Soap MacTavish

John “Soap” MacTavish is a fictional main character and protagonist in the Call of Duty story arc Modern Warfare. He first appears as a main playable character in the 2009 video game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare where he is part of the 22nd Special Air Service (SAS) regiment as a sniper and demolitions expert. This game alone has sold over 13 million copies as of May 2009.

He later appears in the sequel game released in November 2009 entitled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, where he plays a main, non-playable character. He most recently appears in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 released in November 2011. In both games John “Soap” MacTavish plays the role of captain and field commander of Task Force 141 along with Captain John Price who also appears alongside him in all three of the titles.

MacTavish is voiced by Scottish actor Kevin McKidd in the two later titles which he appears as a character.

Overview
Soap MacTavish plays a key role in the storyline of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare where he is on the front lines of the fight against the Ultra-nationalists as part of the SAS, more specifically Captain Price's Bravo Team. In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the player experiences the storyline through the eyes of John "Soap" MacTavish however certain missions were played from a different characters perspective.

The later games present MacTavish as an non-playable character (NPC) that the playable character fights alongside. However in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 the player takes control of MacTavish in the final three missions. In the final game in the series, MacTavish appears as a playable character only for the first mission then reverts to an NPC for the remainder of the storyline.

MacTavish is later killed in action during the course of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 after an explosion where he experiences massive blood loss, whilst on a mission to assassinate Vladimir Makarov, a continuing Antagonist of the series appearing in all three titles.

The developers of Call of Duty: Ghosts added a DLC(Downloadable Content Package) which allowed the player to play as the iconic character called the Soap Legend Pack which was released in April 2014.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
MacTavish is on his first day as part of the SAS when he is sent on his first mission: infiltrate a cargo ship and secure a nuclear weapon. MacTavish and his team are caught up in the Russian civil war involving the Ultra- nationalists and hunt for the terrorists Khaled Al-Asad and Imran Zakhaev. At the end of the campaign, MacTavish shoots Zakhaev but has to be rushed to a hospital.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
MacTavish is promoted to field commander of Task Force 141. He first appears on the mission "Cliffhanger", assisting the player's character, Gary "Roach" Sanderson. In the second mission, MacTavish and his team capture the right-hand man of an arms dealer and interrogated him, which then led them to hunt for Alesandro Rojas, who they captured in time. In the last two missions, he and Price hunted for General Shepherd, a traitor. Soap tries to kill Shepherd, but Shepherd manages to stab him. After watching Price and Shepherd engage in hand-to-hand combat Soap pulls the knife out of his chest and throws it to kill Shepherd, triggering the final cutscene of the campaign.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
In the third title in the Modern Warfare series, MacTavish is not a playable character, but the game's view is switched to his perspective during the opening of the game, which somewhat counts Soap as "playable" in a sense. He was badly wounded after killing Lt. General Shepherd by launching a throwing knife into his eye in Modern Warfare 2. MacTavish joins the player on most missions involving Yuri and is still a major character. He is killed when his attempt with Price, Yuri and Kamarov to assassinate Makarov fails. An explosion results in MacTavish falling from a great height and becoming grievously injured. Despite Price and Yuri's attempt to save him, he eventually dies from his injuries.

Other appearances
Due to the popularity of the character a Xbox 360 user avatar was released for purchase, which allows players to look like John “Soap” MacTavish. Similar to the Call of Duty character Captain Price, MacTavish appears in a video posted on YouTube by Machinima entitled "Captain MacTavish Plays Halo 3", as part of their Call of Duty and Halo crossover series. The character also appears in the Soap Legend Pack, a DLC for Call of Duty: Ghosts where John "Soap" MacTavish is a playable multiplayer character. This was released on April 22 2014

On November 22 a mobile app designed for iOS and Windows Phone entitled Call of Duty: Heroes was released which featured Soap MacTavish as a character that the player could control once unlocked. The app has been well received so far with an average rating of four and a half stars on the App Store.

Reception
The character was well received by many fans of the Call of Duty franchise. An online poll on the Guinness World Records 2011 Gamers' Edition which involved over 13,000 gamers voting placed John "Soap" MacTavish in 12th place out of a list of 50 fictional game characters.

Both Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are among the most well-received and highest rated games of all time, receiving average scores of 95% and above. From a commercial viewpoint, all three of the games in which the character appears have sold 64.9 million units collectively since they were released.

Weapons
This is the list of weapons that "Soap" used in the game:
 * M4A1
 * G36C
 * AK-47
 * M1014
 * Ranger
 * M21
 * R700
 * M14 EBR
 * Intervention
 * RSASS
 * MP5
 * MP5K
 * Mini-Uzi
 * UMP45
 * Vector
 * M249 SAW
 * RPD
 * USP .45
 * M1911 .45
 * P99
 * M9
 * Desert Eagle
 * Glock 17
 * G18
 * RPG-7
 * Javelin
 * Stringer
 * AT4 and weapons the player may use available in Call of Duty 4 and last three missions of Modern Warfare 2.