Digital Domain recently released Free Guy’s VFX breakdown. Free Guy is a 2021 American science fiction action-comedy film directed by Shawn Levy from a screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn, and a story by Lieberman. The film stars Ryan Reynolds as a bank teller, named Guy, who discovers that he is actually a non-player character in an open-world video game and becomes the hero of the story, trying to save his friends from deletion by the game’s creator. Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Taika Waititi also star in the film.
Following a year-long delay because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Free Guy was released theatrically in the United States on 13 August 2021, in RealD 3D, IMAX, and Dolby Cinema formats by 20th Century Studios.
The breakdown begins with an overhead shot from the sky with the protagonist falling from the skies wearing what appears to be a glider and zooming through skyscrapers while bullets are being fires and mini-explosions are damaging parts of the building. The imagery is complex and spectacular. The breakdown also dives into multiple car chasing scenes with stunts and tails off with a few CG helicopter shots in the end.
“For Twentieth Century Studios’ Free Guy, Digital Domain Visual Effects Supervisor Nikos Kalaitzidis led a team of about 254 artists, creating 347 VFX shots for the film. From replacing actors with digidoubles to creating entire CG cities, Digital Domain was also responsible for the 87 gameplay shots that take place inside of Free City, along with the exciting, action-packed opening sequence we call “The Oner,” which truly sets the tone for the film,” they shared in a caption.
The film has grossed $332 million worldwide making it the ninth highest-grossing film of 2021 and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the clever concept and compared it favorably to a combination of science fiction films and action video games such as Ready Player One, The Truman Show, The Matrix, Grand Theft Auto, and Fortnite
The film premiered at the Piazza Grande section of the 74th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland on 10 August 2021.