Joseph Allen

"So how do I look?" "Like one of the bad guys."

- PFC Joseph Allen and General Shepherd

Private First Class Joseph Allen is a playable character in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. He is introduced in S.S.D.D. helping Sergeant Foley train local Afghan resistance fighters at Firebase Phoenix in Afghanistan. He then undergoes a selection phase for Task Force 141 prior to engaging local OpFor troops. He is then hand-picked by Shepherd to go undercover in Vladimir Makarov's cell under the alias Alexei Borodin. Allen is killed by Makarov when attempting to escape from Zakhaev International Airport, Makarov having learned about his real identity. Allen's corpse is used as a catalyst for Russian forces to invade the United States. It is interesting to note that his voice is heard later on in the game after he has been picked for Task Force 141, making him the one of the few Call of Duty playable characters to be heard (another example of which is the Thermal Imaging TV Operator in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare).

Trivia

 * He is the third playable character in a Call of Duty game that is scripted to die, the first being Al-Fulani, the second being Jackson, the fourth being Roach, and the fifth being Sat1.
 * The most obvious reference implied by Allen's alias is to the famous Russian composer, Alexandre Borodin. Seeing as Borodin is a relatively uncommon Russian name, the allusion here seems quite overt.
 * The name Alexei Borodin might be a reference to the first Call of Duty game. Because of the fact that the first playable Russian character's first name is Alexei, and the first person the player meets has the last name "Borodin".
 * He is one of the few playable characters in the Call of Duty series that can be heard speaking.
 * In the opening cutscene of Takedown, you can see he was born in Ithaca, NY.
 * At age 22, he is the youngest playable Call of Duty character scripted to die.
 * The Russian tattoos on Allen's chest were done to make him seem like an Ultranationailist, so as to allow him to get close to Makarov. During the attack his suit would have covered him, and it's certain that once the Russian authorities obtained the body, they could confirm his as an american by back-checking his story and cursory snooping, along with the fact that his features would almost assuredly be more western, as opposed to Russian.