‘SPOILER ALERT’

The film opens in the world of Free City, a video game where players can take part in action-packed missions

like spy jobs or bank robberies

The biggest players are the ones that wear sunglasses, as it gives them an advantage over other characters

Among the many non-player characters, there is a Guy, a bank teller who enjoys his mundane and routine lifestyle

He works with his best friend, a security guard named Buddy

and they always have to play the part of helpless bank employees, when they get robbed

Elsewhere in Free City is a sunglasses character called Molotov Girl, who is interrogating another player for info on an artifact she is searching for

Afterward, she walks near Guy and Buddy as they walk home

and Guy hears Mariah Carey’s Fantasy play as Molotov Girl walks past him

He comments on the song, which surprises her because she is used to hearing all the stock phrases each non-player character has to say

Guy becomes smitten and follows after her but is hit by a train, sending him back to his home to relive everything

When Guy goes back to work, the robbery takes place but Guy decides to do something different

and tries to acquire the sunglasses off of a robber, accidentally killing him with their own shotgun, even as the player in the real world tries to take Guy down

then he takes the sunglasses and leaves the bank

When he puts them on, he sees various parts of the game highlighted to show what they are there for

He finds that he can pick up health boxes to fix himself up, and he continues to literally see the world through new eyes

However, when he tries to change things like his regular coffee order, the other nonplayer characters appear to get suspicious of Guy

Outside in the real world

the company behind Free City catches wind of Guy’s activities, thinking he is a hacker who used a nonplayer character skin to take down other players

Keys and Mouser are Two employees who go into the game, as a stripper cop and a pink rabbit to confront Guy

They chase after him, but he got limited edition sneakers that provide him with high jumping skills

Guy tries to escape them by grabbing onto a wrecking ball but he misses and falls, saving himself with a bubble suit

However, Keys and Mouser find Guy and kill him, thinking they have taken the “hacker” out for good

An interview is shown of Keys with Millie, as they are the masterminds behind the Free City game, before their current boss Antwan who stole their code

and bastardized the game into his own thing to create a soulless franchise

Millie visits Keys and plans to get evidence of Antwan’s crimes

because she knows that proof of their code is hidden in a safe house inside the game, which she is trying to infiltrate while playing as Molotov Girl

later, Guy finds Molotov Girl outside the safe house

Although he wants to join her in her mission and elsewhere, he cannot because he has a low level while she is at a higher level

then, Guy starts taking on missions with the glasses and pulls off several heroic acts like returning stolen money and pulling kids away from traffic

Players in real life take notice and Guy soon becomes a viral sensation called “Blue Shirt Guy”, even appearing as an answer on “Jeopardy”

Guy tries to get Buddy to join him after stealing another pair of sunglasses, but Buddy thinks it’s too dangerous

Antwan catches wind of Guy and wants his employees to keep Guy on because of how popular he is

The company is set to launch Free City 2, which Antwan wants out in two days time despite not being fully coded and still glitchy

and he makes it worse by telling Keys that the game is not backward compatible with the first game, so most of the characters won’t return for the sequel

Guy gets to a high enough level, that he goes to the safe house while Millie makes an attempt to get in there

Just as she is almost killed, Guy crashes through on a motorcycle and helps her fight off the villains before escaping on a hang glider

Later, the two hang out and eat the bubblegum ice cream, which both consider being underrated

Keys notices something unusual about the codes of the nonplayer characters

He brings the info to Millie, reporting that the barista in the coffee shop learned how to make a cappuccino through trial and error

while a blonde bombshell character wrote a book on gender roles after she encountered Guy and was influenced to follow her own path

This proves that Antwan stole their code

because their idea for the game that turned into Free City would have had the nonplayer characters grow and develop over time as they adapt, and that’s what Guy has been doing

He also warns Millie that the current world of Free City will be lost once the sequel launches

Millie goes back into the game to bring Guy to the central hub where other players gather, revealing to him that he is just a character in a video game

Once the realization hits him

Guy goes into a funk and loses his cheerful demeanor

He goes to Buddy’s house to talk to him about his newfound existential crisis

and Buddy attempts to cheer him up, by assuring him that the moment they are experiencing together is real

Buddy joins Guy as he decides to help Millie and get the file she wants

The guard avatar is excited to meet Guy as the player in the real world reacts to seeing him

He basically lets Guy rob him and take what he wants, even asking Guy to kill him but Guy refuses to do so

He brings the file to Millie, which is the evidence she has been looking for

Guy’s no-kill demeanor catches on with players

including popular streamers like Ninja

and Pokimane

However, Antwan starts to get pissed off and thinks that Guy will ruin sales for Free City 2

Mouser suggests that they can ​reboot the server

In the game, Guy and Millie see the file, which contains information about an island that proves she and Keys are the masterminds behind the Free City game

Just as Guy mentions that he has seen the island before, the game is rebooted, which causes Guy to lose his memory

Millie is able to log back on, but Guy doesn’t remember who she is

but She asks Keys for help

and he tells her that the character he made that Guy is based on a lovelorn nonplayer character

who is always searching for his dream girl

and he just needs something to help trigger the code

Millie tried to bring back all his memories, and she managed to do that

including where he saw the island

The image of it is reflected off the blinds in his apartment, and with that info

Keys figures that the island is just beyond the city’s horizon

Guy and Millie then round up all the nonplayer characters in Free City

to inspire them to migrate to the island

and follow their own choices instead of what they were coded to do

With all the nonplayer characters gone, the real players are left confused in the city lonely

Antwan soon catches wind of Molotov Girl and learns that Millie is involved

He orders Mouser to delete her and Guy for good

Mouser starts to manipulate the game’s environment

as Guy tries driving them outside the city

Players all over the world are tuned in to watch the saga unfold

Keys intervenes and helps create a ramp to escape the destruction

all while the rest watch from afar

They make it to the beach, but Molotov Girl starts to get deleted while Keys helps create a bridge for them

Antwan then launch Dude that is a bigger, stronger, dumber version of Guy that isn’t fully finished

but is Antwan’s last-ditch effort to get rid of Guy

Buddy arrives to help while Guy gets tossed around by Dude

but they can’t stop the dude

Guy takes sunglasses, who is able to conjure up Captain America’s shield, which surprises Chris Evans watching in a cafe

and a Hulk fist, as well as a lightsaber

However, Dude nearly overpowers Guy until he puts the glasses on Dude, who now sees the world as Guy does

Guy and Buddy start running toward the island

at this point

Antwan starts to lose but takes Mouser to the server room where he now plans to completely erase the Free City game

Mouser stops helping Antwan due to his loyalty to Keys, so Antwan begins smashing everything with an axe, causing the city environment to be deleted

The bridge is being deleted too, and Buddy doesn’t make it far until he is also deleted, but he tells Guy that he has had the best day of his life thanks to him

Guy runs fast enough until he finally breaks through the barrier and makes it to the island, which is then revealed to the nonplayer characters and the players in the real world

Millie makes it to the almost totally destroyed server room, and makes a deal with Antwan to let her have the code to the game, while he can keep the Free City name for sequels and spin-offs

Soon, Free City 2 launches to abysmal sales, and Antwan starts to face heavy scrutiny at work and in the media

The friends develop new game called Free Life, making the game they always wanted to make with more expansive environments and details

Now being more dedicated to the game, Millie must break up with Guy, but he completely understands and parts amicably with her

Millie then watches a video playback of Keys, describing that Guy’s character was always going to fall in love with Molotov Girl, because he created the algorithm for his attraction to her based on his  own love for Millie

She realizes this and goes to see him in the town

Back in the game, Guy and Dude have become friends, but Guy misses Buddy

It turns out Buddy was brought back to life in the game, and the two best friends reunite

Buddy asks if they should return to work, but Guy says that they can now go and do wherever they want.

Free Guy.