Redemption

"We are in grave danger from the Communists, our freedom, our very way of life is at risk."

- John F. Kennedy

Redemption is the final level in Call of Duty: Black Ops. It is set upon the ship, the Rusalka and sees Mason and Hudson attempt to stop Nova 6 from being unleashed in the USA.

Walkthrough
With only hours away from the scheduled Nova 6 gas release in US cities, Hudson leads forces on a heli-borne assault on the Rusalka to stop the broadcast. First, Mason must pilot the Huey gunship to destroy the AA defenses on the ship. Once the air defenses are neutralized, Weaver's team is inserted from the aft heli-pad. As the team attempts to make their way into the ship via entrance at the Rusalka's bow section, Mason and Hudson must provide fire support for the team as they advance through the port side deck. Here, Mason will have to deal with a Mi-24A. The fight cripples Mason's Huey, forcing him to make a crash landing at the heli-pad. Mason and Hudson advance through the starboard deck, dealing with 2 Mi-8 HIPs with Valkyrie Rockets before making it into the ship.

Once they fight their way to the lower deck, they find the Rusalka is just the surface section, the real Numbers Station is underwater. After ordering Weaver to leave the Rusalka and calling in the Navy to sink it, Hudson and Mason swim to the underwater station and shut off the numbers transmission. After they gruesomely fight their way to the command center, Mason accesses the control console to shut down the broadcast. Dragovich appears and is about to shoot Mason when Hudson distracts him, allowing Mason to pull him down a shaft and drown him.

With Dragovich finally dead, Mason and Hudson escape the crumbling underwater station by swimming to the surface, where they are greeted not only by Weaver but by a large US Navy surface contingent as well. The crisis is averted.

Ending cutscene
thumb|300px|right|Final cutsceneMason and Hudson surface to the American fleet. Weaver helps Mason onto a boat, proclaiming victory. Mason is unsure, haunted by his last conversation with Dragovich. The scene switches to a woman narrating random numbers. While this happens, archival footage of John F. Kennedy arriving in Dallas, Texas, shortly before his assassination. The view shifts to the crowd gathered around the President's limo. The camera zooms in a reveals Alex Mason as a part of the crowd. Just as the cutscene finishes if you listen closely you can hear Mason's voice whisper the word 'Ascension', which is the name of one of the maps on zombie mode. Afterwards, the credits roll, followed by the beginning cutscene of "Five".

Trivia

 * If you restart the mission, the landscape may be mirrored (Confirmed on PS3).
 * When Mason gets out of the chopper, the game might zoom in like the ADS with reduced movement speed, and the player will continue the entire mission with the zoom on. This is probably a glitch (confirmed on PC). This problem can be solved by committing suicide once.
 * Almost all of the allies in this mission are using a Famas
 * It is strange due to the fact that the allies are all American and are seen using a French-made weapon(Famas), a Commando or M16 will be more likely to be used instead.
 * There are two notes on the helicopter's displays: one says that the fuel tank level indicator is faulty, while the other directly quotes the Book of Revelation on Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
 * In the helicopter piloted by Mason, there is a peace symbol to the left of the players view, a common sign in the 1960's when the game takes place.
 * After the credits, there is a final cutscene showing JFK, Nixon, McNamara and Fidel Castro conversing about the Cuban Missile Crisis in the Pentagon. Zombies break through the closed doors (seen above) and the zombie level, Five, is unlocked.
 * It is heavily implied in this level that Mason killed JFK while Lee Harvey Oswald (historically labeled as JFK's killer) was scapegoated for the murder. During the final fight with Dragovich, Mason says, "You tried to make me kill my president!" To which Dragovich responds, "Tried?" Also, the ending cutscene shows Mason as part of the crowd during Kennedy's landing at the airport, reciting numbers related to the assassination ("11...22...63" is the day JFK was killed (November 22, 1963), and "6.5 millimeter" is the caliber of the bullet allegedly used to shoot him). He also states "Oswald...compromised!...Kennedy...John...Fitzgerald!" during Revelations.
 * The wounds on Mason's wrists that he sustained during his Interrogation are no longer visible.
 * As the intel unlocked in this mission indicates, Mason didn't recover from his mental condition and by 1978, his decision to chase down a currently-unknown lead (most likely in Johannesburg, as shown in an email sent by Hudson to Mason) resulted in the higher-ups deciding that Mason is "burnt", mentally unstable and a threat to national security, unfortunately marked for termination.
 * After killing Dragovich, the player might hear Reznov talking, confirming the point above, regarding his mental health.
 * There is a non-playable character in this mission named Sgt. Pepper. This might be a reference to the song/album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by The Beatles.
 * At the scene where Weaver says "It's over.", the closest ship on the left side with the hull classification number of "68" could possibly be BB-68 USS Ohio, a Montana-class battleship that would've been the one of the strongest in the world but was never put into production.
 * Jason Hudson's voice actor, Ed Harris, played a starring role in the 1989 film "The Abyss," which also happened to have an underwater base that communicated via a docked tanker ship.
 * Whilst descending to the undersea numbers station a tune very reminiscent to the soundtrack of "Bioshock" can be heard. This is probably a nod to the game as the approach angle is also very similar to the angle that the city of Rapture is first viewed from.
 * While swimming to the surface, the player can see the wreckage of the Rusalka sink to the bottom of the ocean as well as narrowly avoiding a sinking helicopter. This could possibly the player's helicopter from earlier in the level, as it is wrecked.
 * In the Ending Cutscene, the book by John F. Kennedy can be seen to the right of the woman saying the number sequences, it is, although, covered by a small black book, but still recognizable.
 * Near the end of the level, as the broadcast station's walls begin to rupture and leak, the player will encounter a Soviet soldier who charges down a narrow stairway, this soldier is immune to knifing as he runs down the stairs.
 * If you fire the machine gun on your helicopter until you fall out of it, you will keep hearing the noise of the machine gun even when you are under the water and while you are killing Dragovich.
 * On the Xbox version of this level sometimes when you rendezvous with Weaver the level will not continue as scripted. There are a few ways to fix this. Throw a grenade at Weaver and he will try to get away from it. Or just friendly fire someone. It can also occur on the PS3 version.
 * This is only mission in which Hudson never wears his shades. This is a little odd, as he puts them on in at the end of the last mission in a "ready to roll" style.
 * There is a PS3 glitch in this level where there will be a frozen standing character model near the end of the game.
 * There is a glitch where if you use the last Valkyrie Rockets, you will be stuck with it, forcing you to only be able to use your knife. When you take off your underwater suit off, you won't even be able to use your knife. If this glitch occurs, you can restart the mission, leave the mission, or turn off console.
 * Should you keep the Valkyrie Rockets after resurfacing inside the station, they can be fired down into the hole you entered from. They can be controlled for a short while underwater. This is rather curious as such technology would likely not be waterproof. Also, this reveals that the underwater environment is actually 3D space to some degree, unlike that at the start of the Modern Warfare 2 level "The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday."
 * The helicopter sequence at the beginning of this level is totally cut from the Wii, starting from the point where Mason and Hudson jump out of the destroyed chopper. The Valkyrie Rockets are also replaced by a Strela-3 launcher.
 * If player does not choke Dragovich, he will drown on his own for being underwater for too long.
 * If the player does not pull Dragovich down, he will kill Hudson and then shoot the player, but when the player gets shot, his vision blacks out instantly, similar to Al-Fulani's death in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
 * There is a soldier called Cpl. Hacker, this soldier can be seen in Rebirth and Crash Site.
 * When Hudson talks in the helicopter, his lips don't move.
 * There is a glitch in the helicopter part in which the Hind that attempts to destroy the players helicopter will disappear, meaning the player can not jump out the helicopter and continue with the mission.
 * The location of the Hind before the objective is added is rather unknown, as all the Helipads while escorting Weaver are empty. Besides, the Hind spawns out of the nowhere.
 * The last 3 levels all have names that relate to the Bible (Revelations as in the Book of Revelation, Rebirth as in rebirth through Christ, and Redemption as in redeeming yourself).
 * The name of the mission may refer to Mason "redeeming" himself after his past actions (namely going rogue and killing Steiner).
 * When you regroup with Weaver, sometimes the game will not continue and you have to restart the level. It is unknown whether this has been patched.
 * After killing Dragovich, Reznov's voice is heard.
 * At the end of the level, Dragovich appears out of nowhere to attempt to kill Mason.
 * An easy way to destroy both Helicopters in one shot is to get them side by side, and pull the trigger, then when it's between the two Helicopters, press the trigger button again, and it blows up.
 * Unlike many missions, many of the friendly allies on this level are rank Corporal (Cpl.) or above. It is very uncommon, though still quite likely, that one of the starting allies have a rank of Private. Furthermore, the three allies (apart from Hudson) allocated to the undersea re-supply station are always scripted to have a given name, them being Sgt. Drew, Sgt. Aziz, and Sgt. Maestas.
 * Sgt. Drew, Sgt. Aziz, and Sgt. Maestas all die when the underwater station is hit by an explosion and starts to flood, though Mason and Hudson still survive.
 * There is a glitch where the scene before going underwater may not happen, because Hudson will not be present for it to play out. One can see the team standing near the bottom of the ship and Hudson standing on his own a short distance away in the same room. This can be solved by pushing Hudson to the location of the team, where the scene will then play as scripted.
 * There is a glitch where sometimes when you enter the underwater diving part you are stuck outside the map and cannot go to the objective. Also you are able to swim anywhere you want except the original diving area