The movie Free Guy, at surface level, just appears to be a movie about a video game starring Ryan Reynolds. Yet, when I saw it, I not only laughed, but almost cried in parts. For, in my opinion, this movie wasn’t just a movie about a video game. To me, this movie, though flawed, is for the moment we are in. Going forward, I will share about the plot of the movie, and then explain to you why I think there is substance beneath the movie’s silliness.
The multiplayer online game, Free City, the heart and center of the movie Free Guy, is filled with players, characters that are actual real life people. Having the privilege of being human, they all wear sunglasses and are able to do as they please within the game Free City. Meanwhile, anyone who is not a player, is called an NPC, a term which means, “non-playing character.”
These NPCs are just average people, with average jobs, who fulfill their typical mundane activities each day. Cops, baristas, private store owners, even bankers, all get stuck in the same loop from sunrise to sunset.
Ryan Reynolds’ NPC character, Guy, is a bank teller. He wears the same blue shirt every day. He wakes up to the music of Mariah Carey, says hello to his goldfish Goldie, and tells everyone he meets at the bank to not just have a good day, “but have a great day.”
Yet, he wants something more. He wants to be able to buy a $200 pair of shoes, but never has more than $180 or so in his checking account. He also daily desires to have a girlfriend.
Then, while walking on the street one day he sees a girl, a player from the real world named Millie, but in Free City is named “Molotov Girl.”
He wants to be able to talk to her. Yet, he doesn’t have the “sunglasses” he needs to fit in with her and all the “sunglass” people. That is, until one day, when the same old bank robber comes to the bank, that Guy walks up to him, shoots him, and grabs his sunglasses.
Putting on the sunglasses, Guy is amazed to see all the pieces of a video game, though he knows not what a video game is. All he knows is, there is more to Free City than just what his eyes can see. Then, everything begins to change. Guy breaks out of his role as a bank teller, and becomes a “friendly-neighborhood good guy” who saves and helps fellow NPCs in need.
In the parallel real world, the game in which Guy lives, Free City, is owned by a video game company led by this movie’s villain, Antoine.
Antoine is evil, because he stole the design and code for young video game designers Millie and Keys’ game Life Itself, and built off it to make Free City.
Millie and Keys’ original game, Life Itself, was imbedded with AI aspects that allowed that characters of the game to simply “do whatever they wanted, to grow, evolve, and learn.” It, as you see later in the film, was basically their version of Eden.
Yet, Antoine did not give them credit for their underlying code, their original design that he built Free City upon. So, he tried his hardest to make his own world from their original game, yet eliminate every trace of Millie and Keys’ original work.
However, as the movie goes on, he ultimately fails. Millie, as “Molotov Girl”, within the game Free City, teams up with Guy to find her and Keys’ original design and save all the NPC characters in the city. Having been awakened through wearing the “sunglasses” and Millie, Guy informs all his fellow NPCs, that the AI traits within him, that allow him to make his own decisions, are within all of them.
And then, all the NPCs, the cops, the military, everyone, just stops doing their jobs. The players, actual people in the real world, just walk around in shock. As one character says, it’s like they’re doing “a digital walk-out.”
Antoine wanted to delete Guy, “Molotov Girl,” all the NPCs and the game Free City. He wanted to start fresh with Free City 2. However, it was because of the actions of Millie and Guy, who fought to defend their city, and their ability to see the “reflections” of the underlying code of Life Itself, that Guy was able to do something spectacular. He was able to blend all remaining aspects of the game Life Itself and also the game Free City into a whole new game, called Free Life. Now he, and all his fellow NPCs, are set free as AI creations to do “whatever they want.” They no longer have to work, do their jobs, or “comply” with anything anymore.
Having watched the movie Free Guy three times now, I am amazed at how relevant it is. Who would have thought, that a Disney owned Ryan Reynolds comedy, originally set to premiere in movie theaters the summer of 2020, released in August of 2021, would apply to our world today.
Over the past year, we have all been awakened in one way or another. Through the news, through alternative news media, or through our personal walks with God, we have all come to discover real and apparent evil in our world, that wants all power and control, that wants to eliminate anyone or anything that is of God, and to do away with all traces of freedom.
Like Antoine, the Devil, through his own means and methods, has fought to be able to do this over the almost past two years of this pandemic. Yet, he cannot do so. This world is broken, but there are signs of the Creator all around us. The rain, the mountains, the snow, sunrises and sunsets, are all formed from His hands. Every time someone stands for Him, every time someone doesn’t “comply” and/or fights for what He fights for, His glory, power, and strength, shines for the world to see.
The original creators of the video game in the movie Free Guy are not perfect in any way. Yet, our God is. One day, He will bring justice. He will right all wrongs. He will set us free from jobs, burdens, pain, sorrow, and yes, even mandates.
The past almost two years have been hard, but, at least for me, I know they have been worth it. For it is through the Holy Spirit and ultimate power of God that I know I, and so many of you, have begun to be more “heaven minded” and “awakened” than ever before.
So, through the days ahead, may we remember, that He and He alone one day, will give us the ultimate freedom we long for in a “new heaven and a new earth.”
Revelation 21:1-5 NIV
A New Heaven and a New Earth
21 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Wherever you are, thanks for reading. I appreciate and love you all.
Until Next Time,
Jacob McGowen
The Adventures of A Warrior 
A delight to be introduced to your blog by your marvelous mother, a friend since college. It’s so exciting to see the work of dear friends’ children. I’ve known your father since I was 12. You have been highly blessed with some of the finest of humans on the planet as parents. I’m eager to read more.
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