Joseph Allen

"So how do I look?"

"Like one of the bad guys."

Private First Class Joseph Allen is a playable character and the main protagonist in the early part of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. He is introduced in "S.S.D.D." helping Sergeant Foley train local Afghan resistance fighters at Firebase Phoenix in Afghanistan. He then undergoes a selection phase for Task Force 141 prior to engaging local OpFor troops. He is then hand-picked by Shepherd to go undercover in Vladimir Makarov's cell under the alias Alexei Borodin.

Allen is killed by Makarov when attempting to escape from Zakhaev International Airport, Makarov having learned about his real identity. It is possible that Shepherd had told Makarov during their alliance, and used Allen's corpse as a catalyst for Russian forces to invade the United States. It is interesting to note that his voice is heard later on in the game after he has been picked for Task Force 141, making him the one of the few Call of Duty playable characters to be heard (another example of which is the Thermal Imaging TV Operator in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare). Before joining the Rangers, he lived in Ithaca, NY.

Trivia
If you go into museum mode and go to the scene with Macarov and his men, when the scene plays out Macarov will choce a person. If you look closely at that persons chest, just above his bulletproof vest, you will see tatoos just like the ones PFC Allen got. It is presumed that that is what PFC Allen looked like.
 * If you run just before you get killed, and even if you hide behind a wall, Makarov can still shoot you despite being unable to see you.
 * The name Alexei Borodin might be a reference to the first Call of Duty game because of the fact that the first playable Russian character's first name is Alexei, and the first person the player meets has the last name "Borodin".
 * Another possibility is that the name Alexei Borodin is a reference to Russian composer Alexander Borodin.
 * He is one of the few playable characters in the Call of Duty series that can be heard speaking. His voice can be heard in a conversation with Shepherd in the cutscene before Cliffhanger.
 * The tattoos on Allen's chest that were added as part of the operation are Russian Prison tattoos. The cathedral is symbolic of how long a person has been in prison, with each steeple representing either a year or a sentence. The cathedral itself may be a representation of Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.
 * Joseph Allen was aged 22 and was born in 1994.
 * PFC. Allen was the second youngest playable character (after C. Miller) and the youngest to die up to date.
 * Allen is the third playable character which is scripted to die.
 * It is safe to assume Allen was fluent in Russian before the events of S.S.D.D. and Team Player.
 * After Allen's death, it seems strange that none of the Rangers ever talk about him nor his death. This is likely due to the fact that he was working undercover when he was killed, and the fact that the rest of TF-141 never actually had a chance to meet him.