One click and you're done. Thank you!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 runs two storylines simultaneously. One is where you take the role of Private First Class Park Hyun-Jun, and another is where you play as the now outlawed Captain Price. Both are interconnected, both have their own main villains, both are canon, and most importantly, both are bloody jam-packed with guns-blazing acts of bravado.
For Park’s story, or the end of it, there is an invasion in North Korea where American and South Korean soldiers are sent to execute an important task. But there’s another task that Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley has to execute, so he tags along with them too. We will look at them one by one and understand how the two storylines run parallel to each other and connect at the end.
The Assault on North Korean Palace, Explained
After retaking Hajin City back from the North Korean Army and flooding the core of a melting nuclear reactor in the previous two missions, American and South Korean soldiers are about to call it a day. But Special Warfare Command officer Captain Kal has one last mission for them.
They are to enter the North Korean space and take down the evil Supreme Leader, Ri Ju-Young, who is still alive and holed up in the Presidential Palace after enacting a plan to oust her somewhat more peaceful brother, and take the country for herself. The madness has to end for good. The war needs to end. Ko Jin-Hyuk, the former right hand of the Supreme Leader who was devastated by the malicious acts of Ri, helps them get this done.
They enter the North Korean airspace by disabling enemy missiles using a single-use electromagnetic pulse device that Ko stole before escaping from North Korea and abandoning his position. Park clears the ground by raining hell using a grenade launcher from the helicopter so they can enter the Presidential Palace. He cripples all defenses: enemy soldiers, tanks, helicopters, and even the statues. He destroyed them all, and all that is left in the massive courtyard is black fumes of smoke.
Helicopters then land on the roof, and soldiers rappel down inside the massive palace, which Ko explains was built for a god during the mission. Swarms of enemies are still coming, but the team manages to clear them from the path, and they reach a locked door. Ko shows them a hidden path on the right that leads them to a network of cell blocks and then to the war room, which they had to breach and clear as enemy soldiers were already waiting for them behind it.
In the war room, there is another hidden door that our soldiers need to breach. But just before they are about to blow it up, the wall to the right of the door blows up, and Ri Ju-Young’s soldiers, and then Ri Ju-Young herself holding a machine gun, show up. Park is on the ground and takes a shot at her, but his gun is empty. Ri sees him and shoots at Park but Kal pulls him behind a couch and gives the last mag he had while Ko stabs a knife in her leg to buy him a few seconds. Seeing this opening, Park takes another shot and puts a bullet in her head.
Everybody leaves after the operation, but Ko chooses to stay behind, telling Park that it is his home and he won’t leave it when it needs him the most. Park wishes him good luck and leaves with the rest of his crew.
That Solo Ambush by Ghost in the Woods, Explained
Ri Ju-Young might be the evil Supreme Leader, but she was still a secondary villain. The main villain of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is Mads Mikkelsen’s Archer, who is the Defense Minister of Russia. He makes Ri look like a cute little girl toying around in the grand scheme of things. He was the one assisting the North Korean Army in invading Hajin City, which was also a testing ground for his weapon of war, the same electromagnetic pulse device Ko stole. He wants this weapon in hopes of a new Russian Empire, and he wants Captain John Price.
Captain Price has killed Vladimir Makarov in the game’s beginning, and Archer explains that Makarov was a patriot… And his son.
You see, when Captain Kal called the soldiers for the final assault at the Presidential Palace, it was also a joint CIA operation. A favor the CIA chief and Price’s friend Kate Laswell asked from them: to save Price, who was being held captive at the same location. Ghost accompanied soldiers as Kate’s asset in the entire operation until he broke off just before they entered the war room, wishing them good luck. He actually went after Price, now in a convoy with the Archer passing through the snow-covered woods.
In a way, Ghost shouldn’t be in this rescue op. Gaz was shot in the head by Archer because of Price when they all were held captive. However, Ghost is a soldier who follows order, which becomes clear when he is in a duel with Price on a high-rise building and says,
“I have orders.”
So, here he is, following orders.
Archer, his Konni soldiers, and a captive Price are passing through the woods with Archer dreaming of a new Russian Empire that he plans to create using those single-use EMP devices. His daydreaming is disrupted when Ghost leads a solo ambush like a force of nature on the enemy convoy and kills most of the Konni guards in a jiffy. The vehicles are down, and so is Price, his hands tied and a metal pipe impaled in his stomach.
Ghost quickly arrives and sends Price in the direction where Archer went along with the remaining Konni guards. Price musters up whatever life is left in him and slowly chases them, killing them with an assault rifle he picked up from a dead Konni. Archer is fatally wounded from Ghost’s sudden ambush, so Price catches up to him pretty quick after all the Konni guards are down. Price throws down some punches on Archer, but Archer pulls the metal pipe from Price’s stomach to stab him in the face. Doesn’t matter though, because Price blocks him and sends it straight through Archer’s neck with a bloody blow.
As Archer chokes to death, Price lays beside him because he too has lost so much blood. Ghost arrives there, and Price tells him that “Gaz was right,” that there is a line. He asks him to “hold the line.”
Ghost holds his hand and bids final farewell, putting the differences aside, as Price takes his last breath. After all, they were a part of what we once called Task Force 141, the best handpicked group of soldiers on the planet. He leaves with the EMP device that Archer was carrying with him.
With a heavy heart, we can see Kate Laswell deleting profiles of Gaz, Ghost, and Price from the database in the post-credits scene before briefing a mysterious figure who will be her replacement in the DMZ operations that will follow, like Operation Critical Extraction, Shopping Hacks, and more. She really had a hard time pressing the delete button on Price’s profile.
Will There Be a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 5?
Team 141 has been eradicated. Every member from the original squad in 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is now dead, albeit with Ghost still milling around the place. It’s guaranteed we’ll be getting more Call of Duty games, they’ve been yearly releases since the early 2000s, but whether we see another Modern Warfare is unknown.
There’s the opportunity to continue Park’s storyline, with it coming to an abrupt end after the storming of the palace, with him being asked if he’s going to re-enlist, or maybe we’ll see a Ghost-led adventure, now he’s walked into the frozen tundra with the device everyone seemed to want during the campaign.
With the storyline of Team 141 concluded pretty definitely, many would argue there’s no need to continue it, but there certainly is options to, if Infinity Ward choose to.
For your next read, don’t miss the 40 most thrilling and intense moments from the OG Modern Warfare trilogy, or our top tips for DMZ beginners in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.
Anurag Batham is a Writer at Thumb Wars, zeroed in on video games, but will also throw himself into anything in association with anime and cinema. As with his favorite video games, give him anything with a linear story, be it Call of Duty or Braid, and he will be happy. He thinks of stories as food and wants to feed his readers something nutritious, food for thought.
Other Call of Duty Guides You Will Need
- How to Complete Operation Shopping Hacks Story Mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 DMZ
- How to Complete Operation Silent Ledger Story Mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 DMZ
- How to Complete Operation Critical Extraction Story Mission in Modern Warfare 4 DMZ
- 10 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 DMZ Tips and Tricks We Wish We Knew Before Playing
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 DMZ Beginner’s Guide
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 – How to Get Through the Sewers to the Smuggler’s Supply Drop in Stranded
- How to Unlock the No Harm Done Trophy in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 – Release Date, Platforms, Story, Game Modes & Everything Else You Need to Know
