Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Synopsis - Plot

Plot

In 2011, a civil war has broken out in Russia between its government and ultranationalists who seek to restore Russia to its Soviet-era glamor. Meanwhile, a separatist group lead by Khaled Al-Asad seizes power in a "small but oil-rich" country in the Middle East through a coup d'état. Al-Asad is ruthless and has extreme anti-Western views. Afterwards, the United States invades the country. In the afternoon of the second day of invasion, a platoon of USMC 1st Force Recon is sent to capture Al-Asad. The platoon attacks a TV station in which Al-Asad was thought to be broadcasting live and then engages in urban combat in an unnamed city south of the capital. In the meantime, the British Special Air Service (SAS) conducts two important operations, one on a ship in the Bering Strait and one in Russia. Intelligence gathered from the two missions indicates that Al-Asad may be in possession of a Russian nuclear device.

In evening of the third day, the U.S. launches a full-scale assault on Al-Asad's presidential palace in spite of the SAS warning about the nuclear device. As U.S. Navy SEALs invade the palace, the Marines engage Al-Asad's ground forces. The assault, however, ends in catastrophe when the nuclear device suddenly detonates, wiping out most of the city along with everyone in it.

Refusing to assume Al-Asad dead, a SAS strike team supported by Russian loyalists attacks a potential safe house in a village in Azerbaijan. Led by Captain Price, the strike team eradicates the occupying Russian forces and capture Al-Asad. Shortly into the interrogation, Al-Asad's phone rings. After hearing the voice of the caller, Captain Price executes Al-Asad and reveals that the caller was the leader of the ultranationalists: Imran Zakhaev.

Captain Price tells the story of a mission in Pripyat, Ukraine fifteen years earlier. In the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Zakhaev took advantage of the turmoil to profit from nuclear proliferation and used his new wealth to lure soldiers from the Soviet Army to form his ultranationalist party. In 1996, Price was sent on a black operation to assassinate Zakhaev. From his vantage point on the top floor of an abandoned hotel, Prices fired upon Zakhaev with a Barrett M82 sniper rifle, but the shot only severed Zakhaev's arm. Price barely escaped the scene.

The SAS, the Marines and loyalist Russians attempt to capture Zakhaev's son, Victor, to learn Zakhaev's whereabouts but as they corner him on the roof of an apartment building, Victor commits suicide. Enraged, Zakhaev retaliates by launching nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles at the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, which could kill 41 million people. A joint force of the SAS and the Marines, however, manage to seize the launch facility's command room and remotely defuse the missiles over the Atlantic Ocean. They escape the facility in military trucks with Zakhaev's forces in hot pursuit.

An ultranationalist Mi-24 Hind helicopter destroys a vital bridge and traps the joint force. The ensuing fight with ultranationalists leaves everyone in the joint force either dead or severely wounded. Zakhaev himself arrives and begins killing wounded soldiers when loyalists suddenly destroy his Mi-24 Hind and join the fray. Zakhaev is shot dead. When the dust settles, loyalist forces start tending to the wounded.

In the outro, the missiles incident and the ultranationalists' support of Al-Asad are hushed up, thus causing the events of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.