Endgame

"I thought I told you this was a one-way trip!" "Looks like it still is...they'll be looking for us you know..." "Nikolai, we gotta get Soap outta here..." "Da - I know a place."

- Captain Price and Nikolai

Endgame is the final level in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Your objective is to kill Shepherd before he can escape.

Walkthrough
You begin the level in hot pursuit of the traitor, Shepherd. Get into a speedboat and chase him down through the cave and down the river (Note that Shepard is in fact invulnerable until near the end, don't bother trying to shoot him), with you driving and Price firing away. Along the way, Shadow Company and OpFor will be taking potshots at you and Shepherd. Price will gun them down, but you can return fire while driving with your Mini-Uzi. The OpFor in this early stage in the level can be a real problem on higher difficulties. Watch out for OpFor technicals, taking them out is essential. Don't be afraid of losing Shepherd; his location will be marked on your HUD; You can, however, lose him if you fall too far behind.

Continue along the river while keeping your target within your line of sight. At one point you will need to go through a long cave, and once out you will be in an open area filled with rock formations, enemies in boats, and even a helicopter. Be careful not to take too much damage, and don't crash into anything!

After a while of intense fire, you will eventually hit an area filled with rocks and rough water. The ride will get a little bumpy here, but you will eventually meet smoother water. Continue your pursuit and eventually you will hear a conversation between Shepherd and his ride out of the area: a Pave Low. Once the chopper comes and extracts Shepherd from the river, Price will tell you to steady the boat. Once he gets a clear shot, Price will fire and the chopper will come crashing down. But it's not over yet.

After your "victory," everything seems to be over...until you realize that you are heading for a waterfall. Price tells you to back up, but it's already too late; you both plunge into the water.

After a brief period you will wake up. Hurt, you reach for your knife and get back up with the intention of killing Shepherd. There are two soldiers, but they pose no threat to you (One will try to shoot you but has run out of ammo). You will walk towards the downed Pave Low (in a very unbalanced manner). Whether ot not you choose to eliminate the injured hostiles, Shepherd will stumble out of the Pave Low and run in an attempt to escape. Follow him and you will see him leaning against a car.

If you spare him for a moment, Shepherd will tell you to go ahead and kill him, although it won't change anything. If you hesitate a bit, he says that he knew you couldn't do it. He then commends you on being a good warrior, but claims that you couldn't take that extra step to do what was absolutely necessary.

However, once you attempt to stab him, Shepherd will block your attack and ram your head into the car. While you're on the ground, he'll stab you with his own knife.

Before you wake up, you hear Shepherd state that the world watched as he lost 30,000 of his men five years ago. When you come to, you find him loading his .44 Magnum Revolver in preparation for your execution, saying that "tomorrow there will be no shortage of volunteers or patriots". However, before he can kill you, Price attacks him and saves your life. They will now be locked in a fistfight. The game will direct you towards Shepherd's pistol and you'll need to use the shoulder buttons to crawl towards the revolver. However, he stops you just as you are about to get it and stomps you in the face. They once again return to their fight, and although they seem to be equally matched, in the end the brawl shifts to Shepherd's favor as Price is uncontrollably bashed.

Soon you will notice that the knife Shepherd stabbed you with is still inside you. Button mash to pull it out, and once that is done you must aim and throw that knife at Shepherd. Your objective is complete once that knife enters his eye.

Eventually, Price will come to your aid as a helicopter will arrive. It is none other than Nikolai. This is a play on Price's words before the entire Operation that this "was a one way trip". As they help you towards the helicopter, they realize that the rest of the Shadow Company, as well as the US military will be looking for them. However, Nikolai claims that "Da - I know a place." The screen blacks out and the credits roll.

Enemy Intel(s)
Intel No. 45: Right before you get on to the boat, look left, it's on the crate (with lights shining on it). This Enemy Intel is considered to be the easiest to find throughout the game, yet it may be surprisingly easy to miss due to the hectic pace and Price urging you to get on the boat.

Trivia

 * This is the only instance in the Single Player Campaign that a Throwing Knife can be used. In fact, its use is mandatory to win the game.
 * This is the only instance anyone ever survived a knife wound since Modern Warfare 1, minus old school mode.
 * The multiplayer map Rust is based on this level. Notice the background when you kill Shepherd. It isn't possible to enter it though. But if you go into spectator mode on Rust, you 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 the exact same as the one found on Crash in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
 * The player is once again playing in a wounded status, just like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. At first, walking with severe injuries, like in "Aftermath", and then playing while lying on the ground, like in "Game Over". And, also like the first game, Soap is the one who kills the main antagonist, and is saved by a Russian Loyalist in a Helicopter
 * After Shepherd puts the round(s) into the cylinder, he cocks the hammer, which spins the cylinder clockwise (from the player's perspective). As he attempts to fire at Soap, the cylinder spins counter-clockwise (as if an un-cocked double action). Not only does the cylinder spin the wrong way, but the round should have been fired the second he pulled the trigger, however it is possible the gun was damaged in the crash.
 * In addition, Shepherd appears to only load one round into the cylinder (though if one looks carefully his thumb makes the loading motion 2 times meaning that 2 bullets went in) as he prepares to kill Soap, after discarding empty shells. This means that unless he used a speedloader, then the gun would be empty if Soap managed to get to it (the reason for this is that he actually loads two rounds, one for Soap and one for Price).
 * 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".
 * The above quote is a reference to one of the many quotes that appear whenever the player dies: "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. -Confucius".
 * No matter where the player aims with the throwing knife, it always lands in Shepherd's left eye.
 * It is unknown where the player gets the Mini-Uzi from, though it may have been on the boat. However, if you start the mission directly from the main menu, it will give you an RPD and a Mini-Uzi. However, the RPD is nearly useless because you can only fire it at the beginning of the level and eventually you lose both guns.
 * Captain Price uses an M4A1 Carbine during the Zodiac sequence even though he was using a SCAR-H in the level that directly preceded this. It is unknown how he acquired it or why he would need to switch weapons at all (unless he ran out of ammo).
 * "Endgame" is a synonym for the phrase "Game Over", the last level in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
 * No matter how fast you try to crawl to the .44 Magnum Revolver, Shepherd will always manage to kick it away.
 * The .44 Magnum Revolver is the same Revolver that Shepherd is loading at the beginning of the game in "Team Player".
 * Shepherd will slam you into the car if you're close enough to him even if you don't attack him.
 * Soap seems to crawl on his belly toward the .44 Magnum Revolver with little acknowledgment of the fact it would be physically impossible to do so with a knife embedded inside of his chest. A possibility for this is that he is crawling on his side.
 * If the player takes too long to throw the Throwing Knife at Shepherd, he will punch Captain Price to death.
 * There is a glitch that can occur. When Price shoots down Shepherds Pave Low if you hold down the reverse button the boat will not go down the waterfall. Shepherds Pave Low will still crash but you will fail the mission with the message saying "Shepherd got Away".
 * You cannot throw the knife unless the crosshair goes red.
 * Captain Price's name is abbreviated as Cpt. Price in this level.
 * When Soap yanks the knife out of his body, you can hear someone (probably Soap) mutter 'Shepherd', which makes sense as Shepherd seems to look up right before you throw the knife.
 * If the player stands behind the barrel Shepherd is standing next to, they can swing their knife and slash the General through the barrel without engaging the battle-sequence. The same sound can be heard as if you were slashing an enemy, and blood can seen spraying from Shepherd. Obviously, it is impossible to kill him this way.
 * One of the injured Shadow Company soldiers will try to shoot you with his pistol at the crash site, but will find to his dismay that it has no rounds. He will continue to uselessly pull the trigger until you knife him or he dies of his wounds.
 * Another one of Shepherd's men is seen crawling away from the flaming wreckage of the chopper. You can cut short his attempts of escaping by slashing him on the ground.
 * 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, they will drive right through it, revealing it is not actually a solid object.
 * It is unknown how Price knew where Soap was, maybe he was separated from the crash and saw his footprints.
 * The 'Good Guys' from this mission and Just Like Old Times are all from Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare.
 * You can spare the lives of both crew members from Shepherd's helicopter.
 * If you start the game directly from the main menu, the Mini Uzi you start out with will be your weapon during the boat chase.
 * Price's ability to shoot down the Pave Low might have been a reference to the flashback mission "One Shot, One Kill" in which him and MacMillan are running from Zakhaev's men after their attempted assassination and at one point they shoot down an attack helicopter. However, in the flashback, Lt. Price was shooting at the cockpit but he seems to be shooting at the engine of the Pave Low as it was turning around.
 * When Soap is trying to kill Shepherd with his knife, you can see Soap's arms. You will be able to see that Soap is wearing a wool jacket which is covered with dirt and mud because of the waterfall fall.
 * During the part where you try to take the knife out of Soap, if you fail to tap the button named onscreen, the player dies with the message "Stay clear of open areas as much as possible!". If Soap takes too long trying to kill Shepherd with the knife, the same message happens. It is probably because either a mistake from Infinity Ward due to the message appearing if you get killed in the boat chase or that the message refers to not being able to pull the knife out of Soap, and not targeting Shepherd with the knife.
 * The structure of the mission is similar to Game Over.
 * If you listen carefully the Pave Low pilot says "Sand Storm at 12 0'clock, were taking the long way 'round" which shows why he turns around.
 * The two Shadow Company members being by the helicopter crash is similar to Zakhaev's two henchmen from Game Over.
 * The way Shepard dies is predicted in the monologue by Captain Price at the loading screen of the mission "Just like old times". He says "we. will. Kill. Him." at the same time a knife is analysed in his inventory.