John "Soap" MacTavish (Original)

"Right...what the hell kind of name is "Soap", eh? How'd a muppet like you pass selection?"

- Captain Price

Sergeant John MacTavish, nicknamed "Soap", is one of the main playable characters in the game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

History
"Soap" starts out as a Sgt. in the 22nd S.A.S. Regiment going through training for a mission aboard a cargo ship. He must run a wood replica of that cargo ship in under 60 seconds or he will not be accepted for the mission. He continues to run it in under the alloted time and is accepted for the mission. Soap and Captain Price's handpicked team boards a helicopter and are flown to the cargoship somewhere in the Bering Sea. After fighting numerous enemies and making it into the depths of the ship, Gaz finds a nuke and two MiGs open fire on the ship, causing it to start sinking. Making their way back out on to the deck of the ship, the helicopter starts flying away and Soap has to make a jump for it; he gets his arms onto the ramp only to start slipping off, but Captain Price grabs and pulls him up as the ship sinks.

Soap is then with Gaz and Cpt. Price as they go on a rescue mission for their informant 'Nikolai' and meet up with Kamarov, a Loyalist soldier in Russia. Whilst Kamarov's men attack the town with Nikolai in it, Soap goes with Price and Gaz to provide sniper support, before rappelling down into the town and rescuing Nikolai and evacuating via a helicopter.

At the conclusion of the game, Soap is amongst those injured by an explosion during the SAS team's escape from a Russian nuclear silo, but he lives long enough to use Captain Price's M1911 .45 to kill Imran Zakhaev. It is not clear whether he actually survived medical evacuation, as like the ill-fated USMC Sgt. Paul Jackson, his view fades to white at the end. Though according to the strategy guide Soap is the character the player uses in the epilogue level Mile High Club.