10 Movie Messages Completely Undermined By Their Ending

Free Guy certainly isn't a "message movie," but it is nevertheless saying something about how artists have their efforts stymied by the cynical, money-grabbing interests of corporations.

Namely, the concept game that Millie (Jodie Comer) and Keys (Joe Keery) developed, Life Itself, had its source code stolen by ruthless video game CEO Antwan Hovachelik (Taika Waititi), who used it to build the hugely successful MMORPG Free City.

Yet at film's end, the day is only saved because Guy (Ryan Reynolds) gets a little help from the fine folks at Disney, Epic Games, and Valve.

While fighting the unfinished, muscled brute known as Dude, Guy uses Captain America's shield, The Hulk's arm, a lightsaber, Fortnite's Llama Pickaxe, Half-Life's Gravity Gun, and Portal's Portal Gun.

These weapons collectively allow Guy to subdue Dude and reach the source code, in turn leading to Antwan's downfall.

For a film that spends so much of its runtime criticising the soulless nature of corporatised art, it's depressingly ironic that the final action salvo is itself a series of sponsored plugs.