Simon "Ghost" Riley

Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley is a British special forces operator, and a prominent member of Task Force 141, known for his iconic skull-patterned balaclava, headset, and dark red sunglasses.
Ghost appears as a main character in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 2: Ghost, Call of Duty: Online, Find Makarov: Operation Kingfish, Call of Duty: Heroes, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered. He also appears as a customization option in Call of Duty: Ghosts and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.
==Biography==
===Past===
====Pre-Military====
Simon Riley had a very traumatic childhood while growing up in Manchester, England because of his heartless father. His father often brought dangerous animals back to their home and taunted him with them, even going so far as to force Simon to kiss a snake. When he and his younger brother Tommy grew older, Tommy would always wear a skull-mask at night to scare Simon. Simon's father would sometimes take him to the Bone Lickers concerts. At one concert, his father made him laugh at the death of a prostitute who had overdosed on drugs.
====Joining the Military====
Simon used to be an apprentice butcher at a grocery but joined the military after the occurred. He eventually was accepted into the Special Air Service.
====Return from the Military====
Returning home on leave in January 2003, Simon found his mother and brother had hit rock bottom. His brother, Tommy, was addicted to drugs and had been stealing from their mother to support his habit. Simon chose to not return to the military until he had straightened things out for his family. He worked to help Tommy overcome his drug addiction and, in March 2004, beat his father and threw him out of the house for all the abuse he had inflicted on Riley and his mother. By June 2006, Tommy had been clean for some time and married a woman named Beth. Riley served as the best man at Tommy's wedding. Beth also gave birth to a young boy named Joseph who would become Riley's nephew.
===Going after Manuel Roba===
Simon was pulled from shipping out for an operation in Iran and was attached to an American team tasked with taking down the Zaragoza Drug Cartel headed by Manuel Roba. When he and his team made their move on the Day of the Dead, the team's commanding officer, Major Vernon, betrayed them to the enemy. Riley and his teammates were brought to a brainwashing facility and tortured for months. Despite the torture, Vernon was Unable to fully break Riley. Roba had Vernon killed for his failure and later buried Riley alive in Vernon's casket, leaving him to die. Using the jawbone from Vernon's rotted corpse, Riley was able to break through the casket, claw his way to freedom, and somehow make it back across the border to Texas.
After four months, his injuries had healed but he still suffered from temper-management issues, which prevented him from returning to active duty. After meeting up with the other two former teammates from that mission, Kevin Sparks and Marcus Washington, he realized that Roba had broken and brainwashed them both. He attempted to kill Sparks but was forced to flee when Washington turned up unexpectedly. Fleeing, he returned home to find Washington had killed his mother, brother Tommy, sister-in-law Beth, and nephew Joseph (alternately referred to as Jacob).
He killed Sparks and Washington before returning to Mexico to take down Roba once and for all. Riley ambushed Roba's right-hand man, Gilberto and tortured Roba's location out of him. Arriving at Roba's compound, he methodically eliminated Roba's guard patrols before assaulting the mansion itself and, after a prolonged gunfight, killing Roba. Armed with information on Roba's contacts and business dealings, he prepared to leave but was approached by General Shepherd who recruited him into Task Force 141.
===Task Force 141===
====Ukraine====
At one point, he was sent to deal with terrorists who had taken hostages at a grade school in Ukraine. He deliberately let himself be caught and told the terrorists and the children about his past before the rest of his team arrived to free him and the children. One girl asked him if the story of Simon "Ghost" Riley was true and if Riley was Ghost. He responded saying "true enough to that lot".
====Operation Kingfish====
On October 8th, 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 as they hunted down Vladimir Makarov. They assaulted the main compound and were 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 and was wounded and captured.
====Hunting Rojas====
Following Makarov's massacre at Zakhaev International Airport, Ghost assisted in the operation in Rio de Janeiro to locate and capture Alejandro Rojas, the man who supplied Makarov with weapons and ammunition, maintaining radio contact with Captain MacTavish and Roach while they searched for Rojas' assistant. After MacTavish and Roach 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, Ghost prepared to interrogate him through torture. 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. Despite this, Ghost managed to narrowly escape the favela with Captain MacTavish and Roach aboard Nikolai's helicopter.
====Infiltration of the Russian Oil Rig / Rescuing Prisoner 627====
After escaping South America, Ghost joined the rest of Task Force 141 as they prepared a counterattack with the US 6th Fleet against the Russians. Using information recovered from Rojas, they learn that Prisoner 627, the only man Makarov hated worse than the Americans, was locked away in a gulag, though the path leading to the prison was blocked by oil rigs, which were captured by the Russians and turned into makeshift SAM sites. Targeting the least-defended rig, Ghost and the rest of the 141 and Navy SEALs infiltrated and cleared the rig of hostiles and rescued several hostages in order to safely deactivate the SAM sites. Following the mission, Ghost joined the attack on the gulag holding Prisoner 627, where he would take control of gulag's security systems and guide his allies to the prisoner, who was soon revealed to be Captain John Price.
====The Contingency====
With Captain Price back in their ranks, he soon devised a contingency plan to end the war in America by infiltrating a Russian submarine base. Though Ghost and his team were initially separated from Price and Roach following their insertion, they would later meet up and converge on the Russian base, where Price took control of a Russian sub. However, Ghost 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====
Using resources from his blank check, Shepherd deduced the last two safe havens for Makarov and his men at a safehouse on the Georgian-Russian Border and an airplane boneyard in Afghanistan. Knowing they have to be at two different places at once, Ghost nominates himself and Roach, along with a bulk of Task Force 141, to take the safehouse, while Soap and Price investigate the boneyard. After raiding the safehouse however, Makarov was nowhere to be found, though the safehouse 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 a DSM from Makarov's men while it downloaded sensitive information regarding Makarov's operations. After finishing the download, the team headed to the LZ that was set up by Shepherd, though Ozone and Scarecrow were both gunned down by enemy mortars, and Roach was injured. Ghost managed to get Roach to the LZ, but both were ultimately betrayed by Shepherd, who fatally shot the two in the chest at point-blank range with a .44 Magnum, just before Ghost could use his ACR. After Shepherd retrieved the DSM from Roach, Ghost's body was thrown into a ditch and set on fire along with Roach's. 
==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 .
==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!"
*"Copy. Any sign of Rojas' right hand man?"
*"Mission failed, we'll get 'em next time!"
*"We got it, sir!"
*"NO!"
==Gallery==
===Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2===
Simon Ghost Riley infobox MW2.png
Ghost close-up MW2.png|Close up of Ghost
Ghost M4A1 Hornet's nest MW2.png|Ghost using an M4A1
Ghost-Museum-wood.png|Ghost wearing a Multicam & gray outfit from the "Loose Ends" exhibit in "Museum"
Ghost Black.png|Ghost wearing his diving outfit from "The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday" and "The Gulag"
Ghost-Museum-Urban.png|Ghost wearing his urban outfit from "Takedown" and "The Hornet's Nest"
Ghost about to get shot Loose Ends MW2.png|Ghost before being shot by Shepherd
MW2 ghost wounds.jpg|Ghost before being burned by Shepherd's men
Ghost Spark.png|Ghost preparing to torture Rojas's assistant
Call-of-Duty-6-Modern-Warfare-2-Ghost-1-.jpg|Ghost in the Gulag
Kill Confirmed Dog Tags MW3.png|A set of Dog Tags carrying Ghost's name seen in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer game mode Kill Confirmed
Operation Kingfish 2013 group crop.png|Ghost, as seen alongside Soap, John Price and Sandman in the Operation Kingfish picture.
Ghost MW2 campaign menu.jpg|Ghost, as seen on Modern Warfare 2's campaign menu
Call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-Ghost.jpg|Ghost in "The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday"
Ghost in Mueseum MW2.png|Ghost in the "Museum" level
Ghost Promo MW2CR.jpg|Ghost in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered
Shepherd kills Ghost MW2R.png|Ghost being shot in the chest by General Shepherd in Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered.
Ghost in Loose Ends contacting Shepherd and Price MW2R.png|Ghost radioing Shepherd and Price from Makarov's safe house in in Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered.
Ghost Concept Art.jpg|Early concept art of Ghost
===Modern Warfare 2: Ghost===
Simon Riley Father MW2G.png|Simon and his father at the Bone Lickers concert.
Simon Riley 2 MW2G.png|Riley before going on a mission.
===Find Makarov: Operation Kingfish===
FMOK Ghost SCAR-L.png|Ghost in the Live-Action Fan film: Operation: Kingfish.
===Call of Duty Online===
Ghost Wallpaper image CoDO.jpg
===Call of Duty: Ghosts===
Simon Ghost Riley multiplayer character CoDG.png
Simon "Ghost" Riley head personalization choice CoDG.jpg|Ghost, as a customization option in Call of Duty: Ghosts
Simon Ghost Riley MP character holding Lynx CoDG.png|Another view of Riley in Ghosts, here holding Lynx sniper rifle
===Call of Duty: Heroes===
Ghost Skills Reveal Announcement CoDH.jpeg|The announcement revealing Ghost's killstreaks in Call of Duty: Heroes
Ghost Profile Heroes.png|Ghosts' Profile in Call of Duty: Heroes
===Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare===
Ghost IW.png
Ghost Phantom Head IW.png|Ghost's head as a customization option for Phantom.
==Trivia==
==References==
es:Simon Riley
ru:Саймон "Гоуст" Райли
Category:Modern Warfare 2: Ghost Characters
Category:Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Task Force 141 Characters
Category:Call of Duty Online Task Force 141 Characters
Category:Find Makarov: Operation Kingfish Characters
Category:Call of Duty: Heroes Characters
Category:Protagonists