Free Guy - A Guy who Discovers Freedom
Written By Rev. Philip Stonhouse
Spoiler Alert*
On a personal note, movies like Free Guy are some of my favorite movies. It is one of those movies that does not demand a lot of you, but at the same time offers a lot to think about. Free Guy is the story of a video game world, where Guy, played by Canadian Ryan Renalds, is caught in an endless rut as he looks for someone to love. Beautiful things begin to happen as love breaks him out of that rut and he sees his world for what it truly is. This movie might be deceiving in its real world application because it portrays a fictional video game world, but like much good fiction it has a way of speaking profoundly about the world we know.
One of the most fundamental realizations of this is when Guy is set free when he sees the woman he loves. Telling us that love sets us free. This could be just romantic idealism, except that when you layer that with Guy’s particular design, which is fundamental to the plot, you see that Guy was designed with a longing for a particular and special love. He was given a love from his creator (Keys played by Joe Keery)that only could be met in his creator (Millie played by Jodie Comer). I am hoping you are beginning to see the essential parallel with Christianity. Love is a feeling, but it is something way more than that too. It is a gift and a love that is built into us to put our lives on the line to pursue it. Romantic films have often tried to say that you need to find “the one”, where we know in reality that no person can be everything we need. Free Guy points us to the fact that the one we are meant for is beyond us. It is our creator’s love that will truly set us free and the more we live into love for him, through stepping out and acting for him and others, the more we will find that freedom. Yet just as Guy’s reboot reminds us, we need to newly discover and choose this love every day.
This kind of love that is more than a feeling, transcendent and part of our purpose can do some amazing things. For Guy it starts by something as monotonous as going a different route, ordering a different drink, but even those simple moments can have profound effects, if they are led by God’s love. The barista discovers joy in her work and the woman who created Guy finds the intelligence and hope she was looking for. Guy also becomes a great vision for defeating the evil in the world. He defeats all of these players that are literally corrupting, killing and destroying the world he lives in. Up until now evil has been commonplace, a given to him, so much so that he is numb to it, but now he shows that evil has no power over him. He also gets a pair of those glasses, this is a simplistic way of portraying how our eyes are opened by the love of God to see what is truly happening and what is truly there. Notice that there are power ups, money etc. that he never sees without them. There is such a bounty in the love of God that we only see it in moments. He also sees the sinful working of the world, the “missions” that guide people. And it finally is Guy, through a reflection and guidance from beyond, that discovers the paradise that they were meant for. That we were all meant for.
The last thing I want to look at is the climax. The tyrant who seems to be in control of everything, Antwan played by Taika Waititi, is trying to destroy the world so that he might maintain control. The trio of love, Millie, Guy and Keys are racing against the clock as the world is crumbling around them. Millie is pulled out of the world by force, Keys sacrifices himself to save Guy and build a bridge for him into paradise and Guy fights the anti-guy in order to get to paradise. The idea of Keys' sacrifice to build a bridge for us into paradise is a profound example of Jesus Christ. Jesus has sacrificed Himself for us on the cross and that cross has now become the bridge between us and God/paradise. The final fight between the love man, guy and the enemies ultimate creation, reminds us of Jesus’ final victory over satan and his anti-christ. Evil will be vanquished and we will find a greater joy than we ever could have imagined in the paradise that follows.
They call him guy, like the story of “EveryMan” to remind us that he is a normal guy, but also that he is like us all. He is the stand in for all of us, reminding us of our calling, purpose and how we too might be set free.
Other interesting topics include:
Two worlds intertwined - Heaven and earth
Conflict sells - would we enjoy the simple interactions
Friendship as a path to salvation
Facing your own destruction
Refusing to interact with sinful realities
God’s imaging himself on his creation
Progress in life and faith compared to videogames
