Listen carefully. I'm not a horse. I'm a person. That's why I wanna know who you people are... and how you can commit such atrocities against people. That's why... I can't forgive you for everything you're doing.
Seong Gi-hun to the Squid Game organizers in "One Lucky Day"
Seong Gi-hun (성기훈 Seong Gi-hun?, October 31, 1974 - November 6, 2024)[3], also known as Player 456, was the winner of the 33rd Squid Game in 2020, who also returned as a contestant in the 37th Squid Game in an attempt to end the Squid Games.[4][5] A former gambling addict, Gi-hun faced crippling debt from loan sharks for several years before participating in and ultimately winning the Squid Game in 2020.[6][5].
Born in Ssangmun-dong, Gi-hun was childhood best friends[7][8][9] with Cho Sang-woo. He worked at a car factory for several years before being laid off and operated two businesses in the following years, both of which failed, putting him in severe debt to a group of loan sharks who threatened violence against him if he didn't pay up. He had a daughter named Ga-yeong, whom he lost custody of when his wife divorced him following his financial troubles and remarried. He ended up moving in with his mother and found work as a chauffeur, which didn't provide anywhere near enough for him to pay off his debt.
Gi-hun became aware of the Squid Games when a recruiter informed him about them after they played ddakji. He accepted the offer after finding out Ga-yeong would soon be moving to the United States with her family and would lose contact, and later rejoined in hopes of getting money to pay for his mother's hospital treatment. In the first game, Gi-hun was reunited with Cho Sang-woo and a girl who pickpocketed him, Kang Sae-byeok. He was saved during the game's climax by Ali Abdul. Throughout the games, Gi-hun formed an alliance with the aforementioned players and Player 001, and frequently showed compassion towards them. As the games increased in their brutality and the competitors were becoming more demoralized, Gi-hun slowly lost his desire to win the money and instead only continued to try and survive. Alongside Sang-woo and Sae-byeok, Gi-hun became one of the finalists of the competition, and faced off against Sang-woo in the sixth and final game after Sae-byeok's death. After automatically winning the sixth and final game following Sang-woo's suicide, Gi-hun was returned to Seoul with a bank card to access the prize money, but when he returned home, he discovered that his mother had died while he was away.
A year after his win, Gi-hun was still traumatized and hadn't touched any of the prize money. He received an invitation card from his gganbu, and was furious and disgusted when it was revealed that Oh Il-nam, the old man Gi-hun had befriended, had created the game to entertain bored ultra-rich people like himself. After the two made one last bet which Gi-hun won, Il-nam died shortly after. Gi-hun retrieved Sae-byeok's younger brother Kang Cheol and entrusted him to Sang-woo's mother, giving them a share of the prize money. While traveling to the airport to reconnect with his daughter in Los Angeles, Gi-hun saw his recruiter playing ddakji with another desperate man in debt. Gi-hun took the man's invitation card and called the number before boarding his plane, demanding to know who is running the games. He then went against the Front Man's suggestion of getting on the plane and walked away, intent on stopping the games.
After two years of search efforts, Gi-hun was eventually intercepted by the recruiter, and they played a game of Russian roulette, in which the recruiter died. He used a card in his jacket that led him to a meeting with the Front Man in a limo, where he demanded he stop the games. Gi-hun ultimately decided to reenter the Squid Games to end them and protect the other players. Many survived Red Light, Green Light with his guidance, and he managed to pass the next two games Six-Legged Pentathlon and Mingle as well. Before a fight broke out, Gi-hun and his allies came up with a plan to end the game by starting a revolt. The plan failed and he was confronted by the Front Man, who killed his close friend Park Jung-bae in front of him, leaving Gi-hun devastated.
Following the failed revolt, Gi-hun was placed back in the games. He questioned why his life was spared and demanded the guards kill him, only for them to restrain him in the dormitory. After finding out about Kang Dae-ho's failure during the revolt, Gi-hun blames him for Jung-bae's death and seeks revenge. During the hide-and-seek game, Gi-hun hunts down Dae-ho and strangles him to death, but not before Dae-ho accuses Gi-hun of being the one to blame for his failed revolt plan. This causes Gi-hun to enter a catatonic state. However, after Kim Jun-hee gives birth to So-won and Jang Geum-ja pleads for Gi-hun to save the baby, Gi-hun rises to action and protects her through the next two games, even after her mother's death.
In the final game, after The VIPs declared So-won should be a player and inherit her mother's number, Gi-hun fought off the remaining players who were trying to eliminate her. After killing So-won's father, Lee Myung-gi, before he could eliminate his own child, Gi-hun sacrificed himself to ensure So-won would survive the games.
Following Gi-hun's sacrifice, the Front Man safely evacuated So-won from the island before it was destroyed and delivered her to Hwang Jun-ho six months later, alongside the ₩45.6 billion prize. The Front Man also travelled to Los Angeles and delivered Gi-hun's bloodied jumpsuit and leftover money to his daughter.
Personality
"You don't trust people because they are trustworthy. You do it because you have nothing else to rely on."
Seong Gi-hun's advice to Kang Sae-byeok in "Stick to the Team"
Gi-hun was shown to be a friendly, nice, caring, and talkative individual, often engaging to converse with those around him. He frequently demonstrates his caring and thoughtful nature, as he takes it upon himself to look after Oh Il-nam and to protect Kang Sae-byeok from Jang Deok-su.[10] During Red Light, Green Light, Gi-hun was frozen in shock throughout most of the game.
He seems to suffer from a serious ludopathy, often gambling any money he gets on races. The seriousness of his disease often makes him not realize the consequences of his actions until it's too late, such as canceling the social security of his mother before knowing about her diabetes or owing a great amount of money to the loan sharks to the point of being forced to sign a document authorizing his creditors to sell parts of his body in order to pay off his debt.
Gi-hun's darker actions are often made out of desperation rather than out of selfishness or cruelty, such as his manipulation of Il-nam during the Marbles round: Gi-hun weeps during the game and displays signs of remorse and sorrow following Il-nam's "elimination".[11] He also planned to kill Sang-woo when he falls asleep before the start of the sixth game until he is talked out of it by Sae-byeok, who tells him he is not a murderer.
Despite his failures as a father and son, Gi-hun does demonstrate that he deeply cares for his family. He is devastated at the idea of losing his daughter and desperately tries to convince his mother to get medical treatment for her diabetes, falling into a year-long depressive state after her death. Following the games, he developed PTSD and stopped a man from entering the games to prevent the man's death and worked to stop the games for three years straight. After failing to persuade the Front Man to end the Squid Game, he decides to enter the 36th Squid Game in order to infiltrate the Game and kill its staff. He helps contestants in "Red Light, Green Light" instructing them on what to do to survive and continually encourages people to vote to leave the game, warning them of what the future holds. Showing him to be a very selfless, brave and caring individual, willing to put his life in danger to help others. Though later in the games, he is shown to be willing to sacrifice a few (some contestants) for the greater good (kill the game's staff and end the game).
At the start of Season 1 he was a fun-loving, self indulgent, immature person with a gambling addiction and is in great debt. He decides to enter the Squid Game in order to pay off his debts, prevent his organs from being harvested (by his loan shark) and pay for his mother's treatment for advanced diabetes. In Season 2, he returns a more mature, serious, no-nonsense attitude, shrewd and frugal person. He sees his prize money as blood money belonging to the people who died in the game and uses its very carefully. He becomes more determined with his objectives, as well as more meticulous with his surroundings and grows more careful around others, displaying highly analytical behavior. In stark contrast to his previous behavior in season 1, Gi-hun becomes more determined to save as many of the players in the Squid Game as he can, rather than just the ones in his team.
However, despite the change in his attitude, his ignorant and reckless nature remains. He failed to consider different possibilites before entering the game, which led to the failure of his initial plan. Even in the game, he often appears clumsy, such as failing to recognize the front man despite several clues. His foolish nature results in a terrible consequence in the revolt, which was incredibly unpractical considering how powerful his enemies were. He and the rebels are, as expected, quickly overpowered by the game's forces, ultimately resulting in the death of his close friend. This failure of the revolt shows that that despite his efforts, he is still too flawed a person to carry out such an ambitious plan.
Following Gi-hun's failed revolt in the Season 2 finale, he shows a much darker side to his personality. Whilst acting out of grief and trauma, he blamed Kang Dae-ho for his comrade's deaths after he failed to deliver more ammunition to the rebels. His anger came to a boil when Seon-nyeo mocked Gi-hun's dead friends, causing him to strangle her. Later on, in the fourth game, he relentlessly hunted down Dae-ho with a crazed look on his face. After eventually finding him, Gi-hun ignored Dae-ho's pleas and engaged in a savage fight with him, ending with Gi-hun choking Dae-ho to death. However, before his death, Dae-ho blamed Gi-hun for the revolt since it was his idea, which caused Gi-hun to spiral and eventually blame himself entirely for getting people killed. Gi-hun's attitude then flipped entirely; instead of being rage-fuelled and erratic, he was now completely catatonic and irresponsive to others.
Interestingly, despite Gi-hun's clear rage during the hide-and-seek game, he still somewhat retained his better nature. Whenever he came across a player who was not Dae-ho, he did not even attempt to kill them, even if it would've benefitted him.
As Cho Sang-woo ("Because you’re a nosy-ass idiot who’s too slow to keep it shut.") and Hwang In-ho ("Did you have fun playing the hero?") described, Gi-hun is overwhelmed with the sense of justice, and sometimes for the worse. It is mainly due to his aforementioned flaws. He also becomes contradictory about his supposed 'justice', as before the special game, he stated that no one in his team should be sacrificed, whereas in the revolt, he claimed that it is inevitable to sacrifice a few for the survival of many.
Gi-hun was described by Hwang Dong-hyuk as very 'human'. This means that, despite his altruistic and righteous nature, he is highly flawed and often faced with failure. Despite this, even after going through the Squid Games twice, he never lost his human nature, unlike Hwang In-ho, his arch enemy, who has succumbed to despair and hate and ended up a cold-blooded villain.
History
For a comprehensive history, see Seong Gi-hun/History
Backstory
Seong Gi-hun was born on October 31, 1974, in Ssangmun-dong, Seoul, where he grew up with his mother Oh Mal-soon, who raised him in a Buddhist household. He was childhood best friends with Cho Sang-woo, with whom he developed a very close and brotherly relationship.[7][8] They would play multiple children's games together, including Squid Game, Red Light, Green Light and Dalgona. When playing and winning Squid Game, Gi-hun stated he felt as though he owned the entire world at that moment. During his youth, he attended Daehan Technical High School.
Gi-hun worked on Assembly Team One at Dragon Motors, along with his best friend Park Jung-bae, for sixteen years. He was later laid off and went on strike with his other employees. During the strike, one of his coworkers died. This happened to be the same day his daughter, Seong Ga-yeong, was born. In the following years, Gi-hun ran a restaurant called Ga-yeong's Chicken and later a snack bar, both of which eventually failed, and he worked as a chauffeur for five years.[12] His wife Kang Eun-ji divorced him in 2017, got custody of their daughter, and remarried. Her new husband disliked Gi-hun;s visits to see Ga-yeong, much to Gi-hun's anger and consternation.
2020
By 2020, Gi-hun had moved back with his elderly mother and racked up a lot of debt, caused by the loss of his stable job at a car factory, his failed business ventures, and his gambling addiction. He owed ₩250 million to the bank and ₩160 million more to loan sharks, and his work as a chauffeur wasn't even enough to even cover the interest rate on his loans. One day, his mother gave him some money to get his daughter dinner and a present for her birthday. After she leaves to go to her own job, he looks for her credit card, which she has hidden. He then steals her funds and gambles multiple times on horse races with a friend.
After winning ₩4.56 million, he elatedly calls his daughter asking what she wants for her birthday. Unfortunately, he is spotted and chased by a group of loan sharks and is robbed of his newfound money by a pickpocket, Kang Sae-byeok. The loan sharks threaten to take his organs if they are not paid by the next month and make him sign a contract with his own blood. Gi-hun then takes his daughter out for food with what little money he has left. He treats Ga-yeong to a basic birthday dinner of street food and a gift from a claw machine (a toy gun). Gi-hun feels disappointed that he can't give her as much as her stepfather, despite her reassurance that she prefers the street food over the fancy steak dinner her stepfather treated her to.
Gi-hun being given the Squid Games card by The Recruiter.
At the train station, Gi-hun is approached by a salesman to play a game of ddakji. Each round, whoever loses would give the other ₩100,000. Since Gi-hun doesn't have the money, the salesman instead slaps him when he loses. Determined to win, Gi-hun tries and is slapped many times until he finally wins. The salesman gives him the money along with a strange business card with a phone number on it, telling him to call it if he wants to play other games for bigger prizes.
Gi-hun returns home ecstatic with the money and shows it to his mother. She asks how he got the money, but Gi-hun is vague with his answer. His mother warns him that if he cannot financially support his daughter, her stepfather will move her to the United States. She also worries that Ga-yeong might lose connections with her Korean roots if she moves. In desperation, he calls the number on the business card. He is told to go to a secret address and give a password to a person in the car. He enters the car and is knocked out by sleeping gas.
Gi-hun later wakes up in a dormitory with 455 other people. Gi-hun then meets Oh Il-nam (Player 001), an old man, who tells Gi-hun that he has dementia and a growing brain tumor. Gi-hun then sees a player (whom he recognizes as Sae-byeok (Player 067), the pickpocket from earlier) being attacked by Jang Deok-su (Player 101), a vicious gangster. Gi-hun steps in to stop the fight.
The guards enter the room, welcome the players and explain they’ll compete in six games over six days for a large cash prize. When some express doubt, the guards show footage of them playing dakji and reveal everyone is in severe debt, stating that these games are offered as a final chance. The players are photographed, then led to the first game: Red Light, Green Light. As players enter a field-like room with a giant doll and a finish line, the rules are announced—move when the doll sings "무궁화 꽃이 피었습니다 (the hibiscus flower is blooming)," and stop when it isn’t singing. Anyone caught moving or failing to finish in five minutes will be eliminated.
The game begins with Players 324 and 250 running ahead; however, 324 fails to halt his run in time, is caught moving by the doll, and shot. Player 250 sees him coughing up blood and dying. He panics and also gets shot while trying to flee. His blood hits Player 306, who screams and is killed as well. Chaos erupts as players realize “elimination” means death, and many are gunned down while trying to escape. After the dust settles, the rules are calmly repeated to the remaining players.
Gi-hun playing "Red Light, Green Light"
The game resumes, but no one is brave enough to step forward except for Il-nam (Player 001), who was unfazed by the chaos. Others begin to follow, though some are still eventually eliminated. Meanwhile, Gi-hun lies frozen with a corpse on top of him until Sang-woo urges him to move, warning about the timer and advising him to hide behind others to avoid detection by the doll. Gi-hun then gets up and continues the game.
Gi-hun takes Sang-woo's advice to hide behind another player, but his quarry is shot. An injured player, Oh Yeong-uk (Player 118), grabs his leg and begs him for help, stopping Gi-hun's progress on the next two "green lights". Running out of time, Gi-hun pulls himself free and Yeong-uk is shot, this time fatally.
Eventually, some players reach the finish line, including Sae-byeok, Deok-su, Sang-woo and Il-nam. Gi-hun almost makes it to the finish line when he trips over the corpse of another player. He is nearly caught by the doll, but Player 199, Ali Abdul, saves him by grabbing his jacket and keeping him still until the doll looks away. The two make it to the end just as the timer ends. The rest of the players who did not finish (including Player 309) are then eliminated. The roof of the game room closes, revealing that they are on a secluded island.
After the first game, all surviving players are brought back to the dormitory. The guards enter, congratulate the players for winning the first game, and state that 255 players were eliminated. Some players beg to leave, but a guard explains that the games are not punishment, but rather a second chance.
After being reminded that quitting means death, Sang-woo invokes the third clause of the consent form, saying that the games can end by a majority vote. The guards agree but first reveal a giant, transparent piggy bank being filled with cash totaling ₩25.5 billion, explaining that each elimination adds ₩100 million to the prize pool, with the final prize pot totaling ₩45.6 billion. Players are shown a voting booth and given a choice to vote—circle to stay, X to leave. However, leaving means forfeiting the prize money.
Gi-hun is the first to vote, and votes to end the game. Some players follow suit, while others like Sang-woo argue to continue for the prize money. Tensions rise, nearly leading to a fight until the guards step in. Supporters of the game insist life outside offers no better hope; here, they at least have a chance to win money and pay off their debts. Ultimately, with the vote tied at 100-100, the deciding vote falls to Player 001, the old man with the brain tumor. He selects to quit the game.
With that, everyone is dropped off back on the mainland, with the promise that if a majority of people want to continue the games after a few days, the games will be restarted. Gi-hun is dumped with Sae-byeok, the pickpocket who stole his money. Gi-hun immediately goes to a police station and tries to report the game. However, the officers think his story sounds too ridiculous to be true, to the point that they not only refuse to believe him but also mistake him for a crazy person. It's not helped when the business card he gives as proof of the games is redirected to a wrong number, then a disconnected line. Detective Hwang Jun-ho, who has been searching for his missing brother, finds an invitation card in his apartment which was from the game, leading him to suspect Gi-hun is telling the truth.
Gi-hun, not finding his mother at home, searches for her on the street and runs into Sang-woo, who is too afraid to face his own mother and instead watches her from a distance as she organizes her fish store. Sang-woo confesses that he’s ₩6 billion in debt due to a series of bad investments in futures trading. He had even put his mother’s store up as collateral in one of those dealings and cannot pay any of it back. Soon after, Gi-hun receives a call from the Emergency Medical Center informing him that his mother has been diagnosed with severe diabetes and may need to have her feet amputated. That night, despite the doctors’ advice and Gi-hun’s desperate pleas, she leaves the hospital and refuses treatment. She reminds Gi-hun that she had canceled all their health insurance and emptied their meager savings to support his gambling addiction, which is why they can’t afford the treatment and hospitalization needed for recovery. Racked with guilt, Gi-hun swears he’ll make things right and get the money.
Desperate to save his mother, Gi-hun tries to seek help from his childhood friend Park Jung-bae, but fails to convince him to offer a job. He later visits a convenience store, where he unexpectedly encounters Player 001. The old man claims he has a friend in the neighborhood and wonders if their meeting is destiny. They share ramyeon and soju, and the old man reveals that he has decided to return to the games, remarking that he doesn’t have long to live anyway—and that the outside world feels like a worse hell than the games. He states that he would rather risk playing, thinking he might even win, than wait around to die slowly from his brain tumor.
As a last resort, Gi-hun turns to his ex-wife Eun-ji for help, only to learn that she and her husband are also barely making ends meet. An argument erupts over Gi-hun’s failure to be a responsible father to Ga-yeong. Her stepfather offers to give Gi-hun the money—on the condition that he cut off all contact with Ga-yeong. Infuriated by the proposal, Gi-hun refuses the money and storms out. On his way home, he encounters Jun-ho, who questions him about the business card and the games. Gi-hun lies, claiming he made it all up. Even after Jun-ho reveals that he needs help to find his missing brother, Gi-hun turns him down, feeling powerless. When Gi-hun arrives home, however, he finds another card—an invitation to return to the games. Haunted by Il-nam’s words and overwhelmed by his mother’s medical crisis, Gi-hun ultimately decides to return.
The players then wake up back in the facility. Through conversations, Gi-hun forms an alliance with Player 001, Sang-woo, and Ali. They eat together and speculate about the upcoming game. The next challenge takes place in a playground-like room with four doors marked by shapes: circle, triangle, star, and umbrella. Each player must choose one and stand in front of it. Gi-hun's group splits up to cover different shapes; Ali gets the circle, Sang-woo gets the triangle, Player 001 gets the star, and Gi-hun gets the umbrella. Meanwhile, Byeong-gi gets a triangle, Deok-su and Player 212 each get a star, and Player 067 follows Sang-woo's choice to get a triangle as well. After receiving small circular metal containers containing a candy containing thier chosen shapes, the game is revealed to be Sugar Honeycombs, horrifying Gi-hun as he had picked the hardest shape of all.
The announcer explains the rules, and players begin carefully cutting their shapes from the dalgona candy. When Player 369 accidentally breaks his shape (an umbrella), he's shot on the spot, his body and blood sliding down the playground as a warning. Panic spreads, and many other players are eliminated after making similar mistakes as Gi-hun watches in horror.
Gi-hun during the Sugar Honeycombs game
With only a few minutes left, Gi-hun struggles to complete his dalgona. His sweat eventually lands on the dalgona, prompting him to lick it. He inspects it again and realizes licking the candy will soften the sugar and shape's outline, allowing him to carve out the shape safely. Other players, including Player 001 and some members of Deok-su's team, soon notice and copy his method. Even the supervisors are surprised by the sudden shift. Using this tactic—and a lighter in Deok-su’s case—Deok-su, his team members, the old man, and finally Gi-hun (who had only a second to spare) all managed to finish in time and advance.
After Deok-su and his team stood in line twice during lunch, a few players were denied food. Player 271 confronts him and is beaten to death. Gi-hun begs the guards to intervene, but they do nothing—the player is listed as eliminated, and more money is added to the prize pool. The group then realizes players can kill each other without consequence. Later, Gi-hun sees Deok-su’s gang watching Sae-byeok and invites her to join his team for safety. She says she trusts no one, but Gi-hun replies that in these games, trust isn’t about choice—it’s survival.
Gi-hun with his team during the Special Game
During the Special Game, Sae-byeok seeks safety with Gi-hun’s team, reminding him of his earlier invitation. When Deok-su attacks her, Gi-hun pushes her away just in time, sparking a brawl between the two groups. Sae-byeok is injured, but Sang-woo and Gi-hun defend her. Deok-su argues that killing helps everyone’s odds, but Gi-hun insists they protect teammates, including Sae-byeok. The fighting only stops when Oh Il-nam (Player 001) pleads from atop a bed, and the guards intervene. Jun-ho (disguised as a Manager) approaches Gi-hun, and asks if he knows someone named "Hwang In-ho." Gi-hun states that they don't use their names here. Later, the team bonds and— at Gi-hun's request, introduces themselves: Gi-hun, Ali Abdul from Pakistan, Kang Sae-byeok, and Sang-woo. However, Il-nam struggles to remember his name.
As the players head for the third game, players are told to form teams of 10. Sang-woo urges Gi-hun to recruit more men, and the group searches for teammates. Ali bonds with Player 276, then recruits Player 244. Sae-byeok brings in Ji-yeong (Player 240), later leading to Sang-woo worrying how their team seems very weak. Han Mi-nyeo (Player 212) overhears this and joins them uninvited, insisting she’s tougher than the others. The timer runs out, and the game begins.
Gi-hun and his team playing "Tug of War"
The teams are brought outside, where a guard explains the next game and its rules: Tug of War. After Deok-su’s team swiftly defeats Team 7, Teams 4 (Gi-hun’s) and 5 face off next. Il-nam notices Team 4’s low morale due to their opponents being all men and tries to emphasize that Tug of War relies not just strength, but also teamwork and strategy. Though some dismiss him as old, Gi-hun insists they listen. Il-nam shares techniques—alternating rope sides, planting feet forward, and holding the rope under their arms—which the team adopts. Chained to the rope, Gi-hun leads with Ali anchoring. As the game begins, Team 4 is able to hold their ground, preventing Team 5 from making much progress. Team 5’s leader eventually slips, giving Team 4 an opening. However, Team 5 recovers, nearly pulling Team 4 off the platform. Sang-woo suggests advancing three steps, which initially alarms the team, but Gi-hun encourages taking the risk since they had nothing to lose. This move ultimately disrupts Team 5’s balance, causing them to fall. Seizing their chance, Team 4 immediately pulls back and eventually wins. After the game, Gi-hun notices his hands bleeding from the intense effort of the game.
At dinner, Sang-woo warns his team to be ready in case another riot breaks out. Sae-byeok reveals she saw a player killed by an ally during the chaos and says she trusts no one. Gi-hun urges the group to build a barricade; everyone pitches in, including Sae-byeok, who helps Ji-yeong move their beds. Gi-hun sees Deok-su approaching and warns him not to trust his violent underlings, as they might target him. Deok-su orders his team to rest but remains paranoid throughout the night. Sang-woo and Gi-hun suggest their team take turns keeping watch in pairs. While on guard with Il-nam, Gi-hun shares his story about a workplace strike and a colleague’s death with Il-nam. Later, Gi-hun, seeing Il-nam feeling unwell, accepts water from Sae-byeok, who insists on keeping watch as planned and allowing Il-nam to rest.
The next day, the players are woken by an alarm and told to line up. Gi-hun notices Il-nam has wet himself and discreetly covers him with his tracksuit jacket. The players are then guided to the fourth game. As they walk through the stairwell, they see the bodies of Byeong-gi and his allies hanging, while the Front Man announces the games are meant to promote equality. In the white room, players are told to form teams of two for the next game. Not certain of the next game, most players end up choosing partners they trust. Gi-hun watches Sang-woo pair with Ali, thinking they’ll do well. He then sees Il-nam alone and chooses to partner with him. Together, they enter the fourth game: Marbles. Each pair must win all of their partner’s marbles within 30 minutes using any sub-game, without violence. The twist shocks the players—only one of each pair will survive.
Gi-hun becoming gganbu with Oh Il-nam before their game of Marbles
During the marbles game, Il-nam appears confused, misinterpreting the arena for his old neighborhood and wandering off in search of his house. Gi-hun struggles to get him to play, and when Il-nam finally agrees, Gi-hun begins losing. With only one marble left, Gi-hun lies about Il-nam’s bets to win back marbles, taking advantage of his memory loss. Just as Gi-hun believes he’s won, Il-nam reveals he has one marble left. Gi-hun panics, but Il-nam continues wandering until he proposes one final bet. Gi-hun is reluctant, but then Il-nam reveals he knew about the deception all along and was letting Gi-hun win. Deeply ashamed, Gi-hun breaks down in tears. Nonetheless, Il-nam gives him his last marble, calling them “gganbu” (people who share everything with one another). They hug as Gi-hun weeps, and Il-nam says their time together have the games more enjoyable for him. As the timer runs out, Gi-hun is forced to leave. Il-nam tells him his full name—Oh Il-nam—before Gi-hun is escorted away. A gunshot follows, and Il-nam’s elimination is announced. Gi-hun continues to walk off, heartbroken.
Back in the dorms, the mood is solemn—most players have just lost someone they trusted. Gi-hun is visibly shaken, while Sae-byeok eats in silence. Sang-woo, seemingly unfazed, tells Gi-hun not to dwell on Il-nam, calling him just a stranger he had met only a few days ago. He points out that Player 069 lost his wife (Player 070) and watches as the man breaks down, begging for the games to end. Sang-woo harshly reminds him that quitting would make their sacrifices meaningless. The others can only watch in quiet sorrow, knowing Sang-whoo is right.
The next morning, the players discover Player 069 has taken his own life out of grief by hanging. Most are stunned, but Deok-su is pleased by the reduced competition. The 16 remaining players are brought to the fifth game and find mannequins with numbered vests from 1 to 16. Instructed to choose a vest, most players grab middle numbers, eventually leaving only 1-4 and 13-16 available. Gi-hun hesitates and is ultimately left with Vests 1 and 16. Just before he picks to go first, Player 096 asks for Vest 1 instead. Gi-hun relents, taking Vest 16 for himself.
The players enter a circus-themed room with two rows of glass panels suspended over a drop. The PA announces the fifth game: Glass Stepping Stones. In each row, one glass panel is tempered and can hold two people; the other glass panel will shatter under a single step. Players must cross within 16 minutes. Player 096, wearing Vest 1, realizes he must go first and looks to Gi-hun in horror; the later can only look away sympathetically. Hesitant to move, 096 is pressured by the others, and Deok-su threatens to push him. He finally jumps, landing safely on the first panel. However, the next step is fatal, and he falls to his death.
As the game continues, players at the front fall, revealing a path for those behind. Gi-hun realizes the last few may cross without guessing, but Sang-woo warns that delays up front could still endanger them. Sure enough, when Deok-su reaches the front, he refuses to move. Mi-nyeo taunts him, then grabs him in an act of revenge and pulls them both to their deaths. With time running out, only four players remain: Gi-hun, Sae-byeok, Sang-woo, and Player 017, who has experience as a glassmaker. He identifies tempered glass by its appearance and sound, helping them progress—until the Front Man turns off the lights for the last set of glass panels. With no way to tell the panels apart, Sang-woo shoves 017 to his death, revealing the final trick panel and allowing him to finish. Though shocked, Sae-byeok and Gi-hun can only rush ahead as the timer approaches zero. The three survivors reach the end just as time runs out. The panels then explode behind them, sending shards of glass into the air and among the three of them.
The three players return to the lobby. Gi-hun and Sang-woo argue over Player 017’s death, while Sae-byeok quietly rests. Before tensions rise, staff members arrive to congratulate them as the finalists and present boxes containing tuxedos to change into. A final feast is then held as a token of gratitude. Gi-hun and Sang-woo eat while watching each other closely; Sae-byeok, visibly weak, barely touches her food. Afterwards, the workers clear the table but leave the steak knives behind, which the players quietly keep as they return to their beds.
Gi-hun's final conversation with Kang Sae-byeok
As the finalists rest, Gi-hun approaches Sae-byeok. She readies her knife, but he assures her he means no harm and hides his own. They talk briefly about their families and promise to care for each other’s loved ones. When Gi-hun notices Sang-woo asleep, he considers attacking—but Sae-byeok stops him, reminding him he’s not that kind of person. Soon after, Sae-byeok collapses, bleeding heavily from her wound. Gi-hun rushes to get help, but when Workers arrive, they silently pass him with a coffin. He turns to find Sang-woo standing over Sae-byeok, a bloodied knife in hand. Gi-hun cradles Sae-byeok's lifeless body, devastated. Enraged, he charges at Sang-woo with his knife, but both are restrained by Soldiers. As Sae-byeok’s body is placed in the coffin and taken away, Gi-hun breaks down in anguish.
Gi-hun and Sang-woo are now facing off in the final round: Squid Game. Gi-hun wins the coin toss and chooses offense; Sang-woo is left to play defense. A Manager leads them to the original Red Light, Green Light field and explains the rules. As the game begins, Gi-hun advances through the early stages with ease. When it starts to rain, Sang-woo defends and justifies killing Sae-byeok as mercy—but Gi-hun doesn’t believe him. Sang-woo ultimately admits he killed her to stop a vote that could’ve ended the game and left him with nothing.
Gi-hun offering Sang-woo a chance to end the game, which he rejects and then kills himself, making Gi-hun the winner of the competition
The two players eventually abandon the rules and begin fighting to the death. Sang-woo gains the upper hand by stabbing Gi-hun’s leg, but Gi-hun bites his shin and turns the tide, disarming and pinning him. However, instead of killing him, Gi-hun stabs the knife into the ground beside Sang-woo and heads toward the Squid's head to win by default. Before stepping over the head, he suddenly turns back and invokes the game's third clause, asking to end the game together. The two reflect on their past, and Gi-hun offers his hand. However, Sang-woo apologizes, grabs the knife, and fatally stabs himself in the neck. Gi-hun catches him, devastated, as Sang-woo mutters, “My mum…,” implying he wants Gi-hun to care for her. Helpless, Gi-hun can only sob over his friend’s death as he’s declared the winner of the games.
After winning, Gi-hun is blindfolded and tied in a limo with the unmasked Front Man, who congratulates him and calls the players mere horses in a race. Before Gi-hun can question him further, the Front Man knocks him out with sleeping gas. Gi-hun wakes on the street, is helped by an evangelist, and chokes up a credit card. After checking the credit card at an ATM for the cash prize, he heads home and encounters Sang-woo's mother. Avoiding her questions and still burdened by guilt, he stays silent and continues home. When he reaches his mother's home, he finds her on the floor, dead. Too devastated to cry, he can only lie down beside her, hugging her.
2021
You saw it, didn't you? You lost.
Gi-hun's final words to Oh Il-nam
Gi-hun finds out that Il-nam created the Squid Games
A year later, a disheveled Gi-hun is summoned to a bank, where a bank manager discusses his untouched fortune. Afterwards, he drinks alone by the river, where a flower seller persuades him to buy a bouquet. Inside the flowers, he finds a black envelope with a Squid Game card, directing him to the Seoul Sky Building. There, he discovers Il-nam lying in a bed, nearly at death's doors. Shocked to learn Il-nam was the game's creator, Gi-hun angrily demands answers. Il-nam proposes a final bet: will a drunk man outside get help before midnight? As they wait, Il-nam explains he created the games for entertainment and thanks Gi-hun for rekindling forgotten memories. Just before midnight, the drunk man is finally helped and Il-nam soon after passes away.
Gi-hun noticing the salesman again
Following this, Gi-hun finally takes steps forward in his new life. He goes to get a haircut and later retrieves Kang Cheol from the orphanage. He takes him to Sang-woo’s mother, who happily agrees to raise him. When she checks Cheol’s luggage bag for warm clothes, she instead finds stacks of money and a note from Gi-hun. She calls out to Gi-hun, but he’s already gone. At the train station, Gi-hun spots the same salesman playing ddakji and tries to stop him, but the man boards a train and escapes. Gi-hun grabs the Squid Game card from the new player and warns him not to go. Later, as he's about to board a plane to visit his daughter, Gi-hun calls the number on the card. The Front Man answers and warns him to forget about the Games. Instead, Gi-hun turns back, vowing revenge. He soon discovers a tracking chip behind his ear and removes it using a paper cutter knife that he had purchased, He then uses his wealth to hire private detectives and former loan sharks to track the Game's recruiters and find the island. He also buys a motel and stockpiles firearms to practice marksmanship in secret. But after three years, his endeavors bear no fruit.
2024
Someone like you... you don't get it, you couldn't know... or understand how it felt. What it was like to be in there, what I did to make it out. You don't have any idea... what the game is really like.
Seong Gi-hun to The Salesman
Three years after winning the Squid Games, Gi-hun is still searching relentlessly for the recruiter, while funding his former loan shark Kim Jeong-rae, Jeong-rae's lackeys, and his associate Choi Woo-seok to assist him. One day, Kim and Choi finally spot the recruiter playing Ddakji with a new target at a Seoul train station and alert Gi-hun by phone; Gi-hun immediately sets out.
Choi and Kim tail the recruiter from a distance into a park, where the recruiter offers homeless people there a choice between a lottery ticket and a packaged bread—only one per person. Most pick the ticket, which he lets them scratch with a coin, but none win. Smirking, the recruiter drops the untouched bread to the ground and violently stomps on it. When a homeless man protests the waste, the recruiter coldly replies that they chose to waste it over greed. Hidden nearby, Kim and Choi report everything to Gi-hun, who has been pulled over for speeding. After receiving a ticket, he speeds off. The junior officer mentions the electronics in Gi-hun's car, prompting the senior officer—Jun-ho—to check the ID and freeze at the name: Seong Gi-hun. Meanwhile, the recruiter hops into an orange-yellow taxi, and Kim and Choi jump into a white cab to pursue.
Kim and Choi eventually follow the recruiter into a small alley—only to be ambushed and beaten unconscious. They awaken tied to chairs, gagged, and facing each other. With chilling amusement, the recruiter forces them into a twisted game of rock-paper-scissors mixed with Russian roulette, which ends in Kim's death. Choi is then restrained to a bed in another room. Meanwhile, Jun-ho, investigating Gi-hun, traces Gi-hun's base of operations to an old pink motel.
Gi-hun confronts the Recruiter
The Recruiter confronts Gi-hun at his hideout, curious how he survived the Squid Games. Gi-hun mocks him as a lapdog to the elites, provoking the Recruiter to reveal that he once killed his own father during the Games to prove his loyalty. In return, he was promoted to a recruiter and given a revolver. Viewing the poor as worthless trash, he challenges Gi-hun to a special game of Russian roulette—the cylinder is not rotated, making each round deadlier. Both survive two rounds as the Recruiter taunts Gi-hun with unsettling smiles and slow, theatrical gestures. As Gi-hun (who shot first) faces a 1-in-2 chance, the Recruiter tempts him to break the rules, shoot him, and steal the key to meet the one person he wants to see (the Front Man)—but only if Gi-hun admits he's just lucky trash like everyone else. Gi-hun refuses, pulls the trigger, and survives. With both men now certain that the sixth—and last—chamber is holding the bullet, Gi-hun turns the challenge back, daring the Recruiter to cheat and kill him—saying it would only prove he’s nothing but a masked dog serving his masters. Apparently shaken, the Recruiter turns the gun on himself and dies instantly.
Jun-ho arrives at Gi-hun’s base and hears this gunshot from outside. Rushing inside, he quickly finds Choi Woo-seok restrained and frees him, before discovering Gi-hun and the Recruiter’s bloodied corpse. Suspecting murder, Jun-ho tries to arrest Gi-hun but is knocked out by Choi with a fire hydrant. Bound and cuffed in the showers, Jun-ho wakes to converse with Gi-hun. They recall a meeting during Jun-ho’s infiltration of the 33rd Squid Game, and Gi-hun reveals the Recruiter’s death was the result of losing in a game. Gi-hun reveals his mission to end the Games by finding the overseer of the game. Gi-hun asks if Jun-ho knows who runs the Games; Jun-ho denies it (knowing that Gi-hun is trying to hunt down his own brother). Jun-ho eventually convinces Gi-hun to accept help, despite Choi expressing his distrust with police. Gi-hun then shows his prize money, convincing Choi, and reveals a weapons cache, assuring Jun-ho they’re ready to fight.
Warned by Jun-ho about the island’s heavy security, Choi Woo-seok recruits ex-marines with promises of payment. These ex-marines are then shown training with Gi-hun's firearms in a motel room. Later, a dentist visits Gi-hun to extract a tooth. The tooth is replaced with a prosthetic concealing a tracker, allowing Jun-ho and Choi to monitor his location during the mission. Choi pays the dentist in cash before he departs.
Using the address from the card Gi-hun took from the Recruiter, he, Woo-seok, and Jun-ho arrive at a mysterious party. There, a pink-masked staffer escorts Gi-hun to a limo, where he converses with the Front Man through a piggy bank. Gi-hun demands to shut down the Squid Games, but the Front Man insists they’ll only end when the world changes. Gi-hun then asks to return to the Games, suggesting the VIPs would be thrilled to see a past winner re-enter. The Front Man eventually relents and fills the limo with sleeping gas, knocking Gi-hun unconscious. Unbeknownst to the Front Man, Gi-hun plans to sabotage the Games from within—while Jun-ho, Woo-seok, Park Yeong-gil (a sailor who once saved Jun-ho), and a team of ex-marines work to locate and raid the island.
Gi-hun guiding players on how to survive during "Red Light, Green Light"
Gi-hun wakes up as a contestant in the 37th Squid Game and realizes his tracker hidden in his tooth has been removed, ruining his original plan. In the first game, Red Light, Green Light, he warns others and helps many survive. He then reveals his past experience to the players, gaining their trust. Among those drawn to him are Kang Dae-ho (Player 388), a friendly ex-Marine; Oh Young-il (Player 001), secretly the Front Man in disguise; and his old friend Park Jung-bae (Player 390).
When staff return, several players beg to leave, fearing the staff are tormenting them over their debts. The staff deny this, saying the games offer a chance to earn money. Someone mentions the murders, but Gi-hun reminds the soldiers that players can vote to leave. A close vote, which ends with Young-il/the Front Man casting the deciding vote, forces all to stay and play the second game.
Gi-hun during the Six-Legged Pentathlon.
To Gi-hun’s surprise, instead of Sugar Honeycombs, the second game is the “Six-Legged Pentathlon,” where teams of five race to complete five children’s games under a five-minute limit—or face elimination. Kim Jun-hee (Player 222), who is pregnant, joins Gi-hun’s team. They play last and narrowly win. Despite Gi-hun’s warnings, a second vote again favors staying, forcing all contestants into the third game, Mingle.
In Mingle, players stand on a rotating platform; when it stops, a number is announced and they must quickly form teams of that size, rush into rooms, and lock the doors before time runs out. Failure to do so or being in the wrong-sized group means elimination. Gi-hun and many of his allies and friends pass this round, including Park Jung-bae, Kim Jun-hee, Oh Young-il, Kang Dae-ho, Jang Geum-ja (Player 149), Park Yong-sik (Player 007) and Cho Hyun-ju (Player 120). Afterwards, the third vote produces a 50-50 tie between those wanting to leave (the “X”s, including Gi-hun and allies) and those wanting to stay (the “O”s), triggering a re-vote per the consent form.
Following the vote, a bloody brawl erupted in the bathrooms between those wanting to quit and those determined to continue. Five players were killed, but the survivors soon realized they could kill freely outside the official games to increase the prize money. Two factions soon formed, with the Team 'O' players intent on slaughtering the Team 'X' players. Aware of the coming bloodshed from his past experience, Gi-hun rallies allies to capture the Front Man and end the games. As the lights go out, the pro-game faction rushes in the darkness, murdering sleeping players and igniting a brutal fight reminiscent of three years earlier. Gi-hun’s group stays hidden beneath bedding, reluctantly sacrificing fellow anti-game players to maintain their cover.
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 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, 324, 145, and 246, 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 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. 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 shot in a non-fatal area by Kang No-eul and asked him to fake his death.
Gi-hun surrendering following the end of his attempted revolt
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 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 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.
The rebellion was ultimately a failure, with almost every member of the uprising killed in the ensuing battle with the guards, only Gi-hun, Hyung-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 60 players remaining to carry on the games, which will presumably continue as normal.
He was unconsciously placed back in the Dormitory room with the other players to continue playing. Gi-hun regains consciousness and begs the guards to kill him after the failed rebellion. Gi-hun abstains from voting as he was handcuffed for starting the revolt. Gi-hun angrily blames Kang Dae-ho for not bring the ammo magazines back. He enters the fourth game and picks the red ball, revealing himself as a seeker with a knife. After he finds Seon-nyeo, he advances on her, preparing to kill her. However, she begs him to spare her life and instead advises Gi-hun to kill Dae-ho to remove his bad karma; he relents and starts looking for Dae-ho, eventually finding him. As Gi-hun and Dae-ho face each other, they fight over the death of players that voted to stop thinking he caused their death in the Special Game and the failed rebellion. Afterwards, Gi-hun strangles Dae-ho to death, passing the game. After the fourth game, realizing he had killed his own friend and he blamed himself for failed rebellion, Gi-hun tries to commit suicide by putting his knife on the chin to stab himself, only to be stopped by the soldiers, who shot the knife out of his hands and knocked him off. He was then brought back to the lobby room and was handcuffed once again, abstaining from the vote once again.
As the players head for the fifth game, Gi-hun carriesKim Jun-hee's baby as he saw that Kim Jun-hee cannot walk normally due to her broken bone on her left foot during the fourth game. In the Jump Rope game, he begs the manager to help Jun-hee and her baby live as they cannot handle the game but the latter refuses to. Gi-hun protects the baby and bravely & carefully crosses the narrow bridge without being hit by the metal rope. Gi-hun and Jun-hee’s baby managed to cross the bridge, passing the game. The remaining players start crossing the narrow bridge while avoiding being hit by the metal rope but Player 096 attempts to kill the players by blocking their way to split the prize money between Gi-hun while he tries to protect them. Player 096 starts to kill Gi-hun for ruining his plan, but the latter stabbed Player 096 in the right eye with Gi-hun’s nail, threw him off the platform, causing 096 to be hit by the metal rope and fall to his death, allowing the players to cross the end of the bridge. Gi-hun tries to save Jun-hee but she commits an altruistic sacrifice by falling to her death as the fifth game ends.
Gi-hun participates in the feast for being one of the 8 (9 including the baby) finalists. He casts his first vote since the conclusion of the third game, once again voting 'X,' only to be outvoted by a majority of the players voting 'O,' thus forcing everyone to participate in the final game. That evening, Gi-hun is summoned to the Front Man's office. There, the Front Man reveals himself as Hwang In-ho, aka Young-il, shocking Gi-hun as he realizes that the mastermind was the very man whom he had bonded with earlier in the games. In-ho gives him a knife, warning him that killing the other players to save himself and the baby would be his best choice. He also gives him his word that if Gi-hun and the baby were the last two players left, the final game would not be able to commence. Heading back to the dorms, Gi-hun approaches Player 100 and prepares to stab him with the knife, but upon remember Kang Sae-byeok's words, spares Player 100's life.
The next day, the players are taken to the final game, Sky Squid Game. Gi-hun was immediately in trouble due being in the minority of players still remaining in the game. After Player 125 was killed by Player 333 in the first round, things came to a head at the second round when the other players tried to target him and the baby next. However, Gi-hun warns that if they both are eliminated, the final round would force the group to decide amongst themselves who would be eliminated. The group tries to circumvent this by separating him from the baby and tying their jackets around Player 336 to create a makeshift rope, who was chosen to forcefully separate the baby from Gi-hun. Upon separating the baby, Player 333 was to use the metal rod and push Gi-hun off the platform. However, Gi-hun brings out his knife and cuts the rope, before threatening player 336 at knifepoint. Player 333 yells at Gi-hun to move, and he does so, narrowly avoiding Player 333's charge as he knocks the metal rod into 336, sending 336 off the platform to his death instead. Player 333 declares that he is actually an ally of Gi-hun, before the two of them turn their attentions to the four other players, whose stunned looks turn into terrified ones upon seeing both Gi-hun and 333 armed with weapons. The four remaining players try to negotiate a fair game of chance to decide the final elimination in the final round, but 333 refuses, saying that the majority had the power to betray him and Gi-hun at any moment. Gi-hun is then informed of Player 333's relationship with Jun-hee and the baby, but as he is hesitating to believe him, his attention is turned to player 039, who is being beat-up by 100, 203, and 353. Player 100 proposes that they can bring Player 039 and use him as the final elimination in the final round to allow everyone else to split the prize money equally. Gi-hun refuses, declaring that they will draw a lottery for it, with the baby being excluded. Seeing Gi-hun's refusal to cooperate, multiple fights break out, resulting in Gi-hun and 333 killing players 203 and 353, respectively. Player 100, seeing the tides turned on him, cowardly tries to plead for his life, but 333 ruthlessly sends him off the platform. Player 039, who was badly injured and did not want to sacrifice himself for the remaining 3 players, voluntarily falls off the platform as well just as the second round concludes.
Fate
We are not horses. We are humans. Humans are...
Gi-hun's final words
In the third and final round, 333 goes onto the final platform, but comes back with another metal rod to keep Gi-hun and the baby at bay. Following a heated confrontation, Gi-hun relents and leaves the baby in the hands of 333. Just as the bridge is closing between the two platforms, he retrieves his knife from Player 203's body and leaps onto the final platform with 333. A brutal fight ensues, which ends when both 333 and Gi-hun are left hanging on the side of the platform. Player 333 eventually falls to his death after the jacket he's holding onto rips, and Gi-hun narrowly manages to save himself. As he steps back onto the platform, he realizes that the button had never been pressed to start the final round; thus, either Gi-hun has to eliminate himself or the baby to end the games. After pressing the button to start the final round, he cradles Jun-hee's baby softly, planting a kiss on her forehead, before laying her down safely on the platform. He turns to the cameras and says his final words, "We are not horses. We are humans. Humans are...". He then fulfills his final promise by committing an altruistic sacrifice, falling off the platform to his death and saving the baby's life.
Legacy
The fire in Gi-hun's lifeless eyes as the island explodes.
Following the conclusion of the games, In-ho steps out to momentarily look at Gi-hun's corpse, before heading up the final platform to collect the baby and carry her off the platform to safety. Gi-hun's corpse is last seen as the Front Man sets the island to self-destruct and distant explosions can be seen through Gi-hun's eyes.
Six months later, In-ho would deliver a package containing Gi-hun's final belongings to his daughter, Seong Ga-yeong, which consisted of Gi-hun's tracksuit and a small black envelope containing a credit card of Gi-hun's leftover money won from the Squid Games.
Relationships
See Seong Gi-hun/Relationships
Murders Committed
| Episode | Character | Image | Method |
| A Fair World | Team 5 (Tug of War) | 
|
Pulled off the Tug of War Platform by Gi-Hun’s team to their deaths, losing the game. |
| Friend or Foe | Soldier | Insert image or GIF here. | Shot in the head or chest during Revolt |
| Insert image or GIF here. | Shot in the head during Revolt | ||
| Insert image or GIF here. | Shot in the head or chest during Revolt | ||
| Insert image or GIF here. | Shot in the chest during Revolt | ||
| Manager | Insert image or GIF here. | Shot several times in the chest during Revolt | |
| Insert image or GIF here. | Shot in the head during Revolt | ||
| Insert image or GIF here. | Shot off-screen either by him or Park Jung-bae during Revolt | ||
| Insert image or GIF here. | |||
| Insert image or GIF here. | Shot in the chest during Revolt | ||
| The Starry Night | Kang Dae-ho | 
|
Strangled to death |
| 222 | Player 096 | 
|
Stabbed in the left eye in self-defense, thrown towards the bridge, leading him to be flung off by the rope and fall to his death |
| ⭘△☐ | Kim Gi-min | 
|
Stabbed in heart to death |
| Humans Are... | Lee Myung-gi | 
|
Fell to his death after fighting with Gi-hun and losing grip on torn fabric of Gi-hun's finalist jacket |
| Himself |   |
Committed suicide by jumping off circle pillar during Sky Squid Game |
Trivia
- Seong Gi-hun's surname Seong (성;成) is an uncommon Korean family name that is officially written with only one hanja, meaning "succeed" or "accomplish". The name traces back to only a single lineage, the Changnyeong Seong clan (창녕 성씨;昌寧 成氏) in South Korea.
- As noted by Hwang In-ho, the hangul of this name can also literally mean "last name".
- Seong Gi-hun is approximately 5' 11" (180 cm) tall, the same height as his actor.
- Gi-hun, Hwang In-ho and Cho Sang-woo are the only characters that appeared in all nine episodes of Season One.
- Gi-hun and Hwang In-ho are the only characters that appeared in all seven episodes of Season Two.
- Gi-hun, Hwang In-ho, Lee Myung-gi, Masked Officer, Kang No-eul and Park Gyeong-seok are the only characters that appeared in all six episodes of Season Three.
- In "Hell", he swears he won't ask Kang Sae-byeok for his money back on his mother's life. He later breaks this, which foreshadows his late mother's demise in "One Lucky Day".
- According to his player file, Seong Gi-hun's resident registration number is 741031-1185623 and his address is 11, Samyang-ro 12-gil, Ssangmun 2-dong, Dobong-gu, Seoul.
- As of 2024, Gi-hun was renting and regularly driving a Hyundai Santa Fe.
- Gi-hun is lactose intolerant.
- Seong Gi-hun is the only contestant to reach the final game twice.
- Gi-hun set a record for outlasting more players in Squid Game than anyone else, having outlasted a total of 909 players combined.
- He is the final player to die in Season 3, and also the final player to die overall.
- Gi-hun is one of two characters to appear in all episodes of Squid Game, alongside Hwang In-ho.
- While Hwang In-ho doesn't show his face in every episode, he still appears in his Front Man uniform and mask.
- This makes Gi-hun the only character to have a facial appearance in every episode of the series.
- The fate of Song Gi-hun caused shock and controversy among fans. Although his body was shown in close-up, some speculated that he had survived, as his eyes did not appear lifeless. However, even if Gi-hun had survived the fall, the explosion of the island would have killed him. Director Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed in an interview why he chose to kill the character, confirming that the character had actually died.[13]
- However, the rumor about Gi-hun's possible survival was not dispelled, as YouTube users started creating fake trailers for the fourth season and the American spin-off, which were assembled from clips from the third season and fake trailers created using a neural network, where Gi-hun was resuscitated. Despite these rumors, Gi-hun is currently dead, either from a fall or an explosion.
- Gi-hun was briefly believed to have been the only person to win Squid Game twice both by himself and the VIPs, until the two parties realized he had never pushed the button to begin the final round. This quickly rendered his short-lived victory null.
- Seong Gi-hun is the last character to die in the series overall.
Mistakes
- After guessing "0426" as his mother's bank PIN in "Red Light, Green Light" and getting it wrong, Gi-hun exclaims that he swears her PIN number was his birthday, hinting that he was born on April 26. His birthday is explicitly shown and stated to be October 31, 1974 in the rest of the show.
- In "A Fair World", Seong Gi-hun's player file shows a normal portrait of him, though he is broadly smiling on the picture that was taken of him that appears in the Squid Game control room.
Behind the scenes
Seong Gi-hun is the main protagonist of the series Squid Game. He is portrayed by actor Lee Jung-jae and was voiced in the English dub by Greg Chun. The younger version of Gi-hun is portrayed by actor Kim Yeon-ung and in the English dub was voiced by Nathan Yi, who also dubbed Kang Sae-byeok's brother, Kang Cheol.
Director Hwang Dong-hyuk confirmed in an interview that Gi-hun dying his hair red is purely symbolic. It is meant to show that now Gi-hun is filled with rage and is unable to return to who he once was. Regardless, by Season 2, Gi-hun's hair has returned to it's natural black color.
Dong-hyuk stated that he perceives Gi-hun and Sang-woo as fraternal twins, and part of the casting of the two characters was to make them look like they are because he wanted them to emulate this relationship. Dong-hyuk explains that fraternal twins are very close in childhood, but look different despite coming from the same mother, and they usually go on different paths in life.[8][7] In an interview, Lee Jung-jae also stated that they are not biologically related, but still close as if they were.[9]
Appearances
- Season One
- Season Two
- "Bread and Lottery"
- "Halloween Party"
- "001"
- "Six Legs"
- "One More Game"
- "O X"
- "Friend or Foe"
- Season Three
Quotes
Excuse me? You bet on your future? What kind of bet was it that you used that much money? Did you get a girlfriend
Gi-hun questioning Cho Sang-woo's financial decisions in "Hell"
Did you know that Sang-woo graduated at the top of his class at Seoul National University?
Seong Gi-hun to his team in "Stick to the Team"
Uh, hello, guards. Can someone do something? Hey, didn't you hear that? A person died. That man there just died. Look, that man was killed. That bastard... That bastard just killed him. He just killed someone over there! He just died! Can't you hear me, huh? Help us now! A man just died! We shouldn't be killing each other like this!
Gi-hun shouting at the guards after Player 271's death in "Stick to the Team"
Listen, you don't trust people here because you can. You do it because you don't have anybody else.
Gi-hun to Kang Sae-byeok in "Stick to the Team"
Ssangmun-dong is just my hometown. The name is Seong Gi-hun. Seong Gi-hun of Ssangmun-dong.
Gi-hun introducing himself to his teammates in "Stick to the Team"
Okay. That's right. That's how I got caught in all this. Because I was slow, crazy incompetent. Just a dimwit who lives off his mother, but you're with me in this place. Isn't that interesting? Why is that? Ssangmun-dong's golden child, the genius Cho Sang-woo, who went to SNU, was here? Rolling around this shithole, slamming with us, simpletons, huh! Is it my fault that you're here?
Gi-hun arguing with Sang-woo in "Front Man"
So it was you that killed them. You... you killed everyone! You killed them. You're the one who killed them!
Gi-hun beating up Sang-woo in "One Lucky Day"
Look at that. There's someone who cares. You saw that, didn't you? You saw that you lost.
Gi-hun to Oh Il-nam after winning his bet in "One Lucky Day"
What's wrong? Feeling your mind start to race? That's right. Who cares about rules? The only thing you have to do now is pull that trigger once... and you could kill me right here. But... you have to admit one thing to me. All you do is put your little mask on... and do whatever Master tells you to. You roll over, heel... and wag your tail... 'cause you're their fucking dog.
Gi-hun's final words to the Recruiter in "Bread and Lottery"
We are not horses. We are humans. And humans are...
Gi-hun's last words in "Humans Are..."
Gallery
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Season 2/3
.png "Gi-hun playing red light, green light (2024).png (606 KB)")
.jpg "Seong Gi-hun (2024).jpg (2.64 MB)")
_goes_to_see_the_Front_Man.png "Seong Gi-hun (Player 456) goes to see the Front Man.png (358 KB)")
Promotional
.jpg "456(s2).jpg (1.02 MB)")
References
- ↑ Name on bank card he received after Squid Game.
- ↑ Under the traditional Korean age system, which was changed in June 2023, a year is added to a person's age after birth, meaning he would've been 47 in 2020 and 51 in 2024. His age, as stated, is given in international years.
- ↑ As briefly shown on the documents for the 33rd Squid Game in "A Fair World".
- ↑ Red Light, Green Light
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The overall competition is confirmed to be called Squid Game, and the 2020 game is confirmed to be the 33rd Squid Game, by the archived files Hwang Jun-ho reads in the episode "A Fair World".
- ↑ One Lucky Day
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Cast and Director Talk About Bringing the Korean Survival Show to Life
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Lee Jung Jae And Park Hae Soo Are Two Sides Of The Same Coin In “Squid Game”
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Squid Game: Keyword Interview with Lee Jung-jae
- ↑ "Stick to the Team"
- ↑ Gganbu
- ↑ Red Light, Green Light
- ↑ https://thedirect.com/article/squid-game-456-died-why