Takedown

Ghost: "He's gonna get away!"

Captain Mactavish: "No he's not!"

— Ghost and Soap, as Soap is about to tackle Rojas out a window.

"Takedown" is the fifth campaign mission of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In the aftermath of "No Russian", Task Force 141 follows a lead to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There, they intend to capture an associate of Vladimir Makarov; Alejandro Rojas, an arms dealer protected by the local militia. They player takes control of Gary "Roach" Sanderson.

Main Characters[]

Gary "Roach" Sanderson (Playable)
John "Soap" MacTavish
Simon "Ghost" Riley
Royce (K.I.A.)
Meat (K.I.A.)
Alejandro Rojas
Rojas' Assistant

Level Briefing[]

"Takedown"

Day 4 - 15:18:18-25

Sgt. Gary 'Roach' Sanderson

Task Force 141

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Walkthrough[]

The level begins with Roach, Soap, and an Australian/American Task Force 141 member together in a car in the streets of Rio de Janeiro. They tail a white van that makes a stop in front of a hotel. An associate of Rojas is approached by two local Gunmen from the van while he is being watched by John "Soap" MacTavish, Roach, and other Task Force 141 members. He pulls out a Desert Eagle and kills the two gunmen at point-blank range, and a third that appears from the other side of the van. Rojas' assistant then fires at the Task Force 141 members. Roach's driver is killed, while Roach quickly dives under the dashboard.

Rojas' assistant notices Ghost, Meat and Royce on the opposite side of the street and opens fire on passing civilians, killing dozens and causing confusion to erupt and cars pile up at the crossroads. The five commandos weave through the wreckage and into the alley.

Roach, followed by Ghost and the others chase Rojas's associate down the street and into an alleyway, where Soap instructs Roach to shoot him in the leg, after which the screen fades to black (shooting him anywhere else kills him, failing the mission). It is possible, however, to knife him and still be considered a "non-lethal take-down". Shortly after, the screen fades back in again to show the captured assistant being prepared for interrogation. MacTavish instructs Royce, Meat and Roach to move on and capture Rojas. The squad ends up in a residential area, where the player must distinguish between civilians and hostile militia. The area acts as a very large maze, with militiamen hiding in every nook and cranny, some even climbing on top of the low roofs and running across makeshift bridges. Meat is killed by enemy gunfire, leaving only Roach and Royce. As Roach progresses, Royce is eventually overwhelmed and is shot as the militia surround him and Roach must go on alone. At one point Roach encounters an enemy machine-gun nest that pins him down in an alleyway; the default weapon has an M203 grenade launcher attachment, allowing Roach to quickly take out the nest and advance to Rojas's stronghold.

The stronghold is a large multi-story building guarded by several militiamen on the roof. Rojas is visible at this point, with a large "capture" icon above his head. If Roach shoots even to wound him, it is a game over. Roach must pursue Rojas to the end of the level, where he runs into a building and holes himself up. Just when Roach and Ghost think he has gotten away, Soap dives out of a window, taking Rojas with him, and the two land on top of a car. Soap holds his sidearm on Rojas and reports that the target has been captured. Ghost radios for helicopter extraction, but Command is unresponsive. The level ends with Ghost stating they are alone, before the screen fades to black.

Weapon Loadout[]

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[]

Intel 1/4: In the first favela area where the player, Meat and Royce have to beat through after capturing Rojas' associate. It is located in a white building to the left of the motorcycle inside the kitchen below the Brazilian flag.
Intel 2/4: In the second favela area. Before heading up hill, look for a ladder on the wall leading to a red brick building. The intel is on the table inside.
Intel 3/4: After getting the second intel and exiting the brick building, the player can see on the opposite side of the road a building with some wooden stairs. The intel is next to the bed inside.
Intel 4/4: Near the end of the chase, the player will come across another red brick building on his right after heading up some stairs and passing a burning green car. Inside that building, find a stair heading downwards. The intel is in the lower floor in between 2 beds.

Achievements/Trophies[]

Tag 'em and bag 'em (15G / Bronze Trophy) - Obtained by completing "Takedown" on any difficulty.

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

Trivia[]

It can occur that Meat and Royce will have exactly the same player model, although Meat will have a beard.
This is considered to be one of the hardest missions in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, provided the fact that there are numerous ambushes and the player has to complete the mission without friendly AI support in the later half of this mission.
If the player looks in either of the rear-view mirrors in the car at the beginning of the stage they can see they are actually just still frames, not true mirrors. The image does not change from the moment the level begins.
The player can destroy the cars that driving on the road with grenade launcher, and the game will not say that the player killed civilians.
The manner in which Rojas' assistant executes the two soldiers trying to apprehend him at the beginning of the level may be a reference to a scene where Vincent executes two robbers in the film "Collateral," utilizing a double tap on the first man and a "Mozambique Drill" on the second.
The white van has no driver until both vehicles stop and Rojas' assistant exits the building.
If the player does not shoot Rojas' assistant when Soap tells the player to "take the shot," he will continue running toward the favela. When he gets to the chain-link fence the player will receive the message about him getting away. However, since the player has unlimited sprint, it is possible to chase him all the way to this point and still receive the message that he escaped, despite being only a few feet away from him.
While pursuing Rojas' associate the player has unlimited sprint. It is then removed for the rest of the level.
If glitching outside the map by running across rooftops the player will find a large sea. If the player falls through it, the result of this will enter an endless fall.The screen may also turn a dark green color, this can also be achieved in the Special Ops mission Hidden.
At the end of the mission, if the player shoots Rojas on the balcony, it will say "Mission Failed, you killed Rojas", although it's still possible to see Rojas running after shooting him.
At the beginning of the level, there will be a dead Civilian laying next to a taxi; the player will get penalized for shooting the dead civilian.
It IS possible to keep Royce and Meat alive, but cheats like super-jump and infinite health is needed, or it might just be a rare scription bug that keeps them from being shot by the invisible sniper. And if that occur, they will just be standing in a random cover position and scream " Enemy up ahead! " or " Tango down! ".
It is possible for the player to catch up to Rojas' Assistant fast enough that the player can shoot him before he enters the alleyway.
Even though Rojas is considered Brazilian, "Rojas" is not a Brazilian name.
After the player shot Rojas' assistant leg and he falls, the player can now shoot him in the body as many times as possible before the black screen and not kill him.
Is the first mission so far to be set in Brazil and in a Latin American country.
Although teddy bears are seen throughout the game, there was one interesting sighting in this mission. In a bathroom of one of the buildings, there is a teddy bear that has a knife in its face pinned to the wall near the door, interestingly near one of its eyes. This could possibly be a foretelling of how Soap kills Shepard in the Endgame mission.

Favela Flats[]

Even after the player shoots Rojas' assistant, the player can see he is very much unharmed just prior to being tortured with no bullet wounds whatsoever.
If the player fires a gun before Meat jumps down, the player can scare away the civilians before he does.
Sometimes the militia yell, "You shouldn't have came to the favela!" in somewhat flawed English. Also it is possible to hear them saying, "He went that way!" and hear another respond, "You never die, do you."
If the player moves fast and clears the first area of all enemies, it is possible to stop them from shooting Royce. But as soon as one moves into the next area, sniper fire will be heard and Royce will exclaim his usual script "Roach! I'm hit!"
If a grenade lands next to Royce that neither he nor the player can toss away in time, it is possible to hear Royce shout that he is hit before the grenade goes off.
Posters can be seen that show a man jumping with the caption "Griggs" underneath it.

Favela Slope[]

Dogs appear briefly within the slums, they are first visible behind a wire fence.
When chasing Rojas, Ghost offers to "put one in his leg," similar to how Griggs offered to shoot Victor Zakhaev in the leg, in the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
It is possible to hear a laser zapper fire when committing grenade suicide.
If the player goes prone by the soccer pitch then try to crawl behind the soccer net it is possible to take at least 3 bites from a dog and as many as can stay behind the half of the soccer net nearest to the player before the R3/RS is started.
Both Rojas and his assistant are armed with AK-47s, but strangely enough, they will make no attempt to defend themselves with the guns.
If the player can get ahead of Rojas on the rooftops, he will stop and stand there and do nothing just waiting with an AK-47 with money coming out of his bag, also the capture objective will still be on him. However when getting to the last part of the mission, he will reappear in the building so he can be taken down by Soap.
If the player manages to just run through the level and reach the end faster than the developers planned, there will be noticeable script lag as events are triggered separately while scripts just continue one after the other. It is possible to have Ghost say "he's gonna get away" while Rojas is already pinned to the car with Soap on top of him.
The final few seconds resemble a scene in "The Fast and the Furious" when Agent Carter (Soap) tackles a Suspect (Rojas) out of a second-story window onto a car and points a Glock at him.
It is strange how Soap jumped through the window and tackled Rojas, as Soap went through the bars on the window.
If one uses the "no clip" cheat to track Rojas's assistant before the squad reaches him, one can see that he is running with double speed.

Worldwide Trailer[]

During Infinity Ward's preview of this level, the track "Scorponok" from the Transformers Soundtrack can be heard as the background music up until when the player shoots Rojas' associate.
The first gunman to approach Rojas's assistant carries an M1911 pistol. This is easier seen in the trailers. When he dies however he will drop an M9 with or without Akimbo.
After the player shoots Rojas' associate in the leg and capture, Ghost is seen getting ready to extract information from him. But strangely if playing the "Worldwide" trailer it is possible to see someone else doing this.
It is possible that the black bag Rojas was seen carrying had money in it. When Soap tackles Rojas onto the car money can be seen flying out of his body. It is possible that Rojas took the money out of the bag before he ditched it and got a gun.
In the Reveal Trailer, Rojas' associates gun sounds like the AA-12, not the Desert Eagle.
Rojas's assistant will fall even if he is shot in the arm.