Contingency (mission)

"We have a nuclear missile launch. Missile in the air! Missile in the air! Code Black, Code Black!"

- Ghost

Contingency is the twelfth level of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Plot
After Captain Price is rescued from the Russian gulag, he carries out a plan to end the war in the United States. Task Force 141 must secure a route to a docked submarine in Russia. Price makes his way to the submarine. The mission begins with you and Price taking out patrols in the snowy woods; follow his instructions to avoid alerting enemy patrols. You will frequently encounter groups of two or more enemies; avoid them as much as possible, but if you must, you need to be fast on the trigger and take them out. Their dogs are especially dangerous since they can sniff you out. At one point a BTR-80 will attack you; follow Price into the woods to avoid its fire. You will eventually regroup with the task force and initiate your attack on the sub base. Use your Predator Missile as much as possible, especially against the helicopter, tanks, and enemies clustered near vehicles and explosives. Price heads to the submarine, while you will follow Ghost to a building where you can defend from the enemies. Ghost, who is unaware of Price's plans, warns Price that the sub's missile silo doors are opening, only to learn in shock that it was exactly as he planned. Price launches a nuclear missile with the intent to detonate it in the upper atmosphere as an EMP. The EMP ensures the survival of Sergeant Foley and his men from the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment in Washington D.C, but the shockwave destroys the International Space Station.

Weapon Loadout
In this level, the player starts with an M14 Enhanced Battle Rifle with a Silencer and a USP with a Silencer and a Tactical Knife.

Enemy Intel(s)

 * Intel No. 31: (1/3 Intel) After out running the BTR. Heading North, near 3 men patrols and West of the oil pipe, under the parachute.
 * Intel No. 32: (2/3 Intel) At submarine base, enter building marked "33" at west corner, then immediately turn south.
 * Intel No. 33: (3/3 Intel) Take stairs up to helipad at north-west corner. Intel is also at north-west corner of the helipad.

Trivia

 * The events of the level "Of Their Own Accord" and the beginning of "Second Sun" take place at the same time as this mission, 11:22am at Petropavlivk, Russia while it is between 6:35pm and 7:00pm at Washington D.C.
 * Though the enemy weapons have flashlights, once you aquire these guns, the flashlight goes away.

Insertion

 * The outfit used in this mission appears to be the "Loose Ends" outfit, but all the colors have been replaced with a snow camouflage pattern.
 * The player will leave footprints as they walk, even though they cannot see their feet.
 * When you get to the bridge part, Captain Price will shoot the two men that are smoking for you if you shoot randomly in the air just as he stops talking. This tells the player that Captain Price had lost his patience and had just killed the guys himself.
 * The dialogue spoken by Captain Price during the opening section of this mission is very evocative of the dialogue spoken by MacMillan during the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare mission "All Ghillied Up". Several of Price's quotes ("Good night," "Beautiful," "Don't do anything stupid," etc.) sound the same as MacMillan's.
 * During the stealth part of the mission, if the player compromises their position, Price will say, "Roach we won't get far if you give away our position." If the player gets spotted again, he will say, "Roach we can't afford to keep giving away our position like that." Once more, he will sound angrier and say, "What the hell was that? You trying to get us killed?"
 * Soap also comments, "Dogs. I hate dogs." This is humorously referring to the many attack dogs the player had to face in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. There is also the possibility that it is a nod to Dog Soldiers, a film in which Kevin McKidd, the voice actor for Soap, appeared (and who ironically played a character who had a strong love of dogs). This could also be a reference to the Indiana Jones movies, in which Indiana Jones states, "Snakes. I hate snakes.".
 * At one point, Price says, "These Russian dogs are like pussycats compared to the ones in Prypyat," directly referencing the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare mission "One Shot, One Kill".
 * In the first area of the level after the trucks pass by, when the player and Captain Price run up behind the guard rail to snipe the other two groups of guards, sometimes Price will crouch and fire right into the guard rail. If this happens, he will not take out the two guards he is scripted to kill. The player will need to finish them off themselves, as Price ignores them as if he had killed them.
 * It is possible that Captain Price will say "Impressive" or "Well done" when he instructs the player to take out the dog patrol or try to slip past them. Just kill them all one by one. However, the player must let Captain Price finish his dialogue before taking them out. They must also not let Price kill even a single member of that dog patrol. If there are any double-kills when the player takes them out he'll just get up and say nothing. To achieve this start shooting them with the M14 EBR as soon as Price has finished his line, because Price would only not join the shooting if he does not have a good line of sight from the ridge.
 * After running from the BTRs and eliminating the search team, if the player goes right instead of following Price, there is a shortcut which will let them avoid all enemies leading up to the large group.
 * You can be killed by a falling tree branch that was shot by the BTR.

Outer Perimeter

 * When on the slope with Captain Price, the player is commanded to take control of the first Predator drone, but this gets shot down by a SAM battery (the player can still get a shot off if they're quick enough) and Soap is forced to send in a new one. However, after sliding down the slope, the Predator missiles are again available, even though the second Predator drone hasn't arrived or been announced yet.
 * If the player somehow manages to destroy both SAM sites before they fire, the dialogue for the Predator drone being shot down will continue, even though it's still flying overhead. Price will sometimes not move.
 * The Predator drone, while scripted to be shot down, can be saved if the player acts quickly. As soon as the player takes control of the drone, fire off a missile at the SAM site that usually will destroy it. Completion of this depends solely on the location of the Predator drone when first accessed. This trick can be incredibly helpful on Veteran, in which numerous hostiles attack the team.
 * If the player destroys the two SAMs in the town, Captain Price will compliment Ghost about them, even though he didn't do a thing, indicating that Ghost could have been planned to take out the SAMs in an early version of the level.
 * Price will use an AUG HBAR later in the mission.
 * In the area directly after the slope, as the player fights uphill, there's an open iron gate near where the SAMs were. If the player doesn't walk into this iron gate, but around it and over the wall to the right, the enemies streaming from there won't notice the player. When Price reaches the road out of the area with snow-covered houses three friendly A.I's would spawn from behind the building and run out to "secure the perimeter".

Inside The Base

 * When the player alerts the submarine base, a timer will appear starting from 2:00 minutes when played on Veteran and Hardened difficulties only. On other difficulties, the player can take their time killing the opposition.
 * If the player fires Predator Missiles at their allies, Soap will continue with his dialogue as if the player killed enemies.
 * Even if you don't kill any enemies and crash into the mountaiside in the village, Soap will still say, "Good hit, good hit. Looks like at least 5 or more kills."

Rooftop Holdout

 * If the player doesn't destroy the Mi-24, it explodes when they are ordered to defend the submarine from atop the guard house.
 * Sometimes the second Predator drone will also be shot down, either after it runs out of missiles or by other unseen SAM sites at a different location.
 * It is possible for the player to survive being on the submarine when the missile fires, but they must be standing at the very front of the submarine, meaning they would have to go up to the guard house to trigger the checkpoint, then run all the way down the guard house, along to docks, onto the submarine, and to the bow before the missile launches. However, if the player is anywhere else on the sub during the launch they can and WILL die.
 * It is possible to enter the submarine, but the ladder is not usable and so the fall will always kill the player. However, with cheats on, the player can find the entire interior of the submarine present, with silos, control panels. This was possibly a scene involving clearing or defending the submarine that was scrapped from the final version.
 * There is a unique keyboard on the console inside the submarine, just like the keyboard with "hold * to use" in the level "No Fighting In The War Room" and "Just Like Old Times". Maybe in the original version of the level, the player would have to fight into the submarine and use this keyboard to launch or abort the missile. This is supported by the ladder going to the inside of the submarine, and the fact that the inside is completely rendered.
 * Only one of the submarine's silos actually contains a missile; the rest appear to be empty.
 * In the game, the R-39 Rif SLBM had its rocket engine ignite as it left its launch tube (or "silo") on the submarine, as if it were a land-based ICBM. This is inconsistent with modern SLBMs, which in a process called "cold launch", are forced out of their launch tubes with compressed gas. Only after the SLBM has cleared the launch tube does the rocket engine fire.
 * In reality it would be impossible for Price to fire the missile, as firing it would require the missile launch codes, something that would be extremely unlikely for TF 141 to process, considering they went there on their own accord.

Miscellaneous

 * The achievement/trophy "Ends Justify The Means" is earned by completing this level on Veteran difficulty.
 * The submarine whose diagrams Captain Price shows to Shepherd in the briefing does not actually exist. The phantom submarine's armament is consistent with that of the ex-Soviet Typhoon class SSBN (the only submarine in existence capable of carrying both the R-39 Rif SLBM (SS-N-20) and RPK-2 Viyuga cruise missile, the two weapons shown), although the beam, length, and displacement of the displayed submarine are different from that of the Typhoon. The displacement of the sub, 19,400 tons, is consistent with that of the Borei class SSBN, Russia's most modern nuclear ballistic missile submarine. The Borei can (and does) indeed carry the Viyuga cruise missile, but is not capable of carrying Rif SLBMs (which were phased out of service in 2004). Furthermore, the submarine shown is too short and too wide to be a Borei and its general outline is more consistent with American sub design.
 * The Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) depicted in the game has a range of approximately 8,400km. This would be just enough to reach Washington D.C. from Petropavlovsk, Russia. The SLBM that is said to have replaced the R-39, the SS-N-30 Bulava, is estimated to have a range between 8,000 - 10,000km. In a worst-case scenario, with a range of only 8000km, Washington would not have been in reach, hence the need for the phased-out R-39 in the game.
 * The missile somehow reaches the East Coast within the hour, while taking the long way around the globe.
 * Even the missile launch itself is inconceivable. Only UK submarine crews can fire their Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles on their own authority. Virtually every other country requires direct confirmation via permissive action links from flag officers or higher for any warhead to be armed.
 * This is the only campaign level in the game where the player has to fight a Mi-24 Hind; the rest of the game features Mi-28s as the main enemy helicopter.
 * The missile Price launches is a MIRV of similar design to the missiles Imran Zakhaev launched at the U.S. five years earlier. In an ironic twist, Price is doing the opposite of what he was doing then: launching the missile with the intent to cause destruction instead of trying to stop it.
 * On missions before this one, Soap's name appears as "Captain MacTavish" in the subtitles. For this mission he is labeled "Soap". This is possibly because until this mission, Roach didn't know that Soap was MacTavish's callsign.
 * It is unclear what the original mission of the team was, as they are all surprised when Price launches the nuclear missile from the Russian submarine, even though it was clearly their intent to secure the submarine or at least the submarine base. Their mission may have been to destroy the submarine and deny a Russian nuclear asset, one which can be used against the U.S.