Kino der Toten

Overview

Kino der Toten, German for “Theater of the Dead”, is the fifth Zombies map overall and the first of Call of Duty: Black Ops. It is on the disc and open from the start. The level description sums it up: “An abandoned cinema packed with swarms of Crawler Zombies and fiery traps.” The map brought the Crawler zombies, the fire trap and a new wonder weapon, the Thundergun.

The story picks up right after Der Riese: the Wunderwaffe DG-2 overloaded the teleporter, and the four heroes were thrown through time and space into Group 935’s Kino facility, an abandoned theater, in 1963. Richtofen lost his diary on the way. The map was first meant to be a World at War map pack, but it came too close to the release of Modern Warfare 2 and was kept for Black Ops.

Characters

The four heroes of Shi No Numa and Der Riese return. Their painted portraits hang in the Upper Hall, the room of Mule Kick.

“Tank” Dempsey

The American Marine. In the Black Ops version he is dirtier and covered in scars.

Nikolai Belinski

The Russian soldier, who claims Speed Cola helps him see more clearly.

Takeo Masaki

The Japanese officer, older here and with a mustache.

Edward Richtofen

The Group 935 doctor, the one who brought the group here.

Samantha Maxis is the announcer, and Ludvig Maxis is heard on the film reels and the radios hidden around the theater.

Enemies

Zombies

The undead soldiers of the theater. They come in through the barriers and, in some rooms, drop through holes in the roof.

Hellhounds

Special rounds of fire dogs, every four or five rounds, announced by fog and lightning. The last one always drops a Max Ammo.

Crawler zombies

Mutated zombies on all fours, which arrive through the ceiling once the power is on. Killed by bullets, they burst into a cloud of green gas that blurs the view; a knife, a trap, an explosive or a wonder weapon kills them without the gas.

Perks

Every machine needs the power, except Quick Revive in solo.

Juggernog

2500. In the theater, on the left through the main doors, next to the Bowie Knife.

Speed Cola

3000. In the Foyer, near the MP40.

Double Tap Root Beer

2000. At the southern end of the Alley, next to a barrier.

Weapons

Every game starts with an M1911, the knife and frag grenades. Twelve things are bought off the walls, two of them in the Lobby:

The Mystery Box holds the rest of the Black Ops arsenal, with the Ray Gun, the Monkey Bomb and the Thundergun, a cannon of compressed air that throws whole hordes back and kills most of them.

Every weapon, its price and its place

Power, teleporter and Pack-a-Punch

The power switch is backstage, next to the M16. Pulling it draws back the stage curtain, opens the Lobby door to the theater, starts the projector, switches on the perks and traps, and lets the Crawler zombies in.

The teleporter

On the side of the stage. It is free, but it must first be linked to the mainframe in the Lobby, and linked again after each trip.

The projector room

The teleporter sends players to a room above the theater, where the Pack-a-Punch upgrades a weapon for 5000 points. Zombies cannot get in, and everyone is sent back after 30 seconds.

The random rooms

On the way back, players sometimes spend a few seconds in one of four other rooms, then land on the mainframe in the Lobby.

The teleporter, the projector room and the four random rooms

Traps and turrets

Fire trap

1000 points, a fire pit in the middle of the Lower Hall. It burns any zombie that walks through it for about 45 seconds, and hurts players too. Kino der Toten was the first map with one.

Turrets

Two automatic machine guns, 1500 points each, one on a table by the Foyer bar and one at the end of the stage.

Electric traps

1000 points each, four of them: at the Lobby door to the theater, between the two parts of the Upper Hall, between the theater and the Dressing Room, and in the room above the Alley. Walking into one downs a player without Juggernog.

All of them need the power.

Mystery Box

950 points a spin, on nine possible spots, one per area of the map. A teddy bear sends it elsewhere. The Lobby spot, on the balcony, is never the starting one. At every spot, a chalk map of the theater on the wall marks where the Box is with a green light, once the power is on.

Kino der Toten and “Five” brought the Fire Sale power-up: for 30 seconds, a Box at every spot for 10 points a spin. It only drops after the Box has moved once.

Easter egg

Kino der Toten has no main quest. Its story is told by three film reels, found in the random rooms of the teleporter and played on the projector, and by two radios hidden in the map. Ludvig Maxis speaks on all of them, about test subjects being programmed through edited films.

Secrets

Samantha’s room

One of the random rooms, the bedroom of Samantha Maxis, with the four perk bottles set out for a tea party. It also appears destroyed and soaked in red.

Richtofen’s book

In the room the left door of the spawn opens, a book on the floor bears the name “Edward Richtofen”.

115

Hold the use button on three meteor rocks, in the Lobby, the back room above the Alley and the Dressing Room, to play the song “115” by Kevin Sherwood and Elena Siegman. It plays once per game.

“The element is here”

Written behind a wall of the Upper Hall.

The film reels, the radios, the 115 song and the hidden details

Achievements

Kino der Toten has no achievement of its own. Three base-game Zombies achievements of Black Ops can be earned on it:

The Collector

Buy every weapon off the walls in a single Zombies game. 20G, Silver trophy.

Sacrificial Lamb

Kill 6 zombies after getting shot by a Pack-a-Punched Crossbow bolt. 15G, Bronze trophy.

See Me, Stab Me, Heal Me

Hidden. Fire a Pack-a-Punched Ballistic Knife at a downed ally to revive them from a distance. 15G, Bronze trophy.

None of them can be earned in a First Room game: the Collector needs every wall weapon of the map, and the other two the Pack-a-Punch.

Trivia

• The game files call the map zombie_theater.
• Music plays quietly for the whole game: “Damned” by Kevin Sherwood, the theme of the Zombies menu. The game over song is “Abracadavre”, heard in full on the next map, Ascension.
• Posters for “Faust” and “Pygmalion” around the theater refer to the 1926 film Faust and to Metropolis.
• The sign in the Alley reads “Deutsches Sol Kino”, “German Sun Cinema”, and the Fernsehturm, the Berlin TV tower, can be seen under construction from there.
• Writing in the Lobby reads “Beware of the 6”.
• The Wii version lacks several details, such as the pods and the character portraits, and sells an AUG under the stage turret.
• A remaster came out in 2017 in Zombies Chronicles for Black Ops III, and a broken piece of the theater appears in Revelations.