Dwayne Johnson Was In A Hit Movie You Totally Missed
Dwayne Johnson was hidden in an important scene from one of 2021's biggest hit movies, and you completely missed him there.
This article is more than 2 years old
Dwayne Johnson by default tends the biggest star of anything he appears in. That can be taken literally, but also the charisma and magnetism of the star of Southland Tales and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle has a certain way of taking over a scene. While that makes sense in any one of his many, many starring vehicles (and many, many, many upcoming movies), it is also noticeable even if he’s wearing a mask. But even with all that, you probably missed his appearance in one of the biggest movies of 2021. That’s right: Dwayne Johnson was in the movie Free Guy and you could barely even tell. Don’t believe us? Take a look:
Okay, granted, that could be anyone under that skull mask, glasses and stylishly powder blue camouflage derby hat. But trust us, that is Dwayne Johnson menacing Ryan Reynold’s Guy in the bank robbery that he casually goes through every day in his role as a NPC in a MMORPG. But per the plot of Free Guy, Ryan Reynolds has just had an encounter with Jodie Comer’s Molotov Girl/Millie and suddenly feels compelled to try to do something about the robbery. He attempts to steal the robber’s glasses and gets beat down for it, and that’s how you can tell it’s Dwayne Johnson. Absolutely no one else has the commanding tone of the People’s Voice, as developed through years of high-intensity performances. However, Reynolds does manage to get the glasses, the player portrayed by Johnson goes boom, and the plot is off.
It should not be a surprise that Dwayne Johnson would show up in Free Guy. After all, he and Ryan Reynolds have been getting increasingly buddy-buddy with their movies over the course of the last couple of years. Reynolds first showed up in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw as CIA Agent Locke in what sure seemed like a backdoor attempt to get Reynolds his own spinoff, though that has yet to bear fruit. And the two teamed up with Wonder Woman herself, Gal Gadot, for Netflix’s monster hit, the action-comedy Red Notice. Reports also indicate that the trio is filming multiple follow-up movies for the streaming platform, though whether they are direct sequels or just more team-ups is yet to be seen. At this point, if it turned out Ryan Reynolds had a cameo in Jungle Cruise, dressed up as a snarky, self-aware boat, it would not be all that surprising.
This is also not Dwayne Johnson’s first time popping up in unexpected places. We recently discussed his turn on Star Trek: Voyager as an alien gladiatorial champion with a weird forehead (as is traditional in Star Trek). He also had a cameo playing his own father in an episode of That ‘70s Show, which we will not claim was the inspiration for his current NBC sitcom Young Rock, but would also be hard to disprove. Johnson’s next project will be his debut as the DCEU’s Black Adam, an ancient Egyptian antihero, so keep your eyes out for Ryan Reynolds as a snide camel or something.
