Quick, what’s the first Ryan Reynolds movie that comes to mind?
One of the “Deadpool” movies? No, those are for entertainment only. No socially redeeming value beyond that.
“Hitman’s Bodyguard”, “R. I. P. D.”, “The Proposal”, “Just Friends”, “Safe House”, “Waiting…”? No, No, No, No, No, No, No…
“Green Lantern”? That’s funny. Definitely not. “Green Lantern” is no longer actually classified as a “Movie” under the rules set forth by the World Congress of Movies. You can fact check that if you want.
The list is long, for sure, and I may have left out one of your favorites as I scanned through the list on the IMDB website1. If you want to see the others before you pick the one you think it might be, have a look - I need to get on with the article…
The most important Ryan Reynolds movie ever made is…
The Ryan Reynolds movie that has the potential to save the world is “Free Guy”. If you are over 30-years old, you probably haven’t seen it. If you did, you probably didn’t understand it.
It came out in 2021, a Disney production. That anything that can be found in it has the potential to save the world is completely by accident. Saving the real world is not in any way the theme of the movie, nor do any of the characters in the movie ever suggest that to be a consideration. Saving Western Civilization, the topic of this site, is definitely not a concern of the movie. There’s definitely no hint of that.
How can you possibly relate a silly movie about a video game to saving the world?
In my last article, I wrote about Douglas Murray’s new book, “The War on the West”, and his interview with Jordan Peterson to talk about the book and his motivation for writing it. In the opening seconds of the interview, Douglas Murray stated the following:
“I think that by this stage it is clear that there is not an aspect of Western culture that has not been assaulted at such a fundamental and dishonest level, that if you were to continue this game, there’s just nothing left. Nothing.”
I explained that the comment caught me off guard. It wasn’t just about the certainty in his voice, that if we are to continue on the trajectory that we are on it would mean a descent into nothingness, but rather his mention of “this game”.
“…if you were to continue this game…”
To me, this statement can be taken to imply two things:
That there is some kind of game being played on a global scale that’s larger than Western culture.
That you can choose to continue the game or not.
My take on this statement also suggests that from the viewpoint of the average citizen in Western Culture, they are unaware of the game, the players, the rules of the game, etc. They are only now finding out that at the end of the game they may own nothing, even though they are not actively playing the game.
And that’s because the Gamemaster is now telling them that. That at the end of the game they will “Own nothing and be happy.”
Intro
In the movie, the opening scene starts with a skydiver falling from the sky wearing a wingsuit, zipping around and flying in between the buildings of downtown Free City…
Narrator: “This, is Free City. Look at this guy. He’s one of the sunglasses people. And the people who wear sunglasses are heroes. They have a devil-may-care attitude, and they run this town.”
The diver reconfigures the wingsuit at the very last second, quickly settling into the driver’s seat of a fancy blue convertible sports car, with a beautiful woman waiting for him in the passenger seat.
Beautiful Woman: “You’re SO hot.”
Skydiver (played by Channing Tatum, aka Magic Mike): “Oh, I know.”
The driver slams the car into gear and speeds away through the streets of the city, gunfire striking all around the car and bombs exploding nearby, with the license plate coming clearly into view.
The plate reads “R3V3NGE”. You might take that to suggest that the theme of the video game is centered around the idea of “revenge”, and you might find confirmation of that later in the story as you find out more about Channing Tatum’s character, but I digress.
Narrator: “See, that’s not even his car. Or his wife. For the sunglasses people, they get to do anything they want. They go on all sorts of missions, they have cool hair, cool clothes. I mean, the laws aren’t really laws to them. They’re more like mild suggestions. Like, I don’t think he’s going to return that car, or that nice lady.”
The driver spins the car around, firing a ginormous hand cannon toward the people who are chasing him through the streets, the beautiful passenger’s hair ruffling in the breeze as she smiles and looks over at the driver admiringly. After dispatching the enemies and completing the 360-degree turn, the car races on down the street with no one remaining in pursuit except for the helicopter firing at them from the air. The street is littered with flaming piles of wrecked vehicles in their wake.
Narrator: “See what I mean? Hero.”
The narrator then divulges to the audience that his name is Guy, and that he works at the bank. He does the exact same thing every day. Every day. Without change. Every. Single. Day.
On his way to work, he stops and looks at some sneakers in the window of the shoe store. After eyeballing a set of $200 sneakers that he has apparently looked at multiple times before, he proclaims,
“You mean to tell me that nobody’s snapped up those bad boys? Today’s the day.”
The shoe store employee that’s standing in the store entrance then replies,
“Like every other day.”
Guy turns to walk away,
“I’ll be back for those.”
He then proceeds to the bank ATM where he checks his balance, not paying any attention at all to the gigantic, Terminator-crossed-with-Star-Wars-styled robot, a hyper-deadly robot of war, as it stomps destructively down the street just a few feet from him.
After inserting his card, the message on the Municipality of Free City ATM reads out” “Hello Guy, Your Current Balance is: $187.03”. He snaps his fingers optimistically as he turns and walks away,
“Oooh, so close!”
He’ll get those sneakers one of these days.
Guy continues on his way to work, meeting up with a security guard friend from the bank, who after some small talks says:
“I love my life. It’s something about finding your lane and just staying in it.”
To which Guy replies,
“That’s why they call them comfort zones, they’re so damned comfortable.”
Guy makes it to work and follows his daily routine, greeting customers, wishing them a good day, and then dropping to the floor as a group of masked armed robbers show up, shooting up the bank around them.
Guy, who is now back to speaking in Narrator voice,
“Free City, I have everything I need. Except one thing.”
This is where the real story comes into view
This is where the movie goes off the tracks if you are viewing it from the perspective of saving the world. At least if you are looking for hints for saving the real world.
It turns out that the one thing that Guy thinks he is missing is a girlfriend. Never mind that his whole existence is completely controlled by some external force, down to the extent that his days are repeated precisely the same way each day, Guy longs for a girlfriend (there is an interesting reason for that, as you’ll find later in the movie).
It turns out that Guy is a Non-Character Player, or an NPC, in a video game called “Free City”. All of the cool people wearing sunglasses are actually the avatars, or the “skins” for the players in the game. All of the people without sunglasses are NPCs.
The people with sunglasses are controlled by people playing the game (within the rules of the game, of course), but from Guy’s perspective as an NPC, he doesn’t know that. He can’t know that. He only knows what the game designer allows him to know.
The game designer, the person writing the code for the game, controls every aspect of Guy’s life. Guy’s only purpose in life is to be the visual equivalent of background noise. To take up space. To fill a void spot on the screen as the action takes place in other parts of the screen. Free City is full of NPCs, each with their own “job” to do.
Giving in to the theme that “Love conquers all”, Guy starts to becomes self-aware. He becomes aware that something is different about the “Sunglasses people”. He also recognizes that there is also something weird going on with the other people that he works with at the bank, and those that he interacts with throughout his day – they have zero motivation to change or to do anything different. They won’t even consider doing anything off script - they are happy with the way things are.
Guy wants a pair of sunglasses.
Awakening to the game
Without divulging any more about the storyline of the movie and spoiling it for those who have not seen it, Guy takes several actions that are not part of the programming of the NPC character, and he gets himself a pair of sunglasses from one of the players.
When he puts them on, he finds that he can see the interface to the “Free City” game. He finds that he can interact with other players and enjoy the privileges that they enjoy. He is free to do what he wants – and just like the real players in the game, the rules don’t really apply to him now either.
He has the option to do bad and win points and advance in the game, but he chooses to do good instead. By doing good instead of bad, which is counter to the underlying theme of the game, Guy becomes extremely popular.
Even as he confounds the game designers and programmers, they openly admire him. They want him to succeed, even though they don’t understand him. They think he is a hacked NPC, that is, that a hacker has found a way to assume control over the NPC and use the NPC as his “skin”. But that’s not the case - Guy’s actions were of his own volition.
In the end, everyone realizes that Guy is not controlled by a player in the game, nor the game designer that has programmed the current version of the game. There are many more twists and turns in the movie, but I will leave it at that rather than spoil it for you.
So how does this lead to saving the world?
There’s a lot of talk these days about the current day “Great Awakening” that is underway, and the idea is that a very large number of people around the world are “waking up” to the feeling that things are not right in the world. That they are being manipulated by some unseen entity.
Even worse, people are waking up to the reality that their elected government officials are being influenced by unseen entities, to the extent that those elected officials are taking actions that are in opposition to the desires of the people who elected them.
This Great Awakening is similar to what Guy went through at the first part of the movie when he recognized that something wasn’t quite right. But it wasn’t until he got the sunglasses that he was able to see the interface to the game.
We’re going to need a lot of pairs of sunglasses.
In the real world, what does this really mean? Where are you going with this?
First, people need to become more self-aware. They need to first recognize, and then seek to understand “the game” being played and their role within it.
Second, people need the sunglasses. They need the vision-enhancing devices to let them really see into the game. They need to see the interface the players see. They need to know the rules of the game, who the real players are, and who the other NPCs are – the ones that are on the fence and just need a little nudge to put them on their own path toward self-awareness within the game.
Third, people need to know more about the intentions of the game designers, the game owners, and the Gamemasters. What is the starting point of the game? What is the ending point? What do the winners end up winning, and how do the losers go about getting another chance at play? That is, if the game is to be played more than one time, with the winner taking all at the conclusion of the game, forever.
Finally, people need to make the conscious decision whether they want to remain a Non-Player Character in the current game and just go with whatever the game allows them to do, or not. They need to decide whether they are going to take some action, no matter how small or how large, to push back against the game and any subsequent versions of the game that might make life even worse. Or whether it’s time to change to a better game - one more suited for all characters in the game, not just the players and the people that own and control the game.
So that’s how a Ryan Reynold’s movie holds the key to saving the world.
It acknowledges that there is a game being played, and then encourages everyone in the game, including the NPCs, to take action to ensure that they aren’t just along for the ride.
NOTE: This isn’t a really movie that I would typically watch, but I do recommend it if you are interested in the idea of Non-Player Characters in a video game becoming self-aware and taking control of their own lives.