Spoilers for Free Guy
Free Guy, the movie where Ryan Reynolds plays a guy named Guy who’s unaware of his status as an NPC, was a sweet sweet fantasy of a film that knew when to take advantage of its video game setting.
One such moment came during the film’s climax when the NPCs decided to essentially stage a walkout, no longer sticking to their Free City programming where players got to destroy their shops, hold them at gunpoint, and everything else you tend to do to NPCs in Grand Theft Auto style games (sorry to everyone I’ve ever run over with my stolen vehicle of choice). While that’s going on, Guy and Millie (Jodie Comer) are racing against time to stop Taika Waititi’s Antwan from completely deleting the game.
Enter the final boss.
Dude.
So Ryan Reynolds as Guy has to take on Ryan Reynolds as Dude in a battle that, unfortunately, has no save point beforehand. Just when it looks like Guy is down for the count he manages to go through his inventory slot to equip a shield.
“It’d be hilarious if it were Captain America’s shield,” I said. After all, 20th Century Studios falls under Disney now, just like Marvel, and Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool who, not too long ago, did a bit about watching the Free Guy trailer.
Free Guy not only delivered in letting Ryan Reynolds use Captain America’s shield, but the former Avenger was also, apparently, watching a live stream of the battle the entire time! We get to see Chris Evans react to seeing the shield being used in the game and he’s just as surprised as everyone else.
I mean, can you blame him? He left the shield with Sam, not Deadpool!
Guy goes on to use a couple of Marvel AND Star Wars weapons to fight Taika Waititi’s fantasy version of himself. Those two properties aren’t the only ones Guy borrows from, either (as fans of Fortnite, Portal, Half-Life, and Mega Man will notice).
What’s really amazing about this scene is that video games have all kinds of easter eggs like this, especially open-world ones where you’re free to roam around and cause mass destruction. Yes, it’s incredibly gratuitous to be able to have all of these franchises in one movie, but at the same time, random ass weapons (some of which are from completely different IPs) are a part of the gaming experience. Sometimes they’re acquired after beating the game on a difficulty level that makes you cry, and other times they’re acquired from the likes of DLC or preorder bonuses.
There are all kinds of video games with crossover characters and items these days. You wanna run around in Fortnite as John Wick, fight Scorpion with the Terminator, or use a dubstep gun or dildo as a weapon? Video games have got you covered.
Honestly, this montage of weapons Guy uses is pretty tame compared to how off the wall it could’ve gotten. Though, real talk? I would’ve spammed the portal gun a LOT had I been in control during this scene.
Director Shawn Levy sat down with ET Online about what went into creating this scene. When asked about having access to things like Cap’s shield (since the Fox-Disney merger happened about a month before Free Guy started filming) Levy had this to say:
We already had a third act where Ryan’s character Guy was leveling up and had access to cool weaponry and portal guns and gravity guns and, you know, the unicorn mace from Fortnite, etcetera. But once we realized wait, Disney now owns the studio that owns our movie, we were like, well shoot, they have the greatest toy chest around! And if I were Guy and if I could gather any piece of weaponry that I ever dreamed of, it would definitely include a lightsaber. It would absolutely include Cap’s shield. So, we wrote a letter to Disney and said, “Hello, I am Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy. We are making Free Guy, as you know. You now own us. Can we please use one of these fancy iconic devices?”
And we got a response and the answer was, “Yes.” And we sent an email back saying, “Sorry. To clarify, which one?” And we got an email back saying, “All of them. You can have all of them.” We were beyond stoked. And once we had that, then Ryan was like, “Wait a second, Chris Evans is in the same town we are shooting his Apple show, Defending Jacob. I’m going to text him and ask him if he’ll come by and be in the movie.” I guess that’s a thing movie stars do. “Hi, movie star. I’m your fellow movie star. Want to come be in my movie?” Chris Evans, being a cool, good guy, was like, “If I can come by and literally be in and out in 10 minutes, I think I can slip it in.” So, that’s what happened. That’s how we ended up with Chris Evans, in addition to a lightsaber and a Hulk fist and Cap’s shield.
I mean yeah, why not use everything that’s available in your toy chest? Good on you, Levy. And to think, Guy didn’t even have to complete some exhaustive side quest to string together those weapons, either.
(Image: 20th Century Studios)
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Published: Aug 17, 2021 03:26 pm