaps Laswell, and while Price and Gaz rescue her with Farah’s help, Soap and Vargas capture “El Sin Nombre,” leader of Las Almas — Valeria Garza, a former accomplice of Vargas.
A huge raid is launched involving 141, Alejandro, and Shadow Company, who betray the heroes. Graves orders mass murder on the streets of Mexico, but 141 rescues Alejandro. It is revealed that the US gave missiles to its Middle Eastern allies, with Graves and Shepherd spearheading the operation — until a Russian group ambushed the convoy and stole three missiles, which Shepherd covered up.
Price pledges to bring Shepherd to justice once the Graves situation is resolved. 141 storms the Shadow Company base, kills Graves, and finds Zyani in Chicago, ending his plan before a missile can reach the Pentagon.
The Russians who stole the missiles remain at large — as former England football captain Wayne Rooney put it, “A new devil is arriving”: Vladimir Makarov, villain of the original Modern Warfare trilogy.
Modern Warfare 2’s other modes
In Spec Ops, Alex Keller returns and asks for assistance despite being AWOL during the main campaign. He continues fighting Al-Qatala, now led by Hadir. Price, Farah, and Alex eventually find him; he urges them to use a nuclear missile to protect Urzikstan from Russians, but the team destroys the missile and kills Hadir.
In Warzone, Graves’ Shadow Company survives without its founder and controls Al Mazrah. The Las Almas cartel reignites hostilities. Elsewhere, the Dutch city of Vondel is taken over by the Peacekeepers — a front for the Konni Group, the Russian military unit behind the theft of Shepherd’s missiles.
A few months later, Graves returns having faked his death. He now wants to team up with Farah’s Liberation Force against Konni Group as they move on Al Mazrah. Shadow Company has traitors in their midst; Konni tears them apart from inside and steals gas needed for more devastating weapons — leading back to Makarov.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)
Makarov resides within the MW3 campaign, which draws on rehashed multiplayer maps and slices of Warzone’s Verdansk. It begins with Makarov being rescued from Warzone’s gulag map — he had been serving a life sentence there after being captured by Soap and Price before all three games’ events.
Meanwhile in Urzikstan, Konni Group intercepts Graves’ Shadow Company and steals missiles meant for Farah’s liberation efforts. With Makarov loose, Price attempts to intercept him at an abandoned facility housing Barkov’s remaining chemical materials — the mission is a disaster, with Price barely escaping and Konni obtaining its weapon fuel.
In a version of the original MW2’s “No Russian” mission, Makarov stages a terrorist attack aboard a commercial airplane designed to frame Farah’s Urzikstan Liberation Force. Alex helps Farah thwart it, preventing evidence of ULF involvement from being found in the wreckage.
Price tracks a shipment heading toward Konni but finds no materials inside — instead discovering General Shepherd, who has been kidnapped by Makarov. Price resists killing him and learns about Makarov’s plans to destroy the Gora Dam. The city’s population is saved from flooding, and 141 shoots down a helicopter presumed to transport Makarov.
Price isn’t fooled and continues searching in London, where he discovers Makarov intends to blow up the Channel Tunnel linking the UK and France. As 141 enters the tunnels, their ambush nemesis attacks — Soap is killed by a bullet to the head. Makarov escapes into the darkness as Price defuses the bomb.
Soup’s ashes are later released from a Scottish cliff. A post-credits scene shows Price finally getting payback for Shepherd’s trouble in Mexico, sending a silenced gunshot into the disgraced general’s skull — one villain down, at least one more to go: Makarov remains out there.
Ahead of Modern Warfare 4
This is where Price and Task Force 141 stand ahead of Modern Warfare 4. Some loose threads remain, though the writer declines to dig into Zakhaev’s role in Zombies mode.
Questions linger about how the new Modern Warfare string will end. Makarov’s clock is ticking, but will Price sacrifice himself for king and country? And what role does Mads Mikkelsen’s “The Archer” play in this picture?
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