Getting in the Game

Guy is a totally normal, well, guy. He’s a bank teller in Free City. But Free City is actually a video game world. And Guy—played by Ryan Reynolds—is just a nonplayer character (NPC). Unlike game characters controlled by a person, NPCs are programmed to do preplanned actions. But once Guy realizes he’s in a game, he sets out on a mission to save his world from shutting down. His quest plays out in the movie Free Guy, which comes out this summer.

Guy seems like a normal person. He’s a bank teller in Free City. But Free City is actually a video game world—and Guy is just a nonplayer character (NPC). Actor Ryan Reynolds portrays Guy in the movie Free Guy, which comes out this summer.

The main characters in a video game are controlled by a player. But everything an NPC does is programmed in advance. Once Guy realizes he’s in a game, he sets out on a mission: He needs to save his world from shutting down.

Free Guy brings video game-inspired action and combat to the big screen. It’s inspired by games like Fortnite, so the movie is full of floating dirigibles, ziplines, tanks, and more. That means the action sequences involve exciting explosions, wild acrobatics, and video game-inspired mayhem. It was stunt director Chris O’Hara’s job to safely bring that action to life. “In a computer game, the laws of real life don’t really apply,” O’Hara says. “When we have crazy ideas, like we want a fighter jet flying through the middle of the city, it’s something that’s totally possible.”

Free Guy is packed with action and combat inspired by real video games like Fortnite. The movie is full of floating dirigibles, ziplines, giant tanks, and more. The action sequences involve exciting explosions and wild acrobatics. It was stunt director Chris O’Hara’s job to safely bring that action to the big screen. “In a computer game, the laws of real life don’t really apply,” says O’Hara. But staging an out-of-this-world stunt—like a fighter jet flying through the middle of the city—is a complicated task.

O’Hara started as a stunt actor 25 years ago, building off a career in gymnastics. After spending years crashing out of windows, getting hit by cars, and other action-movie staples, he decided to shift gears into directing. In addition to being Free Guy’s stunt director, he’s also the second-unit director. “You’re not just in charge of creating the action, you’re in charge of filming it,” he says. O’Hara worked with the movie’s director and special effects teams to perfectly blend thrilling action sequences with the more actor-driven dramatic scenes.

O’Hara began his career as a gymnast. He started working as a stunt actor 25 years ago. He spent years crashing out of windows and getting hit by cars in ways that looked realistic but wouldn’t get him hurt. Then O’Hara decided to try directing movies. In fact, he helped direct Free Guy in addition to overseeing the stunts. “You’re not just in charge of creating the action, you’re in charge of filming it,” he says. He worked with the movie’s lead director and special effects teams to plan the action scenes.

One of the most important parts of stunt coordination is making sure every stunt is safe, even when it looks death-defying. “Everything you see in movies where it looks crazy and out of control is very calculated,” O’Hara says.

One of O’Hara’s most important jobs is making sure every stunt is safe, even when it looks death-defying. “Everything you see in movies where it looks crazy and out of control is very calculated,” he says.

Designing stunts for a video game-inspired world was a learning process for O’Hara, who doesn’t play many video games himself. “There were definitely points where we had to tone down the wackiness,” he says. “You’re unlimited in what you can come up with.”

Designing stunts for a world inspired by video games was a learning process for O’Hara. That’s because he doesn’t play many video games himself. Sometimes his ideas turned out to be too wacky for the movie, he says. “You’re unlimited in what you can come up with.”