Operation 40


 * For the faction, see Op 40.

Operation 40 is the first single player level in Call of Duty: Black Ops. This mission introduces the player to the story's main characters. The mission takes place in Santa Maria, Cuba on April 17th 1961, as the player, Woods, and Bowman attempt to assassinate the Prime Minister of Cuba: Fidel Castro. When you first complete the level, you gain the achievement/trophy Sacrifice.

Overview
A cutscene plays where an unknown interrogator is asking Mason questions. Mason is electrocuted multiple times, failing to give satisfactory answers to the questions. The mission starts with Woods, Mason and Bowman speaking to Carlos in a bar. Carlos provides them with intel to help them with their mission. Tropas soldiers enter the bar, while the Task Force remain calm. A Tropas Officer comes over and grabs Mason, and Woods grabs him and impales his hand to the counter with his knife, then smashes him in the head with a bottle. Mason then draws an ASP and eliminates the enemy soldiers. Carlos tosses him an M16 with ACOG and Grenade Launcher attached.

Mason and Woods then exit the bar and commence fighting through the streets. Carlos and Bowman remain in the bar, shooting through windows to provide covering fire. As they fight down the street, Carlos and Bowman join Woods and Mason as they take out police cars. The squad then comes to a large police roadblock, which forces them to take an alley to the left. Fortunately for them, there is a car with its door open ready at the end of the alley. Mason jumps in the driver's seat and is tasked with driving the squad through multiple barricades and to safety. After Mason drives through the barricades, he whites out and a cutscene plays where Mason, fading out of consciousness in the interrogation seat, is given an electric shock which forces him back into his flashback.

The mission resumes with the squad overlooking a building from the other side of a large gorge. When given a signal, Mason, Bowman and Woods zipline over to the other side, where Mason and Bowman quickly and silently dispatch of enemy guards. On entering the building, Mason is tasked with taking a soldier using a telephone out with garrote wire. The squad then exit the house and fight their way to another building. On entering this building, Mason and Woods are faced with heavy resistance.

After clearing out a room, the squad comes before the door leading to Fidel Castro's room. The squad stack up and Mason pulls out his ASP. They break open the door and Castro immediately draws a pistol, using his mistress as a human shield. Mason shoots Castro, and after a short cinematic of the bullet being followed in its flight in slow motion (only occurs with a headshot), Castro's mistress picks up a gun and is gunned down as well, much to Woods' disgust.

The squad then fights its way out of the building, through the courtyard, and towards an airfield. The squad runs down a cliff while secured with ropes and they make a break for a hangar where their plane is waiting. The squad enters the plane and Mason is tasked with protecting the plane from damage with an M60. Mason then jumps out of the plane, and stays behind in order to use an anti-aircraft gun to clear the runway.

Mason is then pulled off of the AA gun by Lev Kravchenko and is shoved to the ground. Mason awakens seeing Fidel Castro and Nikita Dragovich discussing what to do with him. It is explained that the squad merely killed a double. Castro tells Dragovich to "Make sure [Mason] suffers". The mission ends with Mason in the interrogation chair exclaiming that Dragovich really did make sure he suffered.

Trivia

 * Castro's Double can be killed by shooting his mistress in the chest, however no bullet time is shown.
 * Operation 40 is the name of a real-life CIA-sponsored undercover operation in the Caribbean during the early 1960s. They operated with the Cuban rebel group Brigade 2605.
 * Woods has a packet of cigarettes in the fold of his shirt sleeve.
 * After you kill Castro (Or Castro's Double), when you move your cross-hairs over him, it will turn red, even though he is dead. Also, if you shoot him, he will still bleed where you shoot him.
 * The car has a 5-speed gearbox, something not seen on cars of that era.
 * The MiG-17F found in the hangar the player passes through has the markings of the Vietnam People's Air Force
 * In the beginning of the mission the song playing in the background is "Quimbara" by Celia Cruz, though it was from 1974.
 * Once in the car Bowman appears to have jumped through the window backwards seeing as how he is seated.
 * It is unknown how Carlos escapes the police as he doesn't get in the car all you hear is "I will see you at the airstrip. Suerte my friends." And disappears.
 * The soda cans have Treyarch written on it.
 * For the ones that don't know Spanish here is the full dialog spoke by the Cuban and the woman "Saquen los papeles ahora! " (Take out the papers now!) (he means the passport or visa) "Salga de aqui puta capitalista" (Get out of here capitalist bitch) "No me toques hijo de puta" (Do not touch me son of a bitch) "Oye de donde tu eres!" ("Where are you from!", asking at Mason)
 * This mission has caused a large amount of controversy due to the fact that the player must attempt to assassinate a world leader, Fidel Castro. Cubadebate, a popular Cuban website, accused the US of trying to kill Castro virtually because they have failed to in the past 50 years. However, Operation 40 failed to assassinate Castro in the video game as they did in real life. The character killed is a double and the real Fidel Castro appears later on.
 * According to Call of Duty: Black Ops (Nintendo DS), a character named Micheal Shaw was captured along with Mason in this level.
 * On the Wii, the ending of this level is in HD, just like the ending to World at War was.
 * If the player jumps to close to the plane's propellers, he/she will die and the screen will say "Watch your head".
 * In the sequence where the player must run across the airfield to the cargo plane, the player has unlimited sprint.
 * The soldier that Mason has to shoot in the bar will never actually fight back; if the player looks closely it appears as if his gun has jammed.
 * Several M16s with Grenade Launcher Attachments can be found in the level. This may be a reference to the movie Scarface, in which the main character, a Cuban refugee named Tony Montana, used this type of weapon at the end of the movie.
 * When Bowman splits up with the player and Woods in the villa, he will appear to climb up a fence onto the roof.
 * During the actual Bay Of Pigs only two CIA agents were used. However, it is likely that this mission was covered up and denied by the government.
 * In a nod towards The Godfather, Woods, in the beginning of the level, stabs one of the Cubans in the hand with a switchblade, thus pinning him to the counter.
 * La Policia Nacional de Cuba (The National Police of Cuba) don't get gibbed when you blow them up with the M203. In addition to this, the police cars can't explode until they stop moving, even if the M203's grenade activates before it hits the car.
 * This is the second time in the Call of Duty series that involves the police. The first time was the mission "No Russian" in Modern Warfare 2
 * Bowman will repeatedly mention "B-26s" during the mission. The B-26 was a twin-engined bomber supplied by the CIA to Cuban exiles during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. However, if the player looks up, they will notice that the aircraft overhead have four engines, and are most likely C-130s.
 * This whole mission can be completed without the player killing a single enemy. (This is confirmed on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii, but is current unconfirmed for the PC)
 * Woods has no tattoos in this mission. He gets them over time.
 * If the player kills Castro's Double with a headshot you will gain the trophy/achievement Death To Dictators.
 * The Tropas that come into the bar cannot actually be seen walking towards the door. They just spawn outside the door.