The Revolt, also known as the Rebellion or the Mutiny, was an attempted revolution led by Seong Gi-hun and allied players to capture the Front Man and forcibly end the Squid Games. It occurs during the episode "Friend or Foe".
Determined to stop the games after winning in the 33rd rendition, Seong Gi-hun gathered an ad-hoc militia force of likeminded players to launch an armed uprising against the organisers. After securing weapons by ambushing the event's guards, the rebellious players slowly moved through the colorful stairwell complex towards the control centre, where Gi-hun hoped to capture the ringleader of the event, the Front Man, who would hopefully provide him a way to reach the VIPs that sponsor the games.
Though they had initial success, most of Gi-hun's militia ultimately got locked into an extended shootout with guards on the other side of the colorful stairwell complex, who were stronger in numbers. Gi-hun and Jung-bae decided to split up from the group and head for the control room - they began smoothly but also got stuck on a staircase shootout leading up to the control room. Almost every player of the rebellion was killed in battle, but the effort ultimately failed as Oh Young-il betrayed them as the Front Man, having infiltrated the games undercover to stop Gi-hun's inevitable attempts to launch a rebellion.
Prelude[]
Immediately following a vote to end the games after the third round, a bloody brawl unfolded in the bathrooms between several players who wanted to end the games and those who wished to continue. Five were killed in the aftermath, but the other players then quickly realized that they could freely kill each other outside the games, in order to further increase the prize money. Two sides clearly formed based upon the voting process, with the players that wanted to continue the games determined to massacre those who voted to leave.
Gi-hun, knowing the bloodshed that would follow from his previous games, convinces a small group to join him in rebelling against the guards, capturing the Front Man, and ending the games. As the lights turned off, the pro-game players rush through the darkness and begin murdering the other sleeping players, quickly starting a brutal fight reminiscent of the game three years prior. Gi-hun's group, however, remains hidden under and around the bedding while the others fight, reluctantly sacrificing their fellow anti-game players to maintain the ruse.
Events[]
Eventually, after dozens are killed, a squad of soldiers finally enter to break up the fighting, separating everyone. But then Gi-hun's group, still hidden under the bedding or playing dead, pounce on the soldiers all at once, disarming several of their MP5A3 submachine guns and fighting back against them. The players impressively manage to kill many of the soldiers, with the Masked Officer calling for the survivors to retreat and sealing the main doors to the dorms, but trapping the squad's Manager inside when he failed to escape. Player 047, enraged at the pro-game players for killing innocents, moves to gun down several of them, but Gi-hun stops him and reminds him they'd be no different from the masked men. Hyun-ju suggests they gather the dead soldiers' guns and ammunition, then destroys the dormitory cameras to hide themselves from the control room. Gi-hun delivers a speech to the gathered survivors and states his plan to fight their way to the headquarters and end the event, imploring anyone with experience handling guns to step forward. When the players all hesitate, Park Jung-bae sympathizes with them but reminds them it may be the last opportunity for everybody to escape and go home, which convinces Player 015 to fight. A few others also step up to join including Players 072, 206, and 324, bringing Gi-hun's group to about twelve fighters. Noticing the others struggling, Hyun-ju steps forward and instructs the rebels on how to operate the MP5A3, revealing to a questioning 246 that she formerly served as a Sergeant First Class in Korean Special Forces.
Gi-hun forces the captured manager to remove his mask, with Jung-bae expressing disbelief at his young age. Smashing through the side door to the bathrooms, the group exits the dorms and proceed into the massive multi-coloured stairwell, where they are attacked by several soldiers from a higher level and pinned down. Hyun-ju rushes forward and manages to kill three soldiers from a vantage point, forcing those remaining to retreat while the players pushed forward, unaware of a larger group waiting to ambush them. They reach the entrance to the complex's management area, where the captured manager states he needs his mask to pass through the security, which he retrieves. As he looks up however, the manager sees Player 001 (Oh Young-il) and appears to recognize him, but is then shot in the head by the ambush group, pinning the players down. The soldiers fire at them from across the towering stairwell gap, killing Player 072 when he fails to reach cover.
Gi-hun orders the others to stay behind and buy time while he and Jung-bae head to the control room, which Young-il questions but complies with. The two find a security door that they pass by using the dead manager's mask, leaving a spare MP5 to hold the door open. They are attacked by two soldiers, but manage to kill them by causing a diversion with the manager's mask, looting them of their ammo before moving on. Seeing them advance, the Officer orders a large group of soldiers to defend the control room, which Gi-hun and Jung-bae have almost reached.
Back in the stairwell, the other rebelling players are locked in a shootout with the soldiers. 047 manages to kill another guard and advises Kang Dae-ho to not waste his ammo after wildly spraying fire, as he is clearly suffering a PTSD episode and beginning to crack from the intensity of the fighting. 047 suggests to Young-il that they meet up with Gi-hun, as they are getting nowhere being bogged down in a firefight, but Young-il fears they will get surrounded if they move forward with no plan and tells them to hold their ground. 206 is suddenly shot and killed by a soldier flanking the group, but 246 and Hyun-ju manage to kill him and another flanker. The extended gunfight begins to wear down on the players, as they all discover their ammo running dangerously low, while a pinned-down Gi-hun and Jung-bae run into the same problem as they radio Young-il for backup. Gi-hun reminds them that the soldiers they killed in the dorms have extra magazines in their pockets, which Young-il orders someone else to retrieve while he, 047, and 015 push on to reinforce Gi-hun. Hyun-ju prepares to retrieve the magazines, but Dae-ho steps up and volunteers to go instead, being out of ammo anyway. Hyun-ju gives him a loaded MP5 and sends him back after the others cover him, advising him to follow the destroyed cameras.
Gi-hun runs out of ammo and bravely runs to a guard's corpse to grab more magazines, narrowly avoiding being gunned down, though he suffers a graze on his arm. Young-il, 047, and 015 arrive to assist, with him suggesting to Gi-hun they attempt to flank the soldiers guarding the control room entrance. Gi-hun agrees and hands him a spare magazine, which Young-il strangely hesitates to take, but does so anyway, leading the others to outflank the guards. Back in the dorms, Dae-ho shakily arrives and starts to gather the dead soldiers' magazines with assistance from Players 149, 222, and 007, managing to gather more than a dozen. As he leaves the dorms however, the distant gunfire from the shootout frightens him, causing him to become unresponsive when Hyun-ju radios him for help, before backing away in defeat from his PTSD. Hearing nothing, Hyun-ju volunteers to run back and grab the magazines, assuming Dae-ho had been killed.
Young-il and the others get behind the soldiers near the control and prepare to ambush them, but 047 is suddenly gunned down by Young-il, 015 suffering the same fate but barely alive. Young-il then radios Gi-hun and fakes his own death, using 015's dying noises through the radio to create the ruse, before executing the injured player with a headshot. Revealing his treachery, Young-il changes his radio's channel and orders the guards to start wrapping things up; in reality he is Hwang In-ho, the Front Man, and had entered the games presumably in an effort to stop any rebellion attempts by Gi-hun.
In the dorms, Hyun-ju arrives and finds a shell-shocked Dae-ho, who profusely apologizes for abandoning them. Just as she goes to leave, a large group of soldiers arrive to quell any further rebellion, who she prepared to fight off with the new ammo until Player 149 stopped her, knowing she would get herself killed in the effort. The surviving rebelling players in the stairwell ran out of ammunition at the same time, as the soldiers began closing in from both directions to surround them. Injured and left with one bullet, 324 raises his gun to his head and, after protests from 246, kills himself to prevent being captured. 145 then suggested they surrender, but he is shot in the chest after dropping his weapon. 246 is then backed up by another soldier and presumably shot and killed too (though many fans believe he was shot non-fatally by Kang No-eul).
Gi-hun and Jung-bae also ran out of ammo and surrendered at this point, held at gunpoint by soldiers. The Front Man then arrives with the Officer, questioning Gi-hun if he had fun playing the hero, before raising his M1911 seemingly with the intent to execute him. Just as Gi-hun accepts his fate with a furious gaze, the Front Man tells him to look at the consequences of his rebellion, before turning his gun to Jung-bae. The two best friends share one last look, then the Front Man kills him with a shot to the chest, much to Gi-hun's heart-breaking anguish as two soldiers barely restrain him from lunging at his adversary.
Aftermath[]
The rebellion was ultimately a failure, with almost every member of the uprising killed in the ensuing battle with the guards. Only Gi-hun, Hyun-ju, and Dae-ho survived, while Young-il technically also survived but was not a true member as it is revealed that he is actually Hwang In-ho (otherwise known as the Front Man) the whole time and was serving as the mole to successfully thwart Gi-hun's plan all along. After the deaths of most of the rebelling players, there are roughly sixty remaining to carry on the games, which will presumably continue as normal. In the third season, Gi-hun was placed back with the remaining players to continue playing. During the voting, he was handcuffed and was not allowed to vote to end the games as a consequence for starting the revolt.
The following players did not take part in the revolt and were thus still alive by the end of it:
- Park Mi-hwa (Player 006)
- Park Yong-sik (Player 007; He wanted to participate but his mother didn't let him)
- Player 009
- Player 024
- Player 028
- Player 039
- Seon-nyeo (Player 044)
- Player 048
- Player 080
- Player 084
- Player 096
- Im Jeong-dae (Player 100)
- Player 105
- Player 119
- Nam-gyu (Player 124)
- Park Min-su (Player 125)
- Player 134
- Jang Geum-ja (Player 149)
- Player 154
- Player 163
- Player 172
- Player 191
- Player 192
- Player 197
- Player 202
- Kim Gi-min (Player 203)
- Player 209
- Kim Jun-hee (Player 222)
- Kim Yeong-sam (Player 226)
- Player 232
- Player 235
- Player 241
- Player 260
- Player 276
- Player 296
- Player 306
- Player 310
- Player 312
- Lee Myung-gi (Player 333;He stayed in the dormitory at Jun-hee's sugestion.)
- Player 334
- Lee Sung-Won (player 336)
- Player 344
- Player 348
- Player 349
- Player 350
- Kim Yun-tae (player 353)
- Player 359
- Player 377
- Player 394
- Player 400
- Player 411
- Player 418
- Player 435
- Player 440
- Player 442
- Player 443
- Player 447
- Player 448
Participants[]
Casualties[]
- Unnamed manager (Victim)
- Oh Young-il (Player 001)[1]
- Seon Han-Nam (Player 015)
- Kwon Byeong-su (Player 047)
- Player 072
- Player 145
- Player 206
- Player 324
- Park Jung-bae (Player 390)
Survivors[]
- Cho Hyun-ju (Player 120)
- Kang Dae-ho (Player 388)
- Seong Gi-hun (Player 456; kidnapped by Hwang In-ho)
- Park Gyeong-seok (Player 246; Saved as guard by Kang No-eul)
References[]
- ↑ The Front Man in disguise; was not killed.