Squid Game

Squid Game is a 2021 Netflix-exclusive Korean science-fiction drama, also referred to as survival drama, created by Hwang Dong-hyuk. It premiered on September 17, 2021, worldwide on the channel.

Seong Gi-hun is a loser divorcee, deadbeat father, and compulsive gambler. He also knows that he's all of these things when his debts to loan sharks and a chance encounter with a pickpocket cause him to botch a get-together for his daughter Ga-yeong's birthday. To top it all off, his ex is moving with her husband and family to the United States, ensuring he won't see Ga-yeong again. He desperately accepts an offer from a sharply dressed Salesman to go play some games and earn enough money to at least try to fight for custody of his daughter. There's just a catch: you may win a lot of won, but the games in question are deadly.

While a release date for season 2 is unknown, it has received the green light. Hwang Dong-hyuk says that it's in progress.

Not to be confused with Squid Girl.

Tropes used in Squid Game include:

Adult Fear:
- Gi-hun's situation when we hear his full story. He fully admits that he's a loser, especially compared to his childhood friend Sang-woo. 10 years ago, he was a laborer in a car factory, only to be downsized just as his wife was about to give birth. He joined a strike to save his job where he saw a friend die in front of him and unable to go to a hospital. His wife went into labor and nearly died from complications, and they broke up partly because she couldn't forgive that he wasn't there for her. Gi-hun did have a point that he was trying to make sure he had enough money for her and a newborn Ga-yeong, but he doesn't have one for his descent into gambling addictions. In the present, he owns debts to loan sharks that make him sign a blood contract to take his eyes and kidneys if he doesn't produce the money for them, and they beat him up badly at the horse races just as he's about to treat Ga-yeong with the winnings. Then he finds out his mother's diabetes has become terminal, and because he gambled away her insurance money, she doesn't have the funds for the operation. Yeah, Gi-hun's life sucks.
- Sae-byeok is revealed to be a North Korean refugee, along with her little brother. Her father and grandmother were killed, but there is a chance to somehow locate her mother either in North Korea or China. The problem is that her broker claims the smugglers ran off with the sums that she stole, and he says that if her mother got deported from China to North Korea, she's as good as dead for being marked as a "defector". Her brother also resents being in an orphanage, fearing that the kids are right and Sae-byeok has abandoned him. Their last conversation is a fight and in the season one finale, he's guilty when asking Gi-hun where she is, as Gi-hun sets him up to live with Sang-woo's mother and the prize money that would have gone to Sae-byeok and Sang-woo.
- Detective Jun-ho Hwang's older brother In-ho has gone missing for a few days. He assumes that In-ho is just being In-ho since he makes trips like this all the time and his mother is worrying. Then he finds out that his brother hasn't paid his rent in a while and has been gone long enough for his goldfish to go belly-up and for papers to accumulate. Jun-ho also finds a business card, which looks identical to the one that a supposed drunk brought in claiming that he and 455 other people were kidnapped and forced to play games. He sincerely begs Gi-hun for help, saying that his brother may have been one of the kidnapped victims; when Gi-hun is too despondent and desperate, saying he can't help anyone, Jun-ho elects to follow him, and finds out that his story wasn't that of a bored drunk. Cue Jun-ho going undercover by posing as one of the guards, and facing the real possibility that In-ho might have already been killed and cremated, or worse dissected for his organs. The truth is worse; In-ho won his 2015 games and is now running them as the Front Man.
Anyone Can Die: One of the reasons why this series knows how to pack emotional wallops; none of the players are safe from sudden or undignified death. Gi-hun has Plot Armor owing to being the protagonist, but he is the exception that proves the rule. Try not to get attached to anyone, major or minor in this story.
Bittersweet Ending: Season one ends this way. Gi-hun wins the Squid Game by default when Sang-woo elects to kill himself rather than vote to go home alive and penniless with his childhood friend. His mother succumbed to her diabetes without the operation that she needed, meaning Gi-hun was too late by a few days. He spends the next year drinking and drifting, only using the money if anything to pay off his debts, and finds out that the old man Il-nam was the creator fo the games when the latter invites him to spend Christmas Eve in a penthouse. Their conversation and final game motivates Gi-hun to clean up his act, set up Sae-byeok's brother with Sang-woo's mother as well as the portions of the winnings that would have gone to his friends. It's implied he paid overdue child support so his ex consents to let Gi-hun visit Ga-yeong for her birthday. Before he gets on the plane to California, however, he sees the Salesman bitch-slap another potential player, and goes to try and stop him. All he does is confiscate the card, dial it, and promise that he's not forgiving them. The Front Man threatens him to get on the plane and see his daughter, making Gi-hun realize that his family is in danger unless he stops the Squid Game. So he turns around and gets off the plane, disappointing Ga-yeong again but determined to give her a better future.
Drama Queen: Mi-nyeo makes her entrance by getting on her knees and begging the guards to let her go home after the Red Light Green Light game, claiming that she has a newborn that hasn't been named yet. Then she proceeds to vote for the games to continue. The old man notes she returned for round two, and wonders dryly if she named her nonexistent kid yet. Sae-byeok even notes that Mi-nyeo has been burning bridges because she can't pick a side, or know when to be serious.
Gut Punch: Given the genre and the nature of the episode, these are bound to happen.
- Episode 1, "Red Light Green Light" has players 324 and 250 form a fast friendship, despite having just met in the barracks. Both are excited when they learn the title game is their first challenge, claiming it will be a cinch. They rib each other affectionately that they're going to win and bet a million won and who crosses the finish line first. Then 324 gets ahead of himself literally, and doesn't stop in time during Red Light, Green Light. Cue a gunshot, and 324 collapses. 250's first reaction, once he hears green light, is to run and check on 324. The poor guy is bleeding and coughing up blood, making the players realize this is a death game. Cue the Mass "Oh Crap" where hundreds of players panic and try to run for the locked doors, banging on them. They end up getting shot in succession, until corpses line the field. Gi-hun survives only due to sheer luck, while Sang-woo has the sense to stay still and analyze the situation.
- Episode 6, "Gganbu", may as well be titled this trope. Players are ordered to pair up for the challenge while each is given a bag of ten marbles. They have to play to win the other player's bag of marbles, and the loser is shot in the head. Sang-woo technically loses to Ali, who is apologetic but wants to try and find another solution. Sang-woo betrays him and leaves him with a bag of stones. Gi-hun panics and tries to scam the old man when Il-nam's dementia acts up, only for Il-nam to reveal he was faking it to test his Gganbu. As Gi-hun cries and prepares to forfeit his life as an apology for succumbing to weakness, Il-nam forces him to win, saying that he wasn't in it for the money, but to have fun, and it was nice while it lasted. Then we have Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong, who have a long conversation about their lives before they play. Ji-yeong throws their game without hesitation, telling an anguished Sae-byeok that she has nothing to live for, except for debt and pain, but her new friend has a brother, and dreams. Her sacrifices means that at least she was able to do some good, and give her life meaning. The guard allows a tearful Ji-yeong to say goodbye to a sobbing Sae-byeok before shooting her.
Heroic Sacrifice: Ji-yeong throws the marbles game and forces Sae-byeok to win.
Let's Get Dangerous:
- The old man has been a formidable player by staying calm during each death game, and oddly cheerful. Then tug-of-war happens, revealing that the players are chained to the rope and have to pull their opponents off an elevated platform, where a guillotine will slice the rope and make the losers fall. His team is full of underdogs, with himself, three women, and not-very athletic men excluding Ali. As they prepare to face their deaths, he stops smiling tells them it's not over yet. Il-nam explains that in tug-of-war, there are strategies you can use to ensure that you have the best team, even if it's not the strongest: have a strong leader in front, a dependable player in the back, alternate everyone else, put the rope under your armpits and lean back for the first ten seconds. It actually works until the opposing team gets a second wind and pulls back with sheer desperation and brute strength. Mi-nyeo later tells the old man that he was amazing and made her feel powerful with the leaning back strategy.
- Credit to Mi-nyeo, she is a Drama Queen and a compulsive liar, but she knows how to pull her own weight, literally. She figured out how to discreetly use her cigarette lighter during the dalgona challenge and cut out the star easily. During the tug-of-war she follows Il-Nam's instructions without hesitation, and later listens to Sang-woo despite screaming that his advice sounds like suicide. Her final moment is taking out Deok-su on the glass bridge, as well as herself, when he's about to doom everyone by refusing to move forward, and he spends his last moments begging for his life.
Pet the Dog:
- It's revealed that Il-nam was the creator of the games, and he entered to have one last bit of fun rather than wait for his tumor to kill him. He voted to end the games when the group vote came up in "Hell", because he felt that the players need a fair chance to enter, or leave if they wish. Sure, he thinks that the poor are "trash" but it wouldn't be right to make 100 scared people stay since it would go against his philosophy of fairness. Anyone who returns would lack the excuse that they didn't know they would be forfeiting their lives. Much later, when he learns that Gi-hun hasn't spent the prize money in a year and is prepared to spend Christmas Eve alone drinking in the cold, Il-nam invites him via a flower-lady to his heated penthouse, to encourage him to not feel guilty or waste away. Rather than leave Gi-hun with the memory of a friendly old man, Il-nam revealed his true self to save his gganbu's life, pointing out another man who was drinking on Christmas Eve that had succumbed to the elements.
- Deok-su is a murderous gangster with no regard for human life and will throw away anyone that he deems useless to his goals. He also returns Mi-nyeo's cigarette lighter after the dalgona game when she lends it to him discreetly, thanking her for saving his life. It's his only decent moment.
- The Front Man is a monster. There is no doubt about that with how he runs the games, and especially when he engineers a riot to cull the "weak players", something that even alarms Il-nam who shouts for it to stop. Jun-ho is naturally wary of him and is prepared to fire on him if necessary while undercover. He also doesn't kill Mi-nyeo when she doesn't have a partner for the fourth game, allowing her to rest in the barracks and sit out the death match. The players are shocked, even if she's hurt on principle that no one wanted her. In the season one finale, when Gi-hun is declared the winner by default, he gets medical treatment for Gi-hun's impaled hand and escorts him back to his hometown in a limo. While gruff, he advises Gi-hun to think of the experience as a dream. That makes more sense with the revelation that the Front Man was also once a winner.
- One nameless guard respects Ji-yeong's Heroic Sacrifice when she throws the marbles game and forces Sae-byeok to win, saying that her death will mean more than her life knowing she's helping Sae-byeok reunite with her little brother. He gives Ji-yeong a moment to thank Sae-byeok for playing with her and say goodbye, before executing her.