Released: August 13, 2021

Directed By:  Shawn Levy

Screenplay By:  Matt Lieberman & Zak Penn

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Joe Keery, Taika Waititi and a bunch of other actors.

Plot: When Guy, a bank teller, learns that he is a non-player character in a bloodthirsty, open-world video game, he goes on to become the hero of the story and takes the responsibility of saving the world.

Taglines: The world needed a hero. They got a guy.

How did this movie do?
Budget: $125 Million
Box Office: $332 Million

• Academy Awards: Nominated for Best Visual Effects – Didn’t Win
  
  
• People’s Choice Awards: Won for The Comedy Movie of 2021

• Four lines into her audition, Shawn Levy knew that Jodie Comer was the perfect choice for Millie/ Molotov Girl.

• Shawn Levy originally read the script in 2016 – and passed on it. He was persuaded to reconsider by his friend, Ryan Reynolds.
  
  
• EthanTobman, Production designer, said the film’s game-world design drew primary inspiration from games like SimCity, The Sims and Red Dead Redemption 2, while also acknowledging thematic inspiration from Grand Theft Auto and Fortnite.
  
  
• In order to help Reynolds fully tap into his Guy character after Deadpool, Levy suggested that he tap into his Canadian background and act very friendly, full of joy, a typical Canadian citizen. He also found inspiration in Peter Sellers role in Being There and Will Ferrell role in Elf because they played characters who were similar to Guy’s character being simple-minded.
  
  
• The cameo by Chris Evans was suggested by Reynolds’ wife Blake Lively. Levy contacted Evans, who was already in Boston shooting Defending Jacob and asked if he would come by for ten minutes, and he agreed.
  
  
• When promoting the film in 2019, Reynolds and Waititi joked that it was nice to work together for the first time, pretending that they knew nothing about the Green Lantern film.
  
  
• VOICE CAMEOS: Voice roles in the film include Hugh Jackman as a masked avatar in an alley (physically portrayed by Patrick Vincent Curran) who MolotovGirl gets the location to Revenjamin Buttons’ stash house from, Dwayne Johnson as bank robber #2 (physically portrayed by Owen Burke) whom Guy accidentally shoots while trying to claim his sunglasses, Tina Fey as Keith’s mother (portrayed by Regina Taufen) who was vacuuming in the background, and John Krasinski as a silhouetted gamer.
  
  
• A map of Free City, the city that the game in the film takes place in, is actually a map of Portland, Oregon. The “stash house” that Jodie Comer’s character wants to break into is shown as being located in Portland’s Forest Park.
  
  
• EASTER EGG: Shortly after Guy buys his new shoes, a gin bottle-shaped power-up on the floor titled “Subtle Product Placement” is visible over his shoulder. It’s likely a reference to Aviation American Gin, which Ryan Reynolds had a stake in and maintains an ongoing ownership interest.
  
  
• EASTER EGG: In one of the scenes in Millie’s apartment, there are blocks on her coffee table spelling out “ANORAK”. Anorak is the name of James Halliday’s avatar in the story Ready Player One, a videogame-centered book written by Ernest Cline in 2011. The movie version of Ready Player One (2018) was written by Zak Penn, who also worked as a writer for Free Guy. According to Wikipedia, “anorak” is British slang for a person who has a very strong interest, perhaps obsessive, in niche subjects. It is used synonymously with “geek” and “nerd” and “IT professional”, of which there are many in Free Guy.
  
  
• EASTER EGG: When Guy checks his bank balance at one point, the total is $2187.03. 2187 is Princess Leia’s cell number on the Death Star in Star Wars.
  
  
• EASTER EGG: The three main human characters, not counting the villain, are Millie, Keys, and Mouser. The first syllable of each of their names together (Mi – Key – Mouse) make a virtual hidden Mickey.
  
  
• This movie is heavily inspired by the science fiction novel Simulacron-3 (1964) by Daniel Francis Galouye. In the novel, the main character realizes that he lives in a simulated world inside a computer. A female admin enters the world, and with her help he can save his world from destruction. There have been several adaptations of this novel, e.g. the German 2-part TV-miniseries World on a Wire (1973) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
  
  
• Guy starts each day greeting his goldfish, referencing how by the end of the movie, players ended up really enjoying a “goldfish game”: a game that’s just observing people going about their day.
  
  
• The scenes in the real world are shot with anamorphic lenses, while the scenes in the game are shot with standard spherical lenses. However, the entire film is presented at 2.39:1.
  
  
• The calendar in Guy’s apartment is missing the number 4 – this is not a goof, it’s an in-joke, as several Asian cultures see the number 4 as unlucky, just as many Western cultures see the number 13 as unlucky. For example, no hotel in Las Vegas (a big gambling mecca for Asians) has a 4th floor; they go from 3 to 5.
  
  
• In the final ‘real world’ scene, Keys is wearing a blue shirt, making him literally ‘blue shirt guy’
  
  
• Due to the Disney-Fox merger that was occurring while this film was in development, Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy put together a list of Marvel and Star Wars references they wished to use, expecting they’d get permission to use one, if that. Instead, they got permission to use whatever they wanted, resulting in the rapid-fire gags during Guy and Dude’s fight.