I watched “Free Guy,” a comedy/action movie following a man named Guy in Free City. Unbeknownst to Guy, he is an NPC (non-player character) in a popular video game. He is a bank teller who wakes up every morning, says hello to his goldfish, gets the same coffee, and goes to work. His bank is frequently robbed by players, who are differentiated by other NPCs by sunglasses. Every time he is killed by a player he wakes up in his bed like normal. Guy feels stuck in his life until he meets a player he feels is the girl he has been waiting for. Guy breaks out of his routine and script and steals a player’s sunglasses, allowing him to access and play the video game he is in.

Another facet to the movie is that the girl player Guy meets, Millie, is attempting to capture footage from the video game that can prove that her video game code was stolen. Millie co-created a video game with her best friend Keys, which was stolen by video game producer Antwan. Antwan got Keys to work for him as low level maintenance, and now Millie has to convince Keys to help her find evidence of their stolen work from the inside.

I liked this movie, it was entertaining and endearing. The characters and cast are great, and the concept of AI being used to create NPCs that are able to develop and grow on their own is interesting.

This movie relates to doubles because all of the players of the game have avatars they can customize and name, separate from their real identity. Players talk to each other and to NPCs through their headsets, but can disguise their real voices with filters. 

Since Guy is an NPC, he has sort of an outline of an identity, but gains more personality and individualism throughout the movie. Guy is a character, so he is not a human in real life, but he is programmed and coded to have artificial intelligence and be able to act like a real person. When Millie tells him that he is an NPC, not a real person, he has more of a crisis over his identity.