FNAF Full Storyline Explained

This is a summary of the full storyline of the Five Nights at Freddy's trilogy of video games.

Intro

NOTE: This guide is a summary of my version of the FNAF storyline. If you would like to see the full, more in-depth (but very very long and wordy) version you can check it out on Reddit at this link (remember that it's in three separate parts): http://www.reddit.com/r/fivenightsatfreddys/comments/2z47xl/fnaf_full_storyline_explained_part_1_warning_this/

This is the full storyline of Five Nights at Freddy's as interpreted by me, and I acknowledge that my interpretation is just one version of the story and that there could be any number of alternative ways for the story to play out, although I think it's better off this way. Since there's no definitive path for the story to take with these games, it allows us to become more creative and use our imaginations to build up an intriguing and fascinating story with these characters.

Fredbear's Family Diner (1970s)

Fredbear's has four animatronic mascots:

• Golden Fredbear
  
• Golden Bonnie
  
• Fredbear
  
• The Puppet

One day, there is a kids' party at Fredbear's with one lone child stood outside of the diner crying.

A golden bunny appears from behind the child and befriends him, even offering him a cupcake.

The child eats the cupcake but then realises it's been poisoned.

The bunny is actually Purple Man in a Golden Bonnie spring costume.

Purple Man drives away from the scene and the child dies outside of the diner.

The child's tear tracks are still visible on his face after he dies.

The child's soul possesses the Puppet (aka Marionette).

The owners of Fredbear's close the diner and sell their company to a new owner to move on from the tragedy.

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza (1980s)

A new company is created called "Fazbear Entertainment" and its owners buy the original Fredbear's diner.

The diner is converted into a pizzeria and is given the new name "Freddy Fazbear's Pizza."

The golden suits are kept in a safe room at the back of the pizzeria.

Two new animatronic characters are added to the pizzeria:

• Chica the Chicken
  
• Foxy the Pirate

The company also creates a blue Bonnie the Bunny animatronic to match the golden Bonnie spring costume.

New management is hired to help run the pizzeria, namely Phone Guy who is the head advisor for the staff of the pizzeria, giving them audio instructions on how to use the spring suits, security systems, safe rooms etc.

One day, the Purple Man returns to the pizzeria and kills five more children.

The possessed Puppet stuffs the five dead children into the animatronic characters, thus causing these characters to also become possessed by the souls of dead kids.

Since the bodies have been hidden inside of the suits, they are never discovered although customers do begin to notice mucus and blood pertruding from the facial area of each animatronic.

There are also complaints of a foul odour coming from the characters, and one parent even went so far as to compare them to "reanimated carcasses."

People also soon realised that five kids went missing in the pizzeria, thus all of these factors caused the company to close its pizzeria down.

FNAF2: Freddy Fazbear's Pizza (1987)

Fazbear Entertainment decides to reopen its famous pizzeria - except this time they have two separate buildings operating at once.

FB Ent. opens the FNAF2 pizzeria and FNAF1 pizzeria in the year 1987.

The company introduces five new "toy" animatronics in the hope of restoring customer confidence in the pizzeria:

• Toy Freddy
  
• Toy Bonnie
  
• Toy Chica
  
• The Mangle
  
• BB

These new characters have cutting-edge (for the time) security technology in order to minimise the risk of children being harmed in the pizzeria- this tech includes facial recognition and electronic access to a criminal database.

Jeremy Fitzgerald begins his first night shift with the company.

The Purple Man returns despite the toy animatronics' security tech being in place and he murders five more children. He tears the spring locks and endoskeleton out of the classic Golden Freddy costume and wears it to gain the childrens' trust before he murders them.

However, this time the Puppet has a plan- once the Purple Man has hidden his victims' bodies in the safe room at the back of the building, the Puppet takes the bodies and places them in different rooms throughout the building to expose Purple Man's crimes to the world.

The Puppet is actually preventing these children from being trapped in limbo with him and the souls of the old animatronics- since their bodies were discovered by police instead of being stuffed into suits, they manage to find peace in the afterlife and continue the party they were having before they died (this party is seen in FNAF3's "Happiest Day" mini-game).

Throughout the week as Jeremy works his night shifts, the police are investigating the pizzeria and the bodies are discovered on Night 5, thus the police place the establishment on lockdown.

Police deduce (via surveillance footage) that the dayshift guard was the killer since the kids died during his shift and he was the only known person who would have access to the safe room and to the Golden Freddy suit at the time of the murders.

The real Purple Man gets away with murder (literally) and my theory is that since the two pizzerias (FNAF1+2's pizzerias) were open simultaneously, the Purple Man could've actually been working at the FNAF1 pizzeria and killed the kids at the other pizzeria on purpose so that he would have a better chance of not getting caught. This way, he would still have had knowledge of the classic spring suits and the safe rooms and would also not be known by any of the staff or customers in the FNAF2 pizzeria, as well as not being recognised by the toy characters' facial recognition software.

The dayshift guard was framed partly due to police incompetence, but it is also likely that Fazbear Entertainment simply wanted to find a suspect as quickly as possible since they were desperate to keep their business afloat, thus they went with the first man they could blame.

Since the killer used a Golden Freddy spring suit - and since the suits were known to be faulty due to their advanced age - the company's official explanation for the deaths was that the faulty spring locks caused the children to die, (presumably from the kids playing with the spring locks or something). Phone Guy instructs all employees of both pizzerias to keep their classic spring suits in the safe room and to never wear them under any circumstances. The company attempts to cover up the fact that an employee purposefully butchered children in their pizzeria by selling a story of the old suit malfunctioning and killing the kids, but obviously this is a desperate move and it doesn't work. (This is the lie that Phone Guy tells his employees in one of the old audio tapes found by the scavenge team in FNAF3, and since the tape is found at the FNAF1 pizzeria where Springtrap is, this proves that both pizzerias were open at the same time).

Jeremy begins his sixth night shift, unaware that the pizzeria will be closed down soon. He is instructed by Phone Guy to take the day shift the following day in order to complete the pizzeria's last children's party. He is told to stay close to the animatornics and make sure that nobody gets hurt.

The following day, one of the animatronics bites Jeremy's forehead and rips out his frontal lobe during his day shift. He is found bleeding from the head and is sent to a hospital. This event would later become known as the Bite of '87. It is unknown which animatronic caused the bite, though the popular suspect seems to be The Mangle.

The five child murders coupled with the Bite of '87 forced Fazbear Entertainment to close their pizzerias once again.

FNAF1: Freddy Fazbear's Pizza (1993)

Fazbear Entertainment reopens Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, but chooses not to reopen its sister location (the FNAF2 pizzeria) due to all of the horrible things that happened there, as well as being on a tighter budget this time around.

Due to the limited budget, the pizzeria has a limited power supply during the night shift. The office also has two metal doors installed at either side of the room as the animatronics are known to wander into the security guard's office at night, but they consume power due to the limited power supply.

The original four animatronic characters are refurbished, slightly redesigned and brought back to the pizzeria:

• Freddy Fazbear
  
• Bonnie the Bunny
  
• Chica the Chicken
  
• Foxy the Pirate

Phone Guy becomes the pizzeria's first night guard while the company searches for a new night guard to take his place, and he records four audio logs through the last four nights of his job as a night guard.

He warns the player of the animatronics and their behaviour, as well as instructing the player on how to use the camera system, door lights etc.

Phone Guy also speaks of the Bite of '87.

On his last night in the pizzeria, Phone Guy is cornered by all four animatronic characters whilst attempting to hold out in the Backstage room (the room where the animatronics' spare parts are kept). Right before the call ends, we hear Golden Freddy's death sound which would suggest that Golden Freddy appeared before phone Guy and killed him. Though most people believe he is dead, I say he is alive (or that he at least survived his encounter on Night 4). If however he did die, his killer is unknown although the two usual suspects seem to be Golden Freddy and Chica.

Mike Schmidt starts his first night shift shortly after Phone Guy's ambush from the animatronics.

Phone Guy's messages are played on each night to help Mike get through his first week at the pizzeria, although I doubt it's his first week at all.

I think that Mike Schmidt is the real Purple Man and that he has returned once again to murder even more children. However, little does he know that the animatronics are possessed by the same kids he murdered years prior.

By the end of Night 6, it becomes clear to Mike that the characters are possessed by the children he murdered as they give him cryptic messages (i.e. "IT'S ME," pictures of the crying child, news clippings of his murders etc.) in the form of hallucinations that appear on his camera feed.

Mike finds an old hand crank designed to open the classic spring suits and he puts on the Golden Freddy spring costume that was left in the safe room with the Golden Bonnie spring suit (this GF suit is different to the one seen in FNAF2 since the police would've confiscated that suit, and their designs also look different).

He approaches the other animatronics whilst wearing the Golden Freddy costume and lures them to the safe room at the back of the building. Since the real animatronics aren't allowed to enter the safe rooms due to their programming, they cannot follow Purple Man/Mike into the safe room, thus allowing Mike to take them by surprise and dismantle them with the hand crank.

However, once the animatronics are all dismantled, the souls of the children possessing them emerge from the suits and corner Mike in the safe room. Mike is now in a terrified, panicking state of mind and makes a quick decision by jumping into the Golden Bonnie spring suit to trick the dead kids. He begins to laugh inside of the suit which then triggers the spring locks to activate and crush Mike to death inside of the suit.

The souls of the dead children are now at rest because of the Purple Man's death and they disappear from the pizzeria.

Desperate not to lose their business for a third time due to the fact that one of the company employees died inside of one of its own spring suits, Fazbear Entertainment hired construction workers to seal all of the safe rooms in the pizzeria by building a false wall over the old door frames. Since the messages notifying the employees of this fact are recorded by Phone Guy, this proves that he survived his encounter with the animatronics, thus proving him innocent since this was after Purple Man had been killed.

However, Mike's soul still possessed the Golden Bonnie suit which would later be known as "Springtrap."

Eventually, the pizzeria closed its doors forever due to lack of business.

FNAF3: Fazbear's Fright the Horror Attraction (2023)

Thirty years after the closure of the FNAF1 pizzeria, an unknown company builds the "Fazbear's Fright" horror attraction which is based on the urban legends and horror stories of the Fazbear pizzerias.

Since the owners are determined to make the attraction as authentic as possible, they have a scavenge team constantly searching the old FNAF1 pizzeria for any relics that could've survived decades of neglect.

The identity of the protagonist we play as in FNAF3 is currently unknown, though we do know that Night 1 is not their first night at the horror attraction.

Phone Dude (the guy talking to the protagonist on Night 1) tells us that there is a real risk of the attraction catching on fire since it uses actual technology from the ancient pizzeria.

By Night 2, the scavenge team discovers the Springtrap animatronic inside of the safe room at the back of the pizzeria as well as finding some old audio tapes recorded by Phone Guy to instruct employees on how to use the spring suits, as well as the later tapes telling them not to wear the suits since they're faulty (the tapes I was referring to in the FNAF2 section).

Springtrap is brought into the attraction and officially becomes part of the show in Night 2, and the soul of Purple Man (which is trapped inside of the Springtrap suit) is still hungry for more victims. This is why Springtrap pursues the night guard throughout the game.

The night guard also encounters strange "phantoms" of the previous Fazbear characters:

• Phantom Freddy
  
• Phantom Chica
  
• Phantom Foxy
  
• Phantom Puppet
  
• Phantom BB
  
• The Mangle (currently unknown if Mangle is real or a hallucination)

These phantoms seem to appear as a result of something contaminating the air in the attraction since the phantoms can be held back by rebooting the ventilation system.

The soul of the Puppet is also present in the attraction as he appears on CAM 08, apparently unscathed unlike the rest of the old Fazbear mascots. It's likely that he still holds a grudge against Purple Man since he now possesses Springtrap and is technically still alive.

After the night guard finishes their last night shift, Fazbear's Fright mysteriously burns to the ground. Altohugh foul play has not been ruled out, the cause of the fire seems to be faulty wiring (due to the ancient technology used in the attraction).

Not much was left at the scene, though the few items that survived are to be sold at a public auction.

Meaning of the minigames
The minigames actually take place in between FNAF1 and FNAF3. Of course, the minigames with Purple Man in the old pizzeria come first, and then the other minigames come afterwards.

The point of the minigames is to show what happens to the childrens' souls once Purple Man is killed in the Springtrap suit. Since Purple Man's soul still exists within the Springtrap costume, it is up to the Puppet to either move on and go and join his friends in celebrating the party they were meant to have before they were killed, or hold his grudge against Purple Man and become stuck in limbo.

The only thing that will truly allow the soul of the Puppet to move on and become free is if he gets to join in with the party he was killed at all those years ago, which is why the minigames have you collect cakes and hand them to the dead children. The glitch minigame where you play as a purple Springtrap-looking character even has you hand the cake to the soul of the Puppet (most likely symbolising how the crying child died since he was handed a poisoned cake by the Purple Man, except now he gets a real cake instead, perhaps this is the game's way of saying that the Puppet has forgiven Purple Man for the murders and is moving on).

Once all six of the murdered kids are gathered around in the party room seen in the "Happiest Day" minigame, their souls disappear once more and six balloons float away, presumably symbolising the kids' freedom from purgatory.

The three endings of FNAF3 explained

Bad Ending

Even though the Purple Man was finally killed in the Springtrap costume sometime between FNAF1 and FNAF3, the soul of the Puppet still could not find peace in the afterlife due to the fact that Purple Man's soul still existed within the Springtrap costume. However, he could not destroy the Springtrap costume yet as it was sealed in the safe room by construction workers in order to maintain Fazbear Entertainment's business.

Therefore, the soul of the Puppet was still trapped in limbo and the other kids couldn't continue their party without the Puppet. Hence, the six dead children were still trapped in purgatory.

Nightmare Ending

The significance of this ending depends on which of the other two endings you consider to be the real one (and it's this type of storytelling that makes Scott Cawthon such a genius).

If the bad ending is the real ending, then this must mean that Springtrap was one of the items that survived the fire of Fazbear's Fright and this is hinted at since Springtrap is in the photograph of the newspaper article shown in this ending (you can just make him out in the background, brighten the image up to get a better look).

Since Springtrap has survived the fire, this means that Purple Man's soul still exists and the Puppet is not at rest, thus the six dead children are still stuck in purgatory.

If the good ending is real, then this can mean one of two things:

• Either Springtrap perished in the fire and Purple Man was destroyed for good, thus allowing the souls of the six children to continue their party in the afterlife and find peace.
  
  
• Or the Purple Man's soul never possessed the Springtrap suit and Springtrap coming after the night guard in FNAF3 was either another hallucination or it was down to the programming of the endoskeleton within the spring costume.

Good Ending

Once the Purple Man was killed in the Springtrap costume, the souls of the dead children disappeared from the pizzeria as they were now free to continue the party they were meant to celebrate up until they were murdered by Purple Man.

Since their animatronic suits were taken apart by Purple Man, the skeletons of the five children were discovered and this also allowed them to find some peace in the afterlife.

The soul of the Puppet held onto his grudge with Purple Man up until the fire of Fazbear's Fright, and this fire destroyed the Springtrap costume - and Purple Man's soul - for good.

After the fire, the soul of the Puppet set out to give the other children their cake and have them gather together to have the party they were meant to have before they died. Even the souls of the five children who were killed in the FNAF2 pizzeria appeared in the party room, though they were already at rest since their bodies were discovered by police in the FNAF2 pizzeria and do not need to be given cake.

The soul of the Puppet gives cake to each of his five friends and they are finally freed from their imprisonment in purgatory as they disappear from the party room (this room is seen in the "Happiest Day" mini-game).

Closing thoughts

I would like to thank Scott for creating one of the most in-depth and intriguing stories I've ever seen in video games. This story really is complex though I think I managed to tie up a lot of the loose ends in this story, but if I missed anything I'll likely update this theory accordingly.

Thank you Scott Cawthon for three fantastic games and a brilliant horror story, I wish you all the best in your future endeavours.

-Tom.

[d2000k]

i bet this is all very up to date now

[Terra_Marc]

@TheWalkingMausoleumTwitch well it was written 8 (almost 9 at time of writing) years ago, guess it makes sense its wasnt right

[nopenopepapa]

@Glitchy ermm acshualy yur correcy

[nopenopepapa]

Errrrmmm... @MJW No it ishn't. If you'd shtudy like I do 🤓🤓🤓 YOU WOULD KNOW ITSHHHH ACSCHULAY CANNON!

[nopenopepapa]

Crazy how he thought fnaf 3 was in present day

[HsnUtk]

Yeah, it feels weird that if fnaf 3 wasn't that criticized for not being scary, fnaf 4 and the rest probably wouldn't exist and the story would just end here. Even then, Fnaf 4 didn't add anything new to the timeline, it only explained events at Fredbear's Family Diner before all of those events in the original trilogy. It was a final attempt of Scott, trynna make something scary to end all of this.

[LeGoatt5]

this is not canonically accurate

[tuesday]

@Mifa how is this accurate

[Shadow69]

holly shit this is old

[Ukraven]

fnaf 3 happens in 2033. freddy fazbear's pizza shuts it doors in 2003 and fnaf3 happens 30 years after freddy fazbear's pizza is closed.