So what does the trailer actually show us?
- First off, there's an airport. An announcer can be heard saying "passengers are reminded to not leave packages unattended" and "Flight 275 is scheduled for take-off". So definitely an airport.
- Three figures - we assume terrorists - enter an elevator. Bags are unzipped. Weapons are checked and readied. Someone speaks in a foreign language, another man with an Eastern European accent says, "Remember, no Russian" as the elevator doors open. Next we see the following image:
- The text at top left appears to be Russian. The symbols top right are perks. The men approach the airport security check and open fire. The guns sound like Russian assault rifles. We made that up, but it's probably right.
Next it all goes a bit art house, with a montage of messy imagery flashing by to the noise of chaos being unloaded at the airport. This is actually the most revealing bit of the teaser as the pictures - as indecipherable as they are at first glance - give us enough ammo to keep us guessing about what any of it actually means for the game until we get confirmation in the shape of hard facts.
- The silhouette image below seems to be of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Other images are reminiscent of Rio's ramshackle shanty towns. Could Brazil be a location, or is the statue a symbolic metaphor? Or is it just in there because the art guy scanned in some of his holiday snaps? It also reminds us a bit of John Carpenter's 'Prince of Darkness', although we're not sure why.
- There are lots more aeronautical references. There's what appears to be an aeroplane graveyard (like the one in Arizona) and also the interior of a passenger plane which reminds us of the 'Mile High' level at the end of the first game. With this evidence and the sudden outbreak of gun death at the airport, we'd definitely say terrorists will be in the game somewhere doing things to planes, on planes or where planes take off and land.
- We see an oil rig. Or maybe some other kind of offshore facility. We'll go with oil rig for now as they are very popular in games that involve shooting, so we wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a level set on an oil rig. However, we fully expect Infinity Ward to make it better than any oil rig level we've ever played.
- A couple of action pictures next. First there's a man that appears to be pressed against a rock face. He's wrapped up warm and it looks snowy. Which makes us think of Russia again. There are mountains in Russia, so we could be right. Would we really want mountaineering in Modern Warfare 2? Probably not. Although it could be fun if we're dropping laser-guided bombs on climbers.
- Scuba divers. Yes, these are definitely frogmen. There's also a picture of a submarine. We've never been big fans of swimming sections, so we hope this is just a picture they used to help create an all-round kind of generalissimo military vibe or to suggest that we'd be playing as marines.
- Sam Fisher? C'mon Infinity Ward, All Ghillied Up was possibly one of the greatest levels we ever played, but let's not get too carried away with stealth. Hmmm?
- Awwww. A little teddy bear. Hopefully not the dropped plaything of a toddler caught in the crossfire. If anyone has any ideas what this means, feel free to enlighten us in the comments. Maybe it's something to do with Russia again. Y'know, Russia is often referred to as the Great Bear. Or maybe it's something really obvious and we'll look stupid for not knowing it. We hope not.
- Oh, and some people on the internet think that the Russian being spoken at the end of trailer translates to "god is with us" and "a revolution is not possible without a revolutionary situation". We don't speak Russian, so we'll just have to take their word for it.
- Finally, we guess it's worth mentioning that when Activision supplied us the trailer, the file name was 'Siberia'. Probably means something. Right?
