Endgame/Trivia

General

 * "Endgame" is a reference to chess. The Endgame in chess are the final few moves when both sides has very few pieces left (in this case, only Soap and Price are left to oppose Shepherd). This ties into the multiple chess references in "The Enemy of My Enemy" and related achievements.
 * The player will start this mission with whatever weapons they finished the previous one with.
 * When the player looks at a friend on PS3 or Xbox 360 playing this level, it doesn't say Endgame. It instead says "The Ending" which may mean that the level was originally supposed to be called "The Ending". This only occurs on the second part of the mission, as "Endgame" is used before falling over the waterfall, then "The Ending" is used afterwards.
 * The multiplayer map Rust is based on this level. Notice the background when the player kills Shepherd. It isn't possible to enter it, however. But if the player goes into spectator mode on Rust, he can clearly see a flipped Zodiac near the shore and a downed Sea Knight where Shepherd's Pave Low would have been. The crashed Sea Knight model is exactly the same as the one found on Crash in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Using "noclip" shows that the map has slight cosmetic differences from Rust but is essentially the same.
 * This is the only instance in the single-player campaign that a Throwing Knife can be used.
 * If the player ended the previous level with Akimbo TMPs, they will start this level with only one.

Boat Chase

 * The idea for a boat chase as a climax may have been inspired by the James Bond movie "Die Another Day". Both times, the heroes are British they are chasing after a General that crossed them, and both involved a waterfall as the end of the chase.
 * If the player tries to get on the boat before Price and try to drive away, Price will always jump and get on before the player speeds away.
 * If Soap dies while driving the boat, Price dies for no reason, even though the boat is still steady with no driver. His body also levitates above water when he dies.
 * It is possible to get onto one of the bridges with the boat. If so, the player will notice that the boat drives along land the same way that it drives on water.
 * At the part where the river widens and the first Little Bird appears, if the player goes near the left bank he can see a WWII-era German truck with the iron cross.
 * The OpFor on the bridge where Captain Price warns the player about RPGs will just stand there after firing their RPGs. The Shadow Company on the boats will still fire on them, however.
 * Though the player is fighting OpFor and Shadow Company at the same time, when chasing Shepherd through the first few caves, the OpFor tend to focus more on the player than Shepherd.
 * If the player turns on his minimap during the boat chase, a green helicopter icon will be visible.

Helicopter and waterfall

 * At the part when Price shoots down the Pave Low, Price's name will appear as Cpt. Price, not Captain Price. This is also visible before the player gets into the boat.
 * Shepherd's boat is forced to slow down considerably to board the Pave Low, giving the player time to catch up. If the player can reach the Pave Low before it lifts off, the player will pass right through it, revealing it is not actually a solid object.
 * After Shepherd boards the chopper, there is no way to stop the boat.
 * When Price shoots the Pave Low, his M4A1 makes the sound of an Intervention, most likely because the normal sound of the M4A1 firing would not have been dramatic enough.
 * Warhorse 5-1 (the enemy Pave Low) shows up as a friendly Pavelow on the pause menu's minimap
 * When the boat is falling down, first the minimap shows Price almost at Soap's position, then for a moment, a few meters away, then his icon disappears.

Looking for Shepherd

 * Using PC cheats, certain weapons can be spawned in the section after Soap goes over the waterfall, including an RPD, RPG and P90. Any spawned weapons can then be used on the injured Shadow Company and Shepherd, although to no effect on the latter. Shepherd will also strangely not appear on thermal sights or heartbeat monitors, suggesting in this mission he is an animated object and not an actual NPC. If the player gets a good angle of Nikolai when he lands, they can get a friendly fire message by shooting him to death. However, this is rather difficult to accomplish.
 * After the boat crash, the player cannot find Price on the ground even though he saves the player from getting shot by Shepherd. However, by noclipping the player can find that Price is in a frozen state right behind Soap's view to jump right into action when he is scripted so. This is so that the game doesn't have to randomly spawn Price; he can just be there so the memory is not wasted.


 * If the player stays close to the downed helicopter, he can actually get close enough to knife Shepherd as he is running away, but the knife goes through him and doesn't affect him, even if the player is right behind Shepherd.
 * If fast enough after the crash, the player can run over to the Pave Low and catch up to Shepherd, it is possible to run in front of him. He will then stop running until the player moves away. Although the player cannot kill him, as he is invincible until the end of the mission. The player can also walk through him while doing this. When the player moves away, he will start running again and may make his hands look like he is holding a gun, even though he is not.
 * The model for the crashed Pave Low is the same as Raptor's Pave Low in Wolverines!
 * The Shadow Company soldier injured at the Pave Low tries to shoot an empty G 18 with no attachments, but when he is killed, the G 18 gains a silencer.

Trying to kill Shepherd

 * The truck that Shepherd leans on can actually be seen outside of Rust.
 * If the player doesn't get close enough for Shepherd to attack him, he opens a conversation with the player. He says: "You know what they say about revenge... you better be ready to dig two graves... Go ahead and end it. It won't change anything... Hmph... I knew you couldn't do it... You're a good warrior... but you could never take that extra step... to do what was absolutely necessary." He sounds like he has a sore throat while saying these lines, but it could be an injury from the Pave Low crash.
 * Shepherd will slam the player into the car if he's close enough to him, even if the player doesn't attack him with the knife.
 * Even if the player crouches or goes prone as he approaches Shepherd, he will yank the player into a standing position and still beat his head against the truck.
 * If the player stands behind the barrel Shepherd is standing next to, the player can swing his knife and slash the General from the other side of the barrel without engaging the battle sequence. The same sound can be heard as if he were slashing an enemy, and blood can seen spraying from Shepherd.

Killing Shepherd

 * The blood splatters on Soap's gloves when crawling toward the .44 Magnum are completely identical.
 * The animation used by Shepherd when he is beating up Captain Price is also used in Call of Duty 4 when Captain Price is beating up Al-Asad.
 * The player can actually pull the knife out of Soap's chest before being prompted to. While Price and Shepherd are fighting, after the player is able to see Shepherd's knife, (i.e. when Shepherd kicks Price down) they can repeatedly tap the "use" button to start pulling the knife. Even though the player can throw the knife earlier, Shepherd will still be over Price beating him like he is scripted to do so.
 * The player cannot throw the knife unless the crosshairs go red.
 * No matter where the player aims at Shepherd, the knife will always hit his left eye, as at that point, the player can only control the camera, and the arm is always leveled at his face.
 * After you've killed Shepherd the Screen is fading away but maybe this was a trick by Infinity Ward to make the player think it would end on a cliffhanger, therefore leaving it up for the player to decide what happend to Price and Soap

Rescue

 * When Nikolai's Little Bird comes in to evacuate Soap and Price, there isn't a pilot in it before it lands. When the helicopter does land, the door does not open at all; Nikolai just appears outside of the helicopter.