Red Light, Green Light
Seong Gi-hun is an impoverished divorcee who works as a chauffeur, struggles with a gambling addiction, is knee-deep in debt, and still lives with his elderly mother, who works to make ends meet for both of them. On his daughter Ga-yeong's birthday, his mother gives him ₩20,000 won (roughly $17 USD) to buy her dinner and a present. However, with other plans for the money, Gi-hun whines that 20,000 won't even be enough for a fried chicken dinner, so his mother reluctantly coughs up more before she scurries off to work. Gi-hun also takes her hidden bank card with the intent of stealing funds for him and his buddy to bet on the horseraces. He wins big but is spotted by one of the loan sharks he owes a debt to. He runs, but a pickpocket steals his winnings and he can't even pay them. Their leader makes Gi-hun sign a contract with his own blood that states if he doesn't pay up by the next month, they'll take away his organs.
That night, Gi-hun 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 useless 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. After dropping her off back home, Gi-hun encounters a man at a train station who challenges him to ddakji, a simple children's game where the aim is to throw and flip the other player's paper card over. Each round, whoever loses will give the other ₩100,000 (around $85). However, since Gi-hun doesn't have that money, the salesman instead slaps him in the face when he loses. Determined to win, Gi-hun tries and is slapped multiple times until he finally wins. The salesman makes him an offer — he can do this same sort of thing again for much bigger prizes. He gives Gi-hun a card with a phone number and bids him farewell as he leaves on the incoming train, never breaking his mysterious smile.
The next day, Gi-hun finds out from his mother that his ex-wife Eun-ji's new husband (Ga-yeong's stepfather) has gotten a new job offer and will be moving to the USA in a few months, which means Gi-hun won't be able to see her. Gi-hun's mother, who's worried Ga-yeong might lose her connection to her Korean roots if she moves to America, notes that if he had more money, he'd be able to prove he's able to financially support her better and be able to make a case for shared custody. Desperate to keep his daughter, Gi-hun takes out the card and calls the number. He's told to wait at a street corner at night and give a passcode when a mysterious van pulls up. He's ushered in next to some other people. Knockout gas is pumped into the van and he falls unconscious.
Gi-hun wakes up in a giant room full of bunk beds and wearing a green tracksuit marked with the number "456" on the breast. There are hundreds of other people in there too, each wearing a similar suit and number. A display reads that there are 456 participants in the game. A voice rings out and the people are ushered into lines and taken out. Masked men in pink jumpsuits and masks with symbols, ranging from circles to triangles to squares, explain that this is the game and that they can win cash prizes in the rounds to follow. One man complains, asking why they were drugged and brought here. The leader singles him out, revealing that the man is deep in debt. He then reveals that everyone here is in the same position, all in dire financial straits and in need of relief. All of them also signed away their physical rights before coming here. They're then given a second contract — players can leave if the majority vote to leave, but they make no money. Everyone signs, and proceeds to the next room. During this, Gi-hun meets four people — Player 001, an old man suffering from a brain tumor; Player 101, a gangster named Jang Deok-su; Player 067, the female pickpocket who stole his winnings at the horseraces in the middle of a beatdown being delivered by Deok-su, whom she had betrayed some time ago; and to Gi-hun's amazement, Cho Sang-woo (Player 218), his childhood best friend who had attended and graduated from the prestigious Seoul National University and was thought to be financially successful. An announcement rings out: All players assemble for the first game, which is revealed in the next room — "Red Light/Green Light", or in Korean, ''무궁화 꽃이 피었습니다'' ("The hibiscus flower is blooming").
A giant doll stands at the end of an enclosure. It explains the rules: It sings the jingle and then turns around. If it sees a player moving while it's facing them, they are disqualified. They have five minutes to cross the finish line at the end of the room. Players 324 and 250 make a bet on who gets to the finish line first out of the two of them, the winner getting a million won. As the game begins, the players start running, with 250 and 324 sprinting well ahead of the pack. The doll turns around for the first time and sees Player 324 moving. 250 cheekily comments on his loss, but then a loud bang rings through the stadium, and 324 sinks to the ground. 250 initially thinks 324 is just being dramatic and tells him to quit the act, until he sees the other man vomit up blood and lay motionless. Then he realizes the man is dead and begins to run back in a panic. Unfortunately, the doll sees him moving as well and he's soon riddled with bullets, his blood splattering on the face of Player 306. She screams in horror and is killed as well. This leads to a bunch of players trying to run away in panic as they see what "elimination" truly means.
Other bullets strike as other people move. A series of holes are seen around the walls of the enclosure, each containing a small turret. A woman's voice reiterates to the players that if they are caught moving, they will be disqualified. With this in mind, the other players attempt to continue-—the old man is gleefully unaware and continues playing with gusto while Gi-hun, the pickpocket, Deok-su, Sang-woo, and the other players gather their wits and continue forward.
A deadly ballet ensues, as people try to play the game, but inevitably find themselves lacking. Bodies fall with every round. The turrets spit death perfectly. A masked man in black watches all the carnage unfold on a large screen in what looks like a control center and turns on a music player. "Fly Me to the Moon" plays as players are shot down mercilessly.
Gi-hun is approaching the finish line, as the others have already made it. However, as he's about to trip when the doll turns around, he's stopped and held up at the last second by Player 199, a foreigner who makes it to the finish line with him at the very last second. Those who haven't made it across the finish line are disqualified and shot to death. It dawns on Gi-hun and the others that this isn't any ordinary game. This is life or death.
"Red Light, Green Light" provides examples of:
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Invoked and exploited. Gi-hun is in desperate straits, not only being completely broke, but being so deeply in debt that he's at risk of both losing his daughter and being killed by criminals to whom he owes money. No matter how weird and cryptic the offer of the games is, he feels that he has no choice. It appears that all the contestants are in similarly dangerous situations.
- Blatant Lies:
- Gi-hun tries to tell his mother that ₩20,000 (around $17 in US dollars) is not enough for even a fried chicken dinner to convince her to him more money to gamble.
- Ga-yeong tells Gi-hun to not use the gun lighter for smoking. Gi-hun acts shocked and says he's clean. She sniffs Gi-hun, giving him a skeptical look.
- Blood from the Mouth: Player 324 vomits blood after getting shot.
- Blood Oath: Gi-hun signs a contract with the Loan Shark with his bloody fingerprint.
- Blood-Splattered Innocents: One of the female players gets sprayed with blood from another player. She has a Freak Out which results in her getting shot as well.
- Can't Move While Being Watched: Applied as a game mechanic.
- Convenience Store Gift Shopping: Gi-hun tries to win Ga-yeong's birthday gift from a claw game.
- Couldn't Find a Pen: A variant; the loan sharks ask for Gi-hun's thumbprint when he signs an agreement with them, but instead of an ink pad, they make him use the blood from his injured nose.
- Crowd Panic: Upon realizing what kind of game they're playing, numerous scared participants attempt to flee, resulting in them being mercilessly killed for moving.
- Cut Himself Shaving: When asked by his daughter about the bruise on his face, Gi-hun explains that it's a mosquito bite.
- Disaster Dominoes: Most of the deaths in the first game are the result of everyone freaking out and trying to escape when they realize the true nature of the games, setting off the motion detectors further.
- Dissonant Serenity: While everyone else is cowering in fear for their lives, the old man is the only one smiling widely as he cheerfully continues on with the game and even getting a decent head start from the others.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Gi-hun has a gambling addiction, but it's visually played very much like a drug addiction. He acts twitchy, shifty, and irritable when he's trying to get his next "fix" (stealing money, more frantically betting on race after race or game after game following each loss), and becomes very euphoric during the "high" of a recent victory. Characters around him react accordingly, with his mother even urging him to clean up his act and get a real job, much like relatives of those with substance abuse issues asking them to get sober and find a steady income. The salesman, naturally, plays on his gambling addiction to get him interested in the games.
- Early-Bird Cameo: It's rather easy to miss, but some of the players that would play a significant role in later episodes (such as Mi-nyeo and Ji-yeong) have their mugshots shown in the shot where the players blink out in rapid succession during the mass panic.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Gi-hun has two. In the introductory flashback to the children playing the squid game, young Gi-hun cheats by pulling a Look Behind You on his opponent. Adult Gi-hun is introduced stealing his mother's credit card so he can gamble, but finding out the passcode isn't his birthday anymore, because his mother doesn't like him as much. He's also shown being nice to a stray cat by feeding it and speaking fondly to it, so he's still established as good-hearted.
- The pickpocket who steals from Gi-hun, in later episodes, shows prowess in stealing objects from others.
- Deok-su is introduced giving a violent beatdown to the pickpocket in front of everyone, foreshadowing his role as Disc-One Final Boss and all-around scum of the earth.
- The masked guards also are introduced as not interfering in the fight between the pickpocket and Deok-su, foreshadowing how they will ultimately stay neutral as Deok-su later kills a player and starts a deadly riot to weed out extra players and people he generally doesn't like.
- The nameless Pakistani man's first moment in the game is saving Gi-hun from getting killed, and helping him freeze just in time.
- Everyone Has Standards: Gi-hun is disturbed when he sees an old man among the participants before they learn the real stakes of the game. He asks why the man is here if he's sick with dementia and cancer and wonders if he even has any family that can take care of him. The old man explains that he has his reasons for being here, and asks if Gi-hun's family has a daughter-in-law that cares for her elderly grandparents.
- Faceless Goons: The staff's faces are completely covered by a mask with a symbol representing their rank.
- Failure Montage: Gi-hun repeatedly loses in the ddakji game to the man on the subway and gets slapped in the face each time.
- Gift-Giving Gaffe: The toy gun Gi-hun uses to light his cigarette. His daughter isn't impressed.
- Hope Spot: After some setbacks in horserace betting, Gi-hun manages to win enough money to provide a step-up to a fried chicken dinner for his daughter. Unfortunately, he is pickpocketed while chased by the loan sharks, putting him right back where he started, if not further.
- Humiliation Conga: Gi-hun is in severe debt to a group of loan sharks, and if he fails to pay them within a month, they'll steal one of his kidneys. His ex is disgusted with him and is moving to the US, with his daughter possibly losing her connection to her father and beginning to refer to her mother's new husband as her father.
- Human Shield: A trick some players use to win the first round. As the giant doll in the 'Red Light, Green Light' game has a motion camera that detects players' movements, a player hiding behind another has some leeway and a potential meat shield.
- Irony: Player 324 strikes the most confident and defiant pose for his photo, and is the first to be eliminated.
- Just in Time: Gi-hun and Ali both cross the finishing line at the last second. The remaining players aren't so fortunate.
- Knockout Gas: Happens to everyone who accepts to join the Game—they're subjected to being knocked out after getting into a van so they can be transported to a secret location where the Game takes place.
- Living Motion Detector: The giant doll has this installed on her eyes. Should she detect someone moving when she isn't singing, she sends a signal to the guns above her to eliminate the moving player.
- Loan Shark: Gi-hun is in debt to some nasty customers, who demand their money or they'll take one of his kidneys and eyes. Gi-hun joins the Game in order to pay them off.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": In the first game, the moment the players realize that being "eliminated" from a round involves being fatally shot by sniper bullets, chaos ensues. Most panic and attempt to flee en-masse, which results in the deaths of hundreds as the sensors identify a sea of moving targets.
- Monochrome Past: Gi-hun's memory in the opening scene of the childhood game he plays is presented in black and white.
- Mood Whiplash: Players 324 and 250 make a bet as Vitriolic Best Buds; whoever crosses the finish line first gets a million won. It's at first humorous that 324 is running so fast to win the bet that he can't freeze in time, resulting in 250 saying, "Dumbass got caught." Then a loud bang is heard throughout the arena and 324 collapses. 250, now confused and concerned, runs to 324 as soon as the doll gives the go-ahead, and informs him that he was eliminated and can stop with the act. However, 324 is now coughing up blood.
- Motive Misidentification: When the Salesman first approaches Gi-hun, Gi-hun thinks the Salesman is a Christian Evangelist and states that he's not interested in Jesus' teachings.
- My Card: The stranger on the subway hands Gi-hun his business card which only shows a telephone number.
- My New Gift Is Lame: Gi-hun wins Ga-yeong a birthday present from a prize-grabber machine; the gift came already packaged in a fancy box with a ribbon, so Gi-hun didn't bother checking to see what it is before giving it to his daughter. While he was likely expecting it to be a plushie like all the other prizes in the machine, the two are suitably surprised and disappointed when the gift turns out to be a cigarette lighter shaped like a handgun. And Gi-hun just keeps it for himself anyway, wisely assuming his ex-wife would have a fit if she found their daughter carrying such a thing.
- Nasal Trauma: Gi-hun's nose gets injured when the loan sharks beat the shit out of him; they even use blood from his nostril to take his thumbprint.
- Nerves of Steel: The old man is the only one who doesn't panic during the "Red light, green light" game. He surges forward, freezes when the doll says "red light," and then strides. Either his dementia is that strong, or he doesn't care anymore since he's dying of a brain tumor.
- Once More, with Clarity: After Gi-hun finds out that his daughter is moving to the USA with her mother and stepfather, we cut back to the scene where he promises to get her a better gift for her next birthday. Her reaction isn't just disappointment — it's sadness because she knows he won't be around for her next birthday.
- The One Who Made It Out: Gi-hun initially believes Sang-woo was this, since he was the only one in their small town to go to a big fancy business school and supposedly make it big as an international traveling businessman. Gi-hun later finds out Sang-woo ended up in the games for similar reasons as him—debts sky high with banks and loan sharks alike, despite his great education and seemingly high-class job.
- Only a Lighter: The toy gun Gi-hun gets from the claw machine. He decides to hold onto it and when the salesman initially attempts to make a deal with him, Gi-hun points it at him, causing the salesman to raise both his hands. When Gi-hun pulls the trigger, the salesman is relieved to find that it was just a lighter.
- Organ Theft: The loan sharks warn Gi-hun that, if he doesn't make his next payment, they'll take one of his kidneys… and if he missed the payment after that, they'll take an eye.
- Pet the Dog: In episode 1, Gi-hun has a literal 'save the cat' moment when he feeds fish to a hungry stray. He also gives his daughter a piggyback ride home and makes sure that she's safely in her mother's care before leaving.
- Please Wake Up: In denial of what he just saw after a shot rings out, 250 runs to 324 when getting the green light and whispers for him to stop pretending, that it's just a game. 324 coughs out blood, making 250 realize that he wasn't doing a pratfall.
- Prison Riot: Deok-su and Sae-byeok get into a fight at the sleeping quarters.
- Schmuck Bait: When the Game is introduced, the players (and by extension the audience) are led to believe that they will simply be playing a bunch of children's games, with being sent home being the outcome if they lose. It's not until the Wham Shot happens, well after the "Red Light/Green Light" game starts, that the true nature of the game is revealed.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Upon realizing that players who are eliminated are killed, numerous people panic and try to flee and are killed.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: A cover of "Fly Me to the Moon", a soothing jazz song, plays while the contestants of the game are running for their lives and getting slaughtered.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: A staff member shows a brief video to all of the participants gathered for the games, listing each name, home, and amount of money owed. They all played the same game with a salesperson as Gi-hun, with each and every one of them getting a slap in the face before eventually winning.
- Timed Mission: The players must cross the finishing line before the time runs out, or they are executed.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: Gi-hun's troubles are about 50% this and 50% his chauffeur job that doesn't pay well at all.
- Wham Line: Gi-hun goes to one of the participants and recognizes him: his childhood friend Sang-woo. He asks if Sang-woo was on a business trip like his mother said.
- Wham Shot: A literal one; Player 324 getting shot dead during the "Red Light Green Light" game. This lets the audience know that the players will get killed if they lose the games rather than them simply being sent home.
- Win Her a Prize: A platonic variant. Gi-hun tries to win his daughter a birthday gift from a claw machine; since Gi-hun's Humiliation Conga wasn't finished yet, he blows a huge chunk of money on numerous failed attempts before a random little boy helps him win something… and it turns out to be something totally unsuited for a child's birthday present anyway.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: A non-verbal example; after his brutal beating, Gi-hun asks the loan sharks if they'll lend him 10 thousand won. The loan sharks share incredulous looks as if to ask, "Is this dude for real?"
