The Broken Way LazarBeam Loves To Play Fortnite - Exclusive
The set-up for "Free Guy" is pretty simple: Guy (Ryan Reynolds) is an average bank employee who likes his coffee sweet and creamy, he loves Mariah Carey, and he enjoys kicking back with his best friend Buddy (Lil Rel Howery). There's just one problem: Guy is an NPC inside of a violent online video game and he doesn't know it — yet.
Movies about heroes escaping the bonds of their limited situations are not new, but what "Free Guy" does with it this concept is original, in that it takes a very realistic video game approach to the narrative. If remaining in his regular life means that Guy follows the rules that are laid out for him, then his escape lies in refusing to play by those rules. And in following this new path, Guy also does something that pro-gamers love to do: he plays his own game wrong.
"Free Guy" has a lot of credibility because it actually accurately portrays the language and style of online video games. One of the ways it adds to that credibility is by having actual game streamers in the film — one of them being Lannan "LazarBeam" Eacott. SVG sat down with him to talk about being the kind of gamer who lives off of breaking his favorite games.
Why Fortnite is the best game to break for fun and profit
LazarBeam, like many streamers and other people in the gaming industry, actually had some impact on "Free Guy" insofar as it handles gaming culture authentically. "I had minor input, I would say," LazarBeam explained. "[Director Shawn Levy] asked me questions through the whole process."
And certainly if there's one thing that LazarBeam excels at it's playing his favorite games as broken as possible. When SVG brought up the fact that Guy spends much of "Free Guy" intentionally breaking his own game, LazarBeam joked, "That's my business, man."
Guy's "Free World" may not be a real game in our world, but it's not difficult to see what real games it's influenced by. Running around, shooting people, and then motoring away in violent car chases is classic "Grand Theft Auto." Meanwhile, there's a lot of fast building of weapons, ramps, walls, and other objects — a clear reference to "Fortnite".
It turns out that part of the movie in particular spoke to LazarBeam. SVG asked him what his favorite game to play broken and the answer, in a word, was "Fortnite."
"I've got a love for "Fortnite" and some of the glitches and the, what I would call, meme strategies and stuff that we came up with over the years," he says. "I think that is just always going to have such a special place in my heart. When you find something that is just so broken — that this billion, billion, billion-dollar company just could not find, and you just completely invalidate the entire game — it's so funny. It's just so great. There's invincibility glitches, ones that make your character look funny. I don't know. That always made me laugh."
"Free Guy" is in theaters now.