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It’s been long overdue, and although it was already parodied with Willy’s Wonderland and Nick Cage giving us his best silent performance, we finally have aFive Nights At Freddy’smovie. With a budget of around 20 to 25 million, it was a surprising box office success as it pulled in over 200 million. Though it got middling reviews from critics, and the film itself is a very slow burn, it’s still enjoyable.
The performances from the cast are solid, and the reappearance of Josh Hutcherson in an acting role is a pleasant surprise for those familiar with his work. Unfortunately, the ending is a little odd, so we’ve cracked the plot open for a deeper look at how the finale all fits together, here’s the Five Nights At Freddy’s Movie’s ending, explained.
Updated May 08, 2025 By Matthew Mckeown:The Five Nights At Freddy’s movie finally came out, and unfortunately it was met with a middling to mixed reception. We got a bloodless horror film with a threadbare plot and an ending that was both anticlimactic and poor use of Matthew Lillard’s acting prowess.
But it still somehow made enough to warrant a sequel, and according to the movie’s male lead, Josh Hutcherson, it’s already way into production. What it will contain is not completely known, but there are some hints and potential places it could go. Before breaking that apart, here’s a refresher on how it all went down with Five Nights At Freddy’s movie ending, explained.
The Premise
Before diving into this blood-soaked story, it’s worth setting up the basic premise of the movie. Especially for those who might havemissed the train on Five Nights At Freddy’sor haven’t touched the now long-running series in a few years.
The basic premise is, Josh Hutcherson plays Mike,a Security Guard and atypical down on his luck guy trying to get by. He begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria,a horror parody of the Chuck E. Cheeze brandcomplete with creepy animatronics and ear-destroying twee musical numbers.But there’s more going on beneath the surface.
Years agoseveral children were murdered within the pizza joint by serial killer William Afton, who was also the owner of the restaurant but used it as a facade for his grim hobby. The bodies of the kids werejammed inside the animatronics to hide themand were never found.
Now theirsouls are trapped within the wandering robotic suitsof the Pizzeria, viciously tearing apart anyone inside the building after dark during grim and bloody events known as “Hunts”.
The story has a very cut-and-dry premise, there arestill a few twists yet, but that’s for the spoiler section.
WARNING: Spoilers For The Finale Of The Five Nights At Freddy’s Movie
The FNAF Movie Ending, Explained
So it’s revealed thatthe kids trapped within the suits are not malevolent by choice —far from it.
It turns out they just want to be kids, and in a few scenes are shownbonding with Mike and his sister Abby. They play together in a homemade fort and generally being kids, despite some initialsinister-looking misunderstandings.
Their violent attacks throughout the film were becausethey were being controlled by William Afton, or in the case of the group, they kill to protect their home.
Over time,the children forget who they were and begin to follow Afton’s orders, who himself turned up occasionally in the pizzeria throughout the years in a yellow rabbit suit. The same suit it’s implied he wore when he murdered the kids initially.
The yellow rabbit suit is thesame one in the opening title sequence, which basicallyshows Afton abducting his victims in the restaurantin the past.
The other disappearances at the abandoned restaurant arewritten off by Vanessa the Sheriffas it’s also revealedshe is in fact Afton’s daughter.
As time went by and things got worse,she began covering up the killsor at least trying to deter future security guards from staying too long.
This was mainly because she wanted to help, and also becauseshe was horribly abused by her father as she grew up, and that stopped her from speaking out.
So What Happens?
Throughout the film, the ghost children who are stuck in the suits are seentalking to Mike in a dream world when he sleeps. This is how he learns to eventually try to bond with the kids after multiple failed attempts to communicate with them.
They hint that they knowwho abducted and murdered Mikes’s younger brother decades ago. When Mike finally manages to strike up a bargain with the blonde-haired child (Golden Freddy), he’s given a choice —the kids will help, but they get Abby.
Mike initially accepts but then refuses,sending the animatronics into a frenzied rage as they attempt to shove Abby into an animatronic suitlike them.
Eventually,it culminates in Abby being abducted by Golden Freddy, Mike going to rescue her, andWilliam Afton making a reappearancewithin the Pizzeria. Surprise, it’s Matthew Lillard’s character from the beginning that got Mike the job in the first place.
However, this time, he’s back in the Yellow Rabbit suit he used to kill his victims and isplanning on adding Mike and Abby to his scorecard.
The animatronics initially do his bidding, the same as before. Afton also stabs his daughter Vanessa and she’s then in a coma for the rest of the movie. But afterAbby shows them a picture of Afton in his rabbit suit killing the kids, the animatronics remember who they were. And they are not pleased.
Theanimatronics immediately turn on Afton, Chica throws Mr Cupcake at the suit and it suffers aSpring-Lock Failure, horrifically impaling and mutilating him as heyells the iconic Afton line of how he’ll “always come back!”.
Then, theinternal mechanisms of the suit start to bite down hard, impaling him through his bones and organs as he collapses. Hisgroaning form is dragged off by the other animatronics into a backroom, whilst the restaurant roof falls partially in.
Fans of the series will notethe Spring-Lock Failure sceneis a classic moment from the games, though it’striggered by water in the game and not Mr Cupcake attacking Afton’s suit like in the movie.
In a post-ending scene,Afton is shown forever trapped within the suit, implying that, just like the children, hissoul is bound to the puppet.
However, the rabbit animatronic isseverely damaged in a janitor’s storage room, rendering him immobile as the ghost of Golden Freddy, now out of the suit,locks him in alone.
It’sunknown whether he will return in any future movies, if there are any. But considering his line about how he’ll be back and how often Afton reappears in the games,most notably as Spring Trap, it’s likely he’ll be back.
Plus, the building is refurbished in future installments and that fits thematically since the roof falls in at the end of the movie and there’s asmall hint in the credits spelling out “Come Find Me”.
The Future Of The Five Nights At Freddy’s Movie’s
Now that we’ve recapped what happened in the finale of the movie, it’s worth turning our eyes toward what could be next. The future of the Five Nights At Freddy’s movie franchiseseems to be a positive oneas despite the critical reception of the film itself, itmade enough to warrant another one.
What we know aremostly rumors and details drip-fed from cast members. For example,Josh Hutcherson confirmed in an interview with Varietythat they were in the process of putting together another movie. Though nothing fully concrete, he did say that they were“nailing down the story”.
Matthew Lillard’s character of Afton also goes out with the line:“I always come back”.
So it’sunlikely we’ve seen the last of himand the ending of the main cast alive and well,the Pizzeria still relatively intactand the animatronics seemingly set on ‘Friendly Mode’ leaves plenty of places for the story to go.
We have heard news through The Hollywood Handle thatproduction on the sequel movie will begin in 2024. And this seems likely considering the way modern Hollywood will oftenkick production into high gear on something potentially profitableregardless of whether the scripts are done or not (Black Widow for example).
However, the team behind Five Nights At Freddy’s does seem a tad more responsible,
Five Nights At Freddy’s wasmade on a budget of $20 million, yet grossed over $300 million at the Box Office. It was one of Blumhouse’smost successful movies to date.
Where Will The Story Go Next?
Where the story goes next though, well we have afew ideas as according to the director Emma Tammi, there are a lot of loose ends that they want to tie up. Plus, theywant to keep making the movies as long as they’re popular.
For example,the second game is a prequel. We could see how the pizzeria operated before the downfall, or it couldfollow Afton’s antics with previous Security staff. However, according to Hutcherson and the director,a direct sequel is more likely.
If this is the case, and it’s pretty likely sincemodern cinema likes a sequel, we’ll no doubt see Afton returning. With our main casttrying to balance their own lives, Afton’s murderous antics, more puppets, and how Mike and Co. cope with their new immortal animatronic family members. PlusVanessa is still stuck in a comaand it would be nice to see what happens with her.
There are further rumors of aFive Nights At Freddy’s R-rated cut. But it’s unlikely asthe movie’s overall tone is pretty child-friendly, so it’s difficult to see what was cut originally to make it like that.
