NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Victor Zakhaev from the rebooted Call of Duty: Modern Warfare sub-series. For the original version of character, please click here. |
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“ | Al-Asad: Can you hear me? Zakhaev: Yes I can. Al-Asad: I have a delivery for you. Zakhaev: Roses or weeds? Al-Asad: Both, I am afraid. The opposition is moving new armaments into territory, Victor. Zakhaev: Good, let them. And the weeds? Al-Asad: They are enlisting the help of a senior operator. I have only one picture of this man, but the quality is poor. Zakhaev: Who is he? Al-Asad: An old friend. Zakhaev: One man? Is this a problem? Al-Asad: Yes, a big one. |
„ |
~ Al-Asad and Zakhaev speaking each other in a call intercepted by Laswell and Nikolai. |
“ | ...Our victory today will be decisive. Together, we put a knife in the neck of history... It's time now for the final cut... They came to Verdansk to stop us, but they couldn't resist fighting each other... This war is 50 years in the making... No more treaties, no more diplomacy... These weapons will no longer lie dormant. | „ |
~ Victor Zakhaev's speech in the season seven cinematic. |
“ | I started a war... Killing me won't stop it. | „ |
~ Zakhaev to Captain Price before his presumed death. |
Victor Zakhaev (Russian: Виктор Захаев), also known as Mr. Z, is a major antagonist of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot sub-series and the overarching antagonist in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III's Zombies mode.
He is the founding CEO of Zakhaev Arms, a terrorist conspirator and the son of the late Soviet Union official Imran Zakhaev, where he aims to finish his father's mission to restore the power of the Soviet Union through whatever means necessary, including starting a nuclear war.
In Modern Warfare and Warzone, he was voiced and portrayed by Dimitry Rozental through motion-capture. In Modern Warfare III, he was voiced by Dave B. Mitchell, who also voiced Geras and Sektor in Mortal Kombat 11, Kintaro in Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, Shocker in Marvel's Spider-Man, and members of Penguin's Gang in Batman: Arkham Origins.
Biography[]
Background[]
Victor was born in the 1970s in Russia to his father Imran and had both an older sibling and a younger sibling, and the three grew up around the greed-driven 1980s. Since his father was high-ranking official in the Interior Ministry under the communist regime of the Soviet Union, Victor had rare access to the tunnels and bunker systems of the Eastern Bloc. He enjoyed going to "work" with his father into the elaborate underground world of barracks, shelters and silos and saw the looming prospect of their purpose as a source of comfort. Although he hated academia, Victor both loved and feared his father and reluctantly agreed to go to a prestigious preparatory school at the age of 16 to be fluent with different languages such as Italian, German, English and French. It was short lived when he was expelled for breaking a teacher's cane to evade corporal punishment, and as punishment, his father sent him to the Suvo Military School where his peers were the more austere families of Soviet military personnel.
Eventually, Victor graduated with the qualification of a paratrooper, serving in the last unit of the Soviet Airborne Troops. In 1990, he was deployed to Tajikistan as part of a peacekeeping force to ebb the ethnic clashes that would lead to a string of civil wars triggered by the Soviet Union's collapse. After the two of them joined the Ultranationalists, Victor began to see his father work in vain to prevent the new model from spreading across Eastern Europe and once deputized by his father, he emerged as a leading advocate for the reclamation of Russia. In December 1994, as his father underwent emergency heart bypass surgery, Victor felt that his father's troubles were the manifestations of a broken heart. At some pint, Victor met and married his now-wife Yulia. Over the years, Victor assumed some of his father's duties and lived under his shadow while working for the most secret division of the F.S.B., fighting terrorism and organized crime in Chechnya and beyond. When Imran finally passed away in 2011, Victor grew more disenchanted with modern Russia and sneaked out of the country with Yulia.
Wanting to continue his father's mission, Zakhaev saw the potential in making profit by trafficking weapons to former Soviet nations that had descended into chaos in the wake of the power vacuums left by communist party's downfall brought by their budding independence. To that end, he founded Zakhaev Arms and then reportedly used what was left of his father's contacts to smuggle weapons from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East. Over the years, he assumed the name of "Mr. Z" and would have surveillance of himself altered to make it look like he was father to throw his enemies off his trail. He had also apparently tortured a Spetsnaz operative Nikto and left him both heavily mutilated and psychologically scarred. Eventually in 2019, he felt that he could finally move forward in his plans with the profit and resources he's made, especially after he also found out that disgraced Russian General Barkov lost his position in the army for his crimes in Urzikstan.
War in Verdansk[]
“ | This is the arms dealer they call, "Mr. Z". Z is wanted by the International Criminal Court for "conspiracy to transport, sell, and supply arms to a foreign terrorist organization". | „ |
~ Sergeant Kamarov. |
Wanting to assumed Barkov's "throne" for himself to further his goals, Zakhaev aligned himself with the mysterious Khaled Al-Asad and broke him out of prison so he could then take control of Al-Qatala's leadership. Supplying the terrorist group with military weaponry, Zakhaev had Al-Asad personally lead them to invade Verdansk, Kastovia so they could then gain access to its bunkers containing Soviet resources such as tunnels, gulags and weapons of destruction, including a nuclear warhead. As Zakhaev continued to supply arms to Al-Asad in Verdansk, the some of it was cut off by the Armistice, an alliance between Allegiance and Coalition Forces formed to contain the situation.
However, knowing that Armistice wouldn't leave the city, Zakhaev knew how to turn the tide. After getting Al-Asad to pull Al-Qatala out of the city, Zakhaev sent a helicopter carrying Barkov's chlorine gas and tricked the Coalition into shooting it down, therefore releasing the gas and trapping everyone in the city. This resulted in the Armistice falling apart and forcing every operative to fight each other for survival. He was contacted by Al-Asad and informed that while things were going to plan, S.A.S. were sending Captain John Price to help out and that he was a problem. He would then allow Al-Asad to return to Urzikstan while he continued his operations in Verdansk.
While the operators were desperately trying to track Zakhaev via tunnels he had been using, Victor had secretly used the tensions between the Coalition and the Allegiance to power up all the bunkers in Verdansk without realizing it. This allowed him to activate the ICBM silo hidden within Bunker 10. His plan to fulfill his father's wishes ultimately failed however as Task Force 141 managed to get the abort code for the missile, 6157, and launched an assault with the help of Farah, "Alex" and Marcus Griggs' Demon Dogs in order to create a diversion. Price infiltrated Bunker 10 when Zakhaev activated the missile. Price shot him in the shoulder before throwing him off to the bottom of the silo. With Zakhaev out of the way, Price received the abort code from "Nikolai" and prevented the ICBM from launching.
Post-Verdansk activities[]
Unbeknownst to Task Force 141, Zakhaev managed to survive his encounter with Price by landing in water at the bottom of the missile silo. After escaping, Zakhaev began searching for new weapons. He soon learned about Aetherium and the conflict between Requiem and Omega Group. In 2021, he hired Terminus Outcomes, led by Jack Fletcher, to help him track and find the remaining Aetherium. With a squad of contractors, Zakhaev and Fletcher traveled to Zaravan, Urzikstan where they first ambushed a group of police at an American checkpoint to create a diversion.
After breaching into a basement, they discovered the remains of Grigori Weaver and three other Senior Staff from Requiem around a device placed on a table. The device opened and Zakhaev retrieved two vials of Aetherium.
As they escaped, they were attacked by police reinforcement, including military police. Pinned down, Zakhaev tossed one of the vials at the police to create an Exclusion Zone which turned people, both dead and alive, into zombies. Zakhaev managed to return to the LTV with Fletcher before leaving the area, and mused about the destructive capability of Aetherium.
Quotes[]
Modern Warfare
“ | Your work is not in vain, father. | „ |
~ Zakhaev after putting the codes on the ICBM. |
“ | Show yourself...! you're wasting your t... | „ |
~ Zakhaev before getting shot by Captain Price. |
“ | Captain Price... I am not surprised. | „ |
~ Zakhaev after being shot by Captain Price. |
“ | Wait... No... NOooo...! | „ |
~ Zakhaev's last words. |
Modern Warfare III Zombies
“ | Zakhaev: It is time, Mask up. Fletcher: Roger. Zakhaev: Light them up. |
„ |
~ Zakhaev to Fletcher and his men. |
“ | Oh, They're actually real. They're actually here. | „ |
~ Zakhaev to Fletcher and his men when retrieving Aetherium Vials. |
“ | Looks like we have our weapon. | „ |
~ Zakhaev to Fletcher when creating a zombie outbreak. |
“ | Bad move, Dr. Jansen. This isn't the sort of job you can just walk away from. Your new friends are only making this worse for you. Operation Deadbolt is dead on arrival. | „ |
~ Zakhaev to Dr. Jansen when betrayed by her defecting and joining Operation Deadbolt. |
“ | When I've enriched enough to make for these, you can do as you please for the rest. | „ |
~ Zakhaev to Fletcher. |
“ | Hmph - She played her part, find her and kill her. | „ |
~ Zakhaev to Fletcher about Dr. Jansen. |
“ | Deadbolt? I know you're out there. I know you can hear me. You should know, I've offered the bonus to everyone who brings me one of you alive. | „ |
~ Zakhaev to the Operation Deadbolt Strike Team after destroying the SAM Sites. |
“ | Whatever you just dropped, we will destroy. I don't care how many lives it costs. | „ |
~ Zakhaev to the Operation Deadbolt Strike Team. |
“ | Fletcher, these troops better fight harder than the ones who lost my enrichment facility. | „ |
~ Zakhaev to Fletcher. |
“ | Coward! This can't be happening! | „ |
~ Zakhaev to Fletcher when the Aetherium Vial is frozen. |
Gallery[]
Images[]
Videos[]
External links[]
- Victor Zakhaev on the Call of Duty Wiki.