Squid Game on Netflix: That ending explained and your burning questions answered

In Squid Game, the disturbing however intriguing hit Korean sequence on Netflix a few deadly tournament of children’s games, the competitors itself winds its approach to a bloody decision. However that does not imply all our questions get resolved. Listed below are solutions to eight burning Squid Sport questions viewers could have after watching the dystopian present. 

Warning: The next story consists of enormous spoilers for Squid Game, so if you have not watched all 9 episodes, come again and skim this after you are performed. You do not wish to be spoiled for a few of the plot twists.

1. When did Squid Sport come out?

The nine-episode sequence launched on Netflix on Sept. 17. 

2. Will there be a season 2 of Squid Sport?

In the event you’ve watched the entire present (do not forget that spoiler warning above), you recognize the sport would not actually finish with the ninth episode. It continues, and the way forward for “winner” Seong Gi-hun (performed by Lee Jung-jae) is left unsure. Will we ever know what occurs after he will get off that aircraft? The reply is a powerful … possibly. Author/director Hwang Dong-hyuk told Variety he could return to big-screen films earlier than occupied with a Squid Sport sequel.

“I haven’t got well-developed plans for Squid Sport 2,” he advised Selection. “It’s fairly tiring simply occupied with it. But when I have been to do it, I would definitely not do it alone. I would think about using a writers’ room and would need a number of skilled administrators.”

Squid Sport’s success is bound to have Netflix execs wanting extra, however we simply do not know if they will coax the director again for extra. Get out the dangling piggy financial institution filled with Korean gained, Netflix, and pay the person.

3. Was Squid Sport primarily based on a guide?

It definitely looks as if Squid Sport would make an awesome novel or graphic novel. However proper now, you’ll be able to’t go to your bookstore and scoop up a Squid Sport guide to learn.

According to Korean pop-culture site Soompi, Squid Sport director Hwang Dong Hyuk stated that he obtained the thought for the present again in 2008 from a comic book guide about individuals who have been enjoying an excessive sport. However he did not identify the comedian.

And it won’t even be a single comedian, as a result of the director told the Korea Herald that he “learn a whole lot of comics, and was mesmerized by survival video games.” So till Hwang comes out and names a few of his studying materials, guesses are all we’ve. It appears seemingly that Squid Sport will now be changed into guide kind, because it’s such successful. Control these bookstore cabinets.

Some are claiming that Squid Sport is suspiciously much like a 2014 Japanese movie, As The Gods Will, directed by Takashi Miike. That movie itself relies on Japanese manga. It is also a few loss of life match utilizing childhood video games, and appears to have some very comparable scenes, together with a doll that spins round and tries to catch gamers transferring.

Squid Game’s director said at a press conference that solely the primary sport within the movie is much like his present, and that he had been engaged on his idea for years earlier than As The Gods Will got here out in 2014.

4. Is Squid Sport an actual sport?

Clearly there isn’t any lethal Squid Sport match, the place individuals are killed enjoying harmless youngsters’s video games. We hope. However the title refers to 1 particular sport that will get its identify from a court docket formed vaguely like a squid. 

Important character Seong Gi-hun makes it sound as if Squid Sport is exclusive to his city, describing a sport that is form of like Crimson Rover and form of like Seize the Flag and is performed in a playground court docket formed like a squid. With a view to win, the attacking crew, who’re solely allowed to hop till they move the squid’s waist, should faucet the squid’s head with their foot. Director Hwang told the Korea Herald that it was his favourite childhood sport, so sure, it does appear to be actual.

Different video games performed are pretty clearly actual, together with marbles, tug-of-war, and Crimson Gentle Inexperienced Gentle. There’s one sport that is clearly not actual — one by which gamers should cross a glass bridge and do not know which panel will shatter underfoot — although video games like hopscotch do require you to position your toes solely in sure squares.

One sport provides every participant a tin of sweet with a form embossed into it, they usually should use a pointy object to chop out the form with out breaking it. That is simple in case you have a triangle form, not really easy when you picked the umbrella. Contestants finally study that licking the again of the sweet helps launch the form.

That sweet is real–here’s a YouTube video from PinoyChefKorea that reveals you learn how to make it. (Recipe directions are proven in English captions.) Did you get into making Dalgona coffee through the pandemic? This sweet is Dalgona sweet.

The sweet is widespread with Korean youngsters, the chef notes. And sure, eaters in Korea try to eat around the embossed shape with out breaking it, although the stakes for them aren’t life and loss of life.

5. Is the Crimson Gentle, Inexperienced Gentle doll actual?

The primary sport the contestant play is Crimson Gentle, Inexperienced Gentle, however as an alternative of a human turning round and making an attempt to catch somebody transferring throughout “Crimson Gentle,” it is a super-creepy big schoolgirl robotic doll factor.

On-line publication Koreaboo reports that the doll wasn’t made for Squid Sport, however that it already was on show on the Jincheon Carriage Museum Journey Village, also referred to as Macha Land, a museum in Chungcheongbok-do, South Korea, a number of hours from Seoul. Koreaboo says the doll has now been returned to the museum, however in some way is lacking one hand. Hey, these video games have been tough on everybody.

Den of Geek pointed us to tweets from residents of the Philippines noting {that a} model of the doll was a part of a Netflix show in a mall there, and its head really spun round.

6. That Squid Sport enterprise card

Squid Sport recruiters handed out light-brown enterprise playing cards with the sport’s image — a circle, triangle and a sq. — on one aspect, and a cellphone quantity on the opposite. (Enterprising online artists are selling them in case your Halloween costume wants a prop, or make them your self.)

Author Jasmine Leung explains for The Focus that the shapes are literally Korean letters.

“The circle is the letter ‘o’, the triangle is a part of the letter ‘j’, and the sq. is ‘m’,” she writes. “So aspect by aspect, it reads ‘O J M’, that are the initials (of) squid sport in Korean, which is learn as Ojingeo Geim (오징어게임).”

That aspect of the cardboard is ok, however the different aspect, with a cellphone quantity proven, brought on some issues. Mashable Southeast Asia reviews that an individual with that quantity has complained of receiving “endless” calls and text messages. (C’mon Netflix, it is best to’ve purchased a selected quantity and arrange some promo message for individuals who referred to as it.)

7. Idea about Squid Sport guards

The guards in Squid Sport put on pink, and when one’s uncovered, he looks as if a younger naive soldier. One on-line principle tries to clarify how the guards have been employed. Lead character Seong Gi-hun performs a sport referred to as ddakji with a recruiter for the sport. (Ddakji is a traditional Korean game of flipping paper tiles–kind of like POGs.) Gi-hun picks blue paper over pink. It appears random, however one principle claims it isn’t.

“So there is a principle in Squid Sport the place Gi-Hun picked the blue card from the salesperson (Gong Yoo) after which awakened in blue swimsuit as a participant,” one tweet notes. “Had he or the opposite gamers picked the pink card, they’d be the employees/guards.”

There isn’t any proof that that is true, however hey, good fodder for a doable sequel.

8. The Squid Sport ending defined

Tremendous-spoiler time, as a result of we’ll speak concerning the sequence’ ending. Seong Gi-hun wins, and he learns who’s actually operating the sport (you will have figured it out since we do not see this character die within the sport, but it surely’s such a juicy plot twist that I will not reveal it right here). 

After coping with the sport mastermind, Gi-hun dyes his hair vivid pink (just like the guards’ outfits, although that is most likely not linked). Then he begins to get on a aircraft for LA to reunite together with his younger daughter. However he spots the sport recruiter who concerned him within the sport making an attempt to persuade one other down-on-his-luck man to play. Gi-hun grabs the cardboard, and simply earlier than he will get on the aircraft, calls the quantity and tells the one who solutions he will monitor them down. SEQUEL? Even when the director would not appear in a rush, the setup is ideal for one.

And let’s speak concerning the brothers. Police officer Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) infiltrates the sport, looking for his lacking brother In-ho. Jun-ho escapes the sport compound however is seemingly killed by The Entrance Man, who’s form of the supervisor of the sport. And The Entrance Man is revealed to be … Jun-ho’s lacking brother, who we already realized gained the sport in 2015.

The brothers may return in a sequel, too. Jun-ho was shot within the shoulder (earlier than falling off a cliff into water). So he won’t be lifeless, although he would not appear to have ratted out the sport masterminds to his fellow cops, because the sport is constant. It would not be the one loss of life fake-out on this present.