The release of Free Guy has continued Ryan Reynolds’ line of successful film releases in a career that has spanned over two decades. The actor and comedian has starred in a number of high-profile movies that have asserted him as a top name in the industry, even if Reynolds missed out on a few promising parts over the years as well.
All things considered, there’s a formula that goes into a movie starring Reynolds, and the characters he plays have several similarities. In a way, if viewers have watched a Ryan Reynolds comedy movie, they can have a very good idea as to what will happen in an action feature with him as well. These traits and tropes may not be in every single one of his movies but are present in the vast majority.
His Character Goes Off On His Own Tangent At Least Once
Reynolds’ greatest asset has been his knack for comedy, which manifests through his smart-aleck attitude. This is present in his movies as well, with the characters he plays going off on a rant that misses the point of the situation and conveys the emotion he’s feeling.
In a superhero movie like Deadpool, the titular character tends to start taking jabs at others’ expense or talking about his problems while forgetting others are there. In the thriller Buried, he started ignoring the help of people who wanted to get him out of the coffin and began contemplating what was going to happen to him. In a comedy like Detective Pikachu, his character had a short attention span of a Pikachu and was fascinated by just about anything.
Sarcastic Exchanges Between The Protagonist And Supporting Characters
Being sarcastic is a shared trait amongst characters played by the actor, and it’s this way even in Reynolds’ movie with his wife Blake Lively, where they shared banter. When Reynolds plays the main protagonist, there’s are several moments that feature his character either one-upping a supporting character in trading sarcastic remarks or being at the receiving end of it.
This is most common in his romantic comedies, such as The Proposal where Reynolds’ character, Andrew, initially had an antagonism with Sandra Bullock’s Margaret. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Wade Wilson never knew when to shut up and this led to sardonic exchanges with Wolverine and Striker. Even the action-thriller Safe House had Reynolds emulate this with Denzel Washington’s alleged criminal character.
Some Kind Of Revelation Comes In Late In The Story
A trend in the storytelling of Reynolds’ films is for a major piece of information to be relayed by the climax or a little while before it. This changes the context of the plot and leads to his character changing his priorities from where they were the whole movie.
This was seen in Buried, where it turned out his efforts to be saved were for naught as the wrong coffin was found. In Free Guy, his character learned that he can survive the date wipe by escaping to Island, while The Voices’ revelation was for his character to realize that the cat and dog he was talking to were manifestations of him not taking his meds.
His Character Has To Accept Responsibility
While he has portrayed mature characters, the bulk of the actor’s roles have been about him learning to take responsibility. This is the case in mainstream parts or even in Ryan Reynolds’ lesser-known roles. Basically, the movie starts off with his character denying himself from facing a certain truth and his ensuing experiences push him toward confronting them.
Deadpool had Wade accept that he needed to show Vanessa his facial injuries rather than try and fix them. In the same vein, Free Guy saw him acknowledge he was a video game character and couldn’t be with the human Mille, along with Definitely, Maybe featuring him dealing with the fact that he was essentially forcing women he loved to feel the same way about him.
Love Interest Dynamics Have A Hurdle The Needs To Be Overcome
There’s no doubt that Guy was one of the best characters in Free Guy but he was very similar to other Ryan Reynolds characters in the love department. The actor’s movies featuring romance usually see him being denied the chance to be with his love interest as a result of outside factors.
These range from the video game character Guy being in love with a human in Free Guy, Chris being bullied competing for Jamie’s affections in Just Friends, and Nick’s death preventing him from reuniting with his wife in R.I.P.D. Overall, love stories always have a hurdle that seems insurmountable for Reynolds’ characters and he either has to overcome them or accept defeat.
Action Movies Carry A Campy Atmosphere
Ryan Reynolds has been in quite a few action movies in his career, ranging from superhero features like Blade: Trinity, Green Lantern, and Deadpool to straight-up action titles like 6 Underground and Smokin’ Aces. All of these have the campy nature of their presentation in common, in that there’s material that can be considered humorous.
These generally happen due to the nature of the choreography, such as Reynolds’ character fighting awkwardly, or the inclusion of cheesy one-liners that go along with the action in hand. Overall, movies featuring the actors rarely have serious battles on hand, with the majority layered with either intentional or unintentional comedy.
Conflict Comes From Characters' Decisions
A unique aspect that comes with Reynolds’ films is that much of the conflict could have been avoided had the characters made the right decision. The problems largely arise due to Reynolds' character or someone else kickstarting everything doing something they shouldn’t have.
Free Guy had Guys deciding to break his NPC routine to pursue Millie that made him a target, while Deadpool’s conflict came from Wade’s mistake to trust Ajax. The Amityville Horror was only possible due to Reynolds’ character George moving into the murder house, and his character in Life was killed because of his crew’s decision to take in the monstrous alien Calvin.
A Moment Where Characters Self-Reflect
There’s generally a message about self-worth in movies featuring Ryan Reynolds and the characters have a moment where they either think about the error of their ways or how much someone else means to them. Mostly, it’s Reynolds’ character who portrays this aspect although others can have moments of self-reflection in relation to him.
The Voices saw Jerry realize that his inability to treat himself led him to become a serial killer, which was along the same lines as Harry from Detective Pikachu accepting that he’d overlooked his son and needed to be better. These kinds of moments are setups for the climax where the characters are just about fully developed.