The Full Story of Seven Nights at Frank's

This page is the entire SNaF story.

The story
A couple of bits to the story that take place before the games are Robert Edwards being born in 1945. Robert’s father Henry was an RAF pilot in World War II. Another thing is that at the age of 20, in 1965, Robert dodged the draft for the Vietnam War.

The real meat-and-bones lore of Seven Nights at Frank’s begins with the birth of Nathan Edwards, in 1978. Nathan’s father, Robert Edwards, founded the company Edwards Technology Restoration, Inc. in the year 1983 as a tech support corporation that fixed and built pieces of hardware. Nathan’s grandfather, Henry, was a hero to the young Nathan. Before that, the family restaurant Frank’s Jukebox Diner opened in 1982. By 1986, during E.T.R’s third year of business, Robert’s wife and Nathan’s mother, Carolyn Edwards, was starting to get sick of the fact that Robert was always so busy with his businesses and clients and such. The two grew more distant, and eventually began fighting at home. The couple became so angry with each other, and eventually, as revealed in SNaF 5, Robert murdered Carolyn on May 26, 1986 while young Nathan was at school. The boy never questioned his father, and the police investigation into Carolyn’s disappearance went cold, as there wasn’t enough evidence against the CEO. Some time passed and E.T.R was inherited by Nathan in 1997, when he was nineteen. That same year, E.T.R began producing animatronic characters to sell to independent entertainment companies. However, one establishment was beating out all the competition: Frank’s Jukebox Diner, which had three main animatronic characters at its location. The characters were considered extremely advanced at the time, and their hardware was considered a company secret.

In 1998, a grown-up Nathan, wanting nothing more than to beat out all the competitors and make some money along the way, applied for an application as a nightguard at Frank’s. Working there at night would mean that he would be the only person in the building, thus allowing him to steal and tamper with hardware. Nathan’s overall plan was to tamper with the hardware so that the characters would act aggressive and angry during the day. What he did was tamper with them more day-by-day, which also made them aggressive towards him in the night. But, Nathan saw that the reward (profit) was better than the risk (death). The reason that he didn’t reverse their hardware during the night was because he made it so that the changes couldn’t be reversed. However, there was one character that Nathan didn’t tamper with due to it being hidden: Philip the Dog. Eventually, though, Nathan was fired for unprofessionalism. In between Nathan’s shift and the Phone Guy’s shift, Nathan killed innocent teenager David Williams, as the teen was vandalizing the building at night, and Nathan killed him as an act of revenge against the restaurant, in an attempt to get them closed. Nathan hid the kid’s body in the building, which was later found. Nathan was tried in court in August, but he gets out due to lack of evidence. Little did he know, David’s spirit would go on to possess Philip the Dog. This is also why Philip is more aggressive than the others, even after Nathan’s tampering. Eventually, Phone Guy was sent in to replace Nathan. Nathan’s shift at Frank’s was only mentioned by the Phone Guy in the second game on the first night. “You’re actually the third guard to work in that office. I was the second. The first was, uh, fired for his unprofessionalism…”

Anyways, Phone Guy does his shift, and Jim Moore is hired as the nightguard. This is the era of SNaF 2. During Jim’s six nights of working there, a lot of changes come to the company, as the restaurant was purchased by the Adler Corporation, a company whose main goal is to manage other, smaller companies.. And, Nathan’s tampering with the other robots led to the place being shut down just days after the buyout. On the establishment’s final day before closing, however, Nathan entered the place very early in the morning, in between security guard shifts, to tamper with the three one more time, making them the most aggressive they’ve ever been. This leads into SNaF 2’s 20/20/20/20 mode.

After the shutdown, the animatronic characters are moved to an unidentified location, apart from Philip, and new ones of all except Philip are made for the Adler Corp’s new location for the characters: The Adler family’s own house, where there has been a specially-made storage room connected to the house’s basement, where the characters are checked. The characters are then brought to trucks in the morning and sent out to the birthdays that rented the characters. 6 years after the closing of Frank’s, the place officially opens for bookings in 2004. This is the era of SNaF 1. Shortly after the opening, however, the Adler family goes on vacation, and the Phone Guy is hired to guard it, as he had previous experience with the Frank’s establishment. He finishes his week, and is moved to the dayshift. Eventually, Nathan, seeing this as another opportunity to increase his business and revenue, applies for a job as a nightguard. The reason his name isn’t recognized is because he guarded Frank’s before the Adler buyout. Phone Guy, like with Jim Moore, sends him messages to help him with the animatronics. Phone Guy doesn’t realize that he’s speaking with the man who shut down the last business. Nathan, like last time, tampers with the robots little-by-little each night, until his 5th night, when he is told that the three main characters have been shipped to Pennsylvania, more specifically an Adler repair center, while the one in the backroom of the basement has been released from the room, making it the only one there, and making it highly aggressive. Nathan finishes his final sixth night, during which he suffers from hallucinations, and he is told that due to the incidents from a few days ago, Adler is shutting down its animatronic subsidiaries, along with the repair centers. Nathan collects his paycheck, and with his newfound knowledge that the characters were brought to an Adler Repair Center, prepares for the journey.

Just days after Nathan’s shift at the Adler House, when the animatronics are moved to the Adler Repair Center in Pennsylvania, the company hires a man named Rick Marshall to guard the place. This is the era of SNaF 4. Over the course of these days, Phone Guy calls Rick, informing him that he’ll be reopening the investigation into the tampered-with animatronics from years ago. However, on Rick’s 5th night, Nathan, who knew of Phone Guy trying to expose E.T.R, Inc, breaks into Phone Guy’s house while the call is happening. Phone Guy manages to call the police, who unfortunately arrive just after Nathan escapes the house. According to a newspaper that shows up in the game, the police then investigated E.T.R, but came up with nothing against the corporation. Phone Guy, on the other hand, was presumably too afraid to move ahead with his investigation thanks to the break-in.

Flash-forward 6 more years, in 2010, to the era of SNaF 3. Nathan personally hires his narcoleptic friend Ryan Collins to guard a storage center that he rented out for a couple of weeks to store the animatronics that he might find in PA. Nathan brings two business partners along with him and they head off to PA, leaving Ryan to guard the place. The center is empty on Ryan’s first night, and free of danger. Ryan, being narcoleptic, brings a cup of coffee with him to work every night. On the second night, however, Nathan ships back two of the animatronic characters, and on the third night, ships back a box of audio cassettes, narrated by both the old and new Phone Guy that take place around SNaF 2’s time period, the last of which mentions Nathan indirectly as a vandal that was caught on cameras. On the fourth night, the remaining six animatronics are sent back, making Ryan’s job even harder. On the fifth night, Nathan calls Ryan to tell him he’ll be back in Ohio by tomorrow, but Ryan comes back on the sixth night, with Nathan telling him that their car broke down in a town in PA. After this, Ryan receives his paycheck and a seventh night is playable. In the seventh night, you play as Nathan once again, and when that night is over, a newspaper is revealed which shows that Nathan murdered his two business colleagues in the fears that they would steal his ideas, and he stuffed them into animatronic costumes. The paper goes on to say how he was seen lugging the two bodies to his car at 6:30 AM by police officer Brian Campbell, who asked to inspect the car, but Nathan refused. The officer cuffed him and discovered the two dead bodies. As of October 25, 2010, Nathan was in jail and justice had finally been served. The paper also states that E.T.R’s CFO hopes to re-strengthen the company.

The events of SNaF 3 directly lead into the story of the book Seven Nights at Frank’s: Rebirth. On the same day that SNaF 3’s newspaper is dated, Nathan’s father, Robert, is at his home in Greenville reading the article about Nathan before heading off to where E.T.R is headquartered: Richmond, Virginia, about 2 hours south of Washington, DC. After a seven hour drive, Robert enters the building to meet with the company’s CFO, who is revealed to be a new character named Thomas Redford. Robert meets with Redford hoping to gain his job back as the CEO of the company. Redford denies him the position initially, but then hires him after several threats are made by Robert to fire the CFO. Meanwhile, Nathan, who has since been imprisoned at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, is haunted by nightmares and visions of the two people he killed the night before. While sitting in his cell, a prison guard brings Nathan a telephone, and he slips the phone into Nathan’s cell. The former CEO answers the phone, only to speak with his father. After a few minutes of talking, Nathan starts rambling about the ghosts. Robert throws his phone on the floor, saying that his son is a “goddamn maniac” now. After this, the prison guard forcibly takes the phone away from Nathan, leaving the broken man alone again.

Meanwhile, back in Richmond, Robert is in his new office when an intern enters the room to discuss a client potentially leaving the company. The intern leaves the room and Robert then notices that the computer on his desk was his son’s old computer. Robert boots it up using the password “FrankAndFriends”, which confuses him at first. However, Robert Googles information regarding the password and discovers Nathan’s interests in Frank’s Jukebox Diner and the Adler House animatronics. Robert, apparently impressed with his son’s perseverance, leaves the E.T.R. building and heads to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, and arrives there by 11:00 PM. He visits with Nathan, stating how he wishes the incarcerated man was still free. Robert leaves the prison laughing, leaving his son in his cell once more. A few hours later, Robert is lying in bed with a thought nagging at him that he just can’t pinpoint. He flips on the TV, and watches the opening scene of the Apollo Creed-Ivan Drago fight of Rocky IV. However, midway through the James Brown dance number, Robert realizes that the thought of Nathan’s animatronic obsession was what was keeping him up. After shutting off the TV, Robert then dials Thomas Redford, who surprisingly picks up the phone. Robert then states his grand plan to Thomas: Get Nathan out of jail, then reacquire the animatronic technology that made Frank’s such a popular and lucrative business, and then, let the dough roll in. Thomas says to let it wait until the morning and he hangs up. The next morning, Robert wakes up and goes through his normal routine, until he walks outside, only to see a red 1985 Lamborghini Countach parked in his driveway. Robert is dumbfounded, until he sees Thomas walking up the driveway, who reveals to him that he came all the way to Ohio in order to meet with Robert about the “plan”. The two get in the car and begin driving.

However, once Robert reveals his plan about breaking Nathan out of prison, Thomas slams on the brakes and thinks Robert is crazy, saying how the security at Southern Ohio Correctional is too much for them to get past.