Takedown (mission)

"He's getting away!" "Oh no he's not!"

- Ghost and Soap, respectively.

Takedown is a level set in in Rio De Janeiro in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The objective of Task Force 141 in this level is to capture an associate of Vladimir Makarov: Alejandro Rojas, an arms dealer protected by the local militia. They first injure Rojas' assistant, an associate of Rojas and continue on to capture him.

Overview
The level begins with Roach, Soap, and an American Task Force 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 Soap MacTavish, Roach, and other Task Force 141 members. He produces a Desert Eagle from a concealed location and kills the two gunmen at point-blank range, and a third that appears from the other side of the van. Rojas' assistant takes a rifle from the one of the men he just shot and 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 them, causing many civilians to run away, this causes cars to also swerve and skid to avoid others causing a massive pile up at the cross roads, once the gunfire ceases, Soap runs ahead, followed by Roach and Ghost.

The five commandos chase Rojas' 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). 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. At one point Roach encounters an enemy machinegun nest that pins him down in an alleyway; the default weapon has an M203 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, ending the mission.

Enemy Intelligence

 * Intel No. 7: In the first favela area where you, 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 No. 8: In the second favela area. Before heading up hill, look for a ladder on the wall leading to red brick building. The intel is on the table inside.
 * Intel No. 9: After getting #8 and exited the brick building, you can see on the opposite side of the road is a building with some wooden stairs. The intel is next to the bed inside.
 * Intel No. 10: Near the end of the chase, you will come across another red brick building on your 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.

Trivia

 * If you manage to just run through the level and complete it 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.
 * Rojas' assistant doesn't necessarily need to be shot in the leg. Hitting him in any vital area above the legs results in a message stating that you have killed Rojas' right-hand man and a reminder to use a non-lethal take-down. However, you can shoot him in the arms or his shoulders, but this is very difficult to pull off. Also, directly after that, when he is sitting in the chair, you can shoot him several times but nothing will happen.
 * The militia in the level appears to be based on local gangsters, as the city of Rio is known to have a serious criminal element. They are supposed to be armed civilians, though their political affiliation with the Ultranationalists is unknown other than that Rojas, their weapons dealer, also does business with Makarov.
 * The militia are mostly armed with FAL battle rifles, which are locally manufactured, though being phased out for more modern rifles. Their other weapons are imported, popular 'criminal' weapons such as the AK-47 and Mini-Uzi.
 * It is odd that that at the cutscene with Rojas' assistant at the hotel you see the doors open to the hotel, but when you play, they are closed.
 * The nature of the slums allows for very dynamic vertical gameplay; players will need to watch enemy movement from every direction, including from behind. There are a few opportunities for sneaking up on enemies lying in wait.
 * Dogs appear briefly within the slums, they are first visible behind a wire fence. The player can easily kill them to avoid having them jump on him.
 * The chase sequences of this level are reminiscent of the level Sins of the Father, where you had to pursue Victor Zakhaev.
 * This mission can be extremely challenging on higher difficulties for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it is one of only a few levels in which you are alone for most of the intense combat. Also, enemies can come from almost anywhere and can easily take the player by surprise unless they are paying very close attention to their surroundings.
 * At the beginning scene where the two men come out to Rojas' assistant, the scene comes from the Worldwide trailer.
 * In the trailer, Rojas' assistant was using a Desert Eagle to kill the first two people he sees; two shots for the first guy, three for the second, and two shots to the head on the third guy that comes from behind the van in the game. He then fires eight more shots towards the player's car, killing the driver. A Desert Eagle only has a magazine of seven bullets, somehow he fires a total of 15 shots. The Desert Eagle could however be a M9 which would make the larger magazine size more feasible as there are only 3 extra shots fired, which could easily be explained by an extended magazine. There is also a dropped M9 beside the two dead men, which may have been dropped by Rojas's associate or originally carried by one of the men. Also, it could have an enlarged magazine rarely available for most pistols, although those see little usage.
 * Oddly enough, the driver is seen having an Australian flag on his cap while he has an American flag on his shoulder.
 * While you are pursuing Rojas' associate you have unlimited sprint. It is then removed for the rest of the level.
 * After Rojas' assistant runs away and before the player catches up with him, he can be heard firing upwards of twenty Desert Eagle rounds very rapidly. The only ways he could do this are by using two Desert Eagles with extended magazines, or by carrying several of them and throwing them away when they run out of ammunition.
 * If you reach Rojas too early before he is tackled by MacTavish, the intended script and its timing can be mixed up.
 * The manner in which MacTavish tackles Rojas may be a reference to the film Fast and Furious, in which Paul Walker's character tackles a fleeing enemy onto a car in a similar fashion.
 * Also it seems funny that Soap insists upon not shooting Rojas in the legs to slow him down as they can't risk killing him, when near the end of the level Soap tackles the man out of a two story window into the roof of a car below. Such a fall likely would have broken his bones or even his neck, and the glass shards from the broken front window of the car would have spread all over the place from such an impact, a shot to the leg would be far less likely to kill a high profile target in need of capturing.
 * If you fire your gun before Meat jumps down, you can scare away the civilians before Meat does.
 * If the player looks up when they reach the favela, they can see the famous statue Christ the Redeemer, a statue of Jesus Christ, standing upon a hill far off in the distance. In Portuguese the statue is called O Cristo Redentor, which is also the name of a Special Ops mission that takes place in the same favela.
 * The hot weather gear that Task Force 141 wears in this operation looks almost civilian, i.e denim trousers and a short sleeve t-shirt, the only parts of the clothes that are militaristic are the vest, the kneepads, and the various holsters.
 * In the area of the level where you encounter dogs, after clearing all enemies, you can look up at a window to the left and see a Brazilian civilian gesturing at you and waving you in the right direction. Strangely, if you shoot him, the game won't penalize you and you can still continue on.This may be because although he seems to be helping he might be helping the militia as if you go the way he is showing you there is an enemy on the right ready to ambush the player.This is seen better if you do not go the intended way as you will see the solider looking around the corner with his back turned to the player.
 * Both Rojas and his assistant are armed with AK-47s, but strangely enough, they will make no attempt to defend themselves with the guns.
 * Although Ghost says Rojas was carrying a duffel bag, when you see him for yourself, all he has is his rifle. He may have dropped the bag to make better speed, or was carrying the rifle in the bag to begin with.
 * When chasing Rojas, Ghost offers to "put one in his leg," similar to how Griggs offered to shoot Zakhaev's son in the leg, in the first Modern Warfare.
 * The double doors close by themselves after you get out of the car at the start of the map,though you can go round the back past a swimming pool to get inside. If you jump into the pool, there will be no swimming animation, you'll just be under the water standing like you normally would, eventually it will say Rojas' right hand man got away.
 * This mission and The Hornet's Nest is considered one the hardest missions to complete on Hardened and Veteran as enemies pop up from rooftops, windows and basically everywhere with little cover.
 * After you shoot Rojas' associate in the leg and capture, Ghost is seen getting ready to extract info from him but strangely if you let the game go into idle and play the "trailer" you will see someone else doing this. This person doesn't look like anyone in the strike team - it is thought that Roach and Ghost would go as a team through the slums making it much easier to pass this level. It is also possible that this person was simply a placeholder for Ghost, as the person they are interrogating in the trailer is not the associate. Even more, in the trailer Soap throws Rojas' assistant into the car.
 * If you don't shoot Rojas' assistant when Soap tells you 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.
 * Because the player has unlimited sprint, and because Rojas' assistant (like all NPCs) must slow down to climb the stairs, it is actually possible to catch up with him and knife him in the back. This will, of course, result in failure.
 * If you look in either of the rear-view mirrors in the car at the beginning of the stage you'll see they are actual just still frames, not true mirrors. The image does not change from the moment the level begins. It's strange that effort was put into making the hula girl figurine who wobbles on the dashboard but no mirror effect was added to the rear-views.
 * This level ends where The Hornet's Nest starts but a few things that are different are noticeable. The car that Soap attacks Rojas, is a different car, but is the same Green color. The trail you walk up has much less plant life than the next level, and the only thing past that trail is a Radio Tower and a shack. The shack is actually a building in the next level. Also, the staircase you walk up is blocked off now. Everything else seems to be the same.
 * At the start of the level when you get out of the car you can shoot civilian cars with the M203 and not get penalized for it.
 * Oddly enough, once Soap has captured Rojas' assistant and orders you, Meat and Royce to pursue Rojas,you can see Ghost preparing his equipment to torture the associate. The wires Ghost has in his hands if you move closer to them are connected to nothing, only thin air.
 * During Infinity Ward's preview of this level, the track "Scorponok" from the Transformers Soundtrack can be heard as the background music up until the player shoots Rojas' associate. This was probably due to the fact that the game's soundtrack wasn't fully completed at the time.
 * The first gunman to approach Rojas's assistant carries a M1911 pistol. This is easier seen in the trailers. When he dies however he will drop a M9 or a M9 akimbo.
 * If you 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 you get to last part of the mission he will reappear in the building so he can be taken down by Soap.
 * This level is the most successful level in the game because the player is taking down two leaders in one level.
 * Even after the player shoots Rojas' assistant leg, later before he was tortured, the player can see his legs very much unharmed.
 * Sometimes the militia yell to you "you shouldnt have came to the favela!" in good english.