Ready Player One

"People come to the Oasis for all the things they can do, but they stay for all the things they can be."

In the future, escape the trauma in their lives through a virtual reality system called the OASIS.  OASIS was created by James Halliday (Rylance) and Ogden Morrow (Pegg).  Halliday created a challenge, to find his successor, and hid it within the system.  After his death, the details of the challenge were released to all OASIS users.  He hid 3 challenges within the system, after completing the challenge, players are awarded a key.  The winner is the first player to obtain all three keys.  Years after Halliday's death, no one has passed the first challenge.

The main competitors are gunters, gaming enthusiasts who are egg hunters, and Sixers, nameless characters that work for Innovative Online Industries.  Teenager Wade Watts (Sheridan) is a gunter and Halliday expert.  Every day he escapes life in the Stacks with his aunt and abusive boyfriend to try and complete the first challenge.  He is joined by his friends Aech (Waithe), Sho (Zhao) and Daito (Morisaki) and the legendary Art3mis (Cooke).  They are connected by the game, but don't know anything real about each other.  Each day they try to stay one step ahead of the Sixers and their ruthless boss Nolan Sorrento (Mendelsohn), who wants to turn a profit from the system.  Can Wade and his friends get all the keys before Sorrento?


This film is based on Ernest Cline's 2011 novel "Ready Player One".  I loved the book and was intrigued by the trailer and the fact that Steven Spielberg (who is referenced in the novel) was directing it.

The Good:
The effects are great and the OASIS scenes are well done.  The cast is game and does well in their roles, especially Ben Mendelsohn as Nolan Sorrento and Mark Rylance as James Halliday.

The Bad:
As with most adaptations, the book is better.  The screenplay, written by Zak Penn and Cline, makes numerous changes from the novel.  It retrains the overall structure, but changes some of the specifics.  It isn't bad... it just isn't as good as it could be.

Other Thoughts:
-The film is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects
-Cline is working on a sequel to the novel, which would bring the characters back and again feature many pop culture references.  If the sequel novel is as popular as the original, I expect it will also be adapted as a film.
-I loved the novel and noticed the changes... but I enjoyed the changes that were made to the story and enjoyed the film.


Ready Player One (2018) 140 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action violence, bloody images, some suggestive material, partial nudity and language.
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts / Parzival
Olivia Cooke as Art3mis
Ben Mendelsohn as Nolan Sorrento
T.J. Miller as i-R0k
Simon Pegg as Ogden Morrow
Mark Rylance as James Halliday / Anorak the All-Knowing
Lena Waithe as Aech
Hannah John-Kamen as F'Nale Zandor
Philip Zhao as Sho
Win Morisaki as Daito