The characters are Tom Clancy levels of larger than life, which is significantly more restrained than what came later.
Mind going into more detail on this one? I’ve been reading the Jack Ryan novels, and I’m 3/4 of the way through Rainbow Six (the book) right now, and I think part of the appeal is that the characters feel small, as those stories always involve ensemble casts.
I agree that 4 and especially MW2 both feel very Clancy. I might even be more partial to MW2 as it’s got this prominent theme of history being written by the winners that hits all of the notes that matter to me most in movies.
Some scenes in MW2 stick out so strongly to me still.
Spoilers for a very old game.
The march through the neighborhood, the White House, the knife throw at the end …
::: It’s funny to me that the controversial moment won’t be a big deal at all in a movie, as there’s no player control.
/Edit: COD’s bread and butter really is big budget action movie moments.
While (classic, I’m not counting stuff ghostwritten under his brand) Clancy characters have hyper competence, it’s to be expected given that they are turbo ultra elite soldiers or spies. Their motivations and ability to act doesn’t reach the point of self parody.
For a COD4 example: Nikolai, the Russian that the player rescues early on in the game. He is a mole inside the Russian antagonist faction feeding information to the SAS. He got found out. He’s being kept at a house with a handful of regular soldiers watching him. When you rescue you him he is calm or at least puts up a calm front and thanks you. That’s a pretty believable guy who could have been a real person who is doing something realistic and dangerous.
In MW2 that character can materialize with apparently infinite types of military aviation hardware, and he is also a pilot able and willing to do insane maneuvers. And he is personal friends with Captain price rather than just being an SAS asset. And he is in touch with a friendly militia group in the middle of Europe.
There is a distinct jump from COD4 to MW2, where it goes from Tom Clancy to Michael Bay.
MW2 is still fun, but it exists in an entirely separate tonal reality than COD4.
I’d argue that those people with infinite resources, or personal friends with someone in high places, exist in a number of Jack Ryan stories, and perhaps it’s a matter of how frequently you encounter it that stretches one’s suspension of disbelief. I’ll also point out that the sequence of events that led to Jack Ryan being president are as crazy as anything in Modern Warfare 2.
I’m not saying Clancy stuff is always completely grounded, especially the longer it goes on, but I’m trying to use the Clancy comparison to capture the essence of an idea. COD4 while fictional, and with moments that aren’t wholly realistic if you really hold them up to the most intense scrutiny has the overall texture of realism. MW2&3 and Black Ops games all exist as throwing bigger and more insane setpieces out with no regard to any realism.
It’s a the last COD with a real gutpunch moment that says anything about anything. The nuke going off it a moment of realizing you aren’t a special main character and you die like everyone else, and that maybe war isn’t just a big fun adventure. All the shock moments have been trying to top it are so dramatic that they don’t have the same effect that the nuke did.
Mind going into more detail on this one? I’ve been reading the Jack Ryan novels, and I’m 3/4 of the way through Rainbow Six (the book) right now, and I think part of the appeal is that the characters feel small, as those stories always involve ensemble casts.
I agree that 4 and especially MW2 both feel very Clancy. I might even be more partial to MW2 as it’s got this prominent theme of history being written by the winners that hits all of the notes that matter to me most in movies.
Some scenes in MW2 stick out so strongly to me still.
Spoilers for a very old game.
The march through the neighborhood, the White House, the knife throw at the end … ::: It’s funny to me that the controversial moment won’t be a big deal at all in a movie, as there’s no player control.
/Edit: COD’s bread and butter really is big budget action movie moments.
While (classic, I’m not counting stuff ghostwritten under his brand) Clancy characters have hyper competence, it’s to be expected given that they are turbo ultra elite soldiers or spies. Their motivations and ability to act doesn’t reach the point of self parody.
For a COD4 example: Nikolai, the Russian that the player rescues early on in the game. He is a mole inside the Russian antagonist faction feeding information to the SAS. He got found out. He’s being kept at a house with a handful of regular soldiers watching him. When you rescue you him he is calm or at least puts up a calm front and thanks you. That’s a pretty believable guy who could have been a real person who is doing something realistic and dangerous.
In MW2 that character can materialize with apparently infinite types of military aviation hardware, and he is also a pilot able and willing to do insane maneuvers. And he is personal friends with Captain price rather than just being an SAS asset. And he is in touch with a friendly militia group in the middle of Europe.
There is a distinct jump from COD4 to MW2, where it goes from Tom Clancy to Michael Bay.
MW2 is still fun, but it exists in an entirely separate tonal reality than COD4.
I’d argue that those people with infinite resources, or personal friends with someone in high places, exist in a number of Jack Ryan stories, and perhaps it’s a matter of how frequently you encounter it that stretches one’s suspension of disbelief. I’ll also point out that the sequence of events that led to Jack Ryan being president are as crazy as anything in Modern Warfare 2.
I’m not saying Clancy stuff is always completely grounded, especially the longer it goes on, but I’m trying to use the Clancy comparison to capture the essence of an idea. COD4 while fictional, and with moments that aren’t wholly realistic if you really hold them up to the most intense scrutiny has the overall texture of realism. MW2&3 and Black Ops games all exist as throwing bigger and more insane setpieces out with no regard to any realism.
It’s a the last COD with a real gutpunch moment that says anything about anything. The nuke going off it a moment of realizing you aren’t a special main character and you die like everyone else, and that maybe war isn’t just a big fun adventure. All the shock moments have been trying to top it are so dramatic that they don’t have the same effect that the nuke did.