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This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
| NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Mike Schmidt from the film series. The mainstream version can be found here. |
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| “ | There’s a theory that everything you see in your life down to the tiniest of details, gets stored inside of you. | „ |
| ~ Mike Schmidt |
| “ | Hey, Abby, listen to me. I was an idiot about so many things. I tried to fix the past, but you are the most important thing in the world to me, and I promise you that I’m gonna do things that are better. | „ |
| ~ Mike to his sister Abby, promising that he'll do his best to be a better brother to her. |
Michael "Mike" Schmidt is the main protagonist of Universal Pictures' Five Nights at Freddy's film series, based on the video game franchise of the same name.
He was a down-on-his-luck man who tries to care for his younger sister Abby after the deaths of his younger brother Garrett and his parents. After getting fired from his previous job, he becomes a security guard for the long-abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, where he encounters the ghosts of several dead children possessing the pizzeria's animatronics.
He is portrayed by Josh Hutcherson, who also played Shane Fahey in Firehouse Dog, Jess Aarons in Bridge to Terabithia, Walter Budwing in Zathura: A Space Adventure, Sean Anderson in The Journey series and Peeta Mellark in The Hunger Games franchise, and voiced Markl in Howl's Moving Castle and Nod in Epic.
Biography[]
Backstory[]
Michael Schmidt is born in September 19th, 1974 to his parents. In his childhood, Mike had a loving family with his younger brother Garrett. However, one day, he would have to watch as Garrett is kidnapped and taken away by an unknown man, never to be seen again. This would traumatize Mike and leave him guilty for the rest of time. Some time later, his mother would fall ill and die, and his father would also leave the picture for unknown reasons (Mike implying he either just left the family or committed suicide), leaving Mike to take care of his younger sister Abby alone. At the same time, their Aunt Jane would try to take custody of Abby away from Mike.
In an attempt to learn who kidnapped Garrett, Mike would begin taking sleeping pills so he could keep coming back to the same nightmare: the day he lost Garrett. He believed that, if he visited the nightmare enough times and looked at every single detail possible, he would eventually see the face of the man who took away his brother.
Five Nights at Freddy's[]
Mike would work his way towards becoming a security job protecting others like how wished to have done so for his little brother, and has been taking care of his little sister Abby. However, he would be fired after assaulting an innocent man in front of his son, mistakenly thinking he was a child abductor. After going to career counselor Steve Raglan, he would be mocked but ultimately receive an offer: the security job at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place, at night. While he initially refuses, once Aunt Jane threatens to bring him to court over custody of Abby, he accepts the offer.
In his first night, Mike falls asleep and has the same dream again, except this time he sees five children behind him. Once he asks them for help, they all start running away, and he trips before he can catch one of them. The next night, he would have the same nightmare, except he catches one of the children, who proceeds to attack him with their hook hand. Once he wakes up, he is visited by police officer Vanessa Shelly and realizes the wound from the child somehow carried over to the real world. When the shift is over and both Mike and Vanessa left, Aunt Jane's four henchmen - including Abby's babysitter Max - breaking into Freddy's to trash the place so Mike could be framed and arrested. However, they're all killed by the animatronics.
Realizing he has no babysitter once Max stops answering the phone calls, Mike is forced to bring Abby with him to Freddy's. He and Vanessa find out the animatronics are friendly to her, and they all decide to have fun before Abby is shocked by Bonnie's guitar malfunctioning. Vanessa reprimands Mike for letting his sister get hurt, and the latter decides that Abby should stay home instead of visiting Freddy's again, just to keep her safe. He leaves her at the care of Aunt Jane while he goes to work, a she mistakes he’s giving her away but not, where he once again encounters the children in his dream, now realizing they're the ghosts of the five children who disappeared at Freddy's years ago and are haunting the animatronics. He is attacked by them and wakes up to find himself moments from death. He manages to free himself at the last second, though is seemingly attacked by Foxy.
When he wakes up, he finds Vanessa has rescued him and is taking care of him. At first Mike was furious at Vanessa for knowing how dangerous the animatronics were, especially when Abby played with them and she never told him. But the two talk about how the animatronics want to kill Abby so she could join them, and Vanessa reveals she's the daughter of William Afton, the man who killed the five children and took away Garrett that is now controlling the animatronics, as Vanessa herself is too scared to face him, which is why she wasn’t honest with him. Meanwhile, Golden Freddy brings Abby to Freddy's after killing Aunt Jane. Mike manages to save Abby from Chica, but they are attacked by the remaining animatronics; Abby is being hunted by Foxy while Mike first deals with Chica's cupcake before being attacked by William Afton, dressed in the yellow rabbit costume, who reveals he killed Garrett. They are both rescued by Vanessa as Afton reveals himself to be Steve Raglan before his stabbing his own daughter. However, Abby manages to make the animatronics realize Afton is the man who murdered them. As she and Mike escape with an unconscious Vanessa, the Cupcake causes Afton to have a springlock failure in his rabbit costume as the animatronics drag him away.
Sometime later, Mike and Abby continue living their lives with Abby having made new friends. Mike still visits Vanessa, who is comatose, while Abby wants to go back and see the animatronics again.
Five Nights at Freddy's 2[]
Mike has resumed his normal life with Abby, who still misses her friends in the pizzeria. On one night, Mike prepares for his dinner date with Vanessa wherein Abby asks if she can visit her animatronic friends, but Mike refuses, promising that he will repair them soon and advising her to make real friends in the meantime. He leaves a 20 dollar bill for her to order food if she wishes before he leaves. During the dinner, Vanessa reveals that she struggles with psychological trauma from her father's acts and takes workout classes to help her move on. Mike admits he doesn't know how to handle Abby and her animatronic friends.
At the end of the evening, Mike returns to find Abby gone, having left a note that she is returning to Freddy's to see the state of the animatronics herself. He follows and finds her sitting in front of the stage, where he states that her friends still remain with Abby in her heart even if they are not in the living world anymore. To make up, Mike lets her take a small keepsake from the diner and Abby chooses a little toy called the FazTalker. As they leave to go home, Mike notices a boycott poster targeting the upcoming FazFest displaying a phone number taped to the outside walls. He takes the poster in hopes that it would be useful.
Mike then calls the number, which is revealed to be Henry Emily, who is the father of Charlotte Emily, and suggests a meet up while Abby shows her project to him and Vanessa, while mentioning about the original site. This concerns Vanessa who wants to discuss it with Mike, but the latter, informed by Henry of Charlotte's death and Vanessa's connection to it, dismisses her concerns. Mike drops Abby at school on the day of the science fair and visits Henry, who admits to masterminding the FazFest boycott campaign. He learns more about the original location and its role to Charlotte's death, revealed to be murder. After Mike calls the school and learns Abby isn't there, Henry gives him Charlotte's music box, which she used to help her sleep.
Combined with what Vanessa told him that morning, Mike finally understands something strange is going on and decides to investigate the original location on his own. He enters via a back room that houses the prototype animatronics and the body of Lisa. After rescuing a tied up Vanessa, she tells him that Charlotte, the girl who died at the pizzeria, is seeking revenge on the parents who ignored her warnings, warnings that could have saved her life. They learn that the only way to stop her is to reach the control center and reenable the system restriction to cut off the signal. After escaping from Balloon Boy, they reach the security office. Mike works to reactivate the restriction while Vanessa searches for Abby, who's unknowingly in danger.
Mike manages to shut down the signal, disabling all animatronics except for one: Chica, whose signal shows up at his home address. He and Vanessa realize this to be Charlotte and they race in time to stop her. Realizing that the only way to stop Charlotte is to call the spirits of the children, Mike detours to the Freddy's where he once worked and asked the spirits for help. They heed his call as he arrives home in time to see his sister possessed, using the music box to appease Charlotte, who releases Abby. Soon, William Afton's son, Michael Afton, and reveals himself to be Vanessa's brother, explaining that he intends to continue their father's legacy and uses the Fazfest to unleash a massacre. He orders the Toy animatronics to kill the three, but the newer location's animatronics arrive and dismantle the Toys while Michael Afton escapes. The souls of the animatronics moved on to the afterlife, though the spirit of the child inhabiting Golden Freddy remained behind for a moment to warn Mike that with the children moving on, they couldn't contain "him" for long. Mike doesn't knowing on who he meant, and when attempted to ask the child on the identity of said person, now knowing that he is referring to William Afton, but the spirit is already gone, as he had already moved on to the afterlife.
As Mike is angry with Vanessa for keeping him in the dark for too long, he came to no longer trust her, as she never told him of Michael nor the whole truth about the Marionette. In addition, he had realized that Vanessa had become deeply entangled with the twisted legacy of the Fazbear franchise and the late William, whose control she remained unable to free herself from. Moreover, because William had left an everlasting influence on the Animatronics (especially the Marionette) and with Michael having recently become involved in the recent Freddy’s-related events, Mike had come to realize that his own involvement intertwining with Vanessa’s family history (despite her victimhood) and because she had kept secrets from him had landed the Schmidts in great danger, with Abby having been briefly possessed by Charlotte, thus putting more of their safety at risk. All these combined had become too much for Mike to handle. Deciding to cut all ties with Vanessa, he coldly tells her to stay away from him and Abby as the siblings leave the house, possibly moving to live a new life, one that is very far from Freddy’s, completely distancing themselves from their former friend.
Personality[]
Mike is a down-to-earth guy just trying to make a living and look after his younger sister, Abby. He genuinely cares for Abby and people he's close to, like Vanessa, even if he sometimes comes across as indifferent to them. This is mostly because of his childhood trauma taking a toll on his mental health, resulting in a lack of energy or investment in anything unrelated to solving his younger brother's kidnapping. He has trouble sleeping, which causes him to be restless and low energy most of the time. When he does manage to sleep, he has frequent nightmares about his little brother's disappearance, even years after the fact.
He's not afraid to speak his mind or stand up for what's right, but he sometimes acts without thinking. He lost his job as a security guard for getting into a fight with someone he thought was kidnapping a boy but turned out to be the boy's dad. Mike also calls out Vanessa when he thinks she's lying or manipulating him. He does the same with their Aunt Jane, who he believes wants custody of Abby for money.
Mike is sometimes prone to anger, like the aforementioned incident with the father he mistook for a kidnapper. But this is rare. He mostly gets upset only when it comes to finding out the truth about his brother's disappearance or when he finally confronts William Afton.
Abilities[]
- High intelligence: Examples of his intelligence include figuring out how to turn the animatronics against William Afton and using water to electrocute Bonnie and Freddy.
- Problem Solving: This is strongly supported by his intelligence, such as finding a way to relive the same day when he lost his brother and figuring out how to take both Bonnie and Freddy out by electrocuting the water.
- Technical Expertise: The search results mention he has technical skills.
- Physical Strength: Described as being physically in shape (as evidenced by him overpowering a guy and cracking his nose).
- Fighting Skills: While not explicitly "Fighting Skills," the search results mention he overpowered and beat up a random guy and is stated to know how to fight.
- High Pain Tolerance: This is suggested by his Very High Stamina, as he can endure being slashed multiple times during his sleep, and being aggressively bitten by Cupcake, and still able to keep going.
- Survival Skills: The search results state he is a Scapegoat Survivor and managed to survive four nights fighting against the animatronics.
- Determination: The results describe him as persistent, shown by his eagerness to dig up the truth about Freddy's, his attempts to get his sister Abby to eat, and his constant questioning of Vanessa Shelly.
Trivia[]
- He is an adaptation of Michael Afton from the game series, using the alias he used in the original game. However, there are notable differences between the two:
- In the second installment of the film, Mike Schmidt and Michael Afton are revealed to be separate characters. Therefore, in the films, they serve as heroic and villainous counterparts of each other.
- In the games, Michael is shown to have blue eyes and lacks any sort of facial hair. In the films, Mike has brown eyes and has a stubble beard.
- In the games, Michael was the one who accidentally got his brother killed, whereas in the films, Mike lost his brother to William Afton.
- In the games, Michael is shown to be of English origin judging by his Southeastern English accent, In the films, Mike is easily assumed to be American judging by his accent.
- In the games, Mike Schmidt is an alias used by Michael Afton, whereas in the films, Mike Schmidt is Mike's actual name.
- In the films, Mike's introduction to the job is a VHS tape. In the games, Michael's introduction to the job is a pre-recorded phone call.
- Mike’s family is theorized to take the role of the Emily’s from the games with Garrett taking the role of the Puppet similar to Charlotte Emily and with Mike’s father having an unknown status he could take the role of Henry Emily.
- However, the theory has proven 100% false since the sequel brings Henry Emily and his daughter Charlotte to the big screen, and they aren't technically related to the Schidmts. Similar to her game counterpart, Charlotte was portrayed as a fully vengeful spirit in The Marionette than the original being benevolent and protective, clearly meaning Garrett had indeed died off-screen in flashbacks from the first one.
- Kat Conner Sterling confirmed on a TikTok livestream that Max had a crush on Mike.
- In the novelization, Mike and Vanessa are implied to be love interests. A moment of them out for dinner is shown in the second movie's trailer so it’s likely canon to the movie.
External Links[]
- Mike Schmidt on the Near Pure Good Wiki
- Mike Schmidt on the Universal Studios Wiki
- Mike Schmidt on the Five Nights at Freddy's Films Wiki
- Mike Schmidt on the Five Nights at Freddy's Wiki
- Mike Schmidt on the The Ultimate Good Wiki
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 Heroes
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Mainline Spin-Offs The Novel Trilogy Fazbear Frights Tales from the Pizzaplex Films
Disambiguation pages | ||
