Free Guy (2021)
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2025-09 to 2026-08
A bank teller in a video game discovers he is an NPC and must fight to preserve his existence.
The story
In the massive multiplayer online game Free City, Guy is a non-player character (NPC) who works as a bank teller. While the human players cause chaos and mayhem, Guy lives out his scripted life unaware of his reality. His life changes when he begins to deviate from his programming after an interaction with a player's avatar. As he gains popularity and begins to develop self-awareness, he must navigate the complexities of his existence while a looming update threatens to delete his world and all its inhabitants.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Guy, an NPC in the game Free City, begins to deviate from his programming after an encounter with the avatar 'MolotovGirl', played by the real-world developer Millie Rusk. As Guy gains fame as 'Blue Shirt Guy' and develops self-awareness, he learns that the game is scheduled to be replaced by Free City 2, which would delete all current NPCs. To save himself and his friend Buddy, Guy must team up with Millie and her colleagues to find evidence of her original code, 'Life Itself'. The plot culminates in a race against time to reach a hidden island containing the original code before the server reset. Amidst the chaos, a powerful, aggressive NPC named Dude is unleashed to stop him. Ultimately, Guy manages to reach the island, and a deal is struck to preserve the characters. Following the launch of Free City 2, it is revealed that the code for Guy was a 'love letter' from Millie's friend, Keys, and the characters are integrated into a new game, Free Life.
- First release year
- 2021
- Runtime (minutes)
- 115
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Shawn Levy
- Writers
- Matt Lieberman · screenplay; Zak Penn · screenplay; Matt Lieberman · story
- Cast and characters
- Ryan Reynolds · Guy; Jodie Comer · Millie Rusk; Lil Rel Howery · Buddy; Utkarsh Ambudkar · Mouser; Joe Keery · Walter "Keys" McKey; Taika Waititi · Antwan Hovachelik; Channing Tatum · Revenjamin Buttons
- Genres
- science fiction; action; comedy
- Themes
- self-awareness; identity; artificial intelligence
- Tone and mood
- humorous; action-packed
- Setting
- The digital world of Free City, a massively multiplayer online game.
- Premise and plot tags
- metafictional; video game world; virtual reality
- Reception
- The film was a commercial success and received generally positive reviews from critics.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 62 · scale: 100 · review count: 51
- Awards and nominations
- Best Visual Effects · Academy Awards · 94th · nomination
- Production trivia
- The character Dude became a purchasable outfit in the video game Fortnite.; The film was one of the first films produced by the studio to continue production under Disney's ownership.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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