SQUID GAME
No. Title Directed by Written by Original release date
1 "Red Light, Green Light (Mugunghwa Kkoch-i Pideon Nal 무궁화 꽃이 피던 날)[b]" Hwang Dong-hyuk Hwang Dong-hyuk September 17, 2021
Seong Gi-hun is down on his luck, having accumulated enormous debts with loan sharks. At a train station, he is asked by a well-dressed man to play a game of ddakji for money. The man gives Gi-hun a card, inviting him to play games with higher stakes. Gi-hun accepts, is made unconscious, and taken to a mysterious location with 455 other players who awaken in a dormitory and are identified by numbers on their tracksuits. The location is managed by masked staff in red suits and overseen by the Front Man, masked in black. The players are all in dire financial straits and will be given billions of won in prize money if they win six games over six days. Gi-hun befriends Player 001, an elderly man, and recognizes among the players Cho Sang-woo, a former classmate and businessman, and Player 067, a pickpocket who stole his money. The first game is Red Light, Green Light, where those who lose are gunned down on the spot, revealing the sadistic nature of the games. Gi-hun is saved from falling by Player 199, a Pakistani foreign worker, and is able to complete the game.
2 "Hell (Ji-ok 지옥)" Hwang Dong-hyuk Hwang Dong-hyuk September 17, 2021
More than half of the players are killed in the first game, and a few horrified survivors beg to leave. According to the third clause of the game's agreement, if the majority vote to end the games, all players will be sent home, but no money will be given. The players vote, and Player 001's deciding vote has all of them sent home safely. Gi-hun goes to the police but no one believes him except Detective Hwang Jun-ho, whose missing brother received the same invitation card as Gi-hun. All players are given the chance to return to the games and many, in fact, return due to desperation, including: Gi-hun, whose mother needs surgery; Sang-woo, who is about to be arrested for financial fraud; Player 001, who has terminal brain cancer; Player 067, who wishes to get her parents out of North Korea and her little brother out of the orphanage; Player 199, who attacked his boss for withholding his wages for months; and Player 101, Deok-su, a gangster on the run from gambling debts. Jun-ho secretly follows Gi-hun when he is picked up by the game staff.
3 "The Man with the Umbrella (Usan-eul Sseun Namja 우산을 쓴 남자)" Hwang Dong-hyuk Hwang Dong-hyuk September 17, 2021
Jun-ho successfully infiltrates the games by disguising himself as a masked worker, and it is revealed that the location is a remote island. The players are now more prepared and start forming alliances. Gi-hun, Sang-woo, Player 001, and Player 199 team up. In the second game, the players are to pick a stamped shape out of a dalgona. Sang-woo recognizes the game but does not warn his teammates and chooses the simplest shape for himself. Gi-hun ends up picking the most difficult shape, an umbrella, but is able to complete the game by licking the honeycomb to melt it. Player 212, a rowdy and manipulative woman, helps Deok-su complete the game with a smuggled cigarette lighter. A scared player takes a masked staff member hostage and forces him to unmask himself. Shocked that the staff member is no older than a college kid, the player kills himself and the staff member is killed for revealing his identity.
4 "Stick to the Team (Jjollyeodo Pyeonmeokgi 쫄려도 편먹기)" Hwang Dong-hyuk Hwang Dong-hyuk September 17, 2021
Player 111, a doctor, secretly works with a handful of staff to harvest organs from dead players to sell on the black market in return for information on upcoming games. Gi-hun realizes that Sang-woo could have helped their team in the dalgona game but remains quiet. The staff foment discord among the players to weed out the weak ones. Deok-su kills another player over food, which results in the prize money being increased. After lights out, a riot erupts and numerous players are killed. Player 067 joins Gi-hun's team, who protect her from Deok-su's gang. When Player 001 begs everyone to stop, the Front Man ends the riot. Gi-hun's team exchange names to build trust: Player 199 is Ali Abdul, and Player 067 is Kang Sae-byeok. Player 001, who is dying from a brain tumor, has trouble remembering his name. At night, the guard next door to Jun-ho sends him a message by coughing in Morse code. In the third game, players are told to form groups of ten. Sae-byeok recruits Player 240, a girl close to her age. Deok-su, knowing from the doctor that the upcoming game is tug of war, picks strong men and rejects Player 212, Han Mi-nyeo, who joins Gi-hun's team.
5 "A Fair World (Pyeongdeung Sesang 평등한 세상)" Hwang Dong-hyuk Hwang Dong-hyuk September 17, 2021
Despite having weaker players, Gi-hun's team is able to win their tug of war match with Player 001 and Sang-woo's strategies and quick thinking. In anticipation of another riot, they build a barricade and spend the night taking turns on guard but Deok-su's team does not attack. Jun-ho learns about the conspiracy with Player 111 for black market organ harvesting, as the staff member whose identity he stole was part of it. The Front Man catches them and executes everyone involved in the conspiracy, including Player 111, and strings up their bodies for all players to see, apologizing to them, as the games are prided on for treating everyone as equal no matter their status in the world outside, and Player 111 had an unfair advantage. The Front Man begins a facility-wide manhunt for Jun-ho. Jun-ho breaks into the Front Man's office and learns that the game has been running for over 30 years, and that his brother, Hwang In-ho, was the winner in 2015.
6 "Gganbu (Kkanbu 깐부)" Hwang Dong-hyuk Hwang Dong-hyuk September 17, 2021
For the fourth game, players are told to pair up. Sang-woo, who is close with Ali, picks him; Gi-hun, who has a soft spot for Player 001, chooses him; Player 240 picks Sae-byeok. Expecting that they will be working with their partner, the players are horrified to learn that they will be playing against their partner in a marble game of their choice; whoever gets all their partner's marbles within 30 minutes will win and survive. Sae-byeok and Player 240, Ji-yeong, talk about their lives, and Ji-yeong decides that Sae-byeok has more to live for. She lets Sae-byeok win, leaving Sae-byeok devastated. Sang-woo tricks Ali into giving up his marbles and wins, though he is similarly distressed. Gi-hun, about to lose, turns the game around by using Player 001's failing memory against him, even though this unnerves him. Player 001 reveals that he knew Gi-hun was tricking him the whole time, but allows Gi-hun to win anyway, as Gi-hun is his gganbu, a trusted friend. Before being killed, 001 remembers his name: Oh Il-nam.
7 "VIPS" Hwang Dong-hyuk Hwang Dong-hyuk September 17, 2021
Player 069, who beat his wife in the marble game, is heartbroken and commits suicide. Foreign VIP guests arrive and are welcomed by the Front Man on behalf of his boss, the host. The VIPs are wealthy patrons who gamble on the games and watch them live. Jun-ho, now posing as one of the masked servants, is sexually propositioned by a VIP. In a private room, he attacks the VIP and interrogates him for info, recording it before escaping the island with a scuba kit. The Front Man sees him and gives chase. In the fifth game, the players have 16 minutes to cross a bridge made of panels of either tempered glass or normal glass which cannot support their weight. Most players at the front of the line fall to their death as the panels are tested. When Deok-su gets to the front, he refuses to move, despite the clock ticking. Mi-nyeo grabs him and, as revenge for betraying her, takes him down with her to their deaths. Sang-woo angrily pushes Player 017 when he takes too long, killing him to reveal the last trick panel. Gi-hun, Sang-woo and Sae-byeok are the only three to complete the game.
8 "Front Man (Peulonteu Maen 프론트맨)" Hwang Dong-hyuk Hwang Dong-hyuk September 17, 2021
As finalists, Gi-hun, Sang-woo and Sae-byeok are given a change of clothes and a fancy steak dinner. It is revealed that Sae-byeok was injured in the previous game, having been struck by glass when the bridge shattered, and is swiftly bleeding out. When dinner is cleared, each is left a knife. After lights out, Gi-hun, now realizing Sang-woo will go to any length to win, goes to stab him in his sleep but Sae-byeok stops him, saying Gi-hun is better than that. Gi-hun suggests they team up against Sang-woo. A weakened Sae-byeok instead asks Gi-hun to promise that he will help her little brother if he wins the game. Gi-hun sees Sae-byeok's injuries and desperately cries to the staff for help but when the staff arrive, Sae-byeok is already dead: Sang-woo stabbed her when Gi-hun was away. Furious, Gi-hun attacks Sang-woo. Jun-ho makes it to land but the Front Man and the staff hunt him down. To Jun-ho's shock, the Front Man reveals himself to be In-ho, Jun-ho's brother. In-ho shoots Jun-ho, who falls into the sea.
9 "One Lucky Day (Unsu Joeun Nal 운수 좋은 날)[c]" Hwang Dong-hyuk Hwang Dong-hyuk September 17, 2021
The final game is the eponymous Squid game. Gi-hun beats Sang-woo but refuses to complete the game. He invokes the third clause to end the game so that he and Sang-woo can leave alive but Sang-woo stabs himself and asks Gi-hun to use the prize money to help Sang-woo's mother. Gi-hun returns home to find that his own mother has died. A year later, Gi-hun is still traumatized by his experience. As a result, he has barely touched his prize money. One night, he receives a game invitation card and to his shock, finds Player 001, Oh Il-nam, still alive, but sick and dying. Il-nam is revealed to be the mastermind behind the game's operation. He created it to entertain the bored ultra-rich like himself, trying to find a way to derive enjoyment from life and testing whether humanity had any innate goodness left in it, reminding Gi-hun that the participants sacrificed each other for the sake of earning the money for themselves. The specific games are based on Il-nam's childhood, and he had participated himself for nostalgia's sake. Il-nam asks Gi-hun to play one last game with him, another test to see if humanity has goodness left. Gi-hun wins and Il-nam dies. Gi-hun snaps out of his stupor and fulfils his promises to Sae-byeok and Sang-woo. He is about to leave the country to reconnect with his daughter in America but sees someone playing ddakji with the same game recruiter who invited him. He angrily takes the man's card and calls the number, now determined to expose them.