The Hornet's Nest


 * Nikolai: "My friend, from up here, it looks like the whole village is trying to kill you!"
 * MacTavish: "Tell me something I don't know! Just be ready to pick us up!"
 * — Nikolai and Captain MacTavish

"The Hornet's Nest" is the seventh campaign mission of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Following the capture and interrogation of Alejandro Rojas, U.S. forces have been banned from entering Brazilian airspace because of the destruction, forcing Captain MacTavish to call for outside help. The player takes control as Gary "Roach" Sanderson.

Main Characters

 * Gary "Roach" Sanderson
 * John "Soap" MacTavish
 * Simon "Ghost" Riley
 * Nikolai

Level Briefing
"The Hornet's Nest"

Day 4 - 16:19:42-49

Sgt. Gary "Roach" Sanderson

Task Force 141

Rio de Janeiro, 1700 ft A.S.L.

Walkthrough
The player starts with Roach and his Task Force 141 squad near the last location of "Takedown", with Rojas' body after being electrocuted. Move up until the player ends up in a square. Militia will begin attacking the group from buildings and cover in the center of the square. Eventually two Technicals will enter the square. Roach and the rest of the group will make quick work of them. The player and the team will move down the road to a street on the site of a hill. There they will engage a group of militia in an open field filled with garbage. After fighting through the field, the team will move through a narrow street with a few militia gunmen.they will then move up a small staircase to another street. There, they will be attacked by more gunmen. After the gunmen are killed, the player will move up to another open field another Technical will show up on the far side of the field. Kill the gunner and move on towards the Market.

Once inside the market, Militia men will fire at the player from the rooftops and from behind tables. Lob grenades and Flashbangs to flush them out and continue through the market. After the fighting is over Captain MacTavish will tell Nikolai to land his Pave Low at the first LZ (Landing Zone) which is a relatively open field surrounded by buildings. The LZ will becomes too "hot" due to heavy RPG fire when the Militia counter-attacks, Soap will tell Nikolai to land at the second LZ on the roofs of the slums. The player and the rest of team will jump from roof to roof across buildings until there is a gap that the player/Roach attempts to jump but misses. He loses his grip and Soap will try to grab him before he falls. Sadly, Soap misses Roach's hand, and Roach falls into the alley below.

The screen will black out for a few seconds, and Captain MacTavish tells Roach to get back onto the roofs so that he can be rescued. Nikolai announces that the helicopter is at nearly bingo (not enough fuel in reserve to make it back) fuel and that he will have to dust off (leave) in 30 seconds. The player will have to run unarmed to the roof with Soap guiding him/her back to the LZ. Roach will slide down from a roof into a house, run, and jump onto the Pave Low's ladder. The mission ends with Roach hanging onto the ladder, looking out over the guanabara's bay in Rio de Janeiro as Soap tells Nikolai "just take us to the sub".

Starting Loadout
The following weapons are the initial starting weapons.

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

Intel Locations
1/4 Intel: After the first firefight. Look south from the antenna and the player will see a doorway with a small hallway in between a red section (on the left) and a yellow section (on the right). Go through the doorway and it will be on the table on the players right.

2/4 Intel: After the second firefight, follow the path to the left, next to the red top yellow middle and red bottom building, the player will see a washing machine. At its left corner behind the machine are two barrels, the intel is on top of them.

3/4 Intel: After third firefight, on the hill street. Second floor of building behind "Pelayo's" ice cream store (West side, uphill). It is somewhat hard to miss the stairs.

4/4 Intel: After fifth fire-fight, on the soccer field, inside the window behind the far soccer goal net (West side).

Achievements/Trophies
Colonel Sanderson (10G / Bronze Trophy) - Obtained by killing 7 chickens within 10 seconds.

Turistas (25G / Silver Trophy) - Obtained by beating "Takedown" and "Hornet's Nest" on Veteran difficulty.

Starting Point

 * At the beginning, Alejandro Rojas is nearby, bound to a metal fence. He is still alive at this point, but can be killed by the player with no penalty. Beside him on a table there is the car battery which is seen in "Takedown". A strange thing to note is that when Rojas is killed, he doesn't move or flinch.
 * It was possible there was an intended torture scene with the player torturing Rojas, as there is a power drill on a table next to him and located in the game's files (found on PC), is the remnants of a cut weapon called "powerdrill" and was probably cut for being too graphic.
 * The mounted guns on the "technicals" have the use icon of the M249 SAW from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
 * At one point in the beginning, there is a Militia member that pulls a maroon tarp to get a better shot at the player. Even if the player kills him, the tarp will still be pulled off.
 * On the opening cutscene, it shows scenes of a fight going on in the airplane graveyard in "The Enemy of My Enemy"

Market

 * A Thumper and a Model 1887 can be located in the building named "Pelayo's," which apparently is an ice-cream eatery and a reference to the Cobra pilot from the last game of the franchise.
 * It is possible for either Rocket or Chemo to survive.
 * If the player watches one of the planes taking off they will notice it disappears after a few seconds and leaves two small blimps in the sky, this happens every time.
 * There is a Desert Eagle located near the Pelayo's ice-cream eatery.
 * Although hard to notice, the player can observe that the RPG-7 s that are fired at Nikolai's Pave Low come from nowhere.

Chase

 * It is possible to get ahead of MacTavish when running across the roofs. Doing this will cause the impossible jump animation to change as Soap does not attempt to rescue Roach; he just falls down by himself in this alternate animation.
 * If the player jumps at exactly the right time, a little faster than Soap, the player may see Soap in mid-air performing the jump, and another Soap reaching for the player as scripted. While tumbling, the player may see the Soap that was previously jumping reach for them a second time.
 * If the player does not attempt to make the impossible jump, they can watch the three TF-141 members (including MacTavish and Ghost) land the jump successfully and pull out their sidearms; aiming them at Roach's area. Every few seconds, MacTavish will yell things such as "What's the holdup?" to try and get Roach to attempt the jump.
 * If the player does not attempt the impossible jump, they may sink through the floor.
 * After the player falls, they cannot use any weapons or items, but they also run faster than usual.
 * If the player looks to the right after falling to the militia-ridden street, they will see a group of enemies. If the player runs past them, they can fall outside the level through this unfinished area.
 * When Roach slides down the roof at the end and smash the window, even if the player only had say one second on the clock when Roach smashed the window they will be granted with another 10 seconds.
 * If the player is hurt while in the last unarmed run, the hurt message will say "You are hurt, run for your life!" rather than, "Get to cover!"
 * MacTavish says "Jump for it!" before the player jumps off of the roof and grabs the ladder. This could be an homage to the level "Crew Expendable," as an ally says the same thing as Soap jumps for the chopper.
 * No matter at which position the player jumps, Roach will always land on the same rung of the ladder attached to Nikolai's Pave Low.
 * Although the pilot in the Pave Low is Nikolai, it is actually two low-resolution pilots used in other Pave Low levels in the original game.
 * After the player falls from the rooftops, there is an M4A1 with an ACOG scope and a grenade launcher several feet to the right of the player, which can be seen if the player does not immediately try to jump to the next rooftop after the others have done so. It can be picked up and used, but when the player switches from the M4A1 to bare hands, the game will say "no weapon selected." The player can still switch back to the M4A1. This is the only known instance in which this occurs.
 * It is possible, after failing the impossible jump, to walk to the Pave Low without being shot or running out of time on easier difficulties.
 * It is also possible to kill the pursuing Militia after the impossible jump by picking up grenades that have been thrown at the player. The easiest way to do this is by running past the militia to the left and laying prone in the truck bed, waiting for a grenade. Killed militia will not drop guns, but will drop grenades that the player can stockpile.
 * If the player slides down at the wrong angle and crashes into the wall instead of the glass, they will achieve a checkpoint and not be able to move. If you continue at the last checkpoint, you will be stuck at the same spot.
 * If the player tries to change weapon during the chase, the message "No weapon available" will appear.
 * The chasing part of the game is quite similar to the chase scene in the 2011 action film "Fast Five".

General

 * Near the beginning of the level, where one of the enemy trucks would first circle the map for one lap before stopping, there is a small row of poppy plants towards the right corner of the map. If the player walks into them and goes behind a building, they will find a former "hideout" of a child. There is a tall crate with a teddy bear sitting atop a drawing of different sized hands. Next to the crate is a soccer ball and an ice cream cup and on the wall is a movie poster for a movie called "Porter Justice". Porter Justice is also featured in Call of Duty 4 and other Modern Warfare 2 levels.
 * There are posters that have an Infinity Ward logo, a number 23, a photo (in low resolution) of a man with a microphone, and the name Griggs.
 * In the marketplace with all of the chickens, there is a television on the wall to the left from where the player enters the market. Shooting the screen will reveal a teddy bear inside.
 * On the side of Nikolai's Pave Low, there is the "flying dagger" insignia of the S.A.S.
 * The music heard at the end of the mission, while Roach hangs from the helicopter is the victory music for the Militia in multiplayer.
 * If the player look closely at the impossible jump, McTavish uniform says S.A.S. even though he is working with the Task Force 141.
 * There are magazines for the UMP45 lying on the ground in some parts of the level. Running over these will replenish ammo for it.