The “Five Nights at Freddy's” post-credits scene, explained
Five Nights at Freddy's topped the box office and scored one of the biggest horror openings of all time this past weekend, so it may only a matter of time before Universal Pictures announces a sequel. The video game adaptation is steeped in complex lore involving ghosts, robots, lucid dreaming, and child abduction, so there seems to be a lot left to explore in the FNAF world.
As with many movies based on existing intellectual property, Five Nights at Freddy's teases a potential follow-up in an extra scene hidden among the end credits. Viewers who aren't familiar with the FNAF video games might not fully understand the significance of that final sequence, so here's what you need to know about the Five Nights at Freddy's credits scene and a subsequent secret message.
After the main film ends on a happy note for Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and Abby (Piper Rubio) — and teases the return of Matthew Lillard's William Afton — Five Nights at Freddy's sneaks in one final scene halfway through the credits. In the sequence, a cab driver we briefly met earlier in the movie (played by YouTuber Cory Williams, a.k.a. CoryxKenshin) reluctantly picks up a new passenger.
Patti Perret/Universal Pictures 'Five Nights at Freddy's'
The cabbie switches his light from on-duty to off-duty, taking a nap in his car with his baseball cap pulled over his eyes. Someone knocks on the car door, and the driver responds, "Nope, not today, sorry." We then hear the car door unlatch as an unseen passenger makes their way into the car. "I said, read the si—" the cabbie says before screaming, as we see a brief glimpse of a tiny, unmoving figurine holding balloons in the passenger seat.
Later, as the credits crawl to a close, a creepily distorted voice slowly spells out the letters of the phrase "Come find me."
The figurine appears to be Balloon Boy, a villain from the sequels to the original Five Nights at Freddy's video game. Balloon Boy first appeared in Five Nights at Freddy's 2 in 2014, and he isn't nearly as small in the games as he is in the movie. The character is a moving animatronic in his video game appearances, much like the rest of the animal-shaped characters we see throughout the movie.
Mike had previously seen the Balloon Boy figurine in his locker when he first arrived at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.
It's unclear whether Balloon Boy's inclusion in the mid-credits scene is intended to be a genuine teaser for a sequel or just an extra gag to give audiences one last jolt. Regardless, it seems safe to assume that we haven't seen the last of Five Nights at Freddy's and Balloon Boy.
Five Nights at Freddy's is playing in theaters now and streaming on Peacock.
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