Is Captain Price dead? It’s a reasonable question to have at the end of Modern Warfare 4’s campaign, considering how often characters we thought were gone have come back over the course of the four-game story — I’ve lost track of the number of times Graves has returned now. We spoke to developer Infinity Ward to get an answer, and we got one. Well, kind of.
In a mid-credits scene, Mads Mikkelsen’s The Archer can be seen taking a captive Captain Price away on a truck. An ambush allows Price to break free, though, as the vehicle crashes, leaving The Archer to scuttle away into the snow as our hero wrestles with a metal pipe sticking out of his stomach. After stumbling after the villain, Price turns the tables on him and uses said pipe to puncture his throat, leaving the rogue Russian minister of defense very much dead in the middle of a frozen-over lake. Ghost then arrives on the scene to share his former squadmate's final breaths with him as Price lies still, presumably dead, next to his victim. But is he?
I asked Jeff Negus, narrative director at Infinity Ward, if that’s the case. “I'll say this. We went out of our way in this game to pace character deaths, both in where they happen and in the expression of the moment happening,” explains Negus. “And I would say that scene is consistent with others.”
So, not a yes or a no, is it? Multiple characters established in earlier series entries meet their makers across Modern Warfare 4’s 16 missions, including Makarov, Gabriela, Graves, and Gaz, to name but a few. While we don’t see any of them put in the ground never to rise again, some of them meet pretty conclusive ends, with the Gs — Gaz, Graves, and Gabriela — all receiving bullets to the head. Makarov's head is now pulp on a snowy New York street, but he looked pretty lifeless the last time we saw him, and seeing as he’s dispatched so early in the story, surely he would’ve come back by now. Archer needs a reason to go after Price and avenge his son, after all.
If Price does indeed meet an end “consistent with others,” then surely this means he is dead. It would seem like a fitting place for the Modern Warfare reboot saga to end, and feel like an actual definite conclusion. But we know things are never that simple when it comes to Call of Duty, and I can see why the door may be left slightly ajar for him to come back if needed. If MW4 is well-received critically and proves a commercial success, Activision would want to keep things rolling.
For my money, I’d say he’s dead. He’s achieved what he set out to do at the start of Modern Warfare 4’s story, and has even learned a lesson or two about selflessness along the way. It’s the basics of any hero’s journey, and it ended in glorious sacrifice, taking down a threat to the Western world in the form of The Archer’s diabolical plan. What do you think? Has Captain Price died? Let us know in the comments.