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Free Guy
Life's too short to be a background character.Aug. 13, 2021United States115 Min.PG-13
Synopsis
2021 A bank teller called Guy realizes he is a background character in an open world video game called Free City that will soon go offline. Free Guy Free Guy.
Vegamovies Review: Free Guy is a 2021 American action comedy film directed and produced by Shawn Levy from a screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn, and a story by Lieberman. The film stars Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Joe Keery, and Taika Waititi. It tells the story of a bank teller who discovers that he is a non-player character in a massively multiplayer online game who then partners with a player to find evidence that a gaming company’s CEO stole the player’s game’s source code.
Lieberman began writing the script in 2016, which was acquired by 20th Century Studios shortly after. Levy passed on the script, but reconsidered after Hugh Jackman introduced him to Reynolds, resulting in him leaving the film adaptation of the Uncharted video game he had been developing. The acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney made Free Guy one of the first films produced by 20th Century to continue its production under Disney’s ownership. Filming took place in Boston and Los Angeles between May and July 2019.
After the film was delayed two times by the COVID-19 pandemic, it premiered at the Piazza Grande section of the 74th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland on August 10, 2021, and was released theatrically in the United States three days later on August 13 in RealD 3D, IMAX, 4DX and Dolby Cinema formats by 20th Century Studios. It grossed $331.5 million worldwide. The film received positive reviews from critics for the concept, comparing it to science fiction films and action video games such as Ready Player One, The Truman Show, The Matrix, Grand Theft Auto, and Fortnite. The film received a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 94th Academy Awards. A sequel may be in development.
Plot
Guy is a non-player character (NPC) in Free City, a massively multiplayer online role-playing video game (MMORPG) developed by Soonami Studios. The players of Free City are distinguished from NPCs by the sunglasses they wear, fighting each other, and causing mayhem. Unaware that the world they live in is a video game, the NPCs are mostly oblivious to the chaos caused by players, while living out their scripted lives. Unemployed software developer Millie is playing Free City to find proof that Soonami stole the source code from the concept game she developed, Life Itself, which included novel artificial intelligence techniques for its NPCs. Her friend Keys is sympathetic, but reluctant to help, as he now works in technical support at Soonami.
Guy works as a bank teller alongside his best friend, security guard Buddy. After Millie’s avatar “MolotovGirl” catches his attention by singing his favorite song “Fantasy”, he begins to deviate from his programming, shocking Buddy by accidentally shooting a skull-masked player robbing the bank and leaving with his sunglasses. Believing Guy to be a hacker disguised as an NPC, Keys and his coworker Mouser unsuccessfully try to ban him from the game. Accessing the players’ view of the game, Guy visits new areas and meets Millie at Revenjamin Buttons’ stash house, where they attempt to steal evidence leading to her source code. Believing Guy to be a novice player, she advises him to level up before trying again. Guy rapidly progresses through the game by completing missions benevolently, standing out from other players and becoming a worldwide sensation known as “Blue Shirt Guy” while Soonami’s CEO Antwan Hovachelik has the art nerds modify his design for the sequel, Free City 2.
As Keys eventually realizes that Guy truly is an NPC, other NPCs that Guy interacts with also begin to develop self-awareness. Keys learns that Free City 2 is due to release in 48 hours and will completely replace Free City, terminating all of the game’s NPCs. Keys informs Millie, she tells Guy the truth about his existence, but he becomes frustrated and breaks off contact. Guy talks with Buddy and realizes that there is something more to their reality. Buddy helps Guy to get the evidence Millie wanted from Revenjamin Buttons. Antwan sees that the popularity of Blue Shirt Guy threatens his plans to launch Free City 2 and orders a server reboot, which resets Guy’s memories. Guy regains his self-awareness when Millie kisses him.
Guy recalls the location of an island containing remnants of the Life Itself source code and they attempt to reach the island before the Free City 2 launch wipes all old content from the servers. Antwan fires Keys, has every player removed from Free City, and sends an unfinished, muscle-bound character who resembles Guy named Dude into the game. Initially overwhelmed, Guy puts the sunglasses on Dude, distracting him and allowing Guy to proceed to the island. In a last-ditch attempt to stop him, Antwan begins smashing the game servers in the Soonami offices with a fire axe, erasing Buddy and much of the game world, while firing Mouser. Before he can destroy the final server, Millie offers a deal to abandon her lawsuit and surrender the profits of the Free City franchise to him in exchange for her creation.
Sometime later, sales for Free City 2 have slipped because of bugs in the code and lagging online play. An embattled Antwan is in the crosshairs, but claims he is a “victim”. Meanwhile, Millie salvages her code and releases the indie game Free Life, which includes Guy, Dude, and the other NPCs from Free City. In the game, Guy reveals to Millie that his code is, in fact, a love letter to her from Keys. During the development of Life Itself, Keys had encoded what he knew about her tastes into an AI routine in the game, which was eventually incorporated into Free City. This explains why Guy felt uniquely drawn to MolotovGirl. After Millie leaves the game, she and Keys share a kiss.
Back in Free Life, Guy and Dude reunite with Buddy who was among those NPCs reconstructed.
Director
Director
Cast
Millie Rusk / Molotovgirl
Walter 'Keys' McKeys
Buddy
Mouser
Antwan Hovachelik
Revenjamin Buttons
Dude
Barista
Bombshell
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