As a movie that’s so indebted to the gaming industry and pop culture at large, Free Guy had a blank canvas when it came to incorporating as many Easter Eggs and surprise cameos as possible, something director Shawn Levy and star Ryan Reynolds leaned into pretty heavily, but in a much more subtle way than you’d think.
Obviously, the opening set piece of the film features Channing Tatum dropping by unannounced, but guest appearances from Hugh Jackman, Dwayne Johnson and John Krasinski fly completely under the radar until you hear their distinctive voices. However, arguably the best of the bunch comes during the third act when Reynolds’ Guy is forced to face off against hulking doppelganger Dude.
Mining the Disney connection for all that it’s worth, Guy defends himself using Captain America’s shield, right as The Avengers theme swells in the background. To cap things off, no pun intended, the scene cuts to Chris Evans watching the in-game events unfold on his phone, with the actor giving an incredulous “What the sh*t?!?”. Needless to say, fans went wild for the unexpected cameo, as you can see from the reactions below.
Of course, we revealed almost three weeks ago that Evans would be stopping by Free Guy for a moment or two, and Reynolds recently explained how easy it was to get the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s former star-spangled superhero to swing by the set for five minutes to shoot what amounts to mere seconds of footage, but it still manages to generate one of the biggest laughs of the entire running time, based solely on how unexpected it was for audiences to see the MCU’s Steve Rogers be so self-referential.