What exactly happened
in Five Nights at Freddy’s?
Normally I like to write a mildly funny introduction to my
blog posts but there is a lot to talk about with Five Nights at Freddy’s which
from now on I’ll shorten to FNAF. So blah blah blah, insert funny joke here,
let’s get started.
The FNAF story starts long before the setting of any of the
three main games in a small family run restaurant called Fredbears Family
Diner. How long this restaurant was open for is unknown, however what we know
for sure is the event that set’s everything into motion takes place at the
Diner. It’s accepted and for good reason that the Take Cake mini game is the
first event we see in the FNAF timeline where we see who is likely Fredbear
(Who would later become Freddy Fazbear) taking cake to screaming Children. A
crying child is left outside the building and after a while we see a purple man
pull up in a car next to the Diner and murder the child. We know from the tear
stains on the child’s face that remain after his death matching the design of
the puppets mask as well as the puppet’s jump scare which always follows this
mini game that this child’s soul exists in the Puppet.
The negative PR from this incident makes the owners of
Fredbear’s Family Diner sell the restaurant to a company known as Fazbear
Entertainment. To distance themselves from the murdered child incident they
rename the restaurant as Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria and open a chain of
restaurants. It is unknown how many restaurants or for how long they are open
for is, however we know there are multiple restaurants as a sister location is
mentioned in the Phone Guy’s training tapes in FNAF 3. This first chain of
Pizzeria’s is when the spring lock suits are introduced. These suits double as
both animatronics and suits as stated by Phone Guy in his FNAF 3 recordings.
These two suits are golden versions of Bonnie, who would later be known as
Springtrap and the mysterious golden Freddy. The issue with these spring lock
suits of course is that the spring locks have a tendency to snap shut with
someone inside, killing them. In his night 4 recording in FNAF 3 Phone Guy
talks of an unfortunate event with several simultaneous spring lock failures
resulting in employees no longer being permitted to use the Spring Lock suits.
On his night 5 recording he also mentions the Golden Bonnie suit has been
notably moved, making it highly likely it’s the suit the purple man uses as his
disguise for his later murders.
We are also told that these Pizzeria’s contained safe rooms
that are invisible to both the restaurants security cameras and the
animatronics programming. However Phone Guy’s recordings say they are sealed up
never to be mentioned again. Finally and perhaps most importantly we know that
five children are murdered in this location. We learn about this in the FNAF 1
newspaper clippings where we learn that a man used a character costume to lure
five children into a back room and murder them. While a man was caught on
cameras and arrested (Although it should be mentioned it is at no point said he
was prosecuted) the children’s bodies were never found. The Pizzeria continued
for a little while longer until it was eventually closed after blood and mucus
began leaking from the original 4 animatronics, those being Freddy, Bonnie,
Chica and Foxy. This suggests that the four of the children’s bodies were
stuffed into these four suits with the killer using the Golden Bonnie suit as
we know it is only one of two that can be worn.
How the five animatronics from FNAF 1 (Freddy, Bonnie,
Chica, Foxy and Golden Freddy) are possessed by the dead children is shown to
us in the Give Gifts, Give Life mini game. We see the Puppet, the possessed
animatronic of the first murdered child try to give the dead children presents
to make them happy. However after this doesn’t work with them being dead, the
Puppet stuffs them into the suits and gives them life in these new bodies. The
final frame before the Golden Freddy jumpscare reveals the final child is
connected to Golden Freddy, showing us how these 5 robots became possessed.
We also know this took place in the original Freddy
Fazbear’s Pizza from the Foxy Go Go Go minigame where we see Foxy run out of
pirate’s cove to entertain the children. The third time he runs past the same
purple man sprite before finding the five children are lying there dead. This
must take place before the suits are possessed as Foxy does not attack the
purple man. We therefore know that in this location five children were
murdered, the safe rooms were supposedly sealed up and the five animatronics
from FNAF 1 were possessed thanks to the Puppet.
After shutting down Fazbear entertainment eventually reopens
its restaurant and the brand new Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria is opened. This is
the only time during this timeline where we have actually been told the date as
it takes place, 1987. This is also the setting for Fnaf 2 where after the old
Pizzeria’s were left to rot (At least according to phone Guy) the old
animatronics have become withered and damaged. Wary of another missing children’s
incident and the bad press that would come with it the new Pizzeria has brand
new toy versions of the original animatronics. Not only are they supposedly
more kid friendly (Although I struggle to see how mangle could ever be
classified as kid friendly) but they have built in facial recognition software
to a criminal database to attempt to protect children and prevent another
incident. The original animatronics are present in their withered state and
both Golden Freddy and the Puppet can be encountered during FNAF 2. Despite all
this however five more children are murdered in this location. We see this in
the Save them mini game where the Puppet leads Freddy throughout an exact
replica of the FNAF 2 building with five dead children scattered throughout the
building.
 |
Notice how the Children's bodies are in places that would
likely make them unseen by the buildings cameras |
While we do not know
when during FNAF 2 this night takes place (It must be at night due to the
restaurant being empty) the dead children’s bodies are positioned on the map to
likely be invisible to the security cameras and thus they could be in the
building during one of the nights you play. The Phone Guy mentions a yellow
suit was used during the night 6 phone call which makes it likely the murders
took place during the week you play in as Jeremy Fitzgerald. On night 6 the
Phone Guy also says the building is in lock down especially considering former
employees, telling us the murderer is almost certainly an employee of Fazbear
Entertainment. Rarely during the save them mini games Freddy is attacked by the
purple man who this time has a gold badge on his chest and a strange purple
object in his hands. When he catches you the screen crashes leaving you with
the message ‘You Can’t’ likely referring to the minigame title Save Them (As in
the children).
One nagging detail is how the killer managed this when he
had been captured by Police years before. There are two possibilities. One is
that the purple and pinkish sprites represent different people. I don’t think
this is likely however as the killer must have been an employee at the previous
Pizzeria in order to know how to use the spring lock suits. We know the killer
uses one of these yellow spring lock suits and he can’t have done this if he
was a brand new employee, partly for not knowing they were sealed in the old
safe rooms and partly as he would not know how to operate them. It also seems
unlikely a serial child killer with no apparent motivation other than enjoying
murder as seen by the smile on his face whenever we see him in FNAF 2 would
share the murdering with someone else.
While an investigation is going on throughout FNAF 2 the
restaurant is closed down due to an entirely different reason. In FNAF 1 we are
told of an incident known as the bite of 87 where an animatronic bit someone
during the day removing their frontal lobe. This is not mentioned at all
throughout FNAF 2’s phone calls despite the game being set in 1987, however
after night 6 we receive a newspaper clip that states that the restaurant will
be shut down immediately and the new animatronics scrapped due to possible malfunction,
with the original’s being kept for possible re organization of the company.
This makes it highly likely that one of the toy animatronics bit someone,
during the day thus the restaurant is immediately shut down and the
animatronics are no longer allowed to walk around during the day, being
restricted to moving only at night. This must have taken place during the day
shift AFTER night 6 in FNAF 2.
An unspecified number of years later another Freddy Fazbears
Pizzeria is opened which acts as the location of FNAF 1. Some major events take
place in this building. Firstly FNAF 1 itself takes place with the player
character Mike Schmitt going through seven nights with Freddy, Bonnie, Chica,
Foxy and Golden Freddy roaming the Pizzeria trying to kill him. After night
seven he is fired for general unprofessionalism, tampering with the
animatronics and odour.
Before the events of FNAF 1 with Mike Schmitt the Phone Guy
is killed by the animatronics. We hear this happen in the night 4 phone call
where he appears to be attacked by all the animatronics. During his phone calls
which we know are pre-recorded in this game he also reveals some important
information to us telling us about the bite of 87 and the original missing
children’s incident.
Finally we know the purple guy dies here. We know it is this
location due to it mirroring the map of the FNAF 1 pizzeria and not featuring
the toy animatronics. However in the FNAF 3 minigames that take place after
each night that this location contains a safe room with the spring Bonnie suit
inside. This tells us this is the same building as one of the original Freddy
Fazbear’s pizzerias, after Fredbear family Diner but before the location of
FNAF 2. After shadow Freddy, what appeared to be just an Easter egg in FNAF 2
but played a prominent role in FNAF 3 lures each of the original animatronics
to the safe room. However due to the safe rooms being invisible to the
animatronics they glitch out and the purple man, this time lacking the gold badge
appears and dismantles them. After Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy have been
dismantled, the spirits of the five children from the first missing children’s
incident enter the safe room and scare the purple man into the spring Bonnie
suit. The building is rotting and in a terrible state and thus rain is all over
the floor causing the spring locks to snap shut killing the purple man who is
now known as Springtrap.
Finally there’s FNAF 3 which is set 30 years later with a
horror amusement attraction is opened called Fazbear Fright to cash in on the
rumours and mysteries of the old Pizzeria’s. A week before the attraction
opens, a night guard is hired to watch over the building and the attractions
owners find an animatronic for their attraction, an animatronic who happens to
be Springtrap. He tries to kill you for a 5 nights while phantom animatronics
(In a withered and damaged state) jumpscare you if you fail to upkeep the
ventilation properly, distracting you to allow Springtrap an advantage to try
to get you. After night 6 the attraction catches fire and burns down,
apparently due to ‘faulty wiring’. Playing the game though normally rewards you
with the bad ending where there are five masks, representing the five original
animatronics with lights on behind their eyes, suggesting the children’s souls
still haunt the animatronics. If you complete a bunch of strange minigames and
exploit intentional glitches to give crying dead children cake you get the good
ending, where there are only four masks (Golden Freddy’s is strangely missing)
and the lights are off in the masks, suggesting the souls have been released.
However the Puppet occasionally appears in a perfectly un-damaged state in the
hallways. We know he’s really there as we can see his reflection in the water
on the ground meaning it’s likely he was the one to burn down Fazbears Fright
to try to end the purple man for good and at least for now this is where our
story ends.
This is getting long so I’ll upload the second part in a few
days. I’ll discuss all the big questions people tend to have about the series
such as Golden Freddy’s identity, the significance of the shadow animatronics
and of course the identity of the murderous purple guy. Meanwhile the Cool
Stuff blog has a Facebook page now which is linked below. If you enjoyed this post
and are interested in the next part then I’d appreciate a like on the page. See
you next time and be careful, Freddy is right behind you.
Watching Hammond and May close the show felt incredibly
sombre. Hammond looked ready to well up and there was no acknowledgment of the
elephant in the room, no talks of the future, simply the TWO of them said
thanks for watching and Goodbye. It’s always goodnight said at the end of a Top
Gear Episode. Then the credits came up with the usual black background and
white text. There was the simple change
of no music, instead a silence lingered over the screen. It almost felt like
there’d been a death, it felt meaningful as did that first line, “Hello and welcome
to what’s left of Top Gear”.
