The Ending Of Five Nights At Freddy's Explained
Contains spoilers for the "Five Nights at Freddy's" movie
After nearly a decade of development, the "Five Nights at Freddy's" movie finally arrives to take the iconic world and characters of the video game and bring them into a real-life nightmare. The film — based on the hit game series of the same name created by Scott Cawthon — follows Mike (Josh Hutcherson), a new security guard at a once-prominent but now closed family entertainment center called Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Although the gig is remarkably easy at first, Mike starts to notice that this place isn't completely dead. He is suspicious of the giant animatronic characters around him and believes that they aren't exactly lifeless. Eventually, Mike discovers the horrors of Freddy's and finds himself in a fight for survival against hulking mechanical monstrosities.
"Five Nights at Freddy's" features an unnerving yet nostalgic setting full of horrors, both mechanized and personal. As much as Freddy and his animatronic cohorts deliver chilling sights and nasty kills, there's also lingering personal trauma that stems from Mike's past, adding another layer of anguish to the whole ordeal. All the emotion and terror of the film's story builds toward a big finale where Mike not only faces his personal strife but also confronts a secret puppet master who steps out of the shadows. With so much to unpack with "Five Nights at Freddy's" and its potential to spin into a larger film franchise, let's dive deep into everything that happens at the end of the movie.
What you need to remember about the plot
Before we look at the film's finale, let's go over some important details to keep in mind. Mike suffers from anxiety that's spurred by a traumatic instance from his childhood. When Mike was a kid, his younger brother, Garrett (Lucas Grant), was abducted on a camping trip. Now, as an adult, he tries to use his dreams to figure out who took him with no success. Not only do his nightmares cause him to struggle to keep a job, but they also affect his relationship with his younger sister, Abby (Piper Rubio) — whom he cares for by himself.
Mike's newest job — a seemingly easy nighttime security gig at a closed children's party venue called Freddy Fazbear's Pizza — is initially harmless but becomes creepy when the animatronics come to life at night. However, they appear friendly, as they develop a strong bond with Abby. Unfortunately, that's only a ruse so they can manipulate Mike's desires for answers about Garrett and ultimately make a deal with him for Abby. Mike regretfully accepts, and the friendly characters turn violent to please their unseen master. Although Mike is nearly killed by his newfound animatronic foes, he's rescued by his friend, a local police officer named Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), who discloses everything she knows about Freddy's. This includes that her father, William Afton, is the orchestrator of this nightmare and that the animatronics Mike has been dealing with have a horrific past of their own.
What happened at the end of Five Nights at Freddy's?
A long time ago, William Afton — the mysterious owner of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza — brought Freddy and the other animatronics to life by kidnapping children and stuffing them into the place's mechanical mascots. This caused their souls to be intertwined with the machinery and become these haunting characters. Now, Afton controls them through drawings that influence their beliefs and looks to add another child to his collection — Abby. With Abby in danger, Mike heads back to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza to stop Freddy but eventually runs into Afton — who reveals himself to be the guy who gave Mike this job, Steve Raglan (Matthew Lillard). With his own mechanized yellow bunny suit, Afton beats Mike senselessly until he's thwarted by Abby.
By using her drawings that show Freddy and the others what Afton did to them, she convinces them to betray Afton — just as the spring traps in his costume cause him to be locked in it forever. As the building falls apart from all the action, Freddy and his companions pull Afton away while Mike and Abby help a severely injured Vanessa escape. Some time later, Mike visits Vanessa in the hospital and shares a family dinner with Abby — promising that they could see Freddy again one day. The film's final scene sees one of the ghost children leaving Afton behind a locked door so that he suffers the same fate as his victims.
What does the end of Five Nights at Freddy's mean?
At the start of the film, Mike constantly blames himself for not being able to keep Garrett from being abducted and searches for answers years after his disappearance. It's such a major motivation for him that he recreates and relives Garrett's abduction through his dreams just to find clues. His frustrations from his failures also drive him to be incredibly cold toward Abby. He chastises her for having imaginary friends and likely wishes that Garrett was here instead of her — which she of course doesn't deserve. That pain is what makes him so vulnerable to the ghost children who inhabit Freddy and his cronies, and he nearly loses Abby because of that pain.
Mike instantly regrets his initial decision to trade Abby for Garrett and does everything he can to fix things. He immediately realizes that Abby is just as important to him and sets out to stop Freddy from turning Abby into an animatronic. When Mike gets a moment alone with Abby, he apologizes for how he treats her and dedicates himself to being a better brother. Based on the film's ending, Mike seems to live up to that promise. He now acts as a better parental figure for Abby, sharing dinner with her just like their family used to do. Mike turns things around for himself and has the potential to have a greater relationship with Abby, no longer confined by his guilt.
Another explanation for the ending of Five Nights at Freddy's
While everything ends on a mostly pleasant note for Mike, the same can't be said for Afton. In the climactic final battle, Afton is slowly cut down by the spring traps in his animatronic suit and becomes stuck inside it. As he bleeds out and the building falls apart, he's dragged away and we don't see what happens to him until the final scene of the film. By the time the dust settles, Afton is in one of the rooms in the back — where the ghost children leave him for dead. He's still alive but not going anywhere anytime soon. It's a scene that symbolizes more than just Afton's defeat by his own creations.
It's a moment that also shows that the ghost children — and the mechanical monsters they control — are no longer under his control. Thanks to the picture that Abby draws of Afton killing the children, the magic bind that Afton has over Freddy and the other animatronics is broken. They're fully able to act on their own, and it's a key reason why they all turn on Afton in the end. Now, Freddy and his friends are more powerful than Afton and leave him to the same fate they suffered before they died. It's hard to say whether Afton will simply die now or if this could be the start of his return as a larger-than-life nightmare. But at least for now, his reign of terror has come to an end.
What Mike's story says about lingering grief
The personal trauma Mike deals with is the emotional core of this film. His story shows how lingering grief can lead someone to lose themselves in their own horrors. Although Mike's erratic behavior and unfair treatment toward Abby make him tough to love at first, it's hard not to feel something for him as the focal point of his trauma becomes clear. He's so desperate to find any resolution to what happened to Garrett that it's the only thing he dreams about. His determination for the truth runs so deep that he uses his sleeping pills to fall into a deep slumber so that his dreams are more surreal. His residual anxiety also causes him to lash out at others — including a man he mistakenly thinks is stealing a child.
The film's depiction of Mike's stress is easily relatable for anyone who struggles with past traumas. Mike's trauma drives him to nearly put Abby in peril and consumes him so greatly that it makes him want to be detached from reality entirely. It's what makes Mike's growth so impactful, and there are some great moments — like Mike's apology to Abby and the realization of his mistakes — that emphasize how he's coming out of his own darkness.
Where are the other children?
Although "Five Nights at Freddy's" features five main ghost children who have distinct connections to Freddy and his animatronic friends, there are surely more. Afton has a pattern of abducting children, and the fact that he took Garrett a long time ago likely means that he's been doing this for a while. So it's very probable that Afton has put other children into animatronic suits over the years and that some of the other characters seen in the background could signify his past attempts to do so. In the back room that characters walk in and out of throughout the film, there's a dog character — who could be a reference to the rumored character of Sparky the Dog — seen lying down as well as that horrifying-looking husk that Abby is nearly put into. They're broken apart now, but maybe one of them housed one of the kids Afton took at some point.
The possibility of there being more ghost children is especially strong when fans consider the fact that there are a lot more characters from the games still to make their debut. Afton's obsession with building these goofy animatronics and putting kids in them sadly has a long history, and who knows how many ghost kids are really out there. But it's safe to say that there are more than five, and we can already take a guess at one Mike and Abby will potentially run into eventually.
What happened to Mike's brother?
While we're on the subject of other ghost children, the ambiguity surrounding Garrett's fate makes it very possible that he's another ghost Mike and Abby could meet in the future. Although Afton takes ownership of taking Garrett when Mike was a kid, he's not exactly clear about what happened to him. He says that Garrett is gone, but that could just mean that he was stuffed into one of the animatronics. This mystery has strong potential to keep Mike and Abby around in the franchise and give them personal motivations that make them look for more of Freddy's companions.
Plus, the re-emergence of Garrett as a ghost child could help fill in the gaps of what happened while he was with Afton. It could lead to us getting a peek in a future film about how Afton brings these animatronics to life and who he truly is — especially since Afton is largely absent throughout most of the film. Garrett could be the key to really understanding Afton and this weird world where ghosts and animatronics combine to create jaw-dropping horrors.
What's next for Freddy and his friends?
The fates of Freddy and his pals are also left ambiguous. The control that Afton has had over them is now destroyed. They're basically free to do whatever they want. After they leave Afton to either die or become connected with his costume, the characters could leave the place altogether and find somewhere else to call home. Maybe they could go find Abby to rekindle their friendship, or maybe their exit from Freddy Fazbear's Pizza could result in some of the other locations from the games being visited.
Longtime "Five Nights at Freddy's" fans know that as more sequels to the original game were released, the series continually expanded outside of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Perhaps the next film could be the right time to bring fans to Freddy's Frights — a horror-centric attraction that acted as the third game's setting. Or there's potential for the characters to explore the sister location from the fifth game — Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental — and introduce Circus Baby to the mix. The options are wide open for what Freddy and his friends are up to — especially now that they seem to be on their own.
What does the ending mean for the franchise?
While there is currently no confirmation of a sequel to "Five Nights at Freddy's" going into development, the chances of it happening are very high, especially since the "Five Nights at Freddy's" movie has already made its budget back before even hitting theaters. So the only question left now is, what is going to happen in a potential sequel? Well, the ending of the film doesn't give us any hints of where things are going, and the mid-credits scene is also no help since it's just a fun scare gag with the Balloon Boy statue that pops up everywhere. However, we can theorize that the films will probably continue the story of the games, albeit with their own remixes of canonical events and characters.
It's worth noting that the film doesn't follow the games beat for beat and introduces things that don't appear until later games. For instance, Springtrap — who is represented by Afton's costume — doesn't appear until the third game, and the police officer character Vanessa is potentially a reference to the antagonistic security guard Vanessa from "Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach." Other characters and locations can appear at any point in future films, fans should expect to be surprised by where things show up. A sequel could also weave together plot points from the other games to create a narrative cocktail of the franchise's best elements. A "Five Nights at Freddy's'" sequel is all but guaranteed, and regardless of where it goes, fans will be eagerly awaiting to theorize what's on the horizon.
What have the cast and crew said about the franchise's future?
While the ending of "Five Nights at Freddy's" doesn't tease much in terms of a sequel, there are quotes from cast and crew members that establish what fans can expect for the franchise's cinematic future. When star Matthew Lillard appeared on the WeeklyMTG podcast to talk about "Magic the Gathering" (via Fangoria), he also revealed some interesting information about his contract with Universal/Blumhouse. "I just got cast in a movie called 'Five Nights at Freddy's,'" he said at the time. "It's very fun, it's a three-picture deal with Universal and Blumhouse."
Unless Lillard is also planning to appear in other Universal/Blumhouse projects as a part of that deal, one can assume he's going to be a part of at least three planned "Five Nights at Freddy's" films. This news lines up with director Emma Tammi's desire to see the film also be the start of a franchise she'd like to return to. When speaking with ScreenRant, Tammi said that there's so much more for potential sequels to explore. "Oh, my gosh, well, the lore is massive," she said. "There was no way we were ever going to fit everything into one film, nor was it the intention. ... There's so much to potentially bring into any sequels, should we be lucky enough to make them." According to those directly involved, fans can expect at least a trilogy of "Five Nights at Freddy's" films that delve deeper into the lore and showcase more of their favorite murderous animatronics.