Mob of the Dead: Pop Goes the Weasel

Pop Goes the Weasel, the Mob of the Dead main Easter egg step by step: three cycles, five skulls, the spoon, the prison numbers and the two endings on the bridge.

4 min read
6 chapters
updated 2026-10-03

Read Mob of the Dead Leaderboard

The main quest

Pop Goes the Weasel is the main Easter egg of Mob of the Dead. It picks up where the escape plan stops: the plane always crashes on the bridge, the electric chairs always send the four inmates back to their cells, and the only way out of the loop is a fight between the mobsters themselves.

It was the first time in Zombies that players could finish a map and end the game without being killed by zombies, and the first time a playable character turned hostile to his own team.

Before you start

Two players minimum

The ending needs at least two players, and one of them must play Weasel. Every step before the ending can be done alone.

Hell’s Retriever

At least one player needs the Hell’s Retriever. The skulls and the spoon are both collected with it.

The plane

You will build and fly the plane several times. After each flight it needs fuel tanks, found where the parts were.

Afterlives

Keep some in stock. The number step and the last flight are both done in Afterlife.

Step by step

Any player feeds the three hellhound heads (second floor of the cell block, Infirmary, Docks) and picks up the Hell’s Retriever in the Citadel Tunnels, next to Double Tap.
The team gets the Warden’s Key with Afterlife, collects the five plane parts, builds the plane on the roof and flies to the Golden Gate Bridge. Landing there unlocks No One Escapes Alive. The full route is on the plane page.
The team sits in the electric chairs on the bridge to return to the cell block. One flight plus one trip back in the chairs is one cycle. Refuel the plane and repeat until the cycle has been done three times.
The Hell’s Retriever holder throws it at the five blue skulls: on the lamppost up the hill near Juggernog, on the third pillar of the dock next to the Tower Trap, on the edge of the roof, in a lit cell near the starting room, and on the utility pole outside the window by Speed Cola in the Warden’s Office. Once all five are back, a free Blundergat appears on the table in the Warden’s Office. A Blundergat from the Mystery Box does not count.
The Hell’s Retriever holder rips down the movie poster in a cell near the Warden’s Office. A player in Afterlife walks through the hole behind it and zaps the spoon on the floor. The spoon then reappears behind the barrier at the back of the Cafeteria, where the Hell’s Retriever pulls it back. It is the first step of the Golden Spork.
A player in Afterlife goes to the number pad at the bottom of the spiral stairs between the Citadel Tunnels and the Docks, the one that guards the elevator. Its digits now spin on their own. Enter the four prison numbers 101, 386, 481 and 872, in any order. A teammate can keep starting a revive on the body and letting go: the Afterlife meter stops while someone revives you. Solo, split the four numbers over two Afterlives.
Everyone listens. The screen turns black and white and Stanley Ferguson, the guard from the intro, tells what really happened to the four. Then headphones appear one after another on the way up to the roof. Pick each one up and let it play to the end.
A player in Afterlife boards the plane on the roof. Do not refuel it. The plane takes off with the whole crew and crashes on the bridge as usual.
Every player lands in Afterlife, with their bodies sitting in the electric chairs. Each one revives their own body. From that moment, Weasel and the other three can damage each other, and the zombies leave Weasel alone.

Solo and co-op

Solo, you can do everything up to the final flight: the cycles, the skulls, the spoon, the numbers and the tapes. You cannot finish, because the ending needs someone to fight. In co-op, Weasel has to be in the lobby, and the team decides on the bridge who goes home.

The two endings

Break the cycle

Weasel kills Sal, Billy and Finn. The game ends with the camera rising away from the Golden Gate Bridge over an orchestral take on the ending theme. The soundtrack calls it the good ending.

Continue the cycle

The other three kill Weasel. The game ends on the usual camera with its own song, and the night is set to start again. The soundtrack calls it the bad ending.

The name says pop the Weasel, the achievement says break the cycle. Black Ops 4 settled it: Blood of the Dead opens on an Alcatraz where Weasel broke the cycle, and he comes back as a spirit in the form of a bird. The canon ending is Weasel killing the others.

Achievements

No One Escapes Alive

75G, silver trophy. Unlocks the first time you land on the bridge, at step 2.

Pop Goes the Weasel

25G, bronze trophy. Despite the description, both endings unlock it.

The quest also hands out Feed the Beast and Making the Rounds on the way. The full list is on the Mob of the Dead achievements page, and the side secrets of the map are on the Easter eggs page.