Free Guy = Free Will. Can you be more than you’re programmed to be?

2021’s Free Guy was a Ryan Reynolds action comedy about an NPC (non-player character for you non-gamers) who finds himself given the agency of a player inside a world that’s reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto.

Guy (Reynolds’s character), is a teller at a bank that gets robbed at gunpoint daily, if not multiple times a day. He has a life of his own, but it’s a programmed routine, the same every day with only the tiniest variation of social interactions. Everyone seems … content.

Then, one day, a bank robber drops a pair of the sunglasses that all players wear, and when Guy puts them on, he can see the world with a game interface. Experience points. Money. Power ups. He discovers he can level up. And since he’s in the game 24/7 no matter what, he gets GOOD at it.

Without spoilers, there comes a time in every video game character’s life when they have to decide whether they are just a character or are entitled to a life of their own. What’s worth fighting for. What’s worth being deleted forever for.

It’s actually a refreshingly deep take on free will and determinism in what is otherwise a very silly romp of a movie. If you don’t mind spending two hours with PG-rated Deadpool hamming it up and a kind of 1980’s-grade style of cheese and schmaltz, it’s a delightful exploration of the future of AI in gaming.