Well, we’re back with more Squid Game goodness, and this time, we’re playing for keeps. Let’s be honest with ourselves – one of the reasons this show is such an enormous hit is because of the spectacular deaths that occur while the characters play the games, and even when they don’t. We know audiences love violence, so, we here at Collider present to you the top seven deaths that occurred in Squid Game, based purely on gruesomeness, dramatic effect and good old-fashioned shock value.

7) Player 017 – No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

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Image Via Netflix

During the fifth game on the show, the contestants are forced to cross a bridge made of glass a good 1000 feet above the ground. With each jump forward, the player in front must choose between two side-by-side panels, one being made of tempered glass that can hold the weight of two people, and the other formed from regular glass, which will shatter under a single player’s weight. There's a total of 16 minutes on the clock for all to contestants make it across. After many bad choices and deaths, the unnamed Player 017 (Lee Sang-hee) is left in the front of the line, about halfway across the expanse. What has escaped the knowledge of the game-runners is that Player 017 is a former professional glassmaker with over 30 years of experience. He is able to detect the differences between the panels by inspecting the sides of the glass, and he uses this knowledge to help himself, and those players following him, to make the right choices going forward. But when the game-runners realize his past and what he’s doing, they turn off the lights.

Player 017 is unable to see the final two panels in front him. He uses the marble that Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) had gotten from Player 001 (O Yeong-su) at the end of the last game to toss onto one of the panels so he could hear the sound it makes. But without a second marble to throw at the other panel, and with time running out, Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo) decides to throw Player 017 instead. The panel in front of him shatters and he falls to his death, screaming all the way down. This leaves a clear path to the end of the bridge for Sang-woo, Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon), and Gi-hun, who now realizes just how far San-woo is willing to go to win.

6) Player 069 and Player 070 – ‘Till Death Do Us Part

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Image Via Netflix

Before the fourth game begins, players are told to pair up into teams of two without being informed of what their choices of partner might entail. Player 069 (Kim Yun-tae) and his wife, Player 070 (Lee Ji-ha) naturally choose to play together. The teams are then given a sack of marbles and are told to play any game they wish. Tragically, the player that wins all the marbles by the end of 30 minutes gets to live, while the other doesn’t. Players 069 and 070 have no choice but to play, lest they both die. Player 069 wins and returns to the dorm alone and devastated. He begs the others to end the games with a vote, but Sang-woo quickly stomps this notion into the ground. In the morning, the contestants are surprised to see some game-runners carrying a coffin box into the dorm. But then Gi-hun looks up and discovers the reason. Player 069 had hung himself from the rafters in the night.

5) Player 119 – Death Comes in All Shapes and Sizes

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Image Via Netflix

Here’s where the carnage really starts to flare up. The second game begins with the contestants choosing between four shapes. What they don’t know (at least, those not cheating), is that they will then have to chip that indented shape out of a honeycomb using a pin within 10 minutes. Breaking the shape results in death, of course. Player 119 winds up with the most difficult shape: that of an umbrella. When the time runs out, he is asked by a triangle game-runner to move his trembling hands away from his honeycomb. He does so, revealing the umbrella has a cracked handle. But before the game-runner can shoot him, Player 119 stabs him through the faceplate with his needle. He then grabs the gun, shoots a square game-runner in the arm, and uses him as a human shield. An army of triangle game-runners aim their rifles at him as he shakily screams about the unfairness of the game. This affects them not. They uniformly shoot all the remaining losers behind them before turning back to 119. 119 makes his hostage take off his mask and turn towards him. He’s very young, not much more than a boy. “You’re just a kid. What did they do to you?” Player 119 exclaims in shock. Then he puts the barrel of his gun to his temple and unloads it.

4) Sae-byeok – An Undeserved Ending

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Image Via Netflix

While Sae-byeok, Gi-hun, and Sang-woo made it safely across the glass bridge of game five, the timer runs out just as they reach the platform. Sadly, this causes all the remaining glass panels to explode, raining glass shards upon each of them. Gi-hun and Sang-woo have nothing but scratches to show for it, but we learn later that Sae-byeok has been impaled through the abdomen by a large sliver. She removes it in the bathroom, but it’s clear that she’s slowly bleeding out. She barely makes it through their celebratory dinner, unable to eat a morsel. With the three of them left in the dorm at night, each armed with a steak knife that the game-runners allowed them to keep, Gi-hun keeps a watchful eye over the conniving Sang-woo. He even moves to kill Sang-woo after the latter falls asleep, but Sae-byeok talks him out of crossing that line- "You're not that kind of person". The two have a tear-jerking discussion, agreeing in the end to look after one another’s families. When Gi-hun eventually realizes Sae-byeok’s condition, he screams and pounds on the doors for help for his dying friend. Unfortunately, this seemingly stirs Sang-woo from his slumber. The game-runners come in only to find Sae-byeok dead with Sang-woo standing over her, her throat slit by his blade.

3) Sang-woo – A Change of Heart

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Image Via Netflix

At this point, it is just Gi-hun and Sang-woo left to play the final game, and the former has plenty of righteous hate built up for his opponent. They’re set to play squid game, which is a fairly complex children’s game, but the rules matter little here. It isn’t long before Gi-hun and Sang-woo are beating and stabbing at each other for victory. Gi-hun winds up besting his former friend and nearly stabs him in the head, but plants his dagger in the sand next to it instead. He’s about to win the game by stepping on the squid’s head outlined in the ground, but realizes that when he does, Sang-woo will be shot by one of the game-runners. He asks that they both be let out of the game. However, Sang-woo chooses to stab himself in the neck instead, after begging Gi-hun to use some of his winnings to help out his mother. This hardly redeems Sang-woo for all of his terrible acts throughout the series, but it definitely pulls on the heartstrings to see some humanity left in the man, and to see Gi-hun left grieving once more.

2) Player 271 – Lord of the Flies

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Image Via Netflix

While this is another nameless player that we don’t see much in the show, his death was brutal. It occurs relatively early in the games, while the contestants are standing in line for food and drink. When Player 271 (Min Tae-Yul) reaches the front, with four others following him for their shares, he sees that there is nothing left. Complaining to the game-runner proves useless, as he claims he brought just enough for everyone. Player 198 (Kim Hee-Seo) points to Jang Deok-su (Heo Sung-tae) and his gang of ruffians as the perpetrators of the crime, claiming they cut in line and got seconds for themselves. Deok-su, being the boorish thug that he is, doesn’t bother to deny it, and drinks 271’s soda in front of him. Player 271 grabs for it and they tussle, the bottle falling to the ground and shattering. This sends Deok-su into a rage. He beats 271 to the floor, and then kicks him repeatedly, to his death. This is the first time a player is killed by another player outside of the games. When the death results in more money being thrown into the winner’s pot instead of Deok-su being punished, it results in a mob mentality in which no one is any safer in the dorm than they are in the field.

1) Deok-su and Mi-nyeo – Tainted Love

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Image Via Netflix

This one deserves the number one spot for not only being a double death, but for giving the audience the satisfaction of watching Deok-su finally get what’s been coming to him. Throughout the first half of the show or so, Han Mi-nyeo (Kim Joo-ryoung), a loud-mouthed, obnoxious braggart (though still a better human being by far than Deok-su) flirts with and has sexual relations with Deok-su. She even helps him beat the honeycomb game by giving him use of a smuggled lighter. But when Deok-su learns that the next game will be tug of war, he refuses to have her on his team, choosing an all-male crew instead. He even goes so far as to publicly shame and humiliate her.

Mi-nyeo’s hatred for Deok-su heats up through the next few days to a potent boil. During the aforementioned glass bridge game, Deok-su makes it the front, primarily through violence, at which point he refuses to move forward, telling those behind him that they’ll have to go first. Mi-nyeo gladly volunteers. But once she’s on the same platform as her former lover, she locks her arms around him, and informs him that his treatment of her is about to be his death. It is a beautiful thing to see him plead with her, as she falls backward through the glass, taking him down with her to the floor far below.