Arka Mukhopadhyay
Have you ever taken a closer look at the Non-Playable Characters in an open-world video game – who readily give in to pickpockets and gun violence? If so, Shawn Levy’s action blockbuster romantic comedy ‘Free Guy’ packs a hell of a lot of glorious action and glitchy shenanigans for you. The story follows Guy, a good-hearted blue-collar banker in the ultraviolent cosmopolis of Free City, where people who wear sunglasses are heroes. After meeting the girl of his dreams, Guy’s world turns upside down as he breaks away from the code-imposed shackles. Apart from its mind-boggling premise, the movie packs cerebral driving sequences and epic fights to keep the genre fans happy – all toppled with bubble gum flavored romance in the middle. If you seek to decode the film’s finality, that is where we come in. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Free Guy Plot Synopsis
The story begins in Free City, where vandals and criminals run amok. People who wear sunglasses have superpowers, and they do not speak to ordinary people. Guy wakes up, says good morning to his goldfish Goldie, scours through his wardrobe full of blue shirts, and goes to his daily job at a bank. Like every day, he goes to the cafe to have medium coffee with cream and two sugars, throwing around his catchphrase, ‘Don’t have a good day, have a GREAT day!’ Like every day, the bank gets robbed, and Guy’s security personnel friend, Buddy, cannot do much.
However, Guy still roots for the girl of his dreams, even in the middle of the robbery. While Guy and Buddy plan on grabbing beers at night, a player named Molotovgirl arrive at the town, hoping to break into the stash house of Revenjamin Buttons. Guy meets her while strolling around the city – and concluding her to be the girl of his dreams, Guy follows her to the Multiplayer Arena, getting trampled by a freight train. When Guy wakes up the following morning, he feels the urge to do things differently.
Meanwhile, we get the idea that Free City is a game, and Guy is a Non-Playable character in it. After getting a sunglass from a player, Guy has his moment of enlightenment. Molotovgirl happens to be Millie, who created the original game ‘Life Itself’ with her best friend Keys. However, Antwan, their publisher at the Soonami Studios, has usurped the code of ‘Life Itself’ to create ‘Free City.’ But ‘Free City’ still has traces of the original, which urges Antwan to discard the original and develop a buggy sequel. Teaming up with Guy, who is possibly the very first autonomous AI, Millie struggles to find the source code in the game world.
Free Guy Ending: Who Created Guy? What Is Guy’s Purpose?
Keys created Guy as a love letter to Millie, which we come to know at the end of the movie. From the beginning, we see that Guy and Millie have so many similarities – they both love Bubble Gum flavored ice cream and swings. However, as Guy is nothing more than a code, he should not have ice-cream preferences. Keys later divulges that he injected a sense of purpose into Guy while creating him. In contrast to other NPC characters, Guy has an elaborate back story. His goal is to meet the girl from his dreams and break away from the mundane routine.
When Guy meets Millie, his life comes to fulfillment, and he starts developing a neural network of his own. He also obtains the sunglasses from one of the players at the bank and sees the city in a new light. With the sunglasses, Guy becomes one of the superheroes, but he cannot hurt people. Thus, Millie tells him to try saving people to level up. Now endowed with a purpose and direction, Guy levels up fast, becoming a viral phenomenon. Antwan throws some roadblocks in the journey of Guy, but it is nothing he cannot handle.
In the end, Guy makes the journey through the bridge to the hidden location that Millie and Keys created together. On the other side of the achievement, Millie speaks to Antwan in the server room, who has wrecked most of the servers of Free City 1. Millie strikes a deal with Antwan, which lets her keep the remaining pieces of Free City 1. Keys and Millie add a bit of their original code to make a virtual world from afresh, keeping all the original NPCs. Millie meets Guy again in the virtual sphere, and Guy tells her that he is free to do anything now, as he has served the purpose of becoming a love letter.
Who Does Millie End Up With?
Guy and Millie belong to different worlds, and Guy realizes that they cannot be together. Millie created the game, but she cannot live inside the game all her life. However, in the end, Millie realizes the person behind the avatar of Guy. MIT-alum genius Keys wrote the code for most of the game, and he incorporated Millie’s preferences into the game. Therefore, all the NPCs get medium coffee with cream and two sugars, just like Millie likes it. Guy also likes bubblegum ice cream, an eccentric preference of Millie. Although Keys and Millie have been old friends, Keys could never come out in the open about his feelings for Millie. She realizes Keys’ feelings at the last moment – and heads out to the coffee shop. Millie and Keys exchange glances from across the street, and we believe that Millie and Keys end up together.
Is Buddy Dead or Alive?
Guy’s only friend in the game is Buddy, a security guard with a particular distaste for gun violence. The first time he brings out his gun from the holster is when they head to Revenjamin Button’s stash house. Therefore, Buddy comes off as one of the most endearing characters in the game and the movie. When Millie disappears after Antwan cancels every player account, Guy is left alone to make the passage to the other side. When Antwan deploys DUDE, a buffed-up version of Guy, things sure look bleak.
However, DUDE leaves Guy’s tail after getting the sunglass, and Guy and Buddy start walking through the bridge. Antwan did not expect Guy to come this far, and with his back against the wall, he picks up an ax and heads to the server room to destroy the servers. The in-game world collapses, and so does the bridge. Buddy and Guy make a run for it – but Buddy falls behind, withering in thin air like pixelated dust. However, the finale reveals that Buddy is alive and kicking in the new world. Keys and company reprogram parts of the game, rebuilding Buddy in the process.
Read More: Where Was Free Guy Filmed?
