Squid Game is a Korean series on Netflix revolving around a contest where some desperate people in debt had to play high-risk games in order to win a huge sum of money, amounting to billions of dollars so as to clear up their debts.
The set of games in this movie can be explained simply as “win or die trying”. This is so because out of the total 456 participants, there could be only one winner and as such, everyone else in the game had to die for one person to win and walk away with the grand prize of 45.6 billion dollars. All the players were identified by the numbers on their uniform – a green tracksuit. For example Player 101, Player 101, Player 456 etc.
What are the six games in Squid Game?
The games in this series were not all about physical strength as their manipulation skills, patience, intelligence, agility, cunningness as well as ability to think out of the box and remain loyal in dire circumstances were also tested.
The six games shown in Squid games are as follows: Red light, Greenlight, Dalgona (Honeycomb candy), Tug of War, Marbles, Glass Tile Game and Squid Game.
Red Light, Green Light
Referring to the colours of a traffic light, the first game of this series takes place in a large space that is set for all players. The game rule of this game was that once the leader of the game (in this case a giant doll) has its back turned and chants, all players can move towards a big tree where the giant doll was, however, immediately it stops chanting and turns towards the players, all players are expected to completely freeze as anyone who did not freeze could be easily spotted by the motion detectors in the giant doll’s eyes. All players that were spotted in motion by the giant doll after she stopped chanting and turned were immediately shot.
This came as a shock to other participants because they did not imagine the game would cost them their lives.
Dalgona (Honeycomb candy)
As shown in the third episode of the series, this game can be described as frustrating. In this game, players were given 10 minutes to carve out different shapes (circle, umbrella, triangle and star) from a delicate piece of Dalgona otherwise known as Honeycomb candy. These shapes were to be carved out as a whole, that is, without breaking their intended design. The players were given a needle to carve out the shapes and players whose designs broke and were destroyed in the process of carving out their shapes were killed instantly.
One of the players discovered that licking the honeycombs made it wet and therefore easy for the shapes to come out whole without and without getting broken in the process.
Tug of War
Tug of war involved the selection of 10 players for each team to use their strength to pull a thick rope. This game can easily be termed “survival of the fittest” as the team that falls past the centre mark automatically falls to their death. As expected, all participants looked for strong and physically fit members to complete their teams because it looked like a game of strength.
However, Player 456, the oldest player in the game, told his team members that the game did not rely on just strength but a technique that allows all members of the opposing team to get tired before using all their strength and leveraging on their full body instead of just their upper body. This technique worked out fine as their team made it through the next round, despite not having the strongest members.
Marbles
Only 39 players were left out of the 456 that started the game initially as the remaining players had been eliminated. At the beginning of this game, each player was given a bag containing 10 marbles. The game of marbles required each player to obtain 10 marbles from their chosen partners, through any method or game of their choice within a time frame of 30 minutes. The player that collected a total of 20 marbles won this round. The players that lost their marbles or that were not able to complete the game before the time elapsed were eliminated.
Glass Tile Game
The penultimate game played in Squid Game took place in a large chamber similar to that of a circus tent. At the beginning of this game, players were asked to pick a numbered apron, but they did not realize that the numbers they had picked were the order in which the game would be played.
The objective of this game was for players to cross to the other side of the bridge successfully by jumping their way through a bridge that had two glasses side by side. While one side had tempered glass, the other had a regular glass that could hold up 2 players at a time. The major task was differentiating tempered glass from regular glass. Jumping on the regular glass simply meant falling to your death as the glass shattered on impact. The time limit for this game was 16 minutes.
At the end of this game, only 3 players were left.
Squid Game
One of the three finalists was killed by Player 218, making it just Player 456 and Player 218 contesting for the grand prize. The sixth and final game of the series took place in a squid shaped court and both players were assigned the roles of attacker and defender. The game is played by drawing a square, a triangle and two circles on the ground (the same shapes seen throughout the whole series) and has the attacker and defender trying to invade each other’s space. The tricky part is that you can’t touch any lines and must hop on one foot in most areas. In this game, any kind of violence is allowed.
At the end of this game, Player 456 was victorious and walked away with the prize of 45.6 billion dollars.
The games played in Squid Games were not just a test of strength as seen in each game detail. Beyond strength, various other skills were put to the test and at the end of the games, a least expected player emerged as the winner.
Image Gallery – Six Games in Squid Game
