The Gulag


 * Soap: "Drop it!"
 * Price: "Soap?"
 * Soap: "Price?...This belongs to you, sir."
 * Worm: "Who's Soap?"
 * — Captain MacTavish, Captain Price and Worm

"The Gulag" is the tenth campaign mission of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The player and the rest of Task Force 141 storm the gulag, an old Russian prison, to free prisoner 627. The player takes control of Gary "Roach" Sanderson.

Main Characters

 * Gary "Roach" Sanderson
 * John "Soap" MacTavish
 * Simon "Ghost" Riley
 * John Price (Prisoner 627)

Level Briefing
"The Gulag"

Day 5 - 07:42:52-59

Sgt. Gary 'Roach' Sanderson

Task Force 141

40 miles east of Petropavlovsk, Russia

Walkthrough
The player starts the mission on an attack helicopter, as three Little Birds converge on a Russian gulag while F-15s destroy a SAM site on a nearby ridge. As the players Little Bird flies over the gulag, snipe the soldiers on the towers, until the sniping sequence is over.

Once the sequence is completed, the helicopter will land. There are several enemies on the higher floors, but a Little Bird will help clear them out. Immediately adjacent to the landing area is a small courtyard, which is filled with enemies upon your arrival. After the courtyard has been cleared, go across to the entrance.

Eventually the player will come across a control room where Ghost will take control. Head through the door to the right and fight your way through the corridors. Take cover behind the low walls, as there are often several enemies to a corridor. Proceed down the corridor, clearing out any and all enemies that you encounter, until you come across a broken staircase. Jump down onto the walkway below. This will lead you to the armory.

Once inside the armory, Captain MacTavish will sarcastically ask if there's a weapon you like. Enemies will encircle the armory, so take cover to avoid as much gunfire as possible until Ghost unlocks the door ahead. Grab one of the several riot shields lying around the armory and sit tight. When the door finally opens, you will be taking fire from all sides. Your riot shield will protect you. When you clear the cell block, rapel down to the lowest floor and head toward the door in the far wall. It will be dark, so activate your Night Vision Goggles. Up ahead will be another cell block, the solitary confinement area, where at least two dozen enemies will be waiting. Clear them out and move on. A shell will strike the castle, momentarily dazing the whole group. Shepherd will report that the Navy has run out of patience and started the bombardment, then tell you that he's convinced them to stop firing for the moment. Continue down the corridor until you come across a hallway laced with pipes.

On the other side of those pipes, there is a hallway with three enemies. Once you clear them out, continue on but be careful. The instand you see the far end, you will see two enemies jump over the railing. At the other end of the corridor, a third enemy will be waiting for you. Take him out and then plant the breaching charge on the wall.

Once the wall is breached and your squad storms the shower room, immediately take out the enemies closest to you and take cover. There will be several enemies on the ground floor and several more on the upper walkway. Once the first section is cleared and you move on to the next section, at least a dozen heavy assault troops will appear. It is best advised to use a grenade launcher or any type of explosives.

After you clear the shower room, advance to the far end and jump through the hole in the floor. This will lead you down to the sewer system below the castle. Follow the ducts to where Ghost says to breach the wall. After you breach the wall and enter the room, you will see a surprised Russian interrogator turn to you just before Prisoner 627 throws his cuff chain around his neck, then move toward you and punch you in the face. A few seconds later, you will see the end of an AK-47 in your face, and Prisoner 627 is revealed to be Captain Price. MacTavish orders him to drop the weapon, and old friends are reunited.

It is now that the Navy begins to bombard the castle, and your last chance to escape. One of your squadmates will pull you up and then charge down the hallway. Follow them through the halls until you see a Little Bird helicopter hovering at the far end. Before you reach it, the bombardment will collapse the hallway, and you will have to find an alternate route of escape. Continue to follow your squadmates. There will be one enemy soldier at the far end of the hallway. Follow the others to a cafeteria, where you will see a delayed detonation bomb beneath a hole in the ceiling. Another cave-in will bury you, and Captain Price will dig you out. At this point, MacTavish will fire a flare through the hole, and a waiting helicopter will drop a SPIE rig and pull you out just before the bomb explodes and the level ends.

Starting Loadout
The following weapons are the initial starting weapons.

Found in Level
The following weapons can be found with or without attachments.

The Armory
The following weapons can be found specifically as a part of an armory.

Intel Locations
1/4 Intel: Before entering the arch gate with 2 red lights. Head up some stairs in front of the building and the intel is at the end of the room.

2/4 Intel: Inside "Control Room", where Ghost is using the laptop.

3/4 Intel: On 2nd sub-level, North-East, in cell "327".

4/4 Intel: After finding prisoner 627, turn left, on top of a desk.

Achievements/Trophies
Soap on a Rope (15G / Bronze Trophy) - Obtained by completing "The Gulag" on any difficulty.

Prisoner 627 (25G / Silver Trophy) - Complete "The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday" and "The Gulag" on Veteran.

Approach Sequence

 * The level is set two hours after the raid on the oil rig. There is strong evidence that the helicopters have stopped in between the oil rig and the Gulag.
 * On the previous level, there were six people on the Little Bird, including Roach. At the start of the mission only Roach, MacTavish and two other soldiers are on the Little Bird.
 * Even though the player left the oil rig in the mission "The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday" sitting on the right side of the chopper, in the beginning of "The Gulag", they sit on the left side of the chopper.
 * One of the F-13 pilots says "Fox three, fox three" this is not accurate as "Fox three" is a term for a radar guided missile, and the missiles fired are not radar guided.
 * At no other time does smoke react to any other force (such as explosions).
 * The Russians running on the walls of the Gulag at the beginning of the level resemble the Ultranationalists in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. They are always carrying UMP45s and always die in the same way then fall through the ground.
 * There are gas tanks on the towers, in which the player can snipe to eliminate most and possibly all of the hostiles.
 * On the second tower there is a SAM site covered in a blue tarp. The tarp will be pulled off, whether or not there are enemies alive to pull it off.
 * The player can advance without doing any sniping while on the Little Bird, even on Veteran difficulty.
 * After the destruction of the third castle tower, just before landing, MacTavish and Ghost complain to Shepherd about the "Yanks" bombing the gulag too early. However, when MacTavish can be seen to the right of the player during the latter half of the conversation, his lips are not moving. This happens throughout the game with all characters.
 * Ghost's complaint about the "Yanks" being their supposed allies foreshadows the end of the game where Soap has to fight Shadow Comapny.
 * Before entering the gulag when the player sees two enemies running in front of them, to the right there is a place for executions. It is possible to get Arctic camouflage SPAS-12 here, and at the armory.
 * The F-15's at the beginning of the level have "IW4" and a skull painted on their tail fins. "IW4" is a popular Easter egg throughout the series that indicates Infinity Ward. This is also a reference to the number of Call of Duty games Infinity Ward has made.
 * The windows at the Gulag's walls are always lit, as it is purely for cosmetic purposes (evidently there are no bullet holes on the walls, and windows do not shatter).

Insertion

 * A Little Bird carrying 6 soldiers lands before the player does, and when the player touches ground, the first 6 soldiers disappear.
 * In a glitch the player will not step off the chopper and it will begin to fly away. It will get back over the ocean and the rotors will stop. The game will then freeze and the player will be forced to turn off the system.
 * After getting off the Little Bird and running to the artillery trucks, Hornet Two-One's (the AH-6 Little Bird attacking enemy troops) minigun barrels don't spin while firing of revving as they should.
 * In the courtyard just before entering the gulag, it is possible to find an enemy soldier with the same character model as an OpFor sniper, but in winter camouflage.
 * In the area in front of the Gulag, there is a gallows complete with stairs and a trap door, however, there is no noose on the rope.
 * Hornet Two-One was a MH-6 Little Bird (transport) helicopter when the helicopter landed, however when Soap asks for support, Hornet Two-One is a AH-6 Little Bird (attack) helicopter.

Inside the Prison

 * The chair that Ghost sits on to tap into the computer is not seen before he says his quote: "I'll tap into their system and look for the prisoner! It's gonna take some time!"
 * The CCTV cameras show empty hallways, even if there are bodies and fighting going on inside them.
 * In the armory, there is an M93 Raffica. This is rare to find in Modern Warfare 2's single player.
 * The part where Roach and MacTavish wait for Ghost to open the cell door is similar to the part where Soap, Griggs, and Price wait for Gaz to open the door in "No Fighting in the War Room" of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Both sequences also have a waiting time until doors are opened.
 * When at the armory, if the player keeps looking at MacTavish, they will see a Riot Shield spawn directly in his hand.
 * The player does not actually have to pick up a Riot Shield in the armory.
 * After the door at the armory is opened, if the player still has a Riot Shield when the player exits, MacTavish will tell them to use it to draw enemy fire. If the player dropped it before exiting the armory, MacTavish will say he will draw their fire and tells the player to take out the enemies.
 * If the player gets the M93 Raffica, and then rappels down, the player will have 3 hands, 2 with the M93's, and 1 on the rope.
 * Occasionally, a glitch will occur when MacTavish gives the order to pick up a riot shield: one of the non-Soap NPCs will pick up a riot shield but will have their weapon poking through the shield, similar to the multiplayer glitch involving changing to a class with a riot shield and mounting a mini-gun.
 * Soap will swap out his M4A1 for an MP5K after picking up the Riot shield.
 * Oddly, there are no other prisoners in the entire Gulag other than #627, though they may have been evacuated during the attack. This may be why there was an Ultranationalist in #627's cell.
 * The shower room in a reference to the movie The Rock with Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery and featured music by Hans Zimmer (who also scored the music for this game).
 * Some friendlies will have a riot shield on top of their weapon. (Seen on top of an MP5K.)
 * Some of the screens in the control room show panning footage of the Gulag's entrance, but when the player doubles back into the entrance, no cameras are found, as are any in the entire mission.

Lower Levels

 * If the player equipped a riot shield after the Navy bombing, the riot shield will fall on the ground, and the player will have to pick it up again. However, the Riot Shield will completely disappear on Veteran difficulty.
 * During the night vision area it seems that Soap doesn't have night vision goggles on.
 * When the player activates night vision, Task Force 141 troops will have IR lasers on their MP5K's. If the player kills one and takes his MP5K, there will be no laser.
 * Debris in the lower areas (especially around the shower room) may cause dropped weapons to be unobtainable, as the weapons fall inside the geometry of the debris.
 * Before breaching the shower room, if the player goes to the door next to it, Soap will say, "Roach forget that door, plant the breaching charge over here." Just standing around will cause him to yell at the player to put the charge on the wall.
 * When breaching the shower room, there is a scripted Russian stood at the wall who will fly backwards. There is also always another Russian to the left of him. Shooting the Russian in the air will do nothing, as he is already dead, but if the player shoots the Russian to his left, the slow motion will end. Oddly, the player can get a woodland camouflage AK-47.
 * The woodland AK-47 from above, although very rare, can be seen in digital camouflage as well.
 * If the player shoots the Russian in the air, as depicted above, the bullets will go right through him.
 * The design of the shower room is very similar to that of the shower room of Alcatraz in the movie "The Rock".

Escaping The Gulag

 * While running, if the player shoots Price, there will be a possibility that Price will be left behind at the falling debris. Although, after Worm yells, "It's a dead end!", Price will appear in the cave and the storyline continues.
 * If the player manages to knife Price before he punches Roach in the face, the player will get the message, "Friendly fire will not be tolerated" and the player has to start from the last checkpoint again.
 * Price's prison outfit looks similar to the outfit worn by The Rock's Sean Connery as John Mason, especially the beanie hat.
 * No matter how many Task Force 141 members are with the player and MacTavsih before they breach the final wall, it will always be Worm only after breaching. Even if Worm is not with the player, he will always appear eventually.
 * When Price calls MacTavish by his nickname, "Soap", Worm asks "Who's Soap?"; apparently MacTavish never told the other soldiers in Task Force 141 his nickname.
 * If the player runs far ahead of the TF 141 soldiers at the end of the level and breaches while the others are still by the shower room area, the room where Price is in will not be loaded yet and after breaching the wall, the player will just fall out of the gulag without encountering Price, requiring the player to restart the level as the Task Force needs to be close before they get to the final breach.
 * Sometimes there is a soldier that looks like Worm but has a random name. However, after the breaching and Price knocks the player down, the soldier's name will always be Worm.
 * If the player sprints to the end of the 2nd 'segment' of the Shower Room directly after clearing the 1st and throws a flashbang at the soldiers with riot shields the instant they come out, he/she would be able to jump over the stunned Russians and sprint into the hole in the ground without firing another round.
 * If the player runs past the Shower Room and through the hole in the floor, leaving the rest of the Task Force 141 members behind (including Soap), Soap will still appear near Price when the room is breached, despite being far behind.
 * Although nearly all of the Russian troops in the Gulag are wearing cold-weather gear, the soldier that Captain Price is strangling is wearing the urban camouflage that the Russian troops invading the United States wear.
 * Regardless of how much the player shoots the guard that Price is strangling, he will remain alive until Price finishes strangling him and throws him towards the player.
 * When Price is strangling the Russian soldier, if the player attempts to stab Price at the last moment, he/she will be able to see their gun for a second when they are knocked down.
 * Price holds a rifle to the player's face before the reunion. When he's given the pistol, the rifle suddenly hangs off his arm. This may be due to the fact the game engine does not render weapon slings.
 * When leaving the Gulag, if the player looks down towards Price when attaching on, they would notice he latches on to nothing, nor did he have a harness to latch with.
 * Soap apparently pulls the M1911 he gives back to Price out of nowhere, as he can be seen with an M9 in his thigh holster throughout the level.
 * It is highly likely the M1911 Soap gives back to Price is the same one Price gave to Soap at the end of the first Modern Warfare so he could kill Zakhaev.
 * Oddly, after Price strangles the Russian soldier, if the player looks around the room after he knocks them to the ground, the Russian is nowhere to be found.
 * During the Reveal Trailer, Ghost is the placeholder or was to be in Prisoner 627 (Cpt. Price)'s position on the SPIE rig. Ghost was featured in the trailer as the soldier running on the left of the squad in the tunnel, before Price was put in that spot. Also, Ghost is seen carrying an AK-47 just like Price does as they leave the tunnels.
 * It is possible to take a shortcut at the end of the level by running straight to the 2nd extraction point.
 * After the player leaves with Captain Price, an enemy will spawn behind the team if the player follows them to the end of the hallway. The enemy is unarmed and seems wounded. He will not spawn if the player waits by the fork instead of following everyone down the hallway. If he survives the falling rocks, he walks forward and sits down, holding his head as if he had a headache.
 * The dazed enemy moves like the wounded Army Rangers in "Of Their Own Accord".
 * Together with "The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday", this is the only mission that Soap will say something like "Roach is down!" or "Roach!" when the player is killed. He only does this because he is scripted to do so when Roach is knocked out by the fallen debris.
 * No matter where the player stands, the scraps will always hit them.
 * Interestingly, Ghost would have died in the Gulag as he is not seen escaping with Price, Soap, Roach and Worm. However, the control room was very close to the entrance of the Gulag, so he could've gotten out when the Navy started the bombing.
 * It is unknown where the other Task Force 141 soldiers go when Soap, Roach and Worm go down in hole in the locker room.
 * If the player switches night vision goggles on right before Roach is hit by debris and Soap fires the flare, the player cannot turn them off and must complete the mission with them on.
 * No matter where the player is crushed from debris in the cafeteria he will always move to the same position when Price removes the debris.
 * When the team is waiting for the SPIE rig, Worm pushes Soap's head out of the way of falling debris.
 * If the player doesn't hook onto the SPIE rig, Soap, Price, and Worm will leave Roach behind and he will die.
 * The explosion at the end of the level is likely caused by the bomb in the final room the player left before the SPIE rig was dropped to rescue everyone. The same bomb penetrated through the floors above, making the SPIE extraction possible.
 * As with all aircraft bombs found on the ground in the game the bombs are relics that would not be used anymore. They are WWII vintage aircraft bombs and have long since been replaced by more streamlined weapons for high speed aircraft, along with smart weapons.
 * The player does not have to hook up on the SPIE rig until the last second. Waiting until Soap starts moving means that the player will skip the hooking animation and fly upwards without being connected to the rope.
 * It may seem strange that the military is shelling/bombing the gulag when they believe that there are prisoners (especially a prisoner they are trying to rescue) inside. However, the gulag is a substantial enemy stronghold which would need to be taken out as part of an invasion. The Navy is unlikely to trust a small force like TF 141 to take out and occupy the entire facility alone, and would want to eliminate the building to continue their assault. Shepherd does indeed mention that, "One man in a gulag doesn't mean much to the Navy at this point."
 * The character named "Worm" has been seen as a completely different model, instead of the dark haired, possibly black or tanned under the camouflage paint, he has been seen as a white man with blonde hair.

Miscellaneous

 * Especially in regards to the interior of the level, the Gulag appears to be designed like a classic panopticon style facility.
 * The music in this level is similar to some of the music heard in the movie The Rock, which is also composed by Hans Zimmer.
 * This is the last level in which Roach and Soap are seen fighting together. Thereafter, Soap only speaks to the player over the comms in "Contigency" and goes with Price to Afghanistan in "Loose Ends." After those missions, the player will control Soap.
 * This is also the last NPC appearance of Soap in Modern Warfare 2.
 * This is the first and only time in Modern Warfare 2 that Soap and John Price are seen together on screen. In "Loose Ends" Price and Soap are only heard over the comms, and in the following levels the player plays as Soap.
 * It appears that Soap did not know that Price was Prisoner 627, as he asks in a questioning tone if it really was Price.
 * It is evident that none of them are aware Price is Prisoner 627 because during various cutscenes they mention "hanging him from a tree" and using him as "meat" to draw Makarov out. They apparently believe Prisoner 627 is a nobody or possibly dangerous terrorist/criminal of no importance to them other than to get Makarov's attention. If the Task Force had been aware that the Prisoner was Price, then it is possible that they would not have been so ready to extract him purely to use as bait.
 * After the F-15s strike the Gulag too close to the helicopter and MacTavish tells Shepherd to have the fighters cease fire, Shepherd says that "One man in a gulag doesn't mean much to the Navy at this point." However, the U.S. Navy does not fly F-15s: only the Air Force does. Furthermore, the F-15 is not capable of carrier catapult launches. The only way this would be possible is if a U.S. Air Base in the Pacific Region scrambled the jets, which is actually quite possible because the Kamchatka Peninsula (where the Gulag is located) is well within range of Yokota Air Base in Japan. As for why Shepherd only refers to the Navy, it may be because the Navy was overseeing the operation, even if the Air Force was involved as well. Also, the Kamachatka Peninsula was also ranged by NATO, and US Navy Aircraft Carriers.
 * The F-15 pilots incorrectly say "Good tone, Good tone. Fox 3, Fox 3," when they fire the HARM AGM's. Both of these sayings are incorrect. "Good tone" is used by NATO pilots only when firing AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-seeking air-to-air missiles, referring to the tone that sounds in the pilot's headset indicating that the missile has a lock. Similarly, "Fox 3" is used by NATO pilots only when firing active radar-guided air-to-air missiles, which would imply that the pilots had fired AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles. The correct brevity code for firing HARMs would be "Magnum".
 * The F-15's at the beginning of the level have the Jolly Roger insignia on the vertical stabilizer. This is the insignia for VFA-103 a Navy carrier based squadron which flies F/A-18F Super Hornets, Not F-15's
 * There is a SPAS-12 in this mission that has snow camouflage and an alternate firing sound, much like the M1014's.
 * This mission features the rare White Tape Camouflage, only on the FAMAS.
 * Soap seems to carry a lot of weapons in this level. In the beginning on the Little Bird, he starts off with the M14 EBR. When they land, he is seen with an M4A1 Grenadier with a Red Dot Sight and Arctic Camouflage. When they reach the armory, he grabs the Riot Shield and the MP5K. When they escape from the gulag, at first he has an M4A1 with no attachments, but when he fires the flare, it suddenly changes to a M4A1 Grenadier with an ACOG sight.
 * Soap appears to be wearing field trousers patterned in Crye MultiCam. This type of camouflage has used frequently used by the British and New Zealand SAS in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 * The SPAS-12 is used extensively by enemy troops before the showers and the M1014 is used frequently by enemies in the shower rooms.
 * In the armory the player can find two sets of Akimbo M9 pistols. This is one of the few times that Akimbo weapons are available in the single player campaign.
 * This is the only level in Modern Warfare 2 where the player spawns with a sniper rifle that is not silenced.
 * In the end where Price is strangling the Russian he is strangling him with the cuffs that are locked on both his hands but as he gets close to Roach he hits him with his right hand by stretching it quite further from the left hand which would be impossible because his cuffs are not that long.
 * Originally there was going to be a multiplayer map called "Gulag" based off this level.
 * In the Japanese version of the game, the level was renamed "収容者#627" ("Prisoner #627") instead of using the Japanese word for gulag ("グラグ").