Why LazarBeam Doesn't Think He'd 'Fare Too Well In Any Game' - Exclusive
"Free Guy" brings up a lot of deep, philosophical questions — what is the nature of existence, are any of us truly better off than the NPCs of a video game, and, most importantly, can the word "catchphrase" be a catchphrase in and of itself?
But when it's not busy forcing us to question the ethics of robbing or killing NPCs, it's really a movie about lifting each other up out of frustrating circumstances. Guy (Ryan Reynolds) is just an average NPC, drinking coffee, working at a bank, and getting robbed by masked anti-heroes everyday at that bank — but he's also gifted with the drive to be more than what he is. "Free Guy" is about Guy taking small steps — like drinking a cappuccino instead of a regular coffee — and big steps like punching robbers in the face, stealing their cool sunglasses, and then using those sunglasses to save the world. Yes, he's a true everyman.
Most of all though, "Free Guy" is director Shawn Levy's love letter to video games, even when it's making fun of them. And in addition to copious amounts of references to different games and gaming practices (you'll definitely see people jumping and running into walls for absolutely no reason), the film also brings in a number of popular online game streamers to add to the realism.
SVG sat down with one of those streamers, Lannan "LazarBeam" Eacott, to talk about the deepest part of "Free Guy" — imagining if you were a character in a video game.
An honest answer to what video game LazarBeam belongs in
In theory, waking up in a modern video game sounds pretty rad. Think about it: You can't really die (at least not permanently), you're not bound by traditional physics (especially if you can hack yourself), and you've got some incrediblly memorable outfits to choose from. Certainly if Instagram is anything to go by, it seems like pretty much everyone wants to be 2B from NieR: Automata — which is pretty wild, considering she's got that blindfold on so much of the time.
And that's the thing, isn't it? If you play video games long and well enough, you're either going to become convinced you'd be a god inside of a video game world or that you'd be crushed like a bug within seconds. Immortality sounds vaguely less fun when you imagine yourself being brutally murdered multiple times in a day.
SVG asked LazarBeam what game he would want to be in, to which he answered "World of Warcraft" — and who doesn't want to yell "zug-zug" without getting funny looks, honestly? But when he was asked which game he thinks he genuinely belongs in, he had a very different answer.
"As far as what I belong in, oh, God. Honestly, I don't think I'd fare too well in any game," he revealed. "If you put me in anything with violence, I'd be terrible. Probably one of those German construction sim ones or something. It's just like, you go on about your day, normal, you're driving a bus or something, something nice and safe at just a normal job, nothing crazy is going on, and I can just be a normal human being, because I have no special skills in regards to surviving. I would be doomed."
It's true: video games usually equal death, and lots of it. When you really think about it, maybe most people would be better off taking their chances in a walking sim — at least it would be pretty!
"Free Guy" is in theaters now.