In the opening season of Squid Game, viewers meet Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a troubled chauffeur whose life has spiraled into chaos. Divorced and alienated from his daughter, he struggles with a gambling addiction that has led him to steal from his mother while avoiding dangerous loan sharks to whom he owes substantial debts. During this personal nadir, a mysterious stranger approaches Gi-hun with an intriguing proposition: a simple game of ddakji for money, followed by an opportunity to earn even more through higher-stakes competitions.
Driven by desperation, Gi-hun accepts the offer, only to be drugged and transported to an enormous facility where he joins 455 other individuals. The participants, all clad in identical green track suits and distinguished only by assigned numbers, find themselves imprisoned in an unknown location. Under the watchful eyes of pink-jumpsuited guards, they learn they must compete in six games over six days for a chance to win billions of won, with Gi-hun designated as Player 456.
As the competition begins, Gi-hun encounters several significant figures among his fellow contestants. He reunites with his childhood friend Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), known as Player 218, and forms an alliance with the elderly Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su), Player 001. He also recognizes Player 067, Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon), as the pickpocket who recently stole his remaining money.
The first challenge, overseen by the enigmatic Front Man, appears deceptively simple: a version of “Red Light, Green Light” controlled by a massive mechanical doll. Players must advance across the field when the doll announces “green light” and freeze at “red light.” The game’s true nature becomes horrifyingly clear when the first rule-breaker is fatally shot, triggering mass panic and a devastating bloodbath that claims more than half the participants’ lives.
Though Gi-hun and his allies survive this brutal opening game, they now comprehend the lethal stakes of their situation. Each contestant’s death increases the prize money, creating a macabre incentive structure. When the players vote to terminate the competition, they are released to their homes without any compensation. Gi-hun attempts to report these events to law enforcement, but his incredible story finds only one believer: Detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), whose brother vanished after receiving a similar invitation.
Despite the games’ deadly nature, most survivors, including Gi-hun, choose to return, seeing the prize as their only escape from dire circumstances. Each participant carries compelling motivations: Sang-woo faces imminent arrest for financial crimes, Il-nam wishes to face death on his own terms rather than succumb to illness, and Sae-byeok seeks to rescue her family from North Korea.
After infiltrating the games by disguising himself as a guard, Detective Jun-ho uncovers disturbing truths about the remote island facility. He discovers the guards are conducting illegal organ harvesting operations, selling deceased players’ organs on the black market. More shockingly, he learns these lethal games have been running for over three decades, and his missing brother In-ho (Lee Byung-hun) had previously emerged victorious.
The arrival of foreign VIPs to place bets on the games provides Jun-ho an opportunity for action. He manages to subdue one of them and extract a recorded confession detailing the island’s illicit activities. However, during his attempted escape with this crucial evidence, Jun-ho confronts the Front Man, who unmasks himself as In-ho. When In-ho offers his brother a position overseeing the games, Jun-ho’s principled refusal leads to a tragic confrontation, ending with In-ho shooting him off a cliff into the ocean below.
Meanwhile, within the competition, Gi-hun, Sang-woo, and Il-nam have formed an alliance with Sae-byeok and Player 199, Ali (Anupam Tripathi), a Pakistani immigrant who has endured significant discrimination in Korea. The second challenge presents players with a crucial choice between four shapes: circle, star, triangle, or umbrella. Each contestant must then precisely extract their chosen shape from a delicate cookie. Though Gi-hun inadvertently selects the most challenging option—the umbrella—he and his allies all successfully complete this precarious task.
The aftermath of the second game reveals the competition’s darker aspects when Player 101, Deok-su (Heo Sung-tae), murders another contestant over alleged food theft. The guards’ deliberate inaction, merely adding the victim’s share to the prize money, emboldens Deok-su. Recognizing he can eliminate competition without consequences, he assembles a violent faction, including Player 212, Mi-nyeo (Kim Joo-ryoung). Together, they instigate a riot, forcing Gi-hun’s group to unite for survival through the night until the third game.
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The third challenge introduces tug-of-war, requiring teams of ten to compete against each other. In a display of callous opportunism, Deok-su betrays Mi-nyeo, excluding her from his carefully selected team of physically strong men. Mi-nyeo finds refuge with Gi-hun’s group, and despite their apparent physical disadvantage, they triumph in their match thanks to Il-nam’s strategic expertise.
The fourth game begins with a seemingly innocent requirement to choose partners. Gi-hun teams with Il-nam, while Sang-woo selects Ali. The true nature of the challenge becomes devastatingly clear when each player receives a bag of marbles and learns they must acquire their partner’s marbles to survive—effectively forcing them to orchestrate their partner’s death. This revelation particularly affects Sae-byeok, who struggles with the moral burden of having to condemn another person to death.
In this test of moral character, Sang-woo reveals his ruthless nature by manipulating the trusting Ali into surrendering his marbles. Meanwhile, Gi-hun exploits Il-nam’s cognitive decline to secure victory. However, the game’s conclusion brings a haunting twist when Il-nam reveals he consciously allowed Gi-hun to win, considering him a true friend. Gi-hun leaves the arena tormented by his actions and the presumed death of Il-nam.
The fifth game presents an even more harrowing challenge to the remaining sixteen contestants, including Gi-hun, Sang-woo, Sae-byeok, Deok-su, and Mi-nyeo. Players must cross a bridge composed of glass panels, where each step could mean either survival or a fatal plunge. When assigned random crossing orders, Deok-su, witnessing numerous deaths before him, attempts to force others ahead, threatening collective failure unless they test the path with their lives.
This desperate situation catalyzes Mi-nyeo’s revenge for Deok-su’s earlier betrayal. In a dramatic act of retribution, she sacrifices herself, pulling Deok-su with her to their deaths. As time dwindles, Sang-woo’s calculating nature emerges again when he deliberately sacrifices a fellow contestant to identify the safe path. This ruthless strategy ensures his survival alongside Gi-hun and Sae-byeok, the only other survivors.
The game’s toll on relationships reaches its pinnacle as Gi-hun finally comprehends the depths of Sang-woo’s survival instinct. This realization comes too late to prevent Sang-woo’s ultimate betrayal—the murder of Sae-byeok—leaving only Gi-hun and his transformed childhood friend as the final contestants in this deadly competition.
The competition culminates in a poetic final challenge—the traditional squid game that Gi-hun and Sang-woo played together in their youth. Though Gi-hun emerges victorious, he refuses to let their shared history end in tragedy, pleading with Sang-woo to forfeit the prize money so both can survive. Sang-woo, however, chooses a different path, taking his own life to ensure Gi-hun’s victory, a final act that blends sacrifice with resignation.
Upon returning home, Gi-hun discovers a devastating personal loss—his mother has died during his absence. One year later, despite his newfound wealth, he remains paralyzed by trauma, unable to utilize his winnings. A surprising invitation leads him to a reunion with Il-nam, who not only survived the games but reveals himself as their architect. From his deathbed, Il-nam explains he created the games to entertain wealthy individuals like himself who had grown weary of conventional pleasures.
In a final philosophical gesture, Il-nam challenges Gi-hun to a wager centered on human nature: whether anyone will aid an intoxicated stranger before midnight. When a passerby does offer assistance, Il-nam witnesses this affirmation of human compassion in his final moments, dying with his faith in humanity restored.
Finding purpose in the aftermath of tragedy, Gi-hun takes responsibility for Sae-byeok’s brother, placing him in the care of Sang-woo’s mother and providing both with financial security through his winnings. However, just as he prepares to reunite with his estranged daughter, fate intervenes—he witnesses another person being recruited for the next iteration of the games. In this moment, Gi-hun makes a pivotal choice: postponing his personal reconciliation to confront the cycle of exploitation, determined to infiltrate and end the games once and for all.
