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WARNING: Contains spoilers for Free Guy.
Free Guy manages to subvert a lot of conventional movie clichés with its original and satirical storytelling, which extends to its ending where Guy and Millie don’t end up together. The Ryan Reynolds action-comedy is that rare type of Hollywood blockbuster: an original concept. Free Guy walks the fine line between irreverence and touching, and its heartwarming climax works really well for all its characters and the story, even though it eschews the typical movie ending.
Free Guy revolves around Guy (Reynolds), an NPC in an online computer game that develops free will when he meets the love of his life, Molotovgirl/Millie (Jodie Comer). At the end of Free Guy, Guy, Millie, and programmer Keys (Joe Keery) have managed to save “Free City” by revealing the hidden code of their original game, “Life Itself”. Guy’s game world has evolved into “Free Life”, where he tells Millie that while he loves her, he’s “just a love letter to you. Somewhere out there is the author.” Realizing that Keys wrote Guy’s algorithm, she runs off to find him, and the pair share a kiss in the middle of the street.
Guy’s love for Millie/Molotovgirl is his driving force throughout Free Guy, and a typical Hollywood ending would have them being together. This was in fact part of the original script till Reynolds and director Shawn Levy came on board and changed it to Millie and Keys ending up together. It was the right decision to change Free Guy’s ending as Molotovgirl is an avatar of Millie, whom Guy has never actually met in the real world. Molotovgirl is an aspirational creation made up of everything Millie wants to be. Therefore to have Guy end up with a fantastical version of Millie wouldn’t have been as satisfying as ending up with Keys, who loves her just as she is. Not being able to articulate everything wonderful he saw in Millie, Keys expressed it through code, as to him it’s “not just zeros and ones, it’s hidden messages.“
Keys fell in love with Millie while sitting next to her at their desks. Real love is rarely found “at first sight” as happens to Guy in Free Guy. Rather it’s grown through getting to know someone over time. Their likes (bubble-gum ice cream, swing sets), quirks (humming the same Mariah Carey song), and cute habits (how they like their coffee). It’s an everyday real-world way of falling in love that’s relatable and results in a stronger ending than the conventional “hero gets the girl” that the original Free Guy script had. While Millie and Keys’ cliche-ridden ending is a rom-com staple, it’s an earned finale that works beautifully in context.
Guy also gets his own version of a happy ending, living in “Free Life” with as much bubble-gum ice cream he wants, and his best friend Buddy back. While he’s still programmed to love Molotovgirl, he’s matured enough to know and accept that they can’t be together, and is happy. Ryan Reynolds has said Disney is interested in Free Guy 2, but no matter what happens, Free Guy manages to tell its love story in a complete and satisfying way.
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