Biography

Early Career

Graves: "That uniform was a limitation. I shed that skin..."

Soap: "Like a fuckin' snake-"

Graves: "Like a fucking soldier, son."

— Soap confronts Graves about his past.

Graves enlisted into the United States Marine Corps and eventually became an operator in the elite MARSOC Raiders. However, at some point, Graves began to feel disillusioned with the military, thinking that the uniform he once proudly wore limited and held back men like him.

After leaving the military, in 2017, Graves set up his own private military company, which he named Shadow Company. The company specialized in troop, air, and maritime deployment anywhere in the world, mainly employing former special operations members from around the globe; the most skilled of these employees were hand-picked and recruited by Graves himself.

In 2020, Graves and Shadow Company caught the attention of Allegiance, who were looking for assistance in the War Against Al-Qatala after the collapse of Armistice, subsequently, Shadow Company was hired by Allegiance to locate and capture Victor Zakhaev in Verdansk, even though they failed to do so, Shadow Company still remained in Verdansk to fight against Al-Qatala under Allegiance, loosely. Later, General Herschel Shepherd. Impressed with Graves' abilities, began to contract Shadow Company tasking them with covert black ops missions around the world; most being in support of Task Force 141.

Missile Crisis

Assassination of Ghorbrani

During a recon mission on July 15th, 2022, Graves, Simon "Ghost" Riley, Kate Laswell, Shepherd, and Shadow Company took out a high-value target via a ballistic missile strike in Al Mazrah.

Ambush in Al Mazrah

A month later, on August 12th, Graves oversaw a clandestine operation with General Shepherd as Shadow Company was covertly transporting 3 American ballistic missiles to allies fighting in the Middle East. The convoy was ambushed by Konni Group leading to the death of all Shadow Company's contractors and the loss of the missiles. Konni provided the missiles to Hassan Zyani and Al-Qatala as Zyani plotted his vengeance against the United States for the death of Ghorbrani. Graves and Shepherd began a cover-up campaign to hide their involvement in the illegal shipping and loss of American weaponry.

Supporting Task Force 141

Intel gathered by Laswell indicates that Hassan is in Las Almas, Mexico. To find him, Shepherd sent Task Force 141, aided by Graves and his Shadows, to Las Almas to find Hassan. There, Ghost, Johnny "Soap" MacTavish, and Alejandro Vargas, accompanied by the Los Vaqueros, searched around a village in the mountains for Hassan, but the endeavor proved unsuccessful, as the Cartel had already moved him away. The trio then went to the cartel compound, calling upon Graves and Shadow Company to support them overhead while inside an AC-130. After successfully capturing Hassan, the team passes through a village in which they are ambushed by the Cartel, which prompts Graves to engage them.

Capture of El Sin Nombre

To gather more information about the location of the stolen Missiles, Graves assisted Soap and Alejandro in infiltrating a mansion and capturing Valeria Garza, the leader of the Las Almas Cartel, who is also known as "El Sin Nombre". Through interrogation, Graves found out the location of the second missile, which results in him and his Shadows, accompanied by Task Force 141 and Alejandro, embarking on a mission to find the stolen missile and destroy it on an abandoned oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Betrayal

Immediately following the event, Graves announced his intention to seize the Fuerza Especiales HQ, betraying Task Force 141 and Los Vaqueros in the process. A firefight broke out, with Graves detaining Alejandro while Ghost and an injured Soap escaped. Later, Graves and Shadow Company aggressively interrogated townsfolks in Las Almas, even killing many of them, in an attempt to find out the whereabouts of Hassan, as well as Ghost and Soap.

Disappearance

As the Fuerzas Especiales HQ was being taken back by a combined team of TF 141 Operators and Los Vaqueros in an attack, Graves fled the HQ and secured a tank, which he used to attack Soap and Rodolfo Parra in the HQ's training field. Using various equipments in the field, Soap destroyed the tank, which seemingly killed Graves.

Unbeknownst to Task Force 141, Graves was never inside the tank, thus surviving confrontation. The "blue-on-blue" incident prompted an investigation by the FBI - to which Graves responded to by appointing his subordinate, Osmond "Oz" Ryan as the Interim Commander of Shadow Company, while he continued to operate Shadow Company behind the scenes.

Operation Rogue Arsenal

Alex: "The Shadow himself... Heard you died in a tank in South America."

Graves: "I wasn't in that tank... What else have you heard...?"

Farah: "We're fighting our own battles, here... We've no time for rumors."

Graves: "Farah, I have always liked your style... Respect..."

— Phillip Graves discusses his reappearance with Alex Keller and Farah Karim.

In August 2023, Graves met with the leaders of the Urzikstan Liberation Force, Farah Karim and Alex Keller, offering intel on Konni Group's movement toward Al Mazrah and manufacture of chemical weapons. Fearing that Konni would move to Urzikstan next, Farah agreed to align with Graves to counter the threat.

Following this meeting, Graves and Shepherd led Operation: Rogue Arsenal, mobilizing Shadow Company forces and assaulting the Zaya Observatory to destroy the chemical weapons manufacturing facility and secure the chemical munitions there.

Following the operation, Graves continued to coordinate and work with operators to find and contain the stolen gas.

Retaliation against Konni

On November 10th, 2023, a few hours after Konni operatives freed Vladimir Makarov from the Zordaya Prison Complex, Konni contractors assaulted the Urzikstan Port, where they secured missiles provided by Shadow Company to the Urzikstan Liberation Force. Graves provided tactical support for Farah Karim, who was on-site, to place trackers on the missiles, allowing the ULF to later track them to an Atomgrad bunker in Urzikstan.

As the search for the gas continued with little success, Graves attended a telecom meeting between General Herschel Shepherd and Task Force 141, revealing his survival to the unit, much to the surprise and anger of Ghost and Soap due to their previous altercation in Mexico. Shepherd eventually managed to negotiate a temporary truce between Task Force 141 and Shadow Company to capture Makarov.

On November 16th, 2023, following the discovery of the missing chemical gas, Graves launched a joint-operation with the ULF and Task Force 141, seeking to recover the chemicals from the Konni Group. Providing air support in an AC-130, Graves' effort proved tantamount to allowing the ground units to storm the base. In the midst of the operation, the combined task force received intel from Shepherd suggesting that Makarov was located at the base. Following the withdrawal of allied units from the immediate vicinity, the hanger that contained the chemicals was subsequently destroyed, and Makarov was assumed K.I.A. after the helicopter that supposedly was carrying him was taken down.

Congress Hearing

During the hearing, Graves listened as Shepherd gave his testimony to the committee. However, when Shepherd denied responsibility on ordering Graves and Shadow Company from carrying out the 'blue-on-blue' incident in Mexico, Graves decided to betray Shepherd. Acknowledging to the committee that Shadow Company had been ordered to engage Task Force 141, Graves blamed Shepherd for the incident, however, he firmly denied that the PMC had carried out that order.

Operation Blazing Torch

On December 6th, 2023, Graves and Shadow Company would set up camp at an undisclosed military camp outside of Urzikstan. Following the aftermath of Konni Group's infiltration of Urzikstan, Graves would help guide SpecGru and KorTac Operators into the Warzone by dropping them in with one of his C-17's.

After the Operators successfully eliminated the threats, Graves would help them exfil out of Urzikstan and to Shadow Company's military camp.

Interesting Facts

Graves is ambidextrous, as shown in the betrayal scene, as well as in " Alone " when he switches his M4 from his right hand to his left.

In the original, Diego Salgado notes that Graves's first and last name are similar to the phrase " fill up graves ", which translates as " filling graves ".

Directly appears only in the missions Dark Water and Alone . In the rest of the game, he can only be heard over the radio and seen in loading screens.

The image most likely served as the founder of the American PMC "Black Water" Erik Prince.

Phillip Graves is the founder and CEO of the military organization Shadow Company and the right-hand man of General Shepard, as well as the tertiary antagonist of the 2022 video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 . At first he was an ally and helped the team capture the terrorist leader Ghassan Ziyani and return the stolen missiles, but later betrayed the team on Shepard's orders to hide information about the illegal shipment.

Graves, Soap, Ghost, Laswell and Shadow Company kill the terrorist leader, General Ghorbrani, with a ballistic missile.

After the death of Gorbran, his deputy, Ghassan Ziyani, becomes the head of the terrorists.

Later it turns out that Hassan can be reached with the help of the head of the cartel, Valeria Garza, who helped the terrorists. The group captures her and Graves begins interrogating her for the location of the missing missiles.

Graves and his group then accompany Task Force 141 to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, but subsequently betray the team by seizing the headquarters and imprisoning Alexandro's soldier.

The team narrowly escapes from the Shadow Company, and Graves sends soldiers to find them, and then proceeds to kill and torture police officers and civilians associated with Valeria's cartel in order to reach Hassan.

It is further revealed that Graves and his Shadow Company group were hired by General Shepard to illegally transport three missiles for allies in the Middle East. However, the convoy is ambushed by the Konni PMC and the missiles were stolen and subsequently sold to terrorists led by Ghassan, who planned to use the missiles for his plan to take revenge on America for Ghorbran's death.

Graves tries to kill Soap from the tank, taunting and insulting him along the way. But Soap throws C-4 into the tank's cabin, causing an explosion that appears to kill Graves. Graves later appears in cutscenes where he meets with Farah Karim to discuss the movement of the Connie PMC towards Al Mazra

Interesting fact

There is a version among fans that Graves could have survived, since no one saw his body, and it could not have been him in the tank