Five Nights at Freddy's Theory

Not sure where, but I remember hearing somewhere out there that the animatronics in Five Nights at Fready's function normally around children, but would just stare at adults if they tried to interact with them unless they were staff. And so, that got me thinking. There are only two characters that are confirmed to be killed by the animatronics. Phone Guy, and you. If you actually make it through all 7 nights, than that character wouldn't actually be dead meaning only one person has been killed by the machines. But then there is the victim of The Bite of '87 who survived the bite. We know that the incident took place in the second game's building and with the animatronics fine around children, but odd around adults, it is entirely possible that the machines tried to kill the killer, but the facial recognition software had them mistaken someone for the actual killer since that man would unfortunately not register as an employee would become victim of the vengeance of Freddy and his friends, or the souls trapped in the animatronics. Though, if the souls of the dead children are really in Freddy and friends, why wouldn't they just be able to outright kill their murderer?

I can't say for sure, but possibly the children are forced to adhere to the rules that their robotic shells must follow and the reason they act so oddly around adults is because they are trying to protect the other children within the building so they do not get caught by their killer, and use the data base to keep out potential predators. SO, going off the bases that Phone Guy really is their killer, in Five Nights at Freddy's 2 it would be impossible to kill him because he would be recognized as staff during the day and would be unable to harm him even if he had a prior record or not, and he does not take the night shift with in that building unless he really is Fitz Smith and not Mike Schmidt. Meaning, after they attacked someone who actually had a record and nearly killed them, the company would be forced to scrap the robots and have to restart. Though, why would the animatronics wait until the company was under investigation, or why was it under investigation at all? Well, first we need to ask a simple question, how would someone get access to a criminal data base in those days? Only police and the government had access to those kinds of files. With that in mind, it would explain why their second location came under investigation in the first place is because they had illegal access to a crime based data base to fend off predators. However, once police fully investigated the machines and the bite incident it would explain why they would remake the old one's for their future location, meaning, there would be no restrictions when it came to possible predators OR their killer. Phone Guy tells players on the first night in the FNAF 1 that he worked in the office before Mike Schmidt did and he was finishing his final week. If he worked the office for a long time, why wait until the final days to of his career to kill him?

The only logical answers are to make him suffer, or they just couldn't. It is entirely possible that they waited till the final weeks, but Phone Guy wouldn't have been as experienced as he seemed in the messages. Meaning, he had the ability to fully avoid them until a night where he screwed up and accidentally drained ALL of his power for the night they got him. Now another question you may be thinking of, why would the company not take responsibility of a gruesome murder caused by the animatronics or how would Phone Guy know what would happen if you were caught? Just take a look at the history of the Fazbear franchise. To the public, it seems the Fazbear company cannot get it’s animatronics to work properly and death seems to follow them and the restaurant’s name. The restraint Schmidt works in could quite possibly be their final attempt at Freddy’s Pizzeria, but looking at how bad the place looks would give the impression the place was either abandoned recently or starting to go under. With the public knowing how infamous their franchise has been it would only be natural that the place would be in disrepair from lack of public interest. So, how does Phone Guy know about being stuffed in a suit?

In both games as 6 rolls around the animatronics seem to abandon their murderous mission and head back to their positions with in the building so they can do what they are programmed to do when they are supposed to do it. Meaning, the only time the spirits have any true freedom is during their free roaming mode at night, which means, Phone Guy would be safe during day shifts, but would be forced to survive the nights. We have no idea how long exactly Phone Guy worked as Night Guard, but we know it had to been at least two full weeks since on the first night of the first game he states “I’m actually finishing up my last week” meaning he could have worked a decent amount of time prior to his final week, but with how experienced he seemed it is entirely possible he worked night’s for a few months or years, but we can confirm he had more than one week of experience. But how would he have known about being stuffed into a Fazbear Suit? Like anyone knew on the job, it is exceedingly plausible he actually got caught late in the shift a few times, but like many players, was saved at the stroke of 6 am. Though, on the 5th night of the First Game, it is made quite clear he is caught after he is stuffed inside a suit, but which one?

Sometimes during the first game the player will be killed by Yellow Bear or Golden Freddy as fans call him. Though, most times before you are killed hallucinations will show the face of Bonnie, Chica, or Freddy and sometimes the phrase “It’s me”. And during the 4th night’s call Phone Guy states,” I’ve always wondered what was inside those masks in the back” and “Hey, if you make it through tonight, just keep an eye out for me in one of the suits. It could be a while before someone else finds me.” The second game, there is a call stating “Someone used the Yellow Suit to um” and it is never explained what it was used for, but it can be implied that it was for the murder of another child or to sneak into the building to tamper with the machines to cause the bite. Most the evidence that has been found points to the Phone Guy being the one that is the killer due to the death mini games that appear on occasions. So, we know that children have possessed, or at the very least, the animatronics are seeking vengeance on their behalf, but Golden Freddy is still the only other animatronic that still has little to know explanation, even with the addition of the mini games. But, how could anyone use a Fazbear suit when it’s full of parts and gears for an automated skeleton?

The first though that comes to mind is it could be the first suit from the family dinner era when all they had was Freddy as depicted in the mini game the purple man kills the child outside the restraint, but when you see the suit is has wires and metal sticking out of it, meaning it is a more modern suit. And if it is a modern suit for the animatronics, meaning the killer would have to strip it of its inner parts, or have a similar suit made for humans to mirror the “yellow suit in back”. If someone were to walk around in a suit designed to look like one of the animatronics, it would be hard to tell the difference if the suit was made well enough and another reason why the animatronics can no longer roam the floor like they once had been able to. Though, why kill the night guard after Phone Guy? With what evidence is given, we Phone Guy left behind instructions on how to survive the nights, as well as his dyeing message. But what would happen if word got out the animatronics where killing? They would be scrapped again and left with no shell for a spirit to possess, or die if it truly is the machines killing people and getting away with it because police are looking into people killing people rather than sentient animatronics. Though, there is also the fan theory of Mike Schmidt actually being Phone Guy in his personal hell after Freddy and company stuffed him into a suit to punish him, and now he must endure his final week on the job for all eternity and must listen to his own recordings each week. We have why the animatronics would attack Mike, and Phone Guy, what reasons would they have to attack Fitzgerald and Smith?

In FNAF2 Phone Guy explains that the animatronics have access to a criminal data base, but in the early days of the internet no civilians had any kind of access like this, meaning they had these files illegally and lead to the investigation of company, and the bite only hastened the investigation. So, how would they have gotten access to files like that? To avoid predators harming children on the premises again they hired someone to hack into the files in a local police station to keep track of offenders throughout the country. If this where the case, who could have done something like this? On night 7 in FNAF 2, you are not Jeremy Fitzgerald, but Fitz Smith who is fired for Oder and Tampering with the Animatronics like Mike in FNAF 1. Though, unlike Mike who had been working a few days and had time to study the animatronics, it was Fitz’s first night on the job. If this is any indication of what he is like, it is completely possible he is their hacker to get the files, but he cannot be the hacker because he was caught tampering on his first night. This evidence shows he could not have gotten away with hacking government files, and because he was fired it is impossible to for him to be Phone Guy. At best, Fitz is one of the mechanics that worked the night because he knew how to turn them off, or some robotics expert realized what was going on and turned them off before his shift began. In all, Fitz could not have gotten the files, or be Phone Guy which leaves Jeremy Fitzgerald.

Very early on it is acknowledged that Phone Guy and Fitzgerald are two separate characters all together, but that doesn't mean Fitzgerald is some unlucky fellow who truly made a poor career choice. In fact, we know more about Fitz than we do Jeremy and Mike since he was fired on his first night and showing he had some sort of robotics knowledge. So, where does that leave us with Jeremy? If the theory is correct and Jeremy is actually the one who hacked the government files for the criminal offender’s data for the animatronics he could have put into a post outside of the public eye easily as a night guard. He would be harder to detect living a night life rather than a standard day light life and keep it easier for the company to hide him. As soon as Jeremy is told the company is under investigation, he is told that he will be moved to the day shift on the 7th day of his employment. Now, what we do know is that Jeremy worked for the company BEFORE the bite, but we don’t know exactly how long prior to the bite. Isn’t it convenient that Jeremy is put on the day shift of the last event, a birthday party, that that location would be having? What we know about The Bite of ’87 is that someone was bit in the front part of their head, losing the frontal lobe of their brain, but survived. We have no solid evidence who it was that was bit, but following the information that we know; children are safe, but the adults are not, and the bite has yet to happen during Jeremy’s employment we can make one solid assumption. Following the Hack theory; someone found out that the criminal files had been hacked by someone at the Fazbear Company and naturally started to investigate, but all they had was a lead. Jeremy Fitzgerald was the victim of the bite because he was the one who was able to get the company child predator data and because he had the power to bring down the whole company they forged a criminal file so that the animatronics would kill him on the restaurant’s final day and chock it up to mechanical malfunction and have a reason to destroy the animatronics and allow them to remake Freddy Frazbear’s Pizzeria in a new location.

I do understand the Hacking theory above is a bit of a stretch considering the internet was just getting started in the mid to early 80’s and I was unable to learn exactly how expansive the internet was back then. Another scenario to be more accepted if the above is truly impossible is that the recognition programming was buggy and didn’t actually acknowledge Staff after hours as Security Guards, but as an intruder and would attack leading to safety concerns yet again. After a few nights Jeremy could have reported the safety hazards to the proper authorities and because he put the company under an investigation they decided to prove his point. They then decided to create a fake predator file so that the animatronics would kill him on sight. It would keep them having to pay restitutions to Jeremy and his family, though they would be forced to completely restart, pay fines, and for many other damages of a man having the front of his head bit off in the middle of a birthday party. Such an incident would allow the company to rebuild, though not many people would be able to see the company the same way again and diminishing their overall public returns on a reopening after an accident of that caliber. However, it does keep them out of jail for forcing one person to undergo psychological stress and possible death intentionally.

I know some of this may have been some holes in it and can understand some of the theory seeming out there in some aspects considering all that is known for sure is what we are told by Phone Guy and some notes found in the first game and the death mini games in the second. My thoughts on the mini games is that they are there for the players to try and piece together some sort of story line between the four locations of the company from its dinner to the first game location and are not actually something Jeremy learns about considering he would have to die to see them. Either way, credit to my main sources of information have been the first two games themselves, Mullet Mike’s Creepy gaming Video on FNAF 1, The Game Theorists first two videos on the games, and Top TenMemes two Top Ten videos on FNAF 1and 2. Since this theory is not concrete, I wouldn’t mind talking about the holes or issues you guys may have in the comments since the games do have such an open ended story to tell and Scott seems to want people to try and put together what they think is happening.

Written by~ Adam Bloodgood