Deep Thoughts About Democracy From Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
The Call of Duty series gets a lot of flak for being mindless, spectacle-obsessed shooting, but it’s clear that Sledgehammer Games Co-founder Glen Schofield is thinking more deeply than that stereotype when it comes to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
In an interview with IGN he gives the background behind a speech Kevin Spacey’s character, private military contractor Atlas boss Jonathan Irons, makes in the reveal trailer above. The “democracy speech” has Irons deride the idea that people want democracy, saying he can control them by giving them “boundaries, rules, protection.” It’s based on a real-life incident, Schofield recounts:
“A friend of mine escaped from Iraq back in 2000, before the war. His family escaped from Iraq, but three years prior his uncle was arrested and was going to be put to death. On Saddam Hussein’s birthday, however, Saddam let him go. Saddam did that: every year he let a few people go on his birthday. So they were escaping and they asked this uncle to come with them, and you know what he said? He said, ‘Why would I go? Yeah, he put me in jail and maybe it was a mistake, but I’ve got support, I’ve got my life, I’ve got it all. All I need is protection and food.’
“So they escaped and he stayed, this guy that was previously going to be put to death. He didn’t want to leave. So that incident really made me think.”
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is out for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4 and Windows Nov. 4.