Oh Il-nam

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## Oh Il-nam

### Aliases

Player 001
The Host
Old Man, Sir (영감님 *Yeonggamnim*?) (Seong Gi-hun)
Gganbu (깐부 *Kkanbu*?) (Seong Gi-hun)
Old Sir (늙은 사장님 *Neulgeun Sajangnim*?) (Ali Abdul)

### Relatives

Unnamed son
Unnamed wife

### Affiliation

Squid Games
Team Four

### Occupation

Host (Squid Games)
Business tycoon
Loan shark

## Fate

### Died

June 28, 2020
Marbles (faked)
12:00 AM, December 25, 2021
7th floor, Sky Building, South Korea (actual)

### Cause of death

Willingly gave up against Seong Gi-hun and executed by guard (faked)
Brain tumor (actual)

## Appearances

### Portrayed by

O Yeong-su

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**Oh Il-nam** (오일남 *O Il-nam*?), also known as **Player 001**, was a rich financial tycoon who was the creator and host of the Squid Games. In 2020, he competed as an elderly contestant in the 33rd Squid Game to relive his childhood memories before he died.

Spoilers

## Personality

Throughout his life, Oh Il-nam has always sought out new ways to have fun, despite being the host of the Squid Games. For this reason, he participates in one of the death games he created near the end of his life instead of watching it as a spectator. He seems to hold genuine affection for his family, especially his son, based on how he speaks about them.

During his time participating, Oh Il-nam genuinely enjoyed playing in the 33rd Squid Game. He also attempted to keep the games as fair as possible, casting the deciding vote to let the players leave rather than force them to stay and keep playing the games. He also manages to save his team on multiple occasions, convincing the Squid Game staff to intervene right as they are about to fight against Jang Deok-su's gang, and giving the group a significant edge with his tactics in Tug of War.

Oh Il-nam befriended Seong Gi-hun during the games and became his *gganbu*. Gi-hun was possibly the first real friend Il-nam had had in a long time, and Il-nam most likely saw him the same way. Because of this, Il-nam genuinely enjoyed playing with him, and during their friendship, he told Gi-hun about his past and even his name, despite faking his dementia and hiding his true role in the games from him. On his deathbed, Il-nam even admits that he let Gi-hun live because it was so fun playing with him, and that playing had made him remember things from the past he had long forgotten.

There are subtle indications Il-nam cared for the rest of his team as well, such as keeping watch after the riot to protect them in case anyone tried to attack again and only getting serious and determined to win in Tug of War, where all of them would die as well should he fail.

On his deathbed, Il-nam explains to Seong Gi-hun that being as wealthy as he is made him lose all the enjoyment in his life, becoming desensitized to everything since he never had to struggle or work for anything. However, he seems to have a genuine fondness for Gi-hun, sharing his *ramyeon* when Gi-hun doesn't have food, helping him during the games as much as he can. In Marbles, Il-nam even allows Gi-hun to defeat him rather than continuing on to the end without any ulterior motive in spite of Gi-hun attempting to trick him and take all his marbles.

He also sees humans as despicable and selfish creatures at its core as shown when he points all the treachery and selfishness exhibited by the players during the duration of the Squid Games to survive and win the grand prize. He goes as far as to challenge Gi-hun in a gamble on his death bed to see whether or not bystanders would save a homeless man who was sleeping in the freezing snow to prove his point.
## History

As a child, Oh Il-nam would play with his friends until they got bored. Some of the games Il-nam played during his childhood included Red Light, Green Light, Marbles and Tug of War, rarely ever losing the latter. At some point he got married and had a child.

Eventually, Il-nam became a wealthy business tycoon but got bored with his lifestyle, as he was rich to the point that nothing in life gave him joy anymore. To cure his boredom, he and some other wealthy individuals and clients in his financial corporation who shared Il-nam's thoughts on life being no fun for them came up with the idea of the Squid Games, which began in 1988. Il-nam's clients became the VIPs, who have spectated the games ever since. Il-nam himself became the host, spectating the games alongside the VIPs from 1988 to 2019. He rationalized the games by stating that they offered some fun, and believed that poor people who played the games suffered as much as wealthy people in terms of lacking purpose.

### 2020

By 2020, Il-nam had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and didn't have long left to live. Wanting to relive his childhood memories before his death, Il-nam believed he would have more fun playing in the Squid Games rather than watching it and decided to participate in the 33rd Squid Game.

When the players begin to wake up in their bunk beds in the game facility, Oh Il-nam begins to count the players as they gather in the foyer in order to boost his memory, which is affected by the tumor. In what seems like a happy coincidence at the time, the first person who speaks to Oh Il-nam is Player 456, a former assembly line worker named Seong Gi-hun who'd been the last person to enter the games as opposed to Il-nam, who'd been the first.

Taking pity on the older man for being at such a physical and mental disadvantage in the game, Gi-hun befriends Il-nam ahead of the first game, Red Light, Green Light. When it becomes clear that the games they're participating in are potentially fatal, many of the players panic and rush to find a way to escape, unlike Il-nam who remains unfazed. After the opening bloodbath is over, he is initially the only player brave enough to continue playing and walks forward when prompted with a smile on his face. He manages to inch across the finish line in the game with ample time to spare.

After casting the tie-breaking vote temporarily cancel the games, Gi-hun has a surprise encounter with Il-nam at a convenience store a few blocks from his house. When Gi-hun asks Il-nam what he's doing in the area, Il-nam explains he was visiting a friend and sits down with Gi-hun to talk over a packet of ramen noodles. The two get along, and Il-nam uses their time together to discuss his desire to reenter the games. Influenced by Il-nam's words and his mother's medical bills, Gi-hun also decides to return.

As the games continue, Gi-hun and Il-nam form an alliance with Ali Abdul, a factory worker from Pakistan, and Gi-hun's former classmate Cho Sang-woo. Despite his physical and mental disadvantages, Il-nam is able to breeze through Sugar Honeycombs after choosing a star. He survives a riot in the middle of the night by climbing to the top of a tier of bunk beds, where he pleads for the staff to end the bloodshed before everyone is killed. In the aftermath, Kang Sae-byeok joins their team and Il-nam stays up the rest of the night to make sure no other players attack them.

In the third game, Il-nam and his group participate as Team Four along with several other players. He provides a tactical plan for the rest of his team in the game of tug-of-war, giving them a significant edge and helping them beat out their opponents, Team Five.

### Downfall and elimination

The following night, Il-nam develops a fever, which Gi-hun notices while keeping watch with him and attempts to treat with the help of Sae-byeok. When the players are woken up for the next game, Il-nam is revealed to have wet himself during the night, which Gi-hun covers up by tying his jacket around him.

Before the beginning of Marbles, ll-nam is nearly left without a partner until Gi-hun, scared by the possibility of Il-nam being eliminated, agrees to be his teammate. Prior to the reveal of the game's rules, Gi-hun and Il-nam agree to be each other's *gganbu*, a friend you pair up with and share all your toys and games with. It is then announced that all of the participants would be playing against each other.

When the game begins, Il-nam’s brain tumor blurs his memory and makes him believe that the makeshift town where the guards led them is actually the town where he grew up. Gi-hun follows him around and eventually manages to get him to begin playing the game. When Il-nam whittles him down to his last marble, Gi-hun takes advantage of Il-nam's dementia and tricks him into losing multiple rounds.

After playing a few more rounds of even or odd, Gi-hun manages to get all but one of Il-nam’s marbles. As Il-nam stands up and roams the room, Gi-hun panics and begs for the final marble. At this point, Il-nam reveals he was lucid during the whole game, and knew that Gi-hun had been fooling him all the time. Still, he reminds Gi-hun that they are partners and agrees to give him the final marble. As Gi-hun walks towards the guards, a gunshot sounds, announcing Il-nam’s offscreen elimination.

### 2021

One year after the 33rd Squid Game, Il-nam invites the winner, Gi-hun, to his deathbed. Il-nam explains his role as the creator and host of the Squid Games and explained his motivations to an angry Gi-hun, revealing that he is an extremely rich man who made his fortune by lending out money as a career, and created the games as a source of amusement for other very wealthy people, who would bet on the outcomes and survivors of the games.

He then makes a final wager regarding the nature of humanity, observing a drunk man passed out on the street and betting whether he would receive help or not. Gi-hun accepts, wanting nothing to do with his prize money.

As they wait, Il-nam explains that he believed the Squid Games ultimately provided a service for the contestants as well, because even though the majority of them were killed, it also provided a distraction from their monotonous lives and an opportunity to win money and escape from their dire financial situations. He also viewed the games as a test of whether people have any innate goodness remaining, and after years of watching contestants betray each other to survive, he had adopted a pessimistic view of the nature of humanity.

Il-nam also explains that he participated in the Squid Games to have some final enjoyment in his life, as he had always been a spectator and never a participant. When asked why he let him live, Il-nam says that he had genuinely enjoyed his time playing with Gi-hun and had become fond of him, and that playing the games with him had led to him to remember memories he had long forgotten.

Directly before midnight, the drunk man is helped by a bystander who flags down a police vehicle. Gi-hun wins the bet, and Il-nam dies moments later.

After his death, Hwang In-ho is shown paying his respects at his bedside and reflecting on one of the conversations he'd had with him right after his exit from the games. He presumably goes on to become the new host.

## Appearances

* Season One
	+ "Red Light, Green Light"
	+ "Hell"
	+ "The Man with the Umbrella"
	+ "Stick to the Team"
	+ "A Fair World"
	+ "Gganbu"
	+ "VIPS"
	+ "One Lucky Day"

## References

1. ↑ Oh Il-nam was an elderly man when the 33rd Squid Game took place and was most likely born during the mid 1950's at the latest.
2. ↑ Assuming the remaining games all occurred on consecutive days after the Squid Games resumed, Marbles most likely took place on June 28, the day before Hwang Jun-ho escaped the island.

 Guards
 Leadership
 Relatives