Free Guy's History
In the open world video game Free City, Guy (Reynolds) is a non-player character (NPC) working as a bank teller. Thanks to a program developed by programmers Millie (Comer) and Keys (Keery) inserted into Free City by the publisher Antoine (Waititi), Guy becomes aware of his world being a video game, and takes steps to make himself the hero, creating a race against time to save the game before the developers can shut it down.
Free City is an open-world video game developed by Soonami Games. Its code was stolen from a game called Life Itself, developed by Walter "Keys" McKey and Millie Rusk, and made into Free City by Soonami's head developer Antwan. Keys has since taken a job at Soonami, while Millie spends time within Free City as her avatar Molotov Girl to find evidence of her and Keys' code and prove they are the rightful owners of the code.
In the game, Guy, a non-player character (NPC), works as a bank teller and spends time with his best friend Buddy, unaware his world is a video game. One day, he encounters Molotov Girl, who is singing the song he says his dream girl will like and begins to deviate from his programming. He takes a pair of sunglasses from a player who tries to rob his bank, through which he sees Free City from the player's head-up display. Guy speaks to Millie, and she initially thinks he's another player named "blue shirt Guy", and not an NPC. She tells him to level up to over 100 before she will speak to him again. Rather than leveling up through the typical destructive acts, Guy opts to become a good guy, completing missions within Free City to reach level 100, during which he becomes a worldwide sensation as players watch the progression of "blue shirt Guy".
Millie and Guy meet again when she breaks into the Stash, another player's well protected area within the game that holds evidence of her source code. Guy helps Millie escape the Stash, and Millie recognizes that Guy is becoming sentient and believes he can help her find their original code within the game world. Keys and Millie realize that Guy's self-awareness came about from artificial intelligence code containing Millie's personal preferences that Keys had included in Life Itself, which in turn had led Guy to develop a romantic interest with Millie. When Millie tells Guy the truth of his situation, Guy breaks off their relationship, telling her that he's in love with her. However, after talking with Buddy about the situation, Guy realizes there was something more than love in that relationship and gains full sentience. Guy returns to Millie to agree to help before Free City is wiped from Soonami's servers to make way for its sequel, Free City 2, in two days.
Guy breaks into the Stash again with Buddy's help, but now its owner, recognizing Guy as "blue shirt Guy", gladly hands over the evidence. Guy's continued popularity threatens the launch of Free City 2, and Antwan orders Keys and his new partner Mouser to reboot Guy's programming, but Keys refuses and is fired, and Antwan reboots Guy himself.
In-game, Millie finds Guy without any memories of his sentience, but recalling Keys' advice that Guy would need a reminder, she kisses him. Guy's sentience is restored, and he recalls the location of the Island, part of Life Itself that will not be protected from the pending data wipe and is the only proof of Millie's and Keys' original code. As Guy and Millie persuade the other NPCs in the game that they are more than their programming, Antwan tries to delete Guy and Molotov Girl from the game. Keys interferes to protect them and direct them to the Island, broadcasting the effort to all of the Free City players who had been ejected from the game. Antwan then sends Dude, a bigger and unfinished copy of Guy developed for Free City 2, into the game, but Guy is able to befriend him after a fight. Antwan takes a final step of destroying the game's servers with an ax, but Guy makes it to the Island in time, an event seen by gamers all over the world. Millie coerces Antwan to return the Free City code and intellectual property (IP) back to her and Keys.
Without the support of Millie's and Keys' code, sales for Free City 2 tank, and Antwan becomes wrapped up in several media controversies, resulting in him being ousted from Soonami. Keys, Mouser, and Millie start a new company with the recovered code to release Free Life, bringing Guy, Buddy, Dude, and the other Free City NPCs into it. Free Life is a success, while, thanks to Guy, Millie realizes that Keys' code was in fact a love letter to her, and they embrace and kiss.
Meanwhile, in Free Life, Guy reunites with Buddy and they both begin to live their own lives without having to follow their original coding from Free City.
