Seong Gi-hun | Squid Game Wiki - Fandom

Seong Gi-hun

• 2024
• 2022
• 2021
• 2020
• 1980s

Name

Seong Gi-hun

Aliases

Player 456Number 16 (in Glass Stepping Stones)Mr. Seong (by Hwang Jun-ho, Kim Jeong-rae, The Recruiter, Choi Woo-seok & Kim Jun-hee)Ssangmun-dong (쌍문동 Ssangmun-dong?) (by Jang Deok-su & Ali Abdul)Gganbu (깐부 Kkanbu?) (by Oh Il-nam)Hyung; Older brother (형 Hyeong?) (by Cho Sang-woo)Mr. Seong Gi-hunCrazy hobo guy (by Kim Sang-hyuk)Old Man; Babe (오빠 Oppa?) (by Han Mi-nyeo)Mister (아저씨 Ajushi?) (by Kang Sae-byeok & Kim Jun-hee)Sung Ki-hoon[1]Mr. 456 (by Kang Dae-ho & Hwang In-ho)Mr. Gi-hun (by Hwang In-ho)Sir (by Kang Cheol)

Family

Oh Mal-soon † (mother)Seong Ga-yeong (daughter)Kang Eun-ji (ex-wife)

Relationships

Friends

Cho Sang-woo † (childhood best friend/brief enemy)Park Jung-bae † (best friend)Work coworker † Kim Jeong-rae † (employee; former enemy)Kang CheolCho Sang-woo's motherChoi Woo-seok (employee)Hwang Jun-hoKim (employee)2020

• Kang Sae-byeok † (close friend)
• Ali Abdul † (friend and savior)
• Han Mi-nyeo † (teammate)
• Ji-yeong † (teammate)
• Player 244 † (teammate)
• Player 196 † (teammate)
• Player 276 † (teammate)

2024

• Kim Jun-hee † (close friend)
• Cho Hyun-ju †
• Park Yong-sik †
• Jang Geum-ja †
• Kim Young-mi †
• Park Gyeong-seok
• Kim Jun-hee's baby (protected)

Neutral

2020

• Doctor
• Park Jung-bae's ex-wife
• Kim Sang-hyuk
• Kim Jin-woo
• Ha Sun-young
• Evangelist
• Player 194 † (opponent in Tug of War)
• Player 063 † (opponent in Tug of War)
• Player 019 † (opponent in Tug of War)
• Player 314 † (opponent in Tug of War)
• Player 315 † (opponent in Tug of War)
• Player 184 † (opponent in Tug of War)
• Player 156 † (opponent in Tug of War)
• Player 447 † (opponent in Tug of War)
• Player 396 † (opponent in Tug of War)
• Player 410 † (opponent in Tug of War)
• Oh Yeong-uk †
• Player 062 † (attempted ally in Marbles)
• Player 096 †
• Do Jung-soo † (ally in Glass Stepping Stones)

2021

• Banker

2024

• Kang Sae-byeok's mother (indirectly protected)
• Park Man-cheol
• Dentist
• Lee Myung-gi † (frenemy; protector, ally and teammate; rival and attempted killer)
• Player 066 †
• Lee Eun-ju †
• Kim Nam-du †
• Thanos †
• Park Min-su † (indirect ally in Sky Squid Game)
• Player 328 † (ally in Mingle)
• Player 350 † (ally in Mingle)
• Player 197 † (potential victim; by mistake)
• Player 039 † (ally; brief enemy)
• Seon Han-nam † (Ally in Revolt)
• Kwon Byeong-su † (Ally in Revolt)
• Player 072 † (Ally in Revolt)
• Player 145 † (Ally in Revolt)
• Ko Yun-ho † (Ally in Revolt)
• Player 324 † (Ally in Revolt)

Enemies

Oh Il-nam † (enemy; former close friend)The VIPs (archenemies)Hwang In-ho (archenemy/disguised enemy)The Recruiter †Pink Guards2020

• Seong Ga-yeong's stepfather
• Jang Deok-su †
• Player 278 †
• Player 040 †
• Player 303 †
• Player 413 † (enemy and attempted killer)

2024

• Im Jeong-dae †
• Seon-nyeo † (enemy and attempted victim)
• Kim Yeong-sam †
• Player 254 †
• Player 394 †
• Manager (Friend or Foe) †
• Kang Dae-ho † (enemy and victim; former friend)
• Player 096 † (attempted ally and enemy; attempted killer and indirect victim)
• Kim Gi-min † (victim)
• Lee Seung-won †
• Kim Yun-tae †

Affiliation

• Daehan Technical High School
• Dragon Motors (formerly)
• Ga-yeong's Chicken (formerly)
• Pink Motel (base of operations)
• Sunshine Capital
• Mercenaries
• Squid Games
  • 33rd Squid Game (winner)
    • Team Four
  • 37th Squid Game
    • Team X
    • His team (leader)
    • Seekers

Occupation

Car manufacturer employee (formerly)Business owner (formerly)Chauffeur (formerly)

Born

October 31, 1974 (age 50)[2]

Fate

Status

Deceased

Died

November 7, 2024Sky Squid Game

Cause of death

Altruistic suicide as a sacrifice to save Kim Jun-hee's baby.

Physical Description

Gender

Male

Eye color

Brown

Hair color

BlackRed (dyed; formerly)

Appearances

Portrayed by

Lee Jung-jae (adult)Kim Yeon-ung (child)

First appearance	Last appearance
"Red Light, Green Light"	"Humans Are..."

Voting

Round 1	Round 2	Round 3

Round 3 Tie	Round 4	Round 5

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 7, 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 her baby and Jang Geum-ja pleads for Gi-hun to save it, 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 the baby 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 Lee Myung-gi, before he could eliminate his own child, Gi-hun sacrificed himself to ensure the baby would survive the games.

Following Gi-hun's sacrifice, the Front Man safely evacuated the baby 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.

Contents

• 1 Personality
• 2 History
  • 2.1 Backstory
  • 2.2 2020
  • 2.3 2021
  • 2.4 2024
  • 2.5 Fate
  • 2.6 Legacy
• 3 Relationships
• 4 Kill count
• 5 Trivia
  • 5.1 Mistakes
• 6 Behind the scenes
• 7 Appearances
• 8 Quotes
• 9 Gallery
  • 9.1 Season One
  • 9.2 Season Two
  • 9.3 Season Three
  • 9.4 Promotional
• 10 References

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.

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. During the chaos, Player 133 collides with Gi-hun and is shot, which knocks Gi-hun to the ground; fortunately, the doll doesn't catch his movement. After the dust settles, the rules are calmly repeated to the remaining players.

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 Player 133's 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.

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.

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.

The teams are brought to another room, 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 due to his old age, 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.

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-woo 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 (Unbeknownst to Gi-hun or Sang-woo, Sae-byeok gets seriously wounded when a large glass shard impales her abdomen.).

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.

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.

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 inside 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

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.

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 ddakiji 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.

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 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.

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), resulting in a re-vote scheduled for tomorrow.

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 Team 'O' players rush across the dormitory in the darkness, murdering sleeping Team 'X' players and igniting a brutal fight reminiscent of three years earlier. Gi-hun’s group stays hidden beneath bedding, reluctantly sacrificing their fellow Team 'X' players to maintain their cover.

After dozens are killed, soldiers finally storm in to stop the chaos; however, Gi-hun's group ambushes them, disarming their MP5A3s and killing many. The Masked Officer orders a retreat and seals the doors, accidentally trapping the squad's Manager inside. Player 047 tries to execute the Team 'O' players in anger, but Gi-hun stops him, urging restraint. Hyun-ju suggests gathering weapons and destroys the dorm cameras to avoid detection. Gi-hun then rallies the survivors, calling for anyone with firearms experience to help fight their way to the headquarters. Though hesitant, Player 015 and a few others—including Players 072, 206, 324, 145, and 246—join, forming a group of about twelve. When others struggle with the weapons, Hyun-ju steps up and demonstrates its usage, revealing her background as a Sergeant First Class in Korean Special Forces.

Gi-hun forces the captured Manager to unmask themself, surprising Jung-bae with how young he is. The group breaks out through a side bathroom door into the colorful stairwell, where they're ambushed from above by soldiers. Hyun-ju takes out three enemies from a vantage point, pushing the rest back, but a larger ambush awaits. At the management area entrance, the Manager retrieves his mask to pass security but spots Player 001 and seems to recognize him—just before being shot in the head by the hidden soldiers. The group is pinned down under heavy fire, and Player 072 is killed trying to find cover.

Gi-hun tells the others to stay and hold off the soldiers while he and Jung-bae head to the control room—Young-il questions it but complies. Using the dead manager's mask, they bypass a security door, propping it open with a spare MP5. After killing two attacking soldiers with a diversion, they loot their ammo and press on. Seeing this, the Officer dispatches a large force to defend the control room, which Gi-hun and Jung-bae are nearing.

Back in the stairwell, the soldiers and rebel players are locked in a firefight. 047 kills a guard and warns Dae-ho—who's panicking and wasting ammo—to stay calm. He suggests regrouping with Gi-hun, but Young-il insists they hold position to avoid being flanked. When 206 is killed by a flanking soldier, 246 and Hyun-ju take down the threat along with another. As the gunfight drags on, the rebels and Gi-hun’s team begin to run low on ammo. Gi-hun radios in, reminding them the dead soldiers in the dorms have spare magazines. Young-il sends others to retrieve them while he, 047, and 015 move on to assist Gi-hun. Dae-ho, out of ammo, volunteers to go instead. Hyun-ju arms him with a loaded MP5 and sends him off, instructing him to follow the destroyed cameras along the way.

Gi-hun soon runs out of ammo and risks a dash to a fallen guard for magazines, taking a graze to the arm in the process. Young-il, 047, and 015 arrive, and Young-il proposes flanking the control room guards. Gi-hun agrees and hands him a spare magazine, which Young-il hesitates to take but accepts before leading the push. Meanwhile, Dae-ho reaches the dorms and gathers magazines with help from Players 149, 222, and 007. But as he is preparing to leave, distant gunfire paralyzes him with fear. When he doesn't respond over the radio, Hyun-ju, assuming he's dead, prepares to retrieve the magazines herself.

As Young-il, 047, and 015 move to ambush the control room guards, Young-il suddenly betrays the group, killing 047 and critically wounding 015. He fakes his own death over the radio using 015’s dying sounds, then finishes him with a headshot. Revealing himself as Hwang In-ho—the Front Man—he switches his radio's channels and orders the guards to end the resistance, having entered the games to prevent a rebellion.

In the dorms, Hyun-ju finds a traumatized Dae-ho, who tearfully apologizes for freezing. As she prepares to fight off a large incoming group of soldiers using the new ammo, Player 149 stops her, knowing it would be suicide. Meanwhile, the rebel players in the stairwell run out of ammo as soldiers close in from both sides. Wounded and with one bullet left, 324 shoots himself despite 246’s pleas, choosing death over capture. When 145 tries to surrender, he’s shot in the chest. 246 is then wounded non-fatally by Kang No-eul, who quietly asks him to play dead.

Completely out of ammo, Gi-hun and Jung-bae also surrender and are held at gunpoint. The Front Man arrives with the Officer and mocks Gi-hun for playing the hero, aiming his M1911 at him. As Gi-hun braces for death, the Front Man instead turns the gun on Jung-bae, telling Gi-hun to witness the consequences of his rebellion. The two friends share a final look before Jung-bae is shot in the chest, leaving Gi-hun devastated and struggling against the soldiers holding him back as he tries to lunge at the Front Man.

The rebellion ultimately was a failure, with nearly all rebels killed in the battle. Only Gi-hun, Hyun-ju, and Dae-ho survived, while Young-il—secretly Hwang In-ho, the Front Man—was revealed as the mole who had sabotaged the rebellion. With most rebels now dead, 60 players remain, and the games are set to continue as planned.

Gi-hun is unconsciously returned to the dormitory to continue the games. Upon waking, he begs the guards to kill him, devastated by the failed rebellion. Handcuffed and unable to vote, he lashes out at Dae-ho for not bringing back the ammo. Because a lot of 'X' players died in the riot and rebellion, the 'O' players easily win the re-vote. In the fourth game, Gi-hun draws the red ball, becoming a seeker armed with a knife. He first finds Seon-nyeo and prepares to kill her. However, she pleads for her life and urges him to kill Dae-ho instead to rid himself of bad karma. He relents, and soon after, finds Dae-ho, The two fight over the deaths caused by the Special Game and the rebellion. Overcome with rage, Gi-hun strangles Dae-ho to death, passing the game. However, he soon is wracked with guilt and attempts to commit suicide using the knife. Guards quickly intervene by shooting the knife from his hands and subduing him. Returned to the lobby and handcuffed again, he abstains from voting once more as the majority votes to continue into the fifth game.

That night, Geum-Ja confides in Gi-hun that she was forced to kill her son after he tried to kill Kim Jun-hee during the fourth game. She begs Gi-hun to help Jun-hee and her newborn before later committing suicide by hanging. As the players approach the fifth game, Gi-hun offers to carry Jun-hee’s baby since she’s limping with a broken foot. Hesitant at first, Jun-hee relents after they open up and Gi-hun promises to protect her child. During the Jump Rope game, Gi-hun pleads with the manager to spare Jun-hee (since he knows she can't jump with her broken foot) and the baby but is refused. With no choice, Jun-hee entrusts Gi-hun to carry her baby across the narrow bridge; he struggles at first but soon manages to carry himself and the baby across, successfully passing the game. When Player 096 tries to kill the others to share the prize with Gi-hun, Gi-hun stops him. After 096 attempts to kill him instead, Gi-hun defends himself by stabbing 096 in the eye and throwing him onto the bridge. The metal rope soon after swoops over the bridge, knocking 096 off and to his death. At the game’s end, Jun-hee sacrifices herself by falling off to save Gi-hun and her baby.

Gi-hun attends the feast as one of the eight finalists (nine with the baby) and casts his first vote since the third game, voting 'X.' However, the majority votes 'O,' forcing everyone into the final game. That evening, Gi-hun is summoned to the Front Man’s office. There, Hwang In-ho (Young-il)—the mastermind and someone Gi-hun had trusted—reveals himself as the Front Man, shocking Gi-hun. In-ho gives Gi-hun a knife, advising that killing the other players to survive with the baby is his best option. He also promises the final game won’t proceed if only Gi-hun and the baby remain, allowing their escape. Back at the dorms, Gi-hun readies to stab Player 100 but, recalling Kang Sae-byeok’s words, spares him.

The next day, the players enter the final game: Sky Squid Game. Being in the minority, Gi-hun faces immediate danger. After Player 125 is killed by Player 333, the group targets Gi-hun and the baby next. Gi-hun, not willing to separate from the baby, warns that if both are eliminated, the final round would force the group to decide among themselves who will die next. To separate Gi-hun from the baby, Player 336 is tied with jackets as a rope, but Gi-hun cuts it with In-ho's knife, threatens 336, and narrowly avoids an attack from Player 333, who knocks 336 off the platform with a metal pole to his death. Player 333 reveals himself as Gi-hun’s ally; together, they confront the remaining four players using their weapons. When the others propose a lottery draw for elimination, 333 rejects it, citing majority betrayal. Gi-hun then learns of 333’s connection to Jun-hee and the baby but his attention is soon turned to seeing Player 039 being beaten by 100, 203, and 353. Player 100 suggests sacrificing 039 to allow the others to split the prize, but Gi-hun insists on a lottery without including the baby. Fighting breaks out, leading to 203 and 353’s deaths by Gi-hun and 333. Now cornered, Player 100 pleads for mercy but is pushed off by 333. Severely injured and unwilling to sacrifice himself, Player 039 also voluntarily falls off as the round ends.

Fate

We are not horses. We are humans. Humans are...

Gi-hun's final words

In the final round, Player 333 goes on the final platform first, but soon returns with another metal pole to keep Gi-hun and the baby at bay. After a heated confrontation, Gi-hun reluctantly leaves the baby with 333. As the bridge closes, Gi-hun retrieves his knife and jumps onto the final platform. They engage in a brutal fight, ending with both hanging off the edge. 333 falls to his death when the jacket he’s holding rips, while Gi-hun narrowly saves himself. After realizing the final round hadn’t started, Gi-hun presses the button, cradles Jun-hee’s baby, and kisses her softly. After laying her down safely on the platform, he turns and delivers a final message: "We are not horses. We are humans. Humans are...". He then sacrifices himself by falling off the platform, ensuring the baby's survival.

Legacy

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 33rd Squid Games.

Relationships

See Seong Gi-hun/Relationships

Kill count

Character	Information	Image/GIF
"A Fair World"Tug of War
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"Revolt
Soldiers	Shot in the head or chest.
	Shot in the head.
	Shot in the head or chest.
	Shot in the back.
Managers	Shot several times in the chest.
	Shot in the head.
	Shot in the chest
	Shot off-screen either by him or Park Jung-bae
"The Starry Night"Hide and Seek
Kang Dae-ho	Strangled to death.
"222"Jump Rope
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
"⭘△☐"Sky Squid Game
Kim Gi-min	Stabbed in heart with dagger 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".
• 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 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.
• Gi-hun set a record for outlasting more players in Squid Game than anyone else, having outlasted a total of 909 players combined.
• 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.
• 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.
• He is the final player to die in Season Three, and also the final player to die in the series overall.
• The fate of Seong Gi-hun caused shock and controversy among fans. Although his body was shown in close-up, some speculated that he had survived, as his eye can be seen twitching once after the island explodes. 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.
  • An in-universe explanation has also been suggested by some fans, which posits that Gi-hun barely survived the fall and lived just long enough the see the Squid Games facilities being destroyed, mirroring the way Oh Il-nam died at the end of Season One, after seeing his worldview disproven.

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
  • "Red Light, Green Light"
  • "Hell"
  • "The Man with the Umbrella"
  • "Stick to the Team"
  • "A Fair World"
  • "Gganbu"
  • "VIPS"
  • "Front Man"
  • "One Lucky Day"
• Season Two
  • "Bread and Lottery"
  • "Halloween Party"
  • "001"
  • "Six Legs"
  • "One More Game"
  • "O X"
  • "Friend or Foe"
• Season Three
  • "Keys and Knives"
  • "The Starry Night"
  • "It's Not Your Fault"
  • "222"
  • "⭘△☐"
  • "Humans Are..."

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

Season One

Gi-hun playing Ddakji with RecruiterGi-hun being monitored by Squid Game staff.Gi-hun smilingSeong Gi-hun's icon in 33rd Squid GameGi-hun looking at injured Oh Yeong-ukGi-hun's teamGi-hun before the Glass BridgeGi-hun looks at Sang-wooGi-hun with talking with Sae-byeok last timeGi-hun and Sang-woo starting to fight in the Squid game"Let's go... Let's go together..."Gi-hun crying with grief when Sang-woo killed himselfGi-hun sitting close to the ocean

Season Two

Seong Gi-hun's icon in 37th Squid GameSeong Gi-hun is upset because the players want to keep playing

Season Three

Gi-hun's corpse.Ditto; another angleDitto again; another angle

Promotional

Gi-hun in Season 2

References

1. ↑ Name on bank card he received after Squid Game.
2. ↑ 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.
3. ↑ As briefly shown on the documents for the 33rd Squid Game in "A Fair World".
4. ↑ Red Light, Green Light
5. ↑ 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".
6. ↑ One Lucky Day
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Cast and Director Talk About Bringing the Korean Survival Show to Life
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Lee Jung Jae And Park Hae Soo Are Two Sides Of The Same Coin In “Squid Game”
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Squid Game: Keyword Interview with Lee Jung-jae
10. ↑ "Stick to the Team"
11. ↑ Gganbu
12. ↑ Red Light, Green Light
13. ↑ https://thedirect.com/article/squid-game-456-died-why

Season One

33rd Squid Game Main Characters 001 067 101 199 212 218 456 Major Characters 017 040 111 196 240 244 276 278 303 Supporting Characters 021 062 066 069 070 073 096 107 118 119 151 194 198 209 245 250E2 271 274 306 308 322 324E1 360 369 407 453 Minor Characters 002 003 004 005 006 009 014 019 024 025 026 028 032 039 043 061 063 068 074 075 077 078 080 081 083 085 090 112 113 114 115 120 122 123 128 130 133 134 153 154 187 202 204 211 220 224 229 305 309 328 331 357 362 400 413 455 Staff Guards Managers Soldiers Workers Number 028 Number 029 Leadership The Host Front Man Others The VIPs Waiters Human furniture The Salesman Young-hee Announcer Civilians Relatives Seong Gi-hun Oh Mal-soon Kang Eun-ji Seong Ga-yeong Seong Ga-yeong's stepfather Seong Ga-yeong's stepbrother Cho Sang-woo Mother Kang Sae-byeok MotherM Kang Cheol Ali Abdul Wife Son Law Enforcement Hwang Jun-ho Kim Sang-hyuk Kim Jin-woo Criminals Loan shark Gang member Others Seong Gi-hun's friend Seong Gi-hun's friend's wife Banker Broker Doctor Dormitory owner Factory owner Ha Sun-young

Season Two

37th Squid Game Main Characters 001 007 120 149 222 230 333 388 390 456 Major Characters 044 095 100 124 125 196 226 246 256 380 Supporting Characters 004 006 009 015 016 043 047 050 066 072 096 145 172 178 189 192 197 198 206 220 254 283 285 313 336 343 348 353 394 400 418 442 444 Minor Characters 002 003 031 039 045 135 140 165 185 188 199 203 216 237 238 239 249 257 263 270 286 306 308 324 328 331 350 355 371 384 395 401 415 416 435 448 453 454 455 Staff Guards Managers Soldiers Kang No-eul Number 005 Number 007 Workers Leadership Front Man Masked Officer Others The Salesman Young-hee Cheol-su Announcer Civilians Relatives Seong Gi-hun Seong Ga-yeong Kang Eun-ji Park Jung-bae Ex-wifeM Park Gyeong-seok Park Na-yeon Law Enforcement Hwang Jun-ho Chief Kim Lee Ju-hong Mercenaries Kim Drone pilot Criminals Sunshine Capital Mr. Kim Choi Woo-seok Lee Jang-uk Hwang Jae-hun Yun Jun-ho Sea Captains Sea Captain Park Sea Captain Ko Others Cho Sang-wooN Kang Sae-byeokNP Cho Sang-woo's mother Hwang In-ho's wife Kang Cheol Kang Sae-byeok's motherP Park Mal-soon Park Mi-yeong Broker Dentist

Season Three

37th Squid Game Main Characters 007 120 124 125 149 222B 246PG 333 388 456 Major Characters 039 044 096 100 203 226 336 353 Supporting Characters 006 009 172 192 197 202 230H 232 235 306 349 377 380H 390C 394 400 411 418 442 447 Minor Characters 024 028 048 080 084 105 119 134 145 154 163 191 209 241 260 276 296 310 312 334 344 350 359 435 443 448 Staff Guards Managers Soldiers Kang No-eul Kim Jung-ho Number 005 Number 007 Number 025 Workers Leadership Front Man Masked Officer VIPs Richard Jennifer John Jack Kevin Others Waiters Young-hee Cheol-su Announcer Civilians Relatives Seong Gi-hun Seong Ga-yeong Park Gyeong-seok Park Na-yeon Law Enforcement Hwang Jun-ho Mercenaries Kim Drone pilot Criminals Sunshine Capital Choi Woo-seok Kim Mu-dong Sea Captains Park Yeong-gil Sea Captain Ko Others Oh Il-namF Kang Sae-byeokH Cho Sang-woo's mother Kang Cheol Kang Sae-byeok's mother Park Man-cheol