Guy has a pretty good life. He gets up every day and goes to work as a teller at the bank, along with his best friend Buddy, the bank's security guard. He enjoys his coffee along the way and greets everyone he meets with a cheery grin.
I mean sure, the bank gets robbed multiple times a day, and things are always blowing up around those odd 'sunglasses people' who run around the place, but hey - that's just life, right?
Well, no, it's not life. Unbeknown to Guy, he is actually a non-player character (NPC) in a massive multiplayer online game. Those 'sunglasses people' are the players, logging in and performing quests - such as robbing the bank - for in-game rewards. Guy's not supposed to have a life at all, or be aware of his own existence.
But Guy is aware of his own existence. And he's about to become aware of a whole lot more, when he meets 'Molotov Girl', the in-game avatar of one of the real world players. Infatuated by Molotov Girl, Guy steals a pair of sunglasses for himself, starts to learn about the in-game rewards system, and begins a career as 'Blue Shirt Guy'.
Guy's antics draw a lot of attention both in-game and in the real world, but for a long time everyone assumes he's just a clever hacker - the idea that he might be a rogue NPC is too ludicrous to consider. But the truth is that Guy isn't just a single rogue; his awakening is rubbing off on other other NPCs around him.
Of course, out in the real world there's no understanding of the fact that the NPCs in the game are becoming self-aware, and plans are afoot to destroy the whole place in order to make way for the sequel. It's up to Guy to find a way to save himself and his world.
Free Guy is a fun action comedy. Getting the full effect of all the humour probably requires at least some knowledge of online games, and it certainly slips in a lot of background sight-gags for those who do have that knowledge. Fortunately the in-story need for Guy to have the reality of his 'world' explained to him does give the script a sound reason to dump a lot of exposition for those audience members - such as my wife - who lack that context.
The film definitely profits from a likeable cast, led by Ryan Reynolds doing his Ryan Reynolds thing, and by the freedom that "it's actually a video game" gives them in terms of creating wild and wacky action sequences.
My only complaints are relatively minor ones: I think that the final act runs a smidgen too long, and that the evolution of the romantic subplot is a bit awkward and revolves heavily around something rather dubious that someone did in the real world.
Overall, this was a fun ride.
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