Simon "Ghost" Riley

For other uses, see Riley and Ghost.

For the character of the same name within the reboot, see Simon "Ghost" Riley (2019).

Template:Infobox/soldier

"What the hell kind of name is Ghost?"

— John "Soap" MacTavish

Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley was a British special forces operator in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 2: Ghost, Call of Duty: Online, Find Makarov: Operation Kingfish and Call of Duty: Heroes. He also appeared as a customization option in Call of Duty: Ghosts. In Call of Duty: Online, he was also a member of Shadow Company. He was the second in command of Task Force 141 and was seen wearing dark red sunglasses and a skull-patterned balaclava along with a headset. He is also an unlockable character in Call of Duty: Mobile, and is unlocked after reaching Tier 1 of the Premium Battle Pass. He is also unlocked in Call of Duty: Warzone by purchasing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered.

Biography

Past

Main article: Modern Warfare 2: Ghost

Pre-Military

Simon and his father at the Bone Lickers concert.

Simon Riley had a very traumatic childhood while growing up in Manchester, England because of his heartless father. On most days, his father brought dangerous animals back and taunted him with them, even going so far to force him to kiss a snake or threaten to kill him with them. When he and his younger brother Tommy got older, Tommy would always wear a skull-mask at night to scare Simon. At one concert, his father made him laugh at the death of a prostitute who was addicted to drugs.

Joining the Military

Cumberland: "What made you need to get up every day and put your nuts in the meat grinder?"

Riley: "Queen and Country"

— Cumberland to Riley during their time in Mexico.

Simon used to be an apprentice butcher at a grocery when he grew up. After the September 11 attacks occurred, he joined the military. He was an expert soldier which got him into the S.A.S.

Return from the Military

Simon came back home one day on January 2003 and found his family in a predicament. His mother was constantly getting cheated on and his brother was addicted to drugs. He opted not to go back to his life at the military until he fixed their lives.

Going after Manuel Roba

Simon Riley after killing Roba.

Simon was pulled out from shipping out for an operation in Iran and was set to take the Zaragoza Drug Cartel down that was headed by Manuel Roba. When he and his team made their move and the Day of the Dead, the commanding officer betrayed them to the enemy by getting the three of them captured and brought to a torture and brainwashing facility. There, he was driven mad and tortured. At one point, he was buried alive and left by his captors. He used this opportunity to escape and got back home.

It took him four months to recover from all of that, but he was still having temper-management issues so he was not accepted back into the military. After having an episode with his former-colleague, Kevin Sparks, his entire family was killed by Sparks and Marcus Washington.

He killed the perpetrators and went after Manuel Roba once more. He ambushed Roba's right-hand man, Gilberto and tortured Roba's location out of him. He arrived at Roba's compound and stole all of the information on the company and killed Roba. When he left, he was approached by General Shepherd and recruited into Task Force 141 under the name of Ghost.

Task Force 141

Main article: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Small Job

Ghost being held hostage in Ukraine.

At one point, he was sent alone against the terrorists in a grade school in Ukraine. He deliberately got himself caught and told the terrorists and the children about his past before the rest of his team arrived to free him and the children.

Operation Kingfish

Price: "Go! That was an order!"

Ghost: "Fuck!"

— John Price to Ghost during their evac.

On October 8, 2013, a joint Task Force 141/Delta Force operation codenamed Operation Kingfish was launched. Ghost worked alongside John Price, John "Soap" MacTavish, Gary "Roach" Sanderson, Sandman and Derek "Frost" Westbrook. They assaulted the main compound and are able to recover some intel, but got ambushed by a bomb, forcing the team to evacuate. During the evac, Soap was wounded by an RPG and was partially knocked out. An AC-130 tried to defend the team as they sprinted toward their evac point, but was shot down, leaving the team completely vulnerable. Price selflessly stayed behind to facilitate the team's escape.

In Rio de Janeiro

Ghost: "Sir, I got Rojas in my sights! We could go for a clean leg shot! We could end it here!"

Captain MacTavish: "Negative! We could not risk it! Do not engage!"

— Ghost and Soap during the pursuit of Alejandro Rojas.

Lt. Simon "Ghost" Riley was first seen in Takedown talking to Cpt. John "Soap" MacTavish via radio while they searched for Alejandro Rojas's assistant. After John "Soap" MacTavish and Sgt. Gary "Roach" Sanderson began pursuing the assistant, Ghost met up with them at the Hotel Rio and joined the chase. Once the assistant was taken down by Roach, he was seen with MacTavish preparing to interrogate him. Ghost was heard via radio for the rest of the mission as he attempted to pursue Rojas through the Favela. After the capture of Rojas, Ghost was heard requesting extraction from Command, but to no avail. Ghost appeared in the mission, "The Hornet's Nest" with Task Force 141. He managed to escape with Captain MacTavish and Roach aboard Nikolai's helicopter.

Ghost at the Oil Rig.

Infiltration of the Russian Oil Rig and rescuing Prisoner 627

"That was the control room up ahead! I could use it to find the prisoner! I would tap into their system and look for the prisoner! It was going to take some time!"

— Ghost to Captain MacTavish in "The Gulag".

He took part in the infiltration of the Russian oil rig which was being used as a makeshift SAM site in The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday to rescue the hostages. After clearing the oil rig, Ghost took part in the operation to rescue Prisoner 627 from a Russian gulag. He took control of the gulag's security systems and guided Soap and Roach to the prisoner.

Infiltration of a Russian submarine base

"We had a nuclear missile launch! Missile in the air! MISSILE IN THE AIR!! Code Black! CODE BLACK!!"

— Ghost to Command after Price launched the ICBM.

Ghost also appeared in "Contingency" where he helped Captain Price infiltrate a Russian submarine base along with the other Task Force 141 members. However, he was shocked when Price launched an ICBM at Washington D.C. where the Russian-American war raged on. Ghost contacted Command about Code Black which was the statement that a threat of a nuclear weapon was launched and must be disposed of immediately. It was possible that he retracted this though after he learned about Price's intention.

The Search for Vladimir Makarov and Death

Shepherd: "Do you have the DSM?"

Ghost: "We got it, sir!"

Shepherd: "Good. That was one less loose end."

Ghost: "NO!"

— Ghost to Shepherd right before Shepherd betrayed and killed him in "Loose Ends".

General Shepherd killing Ghost in "Loose Ends".

Ghost's final appearance was in "Loose Ends" where he led a strike-team to search for Vladimir Makarov at his safe house on the Georgian-Russian border. However, Makarov was nowhere to be found, but the safe house was loaded ( "A bloody gold mine" as Ghost said) with intel. Ghost along with Roach, Ozone and Scarecrow with sniper support from Archer and Toad protected the DSM while it downloaded the information regarding Makarov's operations. As the team headed to the LZ that was set up by Shepherd, Ozone and Scarecrow could both be gunned down in the safe house or be killed by the enemy mortars and Roach was injured. Ghost managed to get Roach to the LZ, but Roach and Ghost are betrayed by Shepherd who fatally shot Roach and Ghost in the chest at point-blank range with a .44 Magnum before he could use his ACR. Ghost's body was thrown into a ditch and set on fire along with Roach's.

Gallery

Riley before going on a mission

Early concept art of Ghost

Close up of Ghost

Ghost using an M4A1

Ghost wearing a Multicam & gray outfit from the "Loose Ends" exhibit in "Museum"

Ghost wearing his diving outfit from "The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday" and "The Gulag"

Ghost wearing his urban outfit from "Takedown" and "The Hornet's Nest"

Ghost before being shot by Shepherd

Ghost before being burned by Shepherd's men

Ghost preparing to torture Rojas's assistant

Ghost in the Gulag

A set of Dog Tags carrying Ghost's name seen in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer game mode Kill Confirmed

Ghost, as seen alongside Soap, John Price and Sandman in the Operation Kingfish picture

Ghost, as seen on Modern Warfare 2's campaign menu

Ghost in "The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday"

Ghost, as a customization option in Call of Duty: Ghosts

Another view of Riley in Ghosts, here holding Lynx sniper rifle

The announcement revealing Ghost's killstreaks in Call of Duty: Heroes

Ghosts' Profile in Call of Duty: Heroes

Ghost in the "Museum" level

Ghost as seen in Call of Duty: Mobile alongside David "Section" Mason.

Classic Ghost Bundle in Call of Duty: Warzone

Call of Duty: Heroes

He also appears in Call of Duty: Heroes in an update, purchased for 1,000 or 800 .

Battle Aura: Increase Critical Chance by 5.5%

Killstreaks: Gunship, AT4 Launcher, EMP Artillery.

Statue: 750 .

Video

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Quotes

• "The Russians ain't gonna let this massacre go unanswered. It's gonna get bloody."
• "And they're killing a thousand Americans for every dead civilian in Moscow. Looks like we're all out of friends."
• "Let's do this!"
• "All we got out of Rojas, is that the only guy Makarov hates worse than Americans is locked up in a gulag.
• "Bloody Yanks! I thought they were the good guys!"
• "We have a nuclear missile launch! Missile in the air! Missile in the air! Code Black! Code Black!"

Trivia

Main article: Simon "Ghost" Riley/Trivia