Ernest Cline created a Pandora’s Box of 80s pop culture in his novel READY PLAYER ONE, and that world is being brought to life by Steven Spielberg, a man whose work helped define that very era. The film will be like a sugar rush of nostalgia, fueled by kick-ass music, and with three months left to go until the movie’s release, we have a few new images of…the real world? Okay, to be fair, the main character has a sweet van.
The images below come from EW, and they depict stars Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts, and when he steps inside the OASIS becomes his avatar Parzival, and Olivia Cooke as Samantha, who in OASIS is Art3mis. The images mostly show them in the boring normal world, which is ridden with disease, over-population, etc. Click to embiggen, but beware not to get sucked into the magical world of vans and trailer parks!
For those who have not read the book the movie, the movie takes place in a world where the majority of the population lives in the OASIS, a virtual reality world where literally anything is possible. The world was created by James Halliday (Mark Rylance, showed in what I assume is young form working on the OASIS at a desk in the final image, on the far left), with the help of his friend Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg, on the right in the chair next to him), and Halliday laced the world with countless pop culture references from the 80s and late 70s. The movie involves a competition that takes place in the OASIS, wherein anyone who locates three Easter Eggs, gets all of Halliday’s fortune – a fortune which Parzival and Art3mis are zeroing in on. They must find the money before evil corporate baddie Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), who would use the money to buy the OASIS and incorporate massive user fees, among many other dastardly things.
In the Comic-Con trailer, we saw the massive CGI world come to life, and it looks like Spielberg will be staying pretty close to the source material. From the looks of it, the role of Art3mis will be greatly expanded, as in the book there are no moments with her in her normal human body – at least until the very end. Here we see much more of her, and in the image above we see her on the street watching normal people engage in a massive battle while hooked up to the OASIS. In the VR world, it probably looks amazing and filled with laser guns and magic spells. In the real world, it looks like everyone doing their own version of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” dance.
The movie will make an effort to explore the differences between the real world and the VR world, according to Spielberg, in what he wanted to be a comparative study:
There are so many more compelling reasons to escape into the OASIS than exist in real life. A lot of our movie is a comparative study: Which world would they rather spend their lives in — with all the distractions and complexities and perks of the digital world of the OASIS, or with the responsibilities of being a student or a parent living in real life? It’s real life versus virtual life. Which is more compelling?
Cline's novel is certainly a fun read, and that's mostly because it spends the majority of the time exploring all the ins and outs of the OASIS. But I can understand wanting to expand on certain roles and dig into the subtext of humanity's own relationship with technology. But there are so many little details about the world Cline created that will make it an exciting moviegoing experience, so more than anything that's what I want to shine through.
READY PLAYER ONE arrives March 30, 2018.