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
The player ("Soap" MacTavish) and Price begin the level in hot pursuit of the traitor, Shepherd. The player gets into a speedboat and chases him down through the cave and down the river with him driving and Price firing away. (Note that Shepard is invulnerable until near the end, so don't bother trying to shoot him.) Along the way, Shadow Company and OpFor will be taking potshots at both the player and Shepherd respectively. Price will gun them down, but the player can also return fire with your Mini-Uzi while piloting the boat. On higher difficulties, the OpFor in this early stage of the level can be a real problem. 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; the player can, however, lose him if he falls too far behind.

Continue along the river while keeping your target within your line of sight. At one point you will need to pass through a narrow 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! Avoiding the helicopter's fire may seem frustratingly difficult, but the key is to first hug the rocky outcrops on the left, then eventually switch over to the right and pass under the bridge. If there's something sticking out in the middle of the water, that qualifies as "cover" for this sequence.

After a bit 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 radio conversation between Shepherd and his ride out of the area, a Pave Low. When the chopper comes to extract 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 the boat, but it's too late: you both plunge over the edge and into the water.

After a brief period you will wake up. Hurt, you reach for your knife and walk unsteadily toward the downed Pave Low with the intention of killing Shepherd. There are two soldiers near his crashed helicopter, but they pose no threat to you. (one will try to shoot you but their pistol has no ammo.) Whether or not you choose to eliminate them, 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 says you're being a good warrior but that you couldn't take that extra step to do what was absolutely necessary.

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 in the chest with a throwing knife.

Before you lose consciousness, 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." Just before he can kill you, Price attacks him and saves your life. They will now be locked in a fistfight. The game will direct your view toward Shepherd's abandoned pistol and you'll need to use the shoulder buttons to crawl towards the revolver. Shepherd stops you just as you are about to get it, then stomps you in the face for good measure. Price and Shepherd once again return to their fight, and although they seem 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; once that is done you must aim and throw it at Shepherd. Your knife hits him squarely in the eye, killing him and (almost) ending the level.

Eventually, Price will come to your aid as a helicopter arrives. It is piloted by none other than Nikolai, despite Price's earlier words that this would be "a one-way trip." As Price and Nikolai help you into the helicopter, they realize that the rest of the Shadow Company, as well as the entire US military, will be looking for them. However, Nikolai claims that he knows of a safehouse they can go to. 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

 * Captain Price takes down the helicopter with an M4A1 but he uses it as a sniper rifle, like he did in One Shot, One Kill.
 * Sometimes when the player chases Shepherd too close, and he boards the helicopter, the player will be pushed to a rock and will be unable to steer.
 * It is strange how Shepherd and Price managed to survive the fall uninjured while Soap, and 2 Shadow Company soldiers were heavily injured from the fall, though it is possible that Price was injured in the fall and it was the reason he started to lose his fight with Shepherd
 * 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.
 * No matter where the player aims at Shepherd, the knife will always hit his left eye. Like with Imran Zakhaev, no matter where the player aims, he'll shoot off his left arm.
 * When Shepherd tells Soap about the 30,000 men he lost five years ago, he is speaking about the incident in Shock and Awe, since Modern Warfare 2 takes place five years after Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
 * This is the only instance where an in-game character survives a knife wound since Modern Warfare 1, minus old school mode.
 * The multiplayer map Rust is based on this level. Notice the background when the player kills 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 state, just like the end of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. At first, walking with severe injuries, as in "Aftermath," and then playing while lying on the ground, as in "Game Over." And like the first game, Soap kills the antagonist and is saved by a Russian Loyalist in a helicopter
 * After going over the waterfall, the player's knife will become dull and worn.
 * The sound of Captain Price's M4A1 blast varies in several scenes. When driving the boat, the M4A1 sounds more like a SCAR-H, and when shooting down the Pave Low it sounds more like a M14 EBR.
 * After Shepherd loads 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, although 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 two times meaning that two 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 goes straight towards the destroyed truck where Shepherd is after going off the waterfall, he can hear the clicking of a trigger in the distance, while crawling towards the .44 Magnum. This is the Glock 18 that one of the injured Shadow Company troops had in his hand.
 * 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".
 * It is unknown where the player gets the Mini-Uzi from, though it may have been on the boat or given to him by Captain Price. 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 quickly the player tries to crawl to the discarded .44 Magnum Revolver, Shepherd will always manage to kick it away.
 * The .44 Magnum is the same revolver that Shepherd is loading at the beginning of the game in "Team Player."
 * This level may have been originally called The Ending, as sometimes on Xbox live your status can be: "Playing singleplayer in The Ending".
 * Shepherd will slam the player into the car if he's close enough to him even if he doesn't attack him.
 * Soap seems to crawl on his belly toward the .44 Magnum even though he's got a knife in his chest. One possibility is that he is crawling on his side or with his chest raised.
 * If the player takes too long to throw the knife at Shepherd, he will beat Captain Price to death.
 * When Price shoots down Shepherd's Pave Low, if you hold down the reverse button early the boat will not go down the waterfall. Shepherd's 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 crosshairs go 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, you can swing your 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 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 the player 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 the player knifes him or he bleeds to death. Another one of Shepherd's men is seen crawling away from the flaming wreckage of the chopper. The player can cut short his attempts of escaping by slashing him on the ground. You can leave both of them alone, and they will both eventually bleed out and die.
 * 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, you will pass 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.
 * If the player starts the game directly from the main menu, the Mini Uzi he starts out with will be his 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 he 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 and Captain MacMillan were shooting at the Rotor, but Captain Price seems to be shooting at the engine of the Pave Low as it was turning around.
 * No matter how steady or unsteady you drive the zodiac at the end when Price is shooting the helicopter, Price will always miss the first two shots, but always get a perfect third shot.
 * 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 covered with dirt and mud because of the waterfall fall.
 * During the part where the player tries to take the knife out of Soap, if he fails to tap the button named onscreen, the player dies with the somewhat inappropriate 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 appears. This is probably either a mistake by Infinity Ward or because it's the default message in this level when you're injured during combat.
 * The structure of the mission is similar to that of Game Over. Instead of running away from the enemy, however, you are chasing after him, and instead of the enemy killing the survivors of the crash, the player can, though it is optional.
 * If the player listens carefully, the Pave Low pilot says, "Sandstorm at 12 o'clock; we're taking the long way 'round," which explains why he turns around.
 * The way Shepherd dies is foreshadowed in the monologue by Captain Price at the loading screen of the mission Just Like Old Times. He says "We. Will. Kill him." while a knife is analysed in his inventory.
 * This is the only level in the game in which the word "fuck" is used, in the line from Shepherd: "Five years ago, I lost 30,000 men in the blink of an eye. And the world just fuckin' watched." Cpl. Dunn gets close when he says, "Sarge, did HQ just tell us to go 'F' ourselves?" in Wolverines!. Also in Wolverines!, when the roof of the restaurant is about to be bombed, Sgt. Foley tells James Ramirez to "Get the f... off the roof!" but the actual word is blocked out.
 * Surprisingly, when Shepherd hits Soap's head on the car, his vision gets better.
 * If the player stays close to the downed helicopter, he can actually get close enough to knife Shepherd as he is running away.
 * The player can't kill Shepherd before he reaches the car, even if you knife him.
 * When Nikolai's Little Bird comes in to evacuate Soap and Price, there isn't a pilot in it before it lands.
 * 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.
 * Just as in "The Enemy of My Enemy," the player once again fights two different enemy factions that are fighting each other.
 * Though you are 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, meaning that the OpFor may be halfway helping Shepherd escape, this may not be possible. This could also be that A.I. tend to target the player more often than they target others.
 * The blood splatters on Soap's gloves when crawling toward the .44 Magnum are completely identical.
 * 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.
 * If Soap dies, the camera may still continue the chase in a set path that could be the same that Shepherd is taking.
 * It is unknown if Nikolai is also considered a "Wanted War Criminal", as he helped Price and Soap.
 * It is also unknown where Nikolai's hiding "place" is located at. It is likely to be somewhere away from Russia and America. It is also possible it is Al-Asad's safehouse from Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
 * After the credits are finished, there is a picture of Task Force 141. It is possible that Roach is one of the men in the picture, or possibly the one taking it.
 * After waiting through the loading screen after the player goes over the waterfall, they can restart the mission and instead be sent back to when Soap wakes up.
 * It should have been impossible for Soap to spin his knife around to throw at Shepherd because his glove has a leather on the part of his palm that he uses to spin the knife on, unless he used his fingers.
 * At the part where the river widens and the first Little Bird appears, if you go near the left bank you can see a WWII-era German truck with the army cross.
 * Using PC cheats, certain weapons can be spawned in the section after Soap goes over the waterfall, including an arctic P90. Any spawned weapons can then be used on the injured Shadow Company and Shepherd, although to no effect on the latter.