Welcome to Part two of the Five Nights at Freddy’s the Movie Theory Series that I’m doing, the previous part is linked below.
There will of course be spoilers.
FNAF Movie – Previous Parts
Part 1 – First Shots, Nightmare Machine and Intro
After our initial introductions to Abby and Mike the movie quickly establishes that Mike really doesn’t have much money and also that he seems to not be incredibly concerned with his appearance though trying his best (we see his holes in his socks when he goes to fetch Abby.) The story commences with him working at the mall and talking to his co-worker Jeremiah.
Jeremiah
Jeremiah is yet another character in the series with this iconic name. For those not aware, there have been Jeremys and Jeremiahs in many, many of the games and books at this point, to the degree that theorists despair a little when Scott wheels this name back out again. There are even occasions where one is replaced with the other.
“Hey, guys,” Jeremiah said, loud enough for his voice to carry to wherever they were hiding. “Thanks. This is really nice.” There was no answer, no movement, no sign of anyone being there but him. He walked down the hall to the break area. On the table where the now-infamous Hot Chip Lunch had taken place, a birthday cake sat, looking just like he remembered from childhood: a white-frosted grocery store bakery sheet cake trimmed with piped royal blue icing. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JEREMY was written in blue icing on top.” – Prankster, Fazbear’s Frights
Mall Guard
It is also hilarious to me that Mike starts out as a mall security guard. The movie parallels Mike with William quite a lot in various places throughout in a way that plants the seeds of doubt in viewers minds and this is one of those places. This first scene is one of them.
In The Silver Eyes, we encounter William Afton as a mall security guard and its not a leap to connect this to Mike’s role in the movie. William is not incredibly proud of this job either, and Jessica uses it to needle him later.
“Yeah, I know you. Didn’t you used to be a mall guard?” she said. His fists clenched, and his eyes darkened with fury. “Spare me. Dave the guard was a character, one concocted on a moment’s notice to play you for a fool, you and your friends. It was insulting. It doesn’t take a great thespian to pretend to be an idiot night guard, as long as you can get around inconspicuously. I have not been inconspicuous for some time. It hardly matters now anyway, as this is all that’s left of me.”
Mike sees a kid led away by a man and responds traumatically, chasing the man down and punching him brutally in the fountain. It turns out the man was the kid’s father. This is excessive, obviously and an example of his own trauma from this brother’s kidnapping, but it also gives us quite a clear insight into a violent streak in him that can surface without warning. It’s effective in communicating all of these facts, along with the fact that once again he is very quickly unemployed. Mike cannot hold down a job.
Timeline
Mike ends up back at social services to speak to a career councilor and the audience is given the time period for this movie. Mike attends the careers service on the 6th of April 2000. This fact is borne out by a later shot we see of Mike’s watch at work.
This shot shows the date in a DAY – MONTH – DATE format (as confirmed by the brand and year of release of his watch), so we can confirm that when he’s at work, the date is the 11th of April 2000, once again cementing the time period we are experiencing in this movie.
It’s also worth asking why he’s still wearing a watch from 1987 in the year 2000, is he just cheap or does it have some kind of sentimental value to him? Alternatively, it could be a nod to 1987 as an important year for the FNAF series.
Steve Raglan
Mike’s career councilor is named Steve Raglan, and the impression the audience is given of him is a rather pleasant but dithery sort of guy. Of course, the fans knew who he was at the outset, and this is later revealed to be the case. The great mystery of the movie is not at all the identity of the killer, his arrival is not intended to be the kind of reveal one might expect in Scooby Doo or a mystery novel. What is interesting to fans is how he chooses to behave, what career he has chosen and questioning why this might be.
Steve works in an incredibly boring office, with beige walls and files everywhere, and dresses in much the same way. This harkens back to William’s rant about how it is important to “remain inconspicuous”, we have every reason to believe that William has a grand, theatrical soul and a tendency towards the flamboyant, but when he is laying low, he appears forgettable and average, intentionally fumbling his words and making awkward small talk.
However, there are a few subtle hints to his identity around the office. In front of him on the desk are what appear to be his keys, and hanging from this set of keys is a rabbit’s foot.
In earlier iterations of the office, he also had a rabbit-shaped letter holder, but this appears to have been removed as perhaps too on the nose.
One point where Raglan’s cheery facade cracks is when he is corrected by Mike, he says “you only have to worry about one thing. Keeping people out, and-and, you know, and keep the place tidy.”
Mike retorts “That’s two things.”
Steve’s smile drops, and the stare he gives Mike is anything but friendly, followed by re-exerting himself on the situation with “You want the job or not?”, he takes a little bit of time to resume his cheery front after this. William Afton does not like to be corrected at all.
It’s also worth noting that the dithery persona that William wears here when pretending to be Steve is very reminiscent of phone guy. We’ll come back to this when he has a conversation with Mike by phone, but for now, it’s worth mentioning the stammering and the “you knows” he peppers his conversation with.
Steve rhymes off Mike’s terrible employment record, while debating if he is a a “head case”, making him doubt himself in a way that isn’t very encouraging.
We find out that Mike has worked at Tire Zone as a sales associate and was terminated for insubordination after two months, and then Media World where he worked as custodial staff for a week.
The Steve he says insubordination reminds me for whatever reason of the hidden message in Sister Location. When William mocks Mike with the “angsty teen” voice, there is a moment when it glitches out and we can hear the words “Argumentative. Standards. Elevation. Passive. Height.” Which is an anagram for “PHASE” but the word argumentative in there sounds like a condemnation much the way insubordination here does too.
Mike Who?
The most pointed part of this conversation is Steve’s response when he opens Mike’s file and reads out his name. He gets to the surname and fumbles it, stopping dead before looking harrowed and leaning across the table to get a better look at Mike.
This scene is intentionally ambiguous and could be interpreted either way, firstly as William realising that he has somehow stumbled upon the sibling of the boy he previously kidnapped and killed or secondly, the realization that he has somehow stumbled upon his own son. Every viewer will of course bring their own interpretation of this scene to the table. Personally, on a gut level, the way he reacts to the name, unable to even speak it aloud at first implies to me that there is more at play than simply the sibling of a victim.
I feel like in a situation where he found someone related to a victim, his response might be more smug and delighted, instead he reacts like the world has been momentarily pulled out from under him and immediately leans forward for a better look. If we were in a continuity where Mike was his son under some convoluted circumstances, this “do you look like me” response would make sense. After looking at him, he can’t even sit there and gets up, immediately trying to distract from his own shock by diverting to the offer of coffee, putting his back to Mike.
But his nerves are clear and even the way he hugs the coffee cup to his chest is not the action of a self-confident and remorseful serial killer who has identified a prior victim in my opinion. It might well be the case that he was taken off guard, but knowing what we know about William from the games and books, he is rarely rattled so easily.
After he’s had a moment to think, he stops Mike from leaving by saying “I have a job for you” and only then offers him the role at Freddy’s. The implication here is that he does not offer this job to just anyone but vets applicants and picks and chooses who he sends to Freddy’s. When Mike seems hesitant about nights, he offers him his card, either anticipating that he’ll be back or in some way setting out to engineer this.
His business card is very plain and simple and we see it later on again when Mike caves and calls him back.
Last Chance
Mike returns home in his car which is incredibly beat up. It looks like its been in more than a few bumps and scrapes and is missing the gas/petrol cap completely. He heads to the front door, only to find a rent delinquency notice pasted there. They aren’t in a great place financially and this is clear.
Max
We are introduced to Max, the babysitter who helps Mike look after Abby in the next scene. She’s an interesting character and one I feel probably lost a lot of scenes and context due to time pressures in the movie itself. She’s working for him for free, presumably on the payroll of Mike’s aunt Jane as a form of spy. As always in movies, the initial scene we encounter a character is important to understanding what they mean narratively. We run into Max watching television.
Max seems to be interested in making money, though we don’t find out why, and she wears rings on almost all her fingers other than the wedding ring one.
In this scene the television is on showing rings and the voice over is saying the following.
“I have to tell you, there is something magical about these rings, and you can have it within…”
In movies, television clips are quite rarely unrelated to the greater themes of the story, they are usually used as a vehicle for foreshadowing something to come or some lesser noticed feature. In this case I think the use of the words “something magical” isn’t a mistake, though the full implications of this likely won’t become clear to us until the inevitable sequels, much like the silver eyes novels.
Trivia
Some random trivia about this scene is the fact that “Erin Brockovich” is underneath the television in this scene and in a scene later on, along with an “Alabama greatest hits” tape on top of the television itself. These vanish in the middle of the movie breifly in a continuity blip, with Erin Brockovich replaced with a blank tape likely from an earlier shoot.
Erin Brockovich is a (really good) movie about a paralegal who went up against Pacific Gas and Electric over groundwater contamination. This story about a small time individual going up against a megacorporation to me is a subtle little nod to Mike going up against Fazbear Entertainment in the games. Although it might just be someone on the movie’s cast or crew’s favourite movie!
To the right of the television is a photo of a forest and a lake. Possibly a favourite location of the family? Part of me wonders if this might be another one of Scott’s own photographs like the ones he put into FNAF4 (though it doesn’t match any of them, I checked).
Abby’s Friends
Mike goes to visit Abby and see if she will eat. Max seems to have heated up a tv dinner but had no luck getting her to actually eat it. He finds her in the room drawing as usual and asks her who the other people in the picture she has drawn with the two of them are. She explains they are her friends.
He tries to coax her into eating, but gives up and sits on the bed. She tells him he’s sitting on her friend.
This scene clearly establishes that Abby has at least one imaginary friend who can physically be in a room with her prior to any of the events at Freddy’s.
Before he leaves, Mike gives Abby a very strange warning.
“But you should know what happens to little kids who don’t eat their dinners. Their bodies stay the same size forever. And they never get to ride the adult rides at the amusement park.”
It sounds like a throwaway line, but given the already extant parallels mentioned in part one between Abby and the puppet, I can’t help but be reminded of the Charlie robot in the Silver Eyes, who couldn’t grow up because she was a robot without passing her essence to the next one. In the end her adult form was corrupted and she couldn’t even smoothly pass to that stage, growing up for her seemed impossible at that point.
I don’t think this is a throwaway statement, it’s strange and it is intended to be strange.
Conclusion
Since the next scene delves into dreams once more and diverts us away from the material waking world, I think that this is a good stopping point for this part. In the next one we’ll have a look at Mike’s dreams!
Next part – https://www.burntrap.com/2023/10/30/fnaf-movie-theory-part-three-mikes-dark-dreams/