Loose Ends

"Do you have the DSM?" "We got it, sir!" "Good. That's one less loose end."

- General Shepherd and Ghost

Loose Ends is the fifteenth level of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This is the last level the player uses Roach, and also the last level the player sees Ghost.

Walkthrough
The player takes control of Gary "Roach" Sanderson. The objective is to find Makarov at a safehouse. The first challenge is to make it past the mine field (quickly duck after the first one appears or it kills you) and the ambushing troops advancing through the smokescreen, while being fired on by mortars. Upon reaching the safehouse, two bullet-proof Jeeps come out and drive away, then they are taken out by Javelins. According to Archer, they were just decoys. At the safehouse, there are multiple breaching points; start with the basement as there is lighter resistance there (and Ghost will take care of the larger ground floor for you). Lastly, breach the top floor, but beware of troops hiding to your right on the mezzanine floor. After fighting resistance and not finding Makarov, they find a computer which regards on his intel. The player is then ordered to download all the information. The player must then defend the computer as its files get downloaded. If it gets shot, its download speed slows. As the files download at varying speeds, it is difficult to accurately gauge how quickly the process takes (it should take a few minutes). Once the countdown begins, the player has a limited amount of time to stock up and prepare defenses; the basement has a weapons room, ammo cache, and Claymores, the last of which are very useful for slowing down the enemy. After completing the download, the surviving members of the team fall back to the extraction point. The player must then make a run to the helicopter while being assaulted by mortars. At one point, Roach gets shot by one and finds himself being carried by Ghost. They successfully make it to the LZ, where General Shepherd takes the files and makes a remark about covering one of the loose ends. He then betrays them and shoots Roach and Ghost. Shadow Company troops promptly soak your corpses with gasoline (ignited dramatically by Shepherd's cigar). During the burning, you can hear Price over the radio say he had some intel regarding Shepherd's true intentions, and saying not to trust him. He is, sadly, too late to warn Roach and Ghost.

Weapon Loadout
In this level, the player will start with an ACR with a Holographic Sight and an M203 Grenade Launcher, and an M9.

Intel Items
(1/3) Docking house to the far southwest of the main villa.

(2/3) Upstairs in the main house, in breached room, on a desk behind boxes.

(3/3) Inside the armory in the basement.

Approach

 * The ACR the player starts out with has Digital Camouflage.
 * It is possible to kill Archer and Toad (snipers) by carefully planting a claymore next to them, and shooting it. You can also kill them by cooking a frag grenade, throwing it, and make one of them pick it up. If you hold it long enough, the grenade will explode in his hand or just after throwing, also killing them. Later on in the level, you hear Archer talking to Ghost about not seeing Makarov. If you run back to Archer and Toad's position they are still dead.
 * The mines used at the beginning of the level are bounding land mines designed to jump 3-4 feet in the air so as to increase anti-personnel lethality over a larger area. These are commonly referred to as "Bouncing Betties".
 * It is possible to trigger the strike team's advance and thereby the mine ambush while near Archer and Toad. Oddly, most of the time the mine shoots out low enough that you could jump over it and realistically, going prone would get Roach a face full of shrapnel. In-game, you do survive if going prone; jumping kills you.
 * If the player shoots while in "shell-shocked" status due to the landmines, the weapon's fire rate seems to double. This is easily seen if using the ACR.
 * There are more mines than just the ones used in the ambush; some are along the driveway of the house and detonate if the player attempts to exit the level through the driveway gate.
 * If the player runs down the driveway when the two bulletproof jeeps appear, it is possible to notice a wrecked jeep blocking the driveway before the two jeeps are destroyed.
 * In the ambush there are soldiers firing RPGs from atop a ridge to your left. However these soldiers are dressed in Urban camo as seen in the Rangers campaign.
 * When Archer and Toad fire the Javelins the smoke trails are from a different spot than their starting spot.

Breaching

 * When you get to the safehouse, go to the basement and breach with Scarecrow. Use a pistol and get headshots on the two hostiles directly in front of you. They should be sent flying backwards and may even go through the wall behind them.
 * There are two inflatable rubber sex dolls spread around the level, one underneath the staircase in the main room where you place the DSM, and another in a compromising position in a bathtub upstairs.
 * In the upstairs bathroom, (not the sex doll one but the one at the top of the stairs) there is a teddy bear stabbed into the wall with a Tactical Knife.


 * When one of the basement rooms is breached, three enemies will run(one will crawl) out a sliding door instead of fighting. This is odd, and no other Ultranationalists ever chicken out like that.
 * On one of the lower shelves in the kitchen there are two packages labeled "Real Cherry Pie". These are likely stale given that they make metal clangs when shot.
 * In one of the upstairs rooms of the house is a poster of a Russian woman wielding a Thompson submachinegun. This is the same poster found in "All Ghillied Up" and the multiplayer maps: Derail and Vacant. It is also out of the map in "Hidden."
 * The basement weapon rack has 3 throwing knives in it forming a triangle.
 * Throughout the level the player will see numerous Mini Guns lying around. However, none of them are fully assembled, so they cannot be used against the Ultranationalist counterstrike.
 * There is a scale in the upstairs bathroom that reads 1 pound.
 * When Scarecrow says "Frag out" when you are clearing the basement, he actually throws a flashbang.
 * The plans for the airport attack in "No Russian" can be found in the living room, including a blueprint of the airport and a readable newspaper report on the massacre.
 * Many newspaper clippings can be seen around the main floor, revealing that Makarov was responsible for a bombing attack on London's Piccadilly Circus, as well as the GUM supermarket in Red Square, Moscow. It also confirms that Russia's Ultranationalist party leader became the president and that Makarov held up photos of Bravo Six (Gaz, Griggs, Price and Soap) and declared they were responsible for the death of Imran Zakhaev.
 * There are several AK-74U magazines on the tables in the safehouse, meaning that it was probably intended to be in the game, but was taken out before the final version. It is also possible Makarov took one for his own protection and left a few magazines behind.
 * There are several UAV/Air Support laptops throughout the safehouse, the keyboards of which are written in Russian.
 * This is only one of two levels in the single-player campaign (the other one being "Of Their Own Accord") where the Barrett M82 can be found and used. It is found in one of the rooms of the basement.
 * Inside the armory there is a poster for cigarettes with a picture of Stalin on the box.
 * At the corner of the house, left of the main entrance, there's evidence of what appears to be two executions; there are two bullet holes in the wall with blood stains and a trail of blood leading to and over the patio fence. There is also a pool of blood on the ground floor where the trail leads to.
 * If the player looks at the blue refrigerator in the kitchen, they can see multiple frying pans floating in mid air on top of it.
 * If you go to the boat house, you can jump into the water, but cannot swim off.
 * If you head toward the extraction point at the beginning of the level, there is a fence in the way.
 * It is likely that the house belonged to a Russian/Georgian family, hence multiple bedrooms and a downstairs rec room, but they must have been held hostage and killed by the Ultranationalists before it was taken over. (note the execution evidence.)

Download and defense

 * When starting to download the files, Shepherd informs you that his ETA is five minutes. He doesn't arrive until you finish downloading all the files AND get to the extraction point, which takes more than five minutes.
 * While waiting for the files to download, the estimated time displayed on screen is often grossly inaccurate and changes dramatically, compared to the actual time it takes for the file transfer to complete; this may be a reference to the process of transferring files between PCs using a bad connection.
 * Some of the Little Bird helicopters that drop troops can be destroyed, while others can't.
 * If you run out of claymores, the ammo cache in the basement does not replenish them, as with "Wolverines!".
 * This level appears to have the most flashbangs thrown at you from enemy forces as they try to breach the house while you and Ghost defend it.
 * Rarely, on Veteran difficulty, Ghost can be seen using an AK-47 while defending the DSM. It's possible this is the same one that Roach uses at the end of the level.
 * You can crawl into the fireplace behind the table where you download the files.
 * The strategies the Ultranationalists use to attack the safehouse are different every time (i.e. one playthrough they might first attack from the boathouse, another playthrough from the field).

Exfiltration

 * Shepherd's Shadow Company soldiers can be heard shouting "Go, go, go" and "Coming in hot." The audio is the same as that used in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare ' s "Charlie Don't Surf".
 * When you are hit by the explosion near the end and when Ghost is dragging you to the Pave Low, you will wake up with an AK-47 Grenadier fully loaded, along with ten grenades. These are probably given to you by Ghost.
 * Using a PC cheat, you can see Ghost carrying Roach's headless body when he is about the board the chopper.
 * When Shepherd's Pave Low flies overhead with him waving at it, you can see that the back hatch is open and the side turret moves, but there's no gunner in it.
 * Strangely, Shepherd shoots Roach first, although he is unarmed and badly injured, whereas Ghost is still armed and capable of fighting. This may be so you can properly see Ghost get killed. Another possible intention is that Shepherd didn't want Roach to somehow destroy the DSM, as he is the one holding it.
 * When Shepherd shoots Roach, the .44 Magnum makes the gunshot similar to the sound of the Desert Eagle, but makes the sound of the Intervention shot when he shoots Ghost. It is unknown why the sound designers did this, because if the Intervention gunshot was used twice when Roach was shot, it would make it seem more dramatic and unexpected.
 * When you look at Shepherd at the end, his name will be Gen. Shepherd, instead of General Shepherd.
 * Radio chatter after the betrayal indicates that Archer and Toad (the overwatching snipers) were discovered by Shadow Company using thermal detectors.
 * Shepherd appears to have two Magnums, because when he shoots Roach and Ghost, you can clearly see that he also has one in his holster. This is because when NPCs draw their pistols their character model doesn't update to show that they have their pistol drawn, instead they are holding a pistol and have one in their holster.
 * When the Shadow Company soldier dumps the gasoline on Roach you can hear Captain Price shouting through your comms system: "Ghost! Come in, this is Price! We're under attack by Shepherd's men at the boneyard! Soap! Hold the left flank! Do not trust Shepherd! I say again, do not trust Shepherd! Soap, get down!--".
 * You can hear Shepherd ask one of the troops to give him a cigar, ironically the one he burns Roach with.
 * When watching the clip, it appears only Roach is burned, Ghost appears to be just left there. However, since both men were thrown into the same puddle of gasoline, it is possible that Ghost was burned as well, either way, the fact that Ghost doesn't appear to even move around while being thrown indicates he has died.

Trivia
in Endgame), the screen turns black instead of turning white like 3 above, though he was probably closing his eyes while the above were probably in and died or were saved before they could close them.
 * Because Ghost and Roach discovered the intel inside of Makarov's safe house that implicated Shepherd and Makarov, it makes them the "loose ends" to which the mission title refers. This is why Shepherd eliminates them. Though it is strange that Shepherd didn't inquire about whether they had actually looked at the intel, for if they hadn't he could have just kept them in the dark and spared them. Perhaps he was afraid that Soap and Price whom had also found similar intel, and had been ambushed by Shadow Company, would contact them sooner or later (ironically, just as Roach and Ghost are being executed Price contacts them) and wanted to preemptively remove any possible threats.
 * This level takes a few cues from Call of Duty 4's Heat, in that the player must hold back waves of enemies from a safehouse and then make a final push downhill straight through advancing enemy forces to an awaiting extraction team of Americans.
 * If you restart the level there is a possibility of the entire level being in slow motion, similar to the one you experience while evading the land mines. Your character, NPCs and enemies will all run and shoot in slow motion, however their voices will all sound normal. (Confirmed on Xbox 360)
 * There is almost no way to keep Task Force 141 troops alive, as most are scripted to die (aside from the player, Ghost, Archer, and Toad) when the land mines detonate. Scarecrow and Ozone may survive through the ambush, depending on your playthrough.
 * If you manage to save either Ozone or Scarecrow they will follow you and Ghost toward the extraction point. However, after some point they will slow down, and if you watch them as you leave, they will be overwhelmed by the enemy and get killed.
 * In this level you can find nearly every weapon in the game apart from the MG4, M1911 and the W1200
 * On Recruit, it is possible to save one or two Task Force 141 troops, but it is extremely difficult.
 * Upstairs in the bathroom to the right, there is a teddy bear stuck to the wall with a throwing knife stuck in its head.
 * Also, in one picture you can see a small teddy bear.
 * In the safehouse living room, there is a table in the back left corner with newspapers titled "The Infinity Ward Times".
 * The multiplayer map "Estate" (with some modifications) and Special Ops mission "Estate Takedown" are based on this level.
 * It's possible Shepherd tipped Makarov off about the Estate attack, as they are quickly ambushed although they approached silently.
 * The moment when Roach is shot by Shepherd, Ghost screamed "No!" the exact manner as Gaz screamed when Viktor Zakhaev commits suicide.
 * This is the 2nd of two levels that General Shepherd's name is abbreviated as Gen. Shepherd, the first time was in S.S.D.D.
 * When Roach is dying, unlike Sgt.Paul Jackson, PFC. Joseph Allen, Cpt. MacTavish (he was almost dead if Price didn't feel conscious on time