The father and son at the Bone Lickers concert.
Simon had a very traumatic childhood at Manchester, England because
of his heartless father. On most days, his father brought back dangerous
animals and taunted him with them, even going so far to force him to
kiss a snake or threaten to kill him with them. When he and his younger
brother, Tommy, got older, Tommy would always wear a skull-mask at night
to scare Simon. At one concert, his father had made him laugh at the
death of a prostitute who was addicted to drugs.
Joining the Military
Washington: "What made you need to get up every day and put your nuts in the meat grinder?"
Riley: "Queen and Country"
— Washington to Riley during their time in Mexico.
Simon used to just be an apprentice butcher at a grocery when he grew up. After the September 11 attacks occured, he joined the military. He was very good which got him into the S.A.S.
Return from the Military
Simon came back home one day on January 2003, and found his family in
a predicament. His mother was constantly getting cheated on and his
brother was addicted to drugs. He opted to not go back to his life at
the military until he fixed their lives.
Going after Manuel Roba
Simon Riley after killing Roba.
Simon was pulled out from shipping out for an operation in Iran and
was set to take down the Zaragoza Drug Cartel headed by Manuel Roba.
When he and his team made their move and the Day of the Dead, the
commanding officer betrayed them to the enemy. Getting three of them
captured and brought to a torture and brainwashing facility. There, he
had been driven mad and tortured. At one point, he was buried alive and
left by his captors. He used this opportunity to escape and got back
home.
It took him four months to recover from all of that but he was
still having temper-management issues so he was not accepted back into
the military. After having an episode with his former-colleague, Kevin Sparks, his entire family was killed by Sparks and Marcus Washington.
He killed the perpetrators and went after Manuel Roba once more. He ambushed Roba's right-hand man, Gilberto
and tortured Roba's location out of him. He arrives at Roba's compound
and steals all of the information on the company and kills Roba. When he
left, he was approached by General Shepherd and recruited into the Task Force 141 under the name of Ghost.
Ghost being held hostage in Ukraine.
At one point, he was sent alone against some terrorist in a grade
school in Ukraine. He deliberately got himself caught and told the
terrorists and the children there of his pasts before the rest of his
team arrives to free him and the children.
On October 8, 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.
They assault the main compound and are able to recover some intel, but
get ambushed by a bomb, forcing the team to evacuate. During the evac
Soap is wounded by an RPG and is partially knocked out, an AC-130 tries
to defend the team as they sprint toward their evac point, but is shot
down. Leaving the team completely vulnerable. Price selflessly stays
behind to facilitate the team's escape.
In Rio de Janeiro
Ghost: "Sir, I've got Rojas in my sights! We can go for a clean leg shot! We can end it here!"
Captain MacTavish: "Negative! We can't risk it! Do not engage!"
Lt. Simon "Ghost" Riley is first seen in Takedown talking to Cpt. John "Soap" MacTavish via radio while they search for Alejandro Rojas's assistant. After John "Soap" MacTavish and Sgt. Gary "Roach"
Sanderson begin pursuing the assistant, Ghost meets up with them at the
Hotel Rio and joins the chase. Once the assistant is taken down by
Roach, he is seen with MacTavish preparing to interrogate him. Ghost is
then heard via radio for the rest of the mission as he attempts to
pursue Rojas through the Favela. After the capture of Rojas, Ghost is
heard requesting extraction from Command but to no avail. Ghost appears
in the mission "The Hornet's Nest" with Task Force 141. He manages to escape with Captain MacTavish and Roach aboard Nikolai's helicopter.
Ghost at the Oil Rig.
Infiltration of the Russian Oil Rig and rescuing Prisoner 627
"That's the control room up ahead! I can use it to find the
prisoner! I'll tap into their system and look for the prisoner! It's
gonna take some time!"
He then takes part in the infiltration of the Russian oil rig, which is being used as a makeshift SAM (Surface-to-Air-Missile) site in "The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday" to rescue hostages. After clearing the oil rig, Ghost takes part in the operation to rescue Prisoner 627 from a Russian gulag. He takes control of the gulag's security systems and guides Soap and Roach to the prisoner.
Infiltration of a Russian submarine base
"We have a nuclear missile launch! Missile in the air! MISSILE IN THE AIR!! Code Black! CODE BLACK!!"
— Ghost to command after Price launches the ICBMs.
Ghost also appears in "Contingency",
where he helps Captain Price infiltrate a Russian submarine base along
with other Task Force 141 members. However, he is shocked when Price launches an ICBM at Washington D.C.
where the Russian-American war rages on. Ghost contacted command of
Code Black, the statement that a threat of a nuclear weapon has been
launched and must be disposed of immediately. It is possible that he
retracted this though after he learned of Price's intention.
— Ghost to Shepherd right before Shepherd betrays and kills him in "Loose Ends".
General Shepherd killing Ghost in "Loose Ends".
Ghost's final appearance is in "Loose Ends" where he leads a strike-team to search for Vladimir Makarov
at his safehouse on the Georgian-Russian border. However, Makarov is
nowhere to be found but the safehouse is loaded ( "a bloody gold mine"
as Ghost said) with intel. Ghost along with Roach, Ozone and Scarecrow with sniper support from Archer and Toad, protect the DSM while it downloads information regarding Makarov's operations. As the team head to the LZ set up by Shepherd, Ozone and Scarecrow are killed by enemy mortars and Roach
is injured. Ghost manages to get Roach to the LZ but Roach and Ghost
are betrayed by Shepherd who fatally shoots Roach and Ghost in the
head/chest at point-blank range with a .44 Magnum before he could use his ACR. Ghost's body is then thrown into a ditch and set on fire along with Roach's.
