Free Guy
Guy is a non-player character (NPC) in Free City, a massively multiplayer online role-playing video game (MMORPG) developed by Soonami Studio. Unaware that the world he lives in is a video game, he works as a bank teller alongside his best friend, the bank's security guard Buddy.
In the real world, Millie Rusk is trying to find evidence that source code she wrote along with her friend Walter "Keys" McKey was stolen by Soonami head developer Antwan Hovachelik. Keys is sympathetic to her efforts, but declines to help because of his job at Soonami. In the game, Millie's avatar of Molotov Girl catches Guy's attention by singing his favorite song "Fantasy" and he begins to deviate from his programming. Taking a pair of sunglasses from a player robbing the bank, Guy sees Free City through a unique version of the player's interface and tries to catch up with Millie.
Keys and coworker Mouser, believing Guy to be a hacker disguised as an NPC, unsuccessfully try to ban him from the game. Guy meets Millie at the Stash, a well-guarded compound that holds evidence of her source code. Thinking Guy is a novice player, she advises him to level up after their failed break-in. Rapidly progressing through the game by benevolently completing missions, he stands out from other players and becomes a worldwide sensation known as "Blue Shirt Guy".
Guy helps Millie escape from the Stash after her second failed break-in. Millie is bewildered when Guy wants to kiss her as this function is unavailable in the game. Keys reveals to Millie that Guy is truly an NPC and that his self-awareness came from artificial intelligence code containing Millie's personal preferences that Keys had included in Life Itself, the original game they developed. This led Guy to develop a romantic interest in Millie while his interactions with other NPCs have led them to develop self-awareness.
Keys agrees to help Millie retrieve their code before Free City is wiped from Soonami's servers to make way for Free City 2. When Millie tells Guy the truth of his situation, he becomes frustrated with his reality and breaks off their relationship. After talking with Buddy, he realizes that there is something more to their reality.
With Buddy's security guard connections, they enter the Stash again and discover that the player who owns it is a fan of Guy and willing to give them the evidence which Guy gives to Millie. As Guy's continued popularity threatens the launch of Free City 2, Antwan orders a reboot which temporarily removes Guy's memories. Millie restores his sentience by kissing him and he recalls the location of the island, the only remaining part of Life Itself and proof of Millie and Keys' original code.
As Guy and Millie travel to the island, Antwan has Mouser try to kill them, but his attempts are subverted by Keys who also live-streams the events. Antwan fires Keys and sends Dude, a muscular, unfinished version of Guy developed for Free City 2, into the game. Initially overwhelmed, Guy puts his sunglasses on Dude, distracting him and allowing Guy to reach the island.
In a last ditch attempt to stop Guy, Antwan begins smashing the game servers with a fire axe, erasing Buddy in the process as well as firing Mouser when he objects. Before he can destroy the final server, Millie offers a deal to abandon her lawsuit, give him the rights to her code and surrender the profits of the Free City franchise to him, in exchange for the last server. Antwan accepts and the game's inhabitants are saved.
Sometime later, Free City 2 is a catastrophic failure due to server lags and bugs. Antwan is vilified by the media and arrested for his crimes. Keys, Mouser, and Millie release Free Life using their recovered code including Guy, Dude, and the other Free City characters. In the game, Guy reveals to Millie that his code is in fact a love letter to her from Keys. Millie leaves the game, and she and Keys share a kiss. Meanwhile, Guy reunites with Buddy and they begin to live their own lives.
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