Just when you think a game has been thoroughly datamined and explored, a new secret is revealed. That's what happened with the original Modern Warfare 3, as players have now found a clipped ending with a strange Shadow Man appearing to Captain Price after the fight with Makarov.
SECRET CALL TO DUTY ALTERNATIVE ENDING FOUND 13 YEARS LATER! (Modern Warfare 3)
In this cutscene, uploaded to YouTube by Vlad Lokitonov on May 17, as Captain Price sits down to smoke a cigar and sees Makarov hanging from the ceiling of a Dubai hotel, a strange figure appears in the distance with eerie, echoing footsteps. His face is obscured and he only looks at the two men for a moment before turning to leave. Price then drops his cigar and appears to die or faint after this encounter. This is a departure from what actually happens in Modern Warfare 3, where the screen goes black as Price smokes his cigar, ending the series on a cliffhanger (no pun intended).
Both the echoing footsteps and the strange figure were mentioned in the game's files, though no one really knew what their purpose in the game was. After 13 long years, fans now know the answer, and it's just as strange as the files. It's currently unknown who the Shadowman is, or what connection he has to Price or Makarov. Theories have been circulating, and under the upload of the original video, some fans have argued that it could be the spirit of Zakhaev welcoming both Makarov and Price to the realm of the dead or hell itself.
The model this Shadowman is using is the model the President's security detail used in one of the Spec Ops missions. It was likely used as a placeholder, and the Shadowman didn't get his own model because Infinity Ward decided not to go with that ending and went with something a little more open.
