In the gaming world, “NPC” has become a popular term. A non-player character (NPC) pretty much walks around the game’s environment. They’re not completely mindless. They’re there to act “normal’ and “live” their every day life. Great examples are the NPCs in Rockstar Game’s Grand Theft Auto. They’re just walking around or driving cars minding they own business. Sometimes they catch a stray bullet or players driving cars who don’t care for the violence run them over.
In Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy, he plays an NPC just “living” his everyday life in a virtual world on an online game called “Free City”. But Reynolds’ guy has no idea he’s a NPC. He falls in love with Jodie Comer’s in-game avatar, Molotov Girl. Check out the latest trailer below:
According to SYFY WIRE, Comer explained, “They meet in the game and she thinks he is a real person and lives in the outside world like her,” she said. “And they form this relationship and as the story unfolds, they realize that they actually both need each other’s help as much as the other. There is a danger of something happening to the game and they both need each other to bring out a self-realization in one another, which is really beautiful. And, yeah, their relationship really evolves throughout the film.”
It looks like Reynolds’ character, Guy gains consciousness and upends the digital world making him a star in the real life. The game’s owner Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit, Thor: Ragnarok) would rather shut it down rather than let Reynolds’ character and his “great guy” routine stop players from killing and destroying things, which seems to be the point of the game.
“I can’t wait to see this blooper reel of Taika, because there was at least 24 hours of just nonstop just going off.” says director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things). “That’s credit to Ryan and Blake, who were the first ones to be like, what about Taika Waititi as Antoine?” said Levy.
Co-star Utkarsh Ambudkar explained what gamers in the real life can expect from the film. “I will say as somebody who loves this stuff, I was tickled pink and there’s a lot of wonderful cameos from people within the gaming community, which is cool as well. You’ll see LazarBeam, you’ll see Ninja, you’ll see people that we know and have gotten to know for many, many years be a part of this movie.”
Shawn Levy directs Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy and is written by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn. The cast includes Jacksepticeye, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Taika Waititi, Lil Rel Howery and Utkarsh Ambudkar. Free Guy hits theaters on December 11. I hope there won’t be any lag time like other 2020 films.
