Serial killer Charles Lee Ray - known by his alias, the Lake Shore Strangler - is brutally shot outside a Chicago toy store by detective Mike Norris, but his voodoo mentor Dr. Death taught him how to transfer his soul into an object or person by calling on the power of Damballa. Ray, hurriedly searching for SOMETHING to transfer his soul into, stumbled upon a Good Guy doll in the store and transferred himself into it, thus becoming Chucky, your "friend to the end!" In doll form, Chucky first informs six year old Andy Barclay of who he really was and manipulates him into helping him seek out those responsible for his death: his cowardly getaway driver Eddie "Edward" Caputo and Detective Norris, who he fails to get when Norris investigates Chucky's first murder, Andy's babysitter Maggie. As the bodies start to pile up, Karen, Andy's mother, and Detective Norris fight to find Chucky and keep him from transferring his soul into the body of the first person he told his secret to: Andy. After burning and dismembering him, Chucky is finally defeated when Norris shoots him in the heart, killing him.
Karen is now on a mental hospital because nobody believed in her story about Chucky. Andy is now with a new family. Meanwhile, Chucky is being reconstructed, but during this, a explosion destroys the repair machine a kills one worker. Chucky is taken by a man working there, but he is later killed by Chucky. Chucky is back, and now is killing everybody that gets in his way, and is looking for Andy. Andy, now with his foster sister Kyle, must escape from Chucky. When they get to a Good Guy Doll's facility, they can defeat Chucky by dropping acid over him, finally defeating him. They get out of the facility as sun rises, hoping for a good future... only to know that Chucky would be back...
Now, Andy is 16 years old, and is in a military school. Thinking that their bad publicity has ended, Play Pals Inc. re-release the Good Guy Dolls, where Chucky is reconstructed, killing Sullivan, the Play Pals Inc. owner. Now, he's looking for Andy again, but realizes that he has a new Good Guys body and there's more people in the school, so tries to steal another boy's soul, Tyler, but fails at first. Andy is shocked with the massacres that have been happening in the military school, and fears that Chucky is back from the dead. Now, with so many people dead, Chucky finally confronts Andy. But Andy, with the help of his girlfriend Kristin, destroys Chucky to shreds. Chucky is finally dead... unless somebody reconstructs him.