Exodus (Modern Warfare 2)

For the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Nintendo DS) level, see Exodus (DS).

"The Russians are burning through our defenses and our intel. Can't let 'em take this corner." "Just point it out on a map, sir. They won't take it."

- General Shepherd and Sergeant Foley

Exodus is the eighth mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Walkthrough
You play as Private James Ramirez, starting off on foot. The first objective is to destroy enemy anti-aircraft batteries so US forces can evacuate civilians. You engage Russian troops through a suburb with the help of a Stryker ICV, callsign "Honey Badger." The first portion of this level is simply to follow a street until you reach an enemy-held tollhouse guarded by a sentry gun. Use the Stryker as much as possible, and defend it from any enemies with RPGs that you find. Once you've cleared the tollbooth, you will enter a neighborhood with heavily occupied houses on either side. Use them to avoid enemies in the streets, using the Stryker to suppress the enemy while you clear them out. Eventually, Ramirez's team reaches a golf course where they destroy the anti-aircraft batteries with artillery strikes.

With the first objective complete, the Rangers press on to their second objective: secure and evacuate a High Value Individual (HVI). Ramirez's team move further into the suburb and reach a house where a C-130 Hercules has just crashed out front. The team moves into the house to secure the HVI from a panic room, but find him already dead. The team grabs a briefcase containing unknown documents and prepares to leave, but Cpl. Dunn notices a unique Russian troop on the floor and discovers it is Viktor from Makarov's assault team.

Weapon Loadout
In this level, the player starts with a SCAR-H with a Red Dot Sight and an M9.

Enemy Intelligence
Intel No. 18: (1/3 Intel) Inside "Garden Villas Apartment Homes" office, on top of the desk.

Intel No. 19: (2/3 Intel) "Arcadia" waterfall entry area. Inside the office, on the South side of the arch

Intel No. 20: (3/3 Intel) On the second floor of a house (south/east), just before the main house with the pool.

Tips

 * You can "laze" the enemy choppers (i.e., use the laser targeting sight on your rifle) and "Honey Badger" will target them and take them out in a few seconds. This is important on Veteran level because many enemies will come from the choppers.


 * After you clear out the first block of houses and are about to cross the bridge, wait for "Honey Badger" and follow behind it until you can regroup next to a wall with your squad. This will help a lot on Veteran.


 * Do not approach the anti-aircraft emplacements. Even if you kill the Russians manning the guns, a BMP will turn around and kill you.


 * Your squadmates will help you clear out the larger houses by drawing fire from the enemies. Wait for them to cover you before advancing indoors.


 * Watch out! Honey Badger can crush to death any unfortunate person who happens to get in its path. When you hear the gunner announce that they're moving, get outta the way!
 * Don't bother using an RPG throughout the mission due to its special nature. All rockets, whether fired by friend or foe, will automatically maneuver towards "Honey Badger" and be shot down. Firing an RPG within close proximity of the vehicle can result in the player's death. However if you get an RPG after honey badger has stopped and go to the ammo drops you can destroy the big radar vehicles on both AA emplacments and the BMP on the accessible AA emplacement.

Trivia

 * The mission's title refers to the evacuations that are taking place, and large numbers of U.S. Pave Lows and Blackhawks fly over, possibly carrying civilians.
 * Exodus is an important book of the Bible where Moses leads the Hebrews out of Egypt. In common usage, an exodus refers to any similar mass evacuation of people.
 * There are seemingly endless waves of friendly choppers above you.

Small Houses

 * Every weapon except the M4 and SCAR has the laser beam for the laser designator come directly out of its barrel.
 * Sometimes, the laser from certain pistols will come out of barrel while firing, then quickly disappear.
 * Most weapons that Ramirez picks up, even enemy weapons, will have a laser designator.
 * RPGs have the laser designator coming out of thin air under the barrel.
 * When you first spawn in the level, there is Honey Badger up front engaging Russian forces. If you look around the environment where you spawned, you cannot find any forced entry points for the Rangers to enter the area. (Behind where you spawned is a proper road block with no forced entry, so how did Honey Badger and the Rangers get in?)
 * This road block is meant to prevent you from wandering too far off your destination.
 * Honey Badger always emits thick black exhaust smoke. It is not an indicator of damage.
 * A civilian car can be seen driving through the fight at the beginning of the level. The car speeds down the street, losing the luggage it had stacked on top of it, and collides with the barricade at the intersection and explodes. The man driving the car is the only living civilian you see in the level. You can also be run over and killed by the car. The car can also be destroyed by you and you wont get a penalty for killing the civilian in the car. This civilian is the only American civilian to be seen in the game Besides the one saved from the restaurant freezer.

Apartment Complex

 * There are 21 enemies total in the complex.

Security Checkpoint

 * The sentry gun in front of the checkpoint can be flanked and picked up (this is accomplished easiest by moving up the right flank) but the gun will still work for the enemy and not for the Rangers. The gun can then be placed behind friendlies and will kill them. There is an ammo crate to the right. Use it.

Arcadia

 * Arcadia is the name of a real city. In fact, there are three Arcadias in the United States. One is an unincorporated community in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, another in California, and the third in Spartanburg County, South Carolina.
 * When walking on the gates of Arcadia, if you get past Cpl. Dunn, he will say, "Ramirez, cover me dammit!"
 * If you shoot at the water fountain below the Arcadia sign, it shows bullet markings.
 * If you look at the AC-130 ( which you can tell it is one since a ranger says " Man, thats an AC-130" and another ranger replies " thats why they dont fly during the day soldier") while it crashes, you can see parachutes deploying from it, so at least some of the crew managed to get out in time. You do not come across any of these survivors.
 * It is possible to get on Honey Badger, when you get to the tunnel, get right next to Honey Badger and when you hit the side of the tunnel, it will push you on Honey Badger.
 * Behind the last house you move through before destroying the anti-aircraft emplacements there is a small pool that you can swim in, but you can't dive under the water.
 * Sometimes if you throw a grenade at the swimming pool, it will cause a regular fiery explosion instead of water droplets.
 * If you first shoot the Russian soldier controlling the anti-aircraft gun, and the gun is swinging to shoot down the helicopters in the sky, the Russian soldier will jerk and die. However, the anti-aircraft gun will abruptly jerk to a certain position regardless of where it was aiming in the sky.
 * The artillery appears to come from an AC-130, but this is very unlikely because of the strong enemy air defenses. More likely, laser-guided 155mm artillery shells were used.
 * The only BMP-2 the Russians use is in this level, is guarding the second AA site.
 * Honey Badger inexplicably disappears while the AA sites are being cleared.
 * At the golf course, on the other side of the creek there is a single enemy and what seems to be three dead bodies.
 * If you fire an RPG after passing the bridge, it will chase a helicopter.
 * You can hear clearly that a helicopter is going down although you never see it. This is not true, you can see it is a blackhawk that went over to the AC-130 crash site and was taken down.

The HVI

 * Near the end of the level before crossing the last bridge there is an indestructible black car to the left next to a white van.
 * When crossing the covered bridge towards the end of the level, there appears to be a glitch where Sergeant Foley will not move and will just look down at a red car that resembles a Toyota Prius a long distance behind. Shooting him will incur a friendly-fire penalty, and the only way to get him to move is to throw a flash grenade nearby, but without hitting him, which will cause him to respond to the environment.
 * The crashed plane near the end of the level is identical in design to the crashed plane in the multiplayer map "Afghan". This may be the C-130 that crashed earlier in the level.
 * It is possible to get stuck in front of the signpost that says "4677" at the end of the level. The only way to escape is restarting from a checkpoint or commit suicide.
 * In the last house where you find the HVI, there is a Russian soldier sticking his head in the refrigerator strangely looking for food on the first floor; another reference to the movie Red Dawn. Sometimes this soldier takes food and drink out despite wearing a gas mask.
 * Even if you stand in front of the Russian near the fridge he will still die from a bullet.
 * The dead Russian near the panic room has the same tattoos as Makarov's team in "No Russian", and is highly suspected to be Viktor. This may hint that either some of the Russian troops in the invading army were members of the Ultranationalist Party, or that before the invasion the Ultranationalist puppet Russian government recruited and trained convicts and gangsters from Russian prisons, if so this could be a minor reference to The Dirty Dozen. The only reason for a Russian to have such tattoos is to "write" their criminal past on their body. It is also possible Makarov sent some of his men to assassinate the HVI in the panic room. The HVI could also be the middle man connecting Makarov's group with General Shepherd and Viktor was going to meet/silence him. Shepherd may have been wanting him dead as well, so the end justified the means. The man may also have shot himself after killing Viktor because he knew he was partly responsible for the Russian invasion.
 * The challenge and answer for the HVI are references to previous missions. Challenge Icepick ("Cliffhanger") and answer Phoenix ("S.S.D.D." The base in Afghanistan).
 * Based on the footprints of blood coming from the 'panic' room, the Russian soldier may have killed the HVI and walked downstairs to get something to eat.
 * It is never revealed who the HVI is, or what was in the briefcase.
 * It is also unclear how all of the men died, or what they were doing prior to death.
 * There is a Call of Duty 4-style Desert Eagle (silver/chrome steel, not two-tone, with no under-barrel attachment) lying next to the dead HVI's hand, although it cannot be picked up.
 * If you decide kill the Russian near the refrigerator, go look in the fridge, there will be a pack of chips laying in it, however it may have been there to keep it fresh.

Infinity Ward References

 * In front of some of the houses there are signposts for IW Realty.
 * There is a teddy bear in the fountain on this mission. It's smiling and has a star on its chest.
 * There is another teddy bear in the panic room, lying down on a chair.
 * If you look closely at the inside of the briefcase, you can see two pamphlets about Modern Warfare 2. One will say on the cover "MW2 Weapons" while the other says "MW2 Never Die". Also, on one of the pockets it says "IW" on it.
 * There is sometimes a ranger with the name Kriegler.
 * Looking closely at a license plate on a vehicle in this level and in "Wolverines", it says Infinity Ward in the place of the state name.

Miscellaneous

 * In the cutscene at the beginning of the mission, Shepherd mentions that he requisitioned a Stryker from the 8th Armored. In the US Army Brigade Combat Team restructuring, Strykers are exclusively used by Stryker BCTs.
 * The cut scene features photos of places and buildings that have been attacked by the Russians, including the Pentagon; this makes it the second time the Pentagon has been attacked, the first time being on 9/11, when hijackers crashed AA Flight 77 into its southwest side.
 * The real Eighth Armored Division was deactivated shortly after World War Two.
 * Cpl. Dunn implies that after the events of Call of Duty 4, there was a Second Cold War.
 * There is a level in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare DS with the same name.
 * If you read the GPS coordinates, they are: 38°51'033"N,94°47'941". Because seconds(") are only from 0-60, if you remove the 9 at the beginning, you get the coordinates 38°51'033"N,94°47'041". They point to a location in Olathe, KS, around 500m NE of Garmin Headquarters, makers of GPS equipment.
 * Copies of The Jungle Book, Frankenstein, and Grimm's Fairytales can be found in certain houses.
 * The civilian in the car will disappear when the car hits the barrier or the player blows up the car.
 * If the player looks closely at Cpl. Dunn's "camera", it is actually just a GPS.
 * If you look at when RPG's hit the Honey Badger or if you grab an RPG for yourself and fire it at Honey Badger it will not hit the Stryker and will explode to form a ring, but when you fire at it, the bullets hit it, and if you get a weapon with underslung grenade launcher on it that also hits the Stryker. This is because the Stryker deploys an anti-missile system.
 * Honey Badger can never be destroyed, no matter how many missiles hit it.