The Oscar-nominated movie Free Guy drew in lots of interest ever since its first trailer. Starring Ryan Reynolds as the main character, Guy, the film enters the world of video games through his perspective. Guy is a non-playable character (NPC) who breaks free of his coding and quickly begins to figure out how the game built in the world around him works. All is not as it seems, however, as he works with a player named Molotov Girl trying to find a secret hidden feature in the game that is vital to keep it and all of his NPC friends alive.
It was delayed several times due to COVID-19 related issues, and finally released over a year after its initial announcement. The hype around the movie never dwindled, however, and it was a box-office success the moment it arrived in theaters. It received generally positive reviews from critics, won the People’s Choice Award for the best comedy movie of 2021, and is nominated for an Oscar for best visuals. As we wait on more news about a supposed sequel, take a look at these other similar movies; if you liked Free Guy and want to know what to watch next, these are your best picks.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
6 Pixels
Sony Pictures Releasing
A time capsule launched into space becomes an accidental declaration of war in Pixels. When aliens discover the time capsule, which includes footage from a championship at a video game arcade, they attack Earth in the form of these games, claiming that if they win three rounds, the aliens will invade. Now a group of nobodies, most of whom were at that championship, are forced to team up and play these games in real life if they hope to avoid the invasion.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
If you like the video game aspect of Free Guy, you’ll find more of it here in Pixels. Similar to how fights rage around Guy all the time, the aliens choose to have most of their battles in the middle of large cities. From Galaga attacking an air force base to a giant Pac-Man destroying buildings in New York, there’s plenty of action-packed video game scenes appearing in real life.
5 Ready Player One
Warner Bros. Pictures
Ready Player One is set in a dystopian future, where people seek refuge from real life in a virtual reality game known as OASIS, which stands for Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation. After the creator’s death, his avatar announces in the game that ownership will be passed on to whoever can find the golden Easter Egg, which requires the completion of three challenges to even gain access to the area. Wade Watts and a few of his friends team together to try and find the egg, but they are pursued by a greedy CEO who will stop at nothing to be able to monetize the game, including trying to hunt the players down in real life.
Just like Free Guy, Ready Player One is set in two realities — one being real life, and the other being a video game world. Their games also both have real consequences, the players trying to reach an end goal inside the game while also accosted by people in real life trying to stop them from reaching said goal. Though the real life side might have more action than Free Guy did, it’s still something to consider checking out if you like the split reality concept.
4 Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
In Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the titular game makes another appearance, this time sucking several kids into its deadly game. When they wake up as their character avatars in the middle of a strange jungle, they realize they must play through the game, including solving puzzles and fighting bad guys, albeit with a limited number of lives in order to return home. However, if they lose all of their lives, they’ll be gone for good.
This video game world in Jumanji doesn’t have quite as many game features as Free Guy, but it still operates like a game. The players can still view their character stats while surviving the jungle, and they have to figure out how to play to their strengths and weaknesses, as everyone has certain tasks they are better suited for. It’s definitely one to check out if you liked the video game aspect of Free Guy.
3 Wreck-it Ralph
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Arcade characters come to life in Wreck-It Ralph. The main character, Ralph, is the villain in the popular arcade game Fix-It Felix, but he finds that he wants more from life. After the arcade closes, he jumps into another game to try and get a medal and gain some recognition as someone other than the bad guy. However, things don’t quite go to plan, and now the fate of several games rests on his shoulders before they are unplugged and lost forever.
If you liked the video game character gaining awareness in Free Guy, this movie is worth checking out. While all the characters do know they are in a game, it focuses on breaking free of the game’s boundaries, trying to become more than just the villain as Ralph discovers who he is. It also involves lots of elements only seen in video games, and features another life or death situation as the games need to be saved before the virus can take over. The sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet, is also a pretty brilliant film, for anyone wondering what to watch after Free Guy.
2 The Truman Show
Paramount Pictures
The Truman Show is a movie following the life of Truman Burbank, who doesn’t know he is on a TV show. The world around him is just one realistic set and everyone who lives within the dome are all paid actors, but he has no awareness of it. Instead, he is dissuaded from ever trying to leave the dome by the show’s creator, who crafts many broadcasts and posters about the danger of travel. Even though life outside is controlled, Truman’s actions are his own, and when he falls in love with an extra instead of a co-student, he slowly begins to find out that the world around him isn’t what it seems.
Though it’s not a video game, The Truman Show has a very similar concept to Free Guy; co-star Joe Keery has actually called his filmFree Guy “a mix of Back to the Future and The Truman Show.” Truman (a wonderful turn from Jim Carrey) has no idea that his reality is fake, and only begins to break out of the mold he was put into when he finds love. As strange things begin to happen around him that don’t conform to what he knows of the world, he starts to discover the truth as it all falls apart around him. Definitely give this one a try if you like that concept.
1 The Lego Movie
LEGO’s come to life in The Lego Movie. LEGO usually excels at using pre-established films like Star Wars, but here they create a hit blockbuster of an original. Normal LEGO citizen Emmet Brickowski is thrust into a new life when he accidentally gets stuck to the cap of a tube of crazy glue. The movie’s villain wants to use the glue to freeze everyone, gluing their parts together, and the only thing that can stop him is the cap. Now, Emmet must team up with several heroes, including popular ones like Batman, to save the world before it’s too late.
If you like the concept of a random, previously overlooked person becoming the hero, this is definitely the movie for you. Just as Guy struggles to learn the game around him once he breaks his routine in Free Guy, Emmet does the same. He had a specific daily routine, almost as if he was a video game character too, who ends up being pulled into a new world that was always around him but that he never knew before.
