Slice of PIE: “Free Guy” Is Just “Stranger Than Fiction”…But With VR Headsets…

NOT using the Programme Guide of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON III, which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…I WILL NOT use the Programme Guide to jump off, jump on, rail against, or shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. This explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…

My wife and I love both the “Stranger Than Fiction” (2006) and “Free Guy” (2021). In case you’re too young to watch old movies, here’s the plot of “Stranger than Fiction”: “IRS auditor Harold Crick suddenly finds his mundane Chicago life to be the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire existence, from his work to his love life to his death.” This film stars some real names: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman (none of the “Free Guy” targets know who he is), and Maggie Gyllenhaal. (For the 2022 generation: Ferrell is best known as the Elf in “Elf”…; Emma Thompson is best known for lots of things, but for the target audience of “Free Guy”: Professor Trelawny at Hogwarts)

“Free Guy” (2021): “In the extremely popular video game, Free City, a NPC named Guy learns the true nature of his existence when he meets the girl of his dreams, a human player. This player's interactions with Guy has massive effects on him, the game, and real world as they play it.” This film has some big names as well, Ryan Reynolds (for the target audience, he’s Deadpool); Jodie Comer (Rey’s Mom in STAR WARS: “The Rise of Skywalker”); and Taika Waititi as the Calm Blue Rock Guy in 2 of the AVENGERS movies…

SO…how are “Stranger Than Fiction” and “Free Guy” basically the same movie – one made for people who read books, then other for people who play video games?

A fairly short list of events in both movies might serve my argument:

FIRST:
Harold Crick in “Stranger Than Fiction” is a fictional character – both in the movie; and in the book in the movie.

Guy in “Free Guy” is a fictional character – both in the game; and in the real world.

SECOND:
Harold figures out he’s a fictional character. Guy does as well.

THIRD:
Guy finds out he’s going to die when the game shuts down (or before if Antawan catches him). So does Harold – but his person isn’t a real villain. She’s an accidental villain. Actually, Dustin Hoffman serves as a sort of “low-key” villain, insisting Harold HAS to die if the book is going to be a fabulous piece of literature.

FOURTH:
Both Guy and Harold object to dying.

FIFTH:
Someone CRAZY is in charge of Harold’s story – she just thinks she’s writing her newest novel. Guy’s not even supposed to BE a character – until he puts on the glasses and goes from being a Non-Playable-Character to a FORCE in the video game…albeit, he’s not technically controlled by ANYONE at first. Then Antwan sends his controllers in.

SIXTH:
They both meet the story creator eventually – Harold at the very end, Guy when he falls for one of the creators after he has the glasses.

SEVENTH:
Neither Millie nor Keys; and not Karen Eiffel have ANY CLUE that their fictional characters are in fact an artificial intelligence and a real person…until the very end and they are ALL totally freaked out.

EIGHTH:
Both Harold and Guy have a happy ending: Harold gets Ana; Guy gets Millie…and then it turns out he’s actually KEYS…who gets Millie and Guy gets his best friend back.

There are only two differences:

Karen Eiffel and Millie/Keys are HORRIFIED to find out that Harold and Guy are REAL. While Karen lets Harold survive getting hit by a bus instead of dying; Millie and Keys set Guy free (actually all of the Free Life characters).

Karen Eiffel isn’t actually evil, Antwan is.

So, if it’s been done twice, in two very popular and award-winning movies, what are they trying to say to us?

“Free Guy” was almost universally considered a fluff movie – pure fun, no thought, just a good-old time. Esmerelda Gomez at SocioMix however, disagrees: “…the NPCs are more than coded programs for gamers to play with…this theme is centered on civil rights being messed with…by the government…[and] how citizens will fight for them…interactions and movement for change create more room for others to have the ability and rights to…live better lives.”

“Stranger Than Truth” is instead considered a piece of existential thought: “…there’s something very poetic about the understanding of one’s place in the universe, but it’s far more dramatic when such understanding occurs only days before that life ends…Each of these characters ends up doing little things to save one another. There's an underlying theme that the things we take most for granted are often the ones that make life worth living and actually keep us alive.”

The two quotes above might be swapped – STT is certainly about free will and civil rights, and how interactions and movement create room for others to have better lives. FG is certainly about understanding one’s place in the universe, and it absolutely IS more dramatic when Guy understands just before his life ends.

For both, I’d say that there is indeed an underlying theme that the things we take for granted are things that make our lives worth living.

And so, I rest my case…

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_than_Fiction_(2006_film), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420223/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Guy, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6264654/, https://www.sociomix.com/diaries/entertainment/the-philosophy-of-the-movie-free-guy-on-reality-purpose-and-change/1633291983#:~:text=Free%20Guy%20Displays%20The%20Change%20An%20Individual%20Can%20Make.&text=Yet%20Guy's%20interactions%20with%20other,the%20NPCs%20he%20interacted%20with.
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1c/Free_Guy_2021_Poster.jpg/220px-Free_Guy_2021_Poster.jpg, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/ff/Stranger_Than_Fiction_%282006_movie_poster%29.jpg/220px-Stranger_Than_Fiction_%282006_movie_poster%29.jpg