Activision has officially announced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, and it looks like the game is going to stir up some controversy once again over its connection to the “No Russian” mission from 2009’s Modern Warfare II.
For anyone just catching up, the 2009 game featured a mission in which villain Vladimir Makarov leads a massacre in an airport where he opens fire on everyone in sight. Players control an undercover CIA agent and can choose to take part in the bloodshed or stand by without firing their weapon, but still witnessing the violence. Trying to stop the attackers ends the mission. This mission generated a lot of controversy, and, with Makarov returning in Modern Warfare III, it seems history is repeating itself.
The post-credits scene in 2022’s Modern Warfare II took place on an airplane, with an unidentified person assembling a pistol before receiving a text from “M” asking if they were ready to carry out a mission. “M,” who is surely Makarov, replies to the hijacker, “No Russian.”
In the new Modern Warfare III trailer (above), we see pieces of the same scene, and a little bit more. The hijacker walks down the aisle of the plane and points the pistol just before a gunshot is heard and the scene goes black. Modern Warfare III is a direct sequel to 2022’s Modern Warfare II, so it seems the campaign in this year’s game will reveal what happens next and how things play out.
An earlier Modern Warfare III trailer focusing on Makarov specifically also referenced the No Russian mission, so there is definitely a theme here. That first trailer sparked fan theories that Makarov was somehow involved in the invasion and destruction of Verdansk by telling the hijackers to crash the plane into Verdansk stadium. This could play out in Modern Warfare III through a flashback, people are theorizing.
The No Russian mission was not only polarizing for fans but also the developers themselves at Infinity Ward. The sequence went too far in showing extreme violence, in some people’s eyes, and many called it out for being especially unpleasant given how many mass shootings occur every year in real life. In the 2009 game and the remaster, players are warned about “offensive content” and have the option to skip the mission entirely.
For more, you can read up on what’s new in Modern Warfare III and how to preorder the game.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
