In Free City, an online open-world video game developed by Soonami Games, Guy (Ryan Reynolds), an enthusiastic bank teller, awakens to a mundane routine of donning a blue shirt, sipping coffee, and heading to work. Guy’s best friend is Buddy (Lil Rel Howery), a security guard who also works at the bank. As a non-player character (NPC), he is programmed to make the game more enjoyable for real players. Unaware of his simulated existence, Guy believes the world consists of two types of people: sunglass-wearing heroes capable of anything, and ordinary people like himself without sunglasses. Despite his ordinary status, Guy dreams of finding the love of his life.

One day, Guy’s dream girl, appears before him, wearing sunglasses. He defies his programming and chases after her, but is crushed by a train before he can reach her. When he awakens the next morning, his behavior begins to deviate from his usual routine. He orders a cappuccino instead of his customary medium coffee, and Buddy, his best friend, notices that he is more distracted than usual. During a bank robbery, Guy seizes a pair of sunglasses from one of the perpetrators, granting him access to the player’s heads-up display and the ability to interact with the game world like a real player.

Keys (Joe Keery) and Mouser(Utkarsh Ambudkar), employees of Soonami Games, suspect Guy to be a player disguised as an NPC, a forbidden act in Free City. They enter the game to hunt him down and ban him. Despite successfully killing Guy, they fail to identify the player. Mouser assures Keys that it is a system glitch and unlikely to recur.

Keys, once hailed as a genius game designer, co-created the online AI-driven game Life Itself with his longtime friend Millie (Jodie Comer). Their dreams were shattered when they sold the game to Soonami Games, whose owner, Antwan (Taika Waititi), shelved it. Millie is now determined to find evidence that Antwan used Life Itself’s AI engine to create Free City.

Guy encounters MolotovGirl, a mysterious player who challenges his perception of reality. Despite his low level and lack of experience, Guy offers to help her, but she dismisses him as a noob player disguised as an NPC. She imparts the basics of leveling up and informs him that she will not speak to him again until he reaches level 100.

Guy’s unorthodox leveling method distinguishes him from other Free City players. By performing good deeds for NPCs and fighting bad guys, he quickly becomes a global sensation known as Blue Shirt Guy. Keys, later discovers that Free City’s underlying code is identical to Life Itself’s, the AI-driven game he co-created with Millie. Keys deduces that Blue Shirt Guy is not a real player, but an evolved AI algorithm that believes itself to be alive. He also realizes that Antwan, plans to delete Free City and replace it with Free City 2. Keys and Millie have less than 48 hours to find proof of Antwan’s treachery before the launch of Free City 2.

FREE GUY is a delightful and thought-provoking film, meriting a solid four-star rating from me. However, I must add a fifth star in appreciation of Mariah Carey’s song “Fantasy,” which perfectly complements the narrative.

On paper, FREE GUY is a hybrid of The Truman Show, Grand Theft Auto, The Matrix, Wreck-It Ralph, and Ready Player One. Charismatic Ryan Reynolds reprises his nice guy persona in this action comedy, whose core is a romantic comedy everyone can relate to. Taika Waititi’s self-absorbed Antwan overextends himself in an attempt to be humorous, rendering the character more cartoonish than the actual NPCs.

Disney’s ownership of a vast library of intellectual property gives FREE GUY the unique advantage of incorporating cameos and references from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, and other popular Disney franchises. This level of cross-promotion is virtually impossible for other studios to replicate.

FREE GUY premiered at the Locarno Film Festival on 10 August 2021. The film was theatrically released in the United States on 13 August. It was the first film from Walt Disney released exclusively to theaters during the pandemic for forty-five days without Disney+ Premier Access.