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When Squid Recreation first arrived on our screens in September 2021, it in a short time took the world by storm. Inside simply 4 weeks, the blood-soaked dystopian survival sequence had racked up 1.65 billion viewing hours, surpassing Bridgerton because the most-watched present in Netflix historical past.
Since then, Squid Recreation has spawned a number of spinoffs together with the actuality competitors present Squid Recreation: The Problem and a online game, Squid Recreation: Unleashed. With the second season of the Korean thriller now streaming, right here’s every little thing it’s good to keep in mind in regards to the gripping first season that acquired the world hooked.
When Squid Recreation begins, we’re launched to Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a divorced chauffeur and playing addict with huge money owed.
Someday whereas taking the subway in Seoul, a well-dressed man invitations Gi-hun to play ddakji, a standard Korean kids’s sport performed with folded paper. They play for cash, and the person proceeds to supply him the possibility to play extra video games for greater stakes. When he accepts, Gi-hun is sedated and ultimately awakens in a dormitory together with 455 different rivals, all recognized solely by the numbers on their matching inexperienced tracksuits.
Masked guards in pink jumpsuits arrive and inform the gamers that they are going to win an enormous prize of 45.6bn gained (round $31m, or £24m) if they’re profitable over the approaching six video games. The contests are overseen by the Entrance Man, who can be masked and clothes in black.
The primary sport is Crimson Mild, Inexperienced Mild, a standard youngsters’ sport the place gamers transfer in direction of a end line except “crimson mild” known as, at which level they have to cease. The twist is that on this sport, anybody caught shifting is shot lifeless immediately. The reveal of the deadly penalties causes a panic, and plenty of contestants are massacred. With the assistance of different rivals, together with his childhood classmate Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), Seong survives.
After greater than half of the preliminary 456 rivals have been killed within the first sport alone, most of the survivors demand to be launched. They’re informed to carry a vote, and by a slim majority they resolve to cancel the video games. Again in Seoul, Gi-hun goes to the police however his outlandish story is dismissed by everybody besides a detective, Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), whose brother disappeared after receiving an invite card to the video games. When the gamers are invited to rejoin the video games, Gi-hun – whose mom is sick and wishes costly surgical procedure – decides to return. Jun-ho follows him, disguising himself as a masked guard, and learns that the video games happen on a distant island.
The second sport is Ppopgi, a fragile problem the place gamers should take away a stamped form (triangle, star, circle or umbrella) inside 10 minutes from dalgona, a honeycomb sweet and widespread Korean road meals. Gi-hun picks essentially the most tough form, the umbrella, however manages to finish the sport by licking the again of the honeycomb.
One of many rivals, a gangster named Jang Deok-su (Heo Sung-tae), kills one other participant after being accused of stealing further meals. When the guards don’t react and the prize cash will increase, Deok-su and his gang realise they’ve immunity to kill different gamers. They begin a riot by which they kill extra gamers and the prize pot rises once more. A lady named Han Mi-nyeo (Kim Joo-ryoung) has intercourse with Deok-su, considering she’ll acquire his safety.
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New subscribers solely. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews till cancelled
The third sport is tug-of-war. Deok-su picks a robust workforce, excluding Mi-nyeo, having realized the character of the sport upfront from Participant 111, who’s secretly harvesting organs from lifeless gamers in alternate for sport secrets and techniques. Gi-hun’s group additionally survives. Detective Jun-ho breaks into the Entrance Man’s workplace, the place he learns that the sport has been operating for over 30 years. His brother gained the competitors in 2015. Participant 111’s organ harvesting scheme is uncovered, and he and his co-conspirators are killed.
The fourth sport is marbles. Gamers are paired up and should win all of their companion’s marbles in a sport of their selecting with a purpose to survive. Gi-hun is paired with Participant 001, Oh Il-nam (Oh Yeong-su), an outdated man with a mind tumour who he’s develop into near. Gi-hun thinks he has exploited his good friend’s dementia to win, however in reality the outdated man is conscious of the deception and appears to acquiesce to being killed. In a personal again room, Jun-ho witnesses masked overseas VIPs, who’ve been inserting bets on the video games, arrive to spectate on the ultimate rounds.
The fifth sport entails crossing a glass bridge, with some panes unable to help a participant’s weight. Mi-nyeo grabs maintain of the faltering Deok-su as revenge for his betrayal, and so they each fall to their deaths. Solely three gamers make it throughout the bridge: Gi-hun, his childhood good friend Sang-woo, and Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon).
When it emerges that Sae-byeok has been grievously injured whereas crossing the glass bridge, Gi-hun tries to get her assist. Whereas he’s away, Sang-woo kills her. After he returns Gi-hun makes an attempt to assault Sang-woo however is restrained by the guards. Behind the scenes, Jun-ho meets the Entrance Man and is surprised to be taught that he’s his brother. After Jun-ho refuses to affix him, the Entrance Man shoots him and he falls into the ocean.
The sixth and remaining sport is the Squid Recreation, which takes place on a enjoying area that resembles a squid. Gi-hun defeats Sang-woo however begs him to cease the sport. As a substitute, Sang-woo kills himself and asks Gi-hun to take care of his mom.
Gi-hun is taken again to Seoul and given a financial institution card that may permit him to say the prize cash. He learns his personal mom has died, and a yr later has nonetheless not touched the cash out of guilt. After receiving a mysterious invitation card, he finds his outdated good friend Oh Il-nam, who he thought had died within the marbles sport, now on his dying mattress within the outdoors world. To his shock, Gi-hun learns that Oh Il-nam is in reality the unique creator of Squid Recreation. He explains he organised the video games to entertain bored, rich folks like himself.
He makes a remaining guess with Gi-hun over the destiny of a person mendacity unconscious on the street, and dies shortly afterwards. Gi-hun provides a share of the prize cash to Sae-byeok’s brother and asks him to take care of Sang-woo’s mom. He decides to journey to Los Angeles to reunite along with his estranged daughter, however earlier than he boards his flight he spots the identical well-dressed man enjoying ddakji with an unsuspecting participant. He will get certainly one of his invitation playing cards and calls the quantity. The Entrance Man urges him to fly to LA, go away the sport behind and let all of it go. As a substitute, Gi-hun decides to show round and return.
Season two will choose up the story from there, and is ready to comply with Gi-hun as he returns to the sport together with new contributors. Whether or not or not he is ready to take down the sport from the within stays to be seen – however don’t anticipate too remaining a decision within the coming seven episodes. A 3rd season of Squid Recreation is already in manufacturing.
‘Squid Recreation’ season two is out now on Netflix
