They Live (1988)

Shawn Levy's Free Guy is one of the most refreshingly optimistic and cynical-free blockbusters to come out in the past two decades. Even the conflicts within its story — frustratingly abundant Disney corporation references be damned — are relatively stress-free and enjoyable to watch, begetting worthy parables and moral lessons through to the happily-ever-after ending, wherein the characters of both worlds, digital and "real," experience dystopias and utopias of their own making, with Free Guy resembling an almost anarcho-communist utopia free of any capitalistic underpinnings preventing its people from reaching their full potential. Interestingly, the film They Live, a thematic companion piece to Free Guy, features a set of the virtual opposite, but with the same revolutionary spirit. At first glance, one wouldn't think John Carpenter's cult classic would be a thematic double-billing — or that Free Guy would be worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as They Live — but the two films of vastly different genres have more similarities upon further examination.

Both of the main characters in either film use sunglasses to reveal another, more eye-opening world is hidden behind their respective worlds that they otherwise wouldn't have seen without this prop device. The sunglasses make the respective main characters see the truth behind advertising and the facade of capitalism. In both films, they are the key to the way out. A way of seeing the truth that nobody else in Free City or Carpenter's vision of LA can see. When Nada (Roddy Piper) gets his hands on the sunglasses, like Guy (Ryan Reynolds), he suddenly becomes an NPC playing in a user society, where they, and the coders and controllers of it, are in control.

John reads the advertisements on billboards, magazines, and money. They now read "Obey," "Stay Asleep," and "Don’t Question Authority," with the money reading “This Is Your God.” And they expose the rich as largely alien lifeforms. One can interpret this as the wealthy, ruling class, like Antwan (Taika Waititi), who sees himself as a god, of sorts, have largely forgotten what it is to be human. Money and greed have corrupted their soul. Even if they are separate from the aliens, they work with them until they become the same. Selfish and indifferent to the violence and uneven distribution of wealth they’ve created. This is not an allegory for the perils of immigration or world trade or outsourcing labor — these aliens are symbolic of the capitalist system itself — we become slaves to it. For Guy, the sunglasses also expose Free City for the facade it is. And the controllers of his world begin to notice, prompting Antwan to attempt to wipe out his existence like the rich and police do to John once they’re aware of his “sight.”

Free Guy - One of the Finest movies with marxist themes