"Squid Game" focuses on Seong Gi-hun, a down-on-his-luck man who finds himself embroiled in a series of children's games with deadly consequences. But he's just one piece of a complicated puzzle.
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00:00Squid Game focuses on Song Gi-hun, a down-on-his-luck man who finds himself embroiled in a series
00:05of children's games with deadly consequences.
00:08But he's just one piece of a complicated puzzle.
00:11Oh Il-nam, Player 1 in the Season 1 games, is an old man with a brain tumor who occasionally
00:16appears to suffer from dementia.
00:18But while that all may be true, there's a lot more to him.
00:21In fact, Il-nam turns out to be an uber-wealthy moneylender and the originator of the games.
00:26But all that happens later, after Gi-hun believes he's responsible for Il-nam's death, then
00:30discovers that his friend was lying to him all along.
00:34On his deathbed, Il-nam tells Gi-hun why he invented the games.
00:37He explains his point of view, that the one similarity between the very rich and the very
00:41poor is that there's no longer any pleasure to be had in life for either of them.
00:46So he and his wealthy clients got together, talked it over, and created the Squid Games.
00:50What could we all do to finally have some fun?
00:57The first games happened in 1988.
00:59Though we don't know what was played, it's probably fair to say that the basics were
01:03there when they started — children's games that anyone can play and win, and literal
01:07death to the losers.
01:08In Season 1, we get a brief glimpse of the game logs going back to 1988, and clearly
01:13see that there's been just one winner each year.
01:16So even though there's the promise that more than one person can win, it's never happened.
01:20This is most likely by design.
01:22After all, the games can easily keep going until there are only two players left.
01:26Besides, if more than one person were to win, they could band together and go to the authorities,
01:31putting the whole enterprise in jeopardy.
01:33Wong In-ho, the current frontman, won the games in 2015.
01:37In Season 2, we find out he had a sick wife who died in 2019, though he tells Gi-hun about
01:42it like it's happening presently.
01:43She was diagnosed with acute cirrhosis and needs a new liver.
01:47Most likely, In-ho entered the games to pay for her treatment after he was accused of
01:50taking bribes and let go by his boss.
01:53At least, that's what we think.
01:54In-ho is the very definition of an unreliable narrator.
01:57All we know for sure is that, despite winning the games and presumably a truckload of money,
02:02In-ho couldn't save his wife, and now he's the frontman.
02:05So somehow, in the intervening years, In-ho has become deeply cynical about humanity.
02:10Hong No-el is a sniper in the games, but before that, she was a soldier in North Korea.
02:15The officer, her boss at the games, finds her quite impressive.
02:18I couldn't believe you killed the team pursuing you with one rifle, and got past the fences
02:23at the demarcation line without any kind of help at all.
02:26What the officer doesn't mention is that No-el is a mother with a small child whom she had
02:30to leave behind in North Korea.
02:32She desperately wants to find her daughter, but it's been seven years.
02:35No-el understands what it's like to have no help.
02:38This is what resonated with her when she initially decided to join the games.
02:41She was going to be helping the hopeless by ending their misery.
02:44She still believes in that mission, but now she realizes there's more going on behind
02:48the scenes, and she doesn't like it.
02:50All we're doing is using their organs to help save others.
02:53What's wrong with that?
02:55Before he participates in the games, Gi-hun is broke.
02:58He drinks and gets in bar fights.
03:00He lives with his mother and seems to rely on her for most things, constantly asking
03:04her for money and getting frustrated with what she gives him.
03:07In fact, he steals her bank card and takes money out of her account.
03:10It's not the first time, either.
03:11It should be my birthday.
03:14Pen number changed on you, huh?
03:16Guess your mother finally abandoned you.
03:18Gi-hun knows her well enough to guess the new one.
03:20Though the money his mother gave him was for a birthday dinner with his daughter, he uses
03:24it to play the ponies, which appears to be his main occupation.
03:28This time, he wins big, but after promising his daughter a fancy dinner, he gets his pocket
03:32picked by a young woman, leaving him empty-handed once again.
03:35It's in this broken-down state that Gi-hun agrees to play Dokji with the salesman, walking
03:40away with some extra cash and the mysterious card with the Squid Game phone number.
03:44Later, when his mother tells him his daughter is moving to America with her mother and stepfather,
03:48it pushes him to call the number and sign on to the games in hope of keeping his daughter
03:52in his life.
03:54Gi-hun and the other players wake up in the dorm, ready to play.
03:57The first game is Red Light, Green Light, with a deadly twist.
04:00Over half of the players die on the field of play.
04:02As a result, a narrow majority of the players vote to stop the games.
04:06Returned unceremoniously to his life, Gi-hun goes to the police, but no one except Officer
04:11Wong Joon-ho believes his weird story.
04:13Meanwhile, Gi-hun's mother has been hospitalized with severe diabetes, but because Gi-hun canceled
04:18their health insurance, there's no money for treatment.
04:20You haven't been home in days now, out doing whatever it is you're doing lately, but now
04:25you're a good son, huh?"
04:27Gi-hun returns to the games for the money to help his mom.
04:30Others have their own reasons for coming back.
04:32For example, Gi-hun's childhood friend, Cho Sang-woo, has stolen from his clients and
04:36is wanted by police.
04:38Kang Sae-byeok, a North Korean defector like Noel, wants to get her little brother out
04:42of an orphanage and to pay someone to smuggle her parents from the North.
04:45The players' stories are all different, but they have one thing in common.
04:48They're all desperate for money.
04:50The games resume, and they're increasingly brutal.
04:53At long last, it's down to Gi-hun, Sang-woo, and Sae-byeok.
04:56But before the final game, Sang-woo kills Sae-byeok.
04:59Whether she would have made it to the end is debatable.
05:02Sae-byeok was hiding a gash on her abdomen from the earlier Glass Bridge game and looked
05:06like she was close to bleeding out.
05:07Although Gi-hun begs him not to, in the final game, Squid Game, something they used to play
05:12together as children, Sang-woo stabs himself, asking Gi-hun to take care of his mother before
05:16he dies.
05:17Gi-hun wins the games, but returns home to find his mother dead.
05:21She was his reason for playing.
05:22So now what?
05:23For a year, Gi-hun suffers from crippling survivor's guilt, barely touching his winnings.
05:28Then he finds a new purpose.
05:30He wants to stop the games for good.
05:32If he can find them.
05:33Joon-ho has been looking for his brother, Wong In-ho, since he went missing in 2015.
05:38As he overhears Gi-hun fruitlessly trying to report the games and the hundreds of murders
05:42at the police station, Joon-ho spots the mysterious invitation.
05:45His brother had one before he vanished.
05:47So Joon-ho follows Gi-hun when he re-enters the games, then chokes out one of the guards
05:51and steals his jumpsuit, going undercover.
05:53Bring him to me alive.
05:55Joon-ho learns a lot behind the scenes, but it all comes to a head when he's confronted
05:59by the frontman at the edge of a cliff.
06:01The frontman takes off his mask and reveals himself to be In-ho.
06:05Joon-ho's brother tries to convince him to join him in the games, but Joon-ho refuses.
06:09So instead, In-ho shoots him in the shoulder and sends him tumbling off the cliff into
06:13the water below.
06:14In-ho, why?
06:15Fortunately, Joon-ho is picked up by Captain Park, but he falls into a coma, something
06:23he's just coming out of at the start of season two.
06:27Near Christmas, a year after winning the games, Gi-hun is drinking by the beach when a flower
06:31seller slips him a note from his gangbu, asking him to come to his building on Christmas
06:35Eve.
06:36Gi-hun believes Il-nam is dead, so when they are face-to-face again, he has one big question.
06:41Why did you do that to us?
06:43Il-nam, a gamesman to the end, is more interested in betting on whether an unhoused man downstairs
06:48will make it through the night.
06:49Il-nam, with his fatalistic view of humanity, bets the man will freeze to death.
06:53Gi-hun bets that he'll be saved.
06:55And in Il-nam's final moments, Gi-hun turns out to be right.
06:58Someone does come.
06:59Look at that.
07:01There's someone who cares.
07:04But Il-nam has died, and we don't know if he's aware he lost his final wager.
07:08What's certain is that his death means that the frontman has taken over the games.
07:12Gi-hun starts to use his money after Il-nam's death, and one of the things he uses it on
07:16is Sae-byeok's little brother, Kang-chul, and by extension, Sang-woo's mother, who runs
07:21a fish shop and dearly misses her son.
07:23Gi-hun gets Chul out of the orphanage and leaves him with Sang-woo's mother.
07:26The suitcase Gi-hun leaves with Chul is full of cash, along with a note saying it's the
07:30money he owes Sang-woo.
07:32After all, Sang-woo sacrificed himself for Gi-hun in the final game, even though Gi-hun
07:37wanted them to quit and walk away.
07:39Let's go together.
07:43As it turns out, Gi-hun couldn't have picked a better caregiver for Chul.
07:47He grows and thrives under her care, and she's no longer lonely.
07:50When the frontman tells Gi-hun to get on a plane bound for America, Gi-hun realizes he's
07:55being tracked.
07:56He gets a utility knife, finds the device behind his ear, and cuts it out.
08:00While there are certainly other ways the people from the games can get information about what
08:04he's doing and where he's going, Gi-hun has made it more difficult.
08:07Gi-hun counts this as a victory, and his determination to stop the games grows.
08:12Since taking out his tracker, Gi-hun has recruited a band of mercenaries run by his former bookie,
08:17Mr. Kim.
08:18The crew have been tasked with finding the salesman.
08:19They've been trolling the city for two years without a sighting.
08:22You know what my wife says?
08:24I should find that motherf-----, get myself into the game, and bring the 45 billion won
08:28home.
08:29Finally, Mr. Kim and his associate, Choi Woo-suk, spot the salesman playing ddakji in the subway
08:33and follow him, observing his sadistic behavior from afar.
08:37Even though Gi-hun warns them not to, they decide to take him on.
08:40They get knocked out for their trouble, then come to, tied up in the salesman's apartment.
08:44There, the salesman has them play a sadistic game of rock-paper-scissors minus one, where
08:49they play two hands and then take one back.
08:51I was sitting there with two rocks I couldn't hit, my boss had scissors and paper.
08:57It looks like Woo-suk is done for, but Mr. Kim disqualifies himself, dying for his friend.
09:03A year after being shot, Jun-ho comes out of his coma and enlists Captain Park to look
09:07for the island where the games take place.
09:09But there are hundreds of islands in the area where Park found Jun-ho, and after two years
09:13of searching, they're still no closer to locating the games.
09:17Where the hell are you, mystery island?
09:19Jun-ho decides to give up the search — that is, until his partner pulls Gi-hun over and
09:24Jun-ho recognizes him.
09:25He traces Gi-hun to the Pink Hotel.
09:27He shows up there, and after some initial hesitation on Gi-hun's part, including a
09:31conk on the head for Jun-ho, they begin working together.
09:35After Mr. Kim dies, the salesman gets Woo-suk to tell him where Gi-hun is hiding.
09:39When he and Gi-hun are again face-to-face, the salesman tells his own story.
09:44He was working for the games incinerating bodies when they put a gun in his hand.
09:48After he killed his own father, a player, the salesman realized he'd found his calling.
09:52You con anyone who's almost at the end of their rope, I don't think that someone like
09:58you could ever understand what I need to say.
10:00The salesman proposes a game of Russian roulette, but without spinning the chamber between rounds.
10:05The salesman loses, but before he does, he tells Gi-hun that the key to the person he
10:09wants to talk to is in his pocket.
10:11In the pocket is an invitation to a club on October 31st.
10:15Before he goes to the club, Gi-hun gets a tracker implanted in his tooth.
10:18It seems like the perfect plan.
10:20Who would think to check his teeth for contraband?
10:22It's Halloween when Gi-hun shows up at the club, and everyone is wearing masks.
10:27This presents the perfect cover for a couple of masked guards to sneak in and steal Gi-hun
10:31away.
10:32Gi-hun gets into a limousine, and Jun-ho and his crew begin to tail them.
10:35But snipers quickly take out all their cars, leaving Gi-hun on his own.
10:39Realizing this, he does the one thing he can think of.
10:42Let me play the game again.
10:43The next thing Gi-hun knows, he's waking up in the dorm.
10:46As a returning winner, he knows something the others don't.
10:49When the first game, Red Light, Green Light, starts, he tries to warn the other players,
10:53but it doesn't go well.
10:54What exactly are you saying?
10:56That we're all gonna die playing Red Light, Green Light?
10:59Really?
11:00Then the first person gets shot, and suddenly, the players are hanging on his every word.
11:04Gi-hun also realizes the tracker has been removed from his tooth, and his survival is,
11:09once again, entirely up to him.
11:11But this time, there's a new wrinkle.
11:13After each game, the players vote on whether to put a stop to everything and leave, or
11:17to stay and continue playing.
11:19But once that giant hanging piggy bank begins to fill up, so many of the players are seduced
11:23by the money that a majority of them vote to stay.
11:26The same happens after the second game.
11:28But when they vote after the third game, there's a tie, further complicating things in a twist
11:33that feels like deja vu.
11:34The frontman is posing as Player 1, using the name Oh Young-il.
11:38Meanwhile, Jun-ho, Woo-suk, and the team of mercenaries search for Gi-hun, who's now on
11:43the island, deep into the games, making their search all the more urgent.
11:47They divide themselves between two boats to cover more ground, and go off in different
11:51directions.
11:52Jun-ho and Woo-suk go with Captain Park, hot on the trail of Gi-hun's tracker.
11:56But instead of the tooth, they find the tracker in the tackle box of a random fisherman on
12:00a random island.
12:01Are you really gonna sit here and let those people die?
12:04How long will you keep insisting on this ridiculous story?
12:08If it's real, bring me proof!
12:09Soon after, as the team checks out a possible entrance to the island complex, they get blown
12:14up and one of the mercenaries dies.
12:16And that's just the beginning.
12:17Later that night, one of the men catches Captain Park sabotaging their drone.
12:21He calls him out, and in a clue that was hidden in plain sight, Captain Park kills him like
12:25a trained professional and tosses the body overboard.
12:28Clearly, Captain Park is not the friend Jun-ho thought he was.
12:32After the third game, there's a 50-50 split of players who want to leave versus those
12:36who want to stay.
12:37There's also a brawl in the bathroom that results in several deaths, ensuring everyone
12:41is out for blood.
12:42But instead of turning it against the players who want to stay, Gi-hun gathers the people
12:46who want to leave and focuses their anger toward those working for the games.
12:50We're gonna put an end to it all!
12:53They're gonna pay for everything they put us through!
12:55When the lights go out, they hide as the players attack one another.
12:59Then, playing dead when the guards come in to shut it down, they ambush them and steal
13:02their guns.
13:03Gi-hun takes anyone who can use a gun and attempts a coup d'etat.
13:07They hold the soldiers off for a little while as they battle in the hallway leading to the
13:10front man's office.
13:11Gi-hun and his childhood friend, Jun-bae, split off and head for the control room.
13:15Meanwhile, Dae-ho is sent back to the dorm to collect ammunition from the pockets of
13:19the dead soldiers.
13:20Dae-ho!
13:21Dae-ho, can you hear me?
13:22Where are those magazine soldiers?
13:24When Dae-ho doesn't come back, though, Yoon-ju, the transgender woman who leads the players
13:28in the battle, returns to the dorm to find Dae-ho, only to discover him cowering by the
13:33back wall with the player non-combatants.
13:35She's about to leave with the ammo herself when the soldiers swarm in.
13:39Jun-cha stops her from taking them on single-handedly, while almost all of the other players in the
13:43hallway die.
13:45Headed for the control room, Gi-hun and Jun-bae need help, so they call Young-il for backup.
13:50Young-il and two other players come to their aid.
13:52He finds them on the stairway in the management wing of the building, but they're pinned down
13:56by the game's soldiers.
13:57Young-il suggests going around the back, which seems like a great idea.
14:01They can fire on the soldiers from both sides, giving the players a chance to win the day.
14:05But as Young-il heads off, instead of firing at the soldiers, he shoots the two players
14:09who are with him.
14:10He then radios Gi-hun with a grim message.
14:12I'm sorry, Gi-hun.
14:15It's over.
14:17Thank God.
14:20Now that Young-il is dead, he can return to being the frontman.
14:23Gi-hun and Jun-bae have surrendered.
14:26He then executes Jun-bae in cold blood.
14:28While that ending would be traumatic enough, there's more.
14:31In a brief post-credits scene, we see the doll that runs the Red Light, Green Light
14:34game next to another boy doll as a railroad crossing sign turns from a red light to a
14:39green light.
14:40What could this post-credits scene mean for Season 3, and who will be left to play?
14:45Now, witness the consequences of your little game.