Ready Player OneThere is a moment in Ready Player One where its nostalgia-driven protagonist, Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan)--as his "avatar", Parzival, who exists within a global virtual world called "OASIS"--tells his rival/romantic interest, Art3mis--a.k.a. Samantha Cook (Olivia Cooke)--about the favorite quote of the pseudo-messianic progenitor of OASIS, James Halliday (Mark Rylance), which comes from Superman: "Some people can read "War and Peace" and come away thinking it’s a simple adventure story. Others can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe." The quote is pointedly derivative pop culture reference--like much of this film--and itself speaks volumes about the varied ways that audiences will respond to Ready Player One.
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Ready Player One is an adventure story, but one that presents a poignant mixture of tenderness and melancholy amid its copious pop culture references and in-your-face special effects. It nestles itself comfortably in the nostalgia of yesteryear (and even today), drawing heavily from the advent of video game culture, i.e. the late Seventies and early Eighties. It is perhaps unsurprising then that Ready Player One should be directed by Steven Spielberg, whose vast and beloved catalog of films represent a nostalgic partner to the era from which this film draws much inspiration. Adapted from the novel by Ernest Cline--who co-wrote the screenplay along with Zak Penn--Ready Player One depicts a not-too-distant future--the year 2045, to be specific--where society has all but given up on real-world problems and "turned on, tuned in, and dropped out", as they used to say. The enigmatic and socially awkward Halliday's parting gift to the world--the infinite virtual reality world of OASIS--is arguably more of a curse than a blessing. Even before his passing, he attained trillionaire-level wealth and a level of celebrity status akin to Bill Gates and other tech gurus whose creations changed the fundamental landscape of society. When he died, his final riddle and challenge to the world to find his "Easter egg" hidden within the OASIS. This missive comes through a stream to classrooms across the world, where grieving children have tears welling up in their eyes for the passing of a cultural icon, like Kennedy or Princess Di. But what did he do with all of his wealth, his prestige, and his privilege? He kept it secreted away for someone to earn by playing his game. Consider then the quality of life for people like Wade Watts, who live in ramshackle high-rises that are fundamentally vertical trailer parks, referred to not inaccurately as "the stacks", because of the haphazard way the domiciles are piled on top of one another. For such an imaginative creator, it makes you wonder why he didn't imagine a way to better the lives of those who loved his game so much with his vast wealth instead. Such an environment becomes prime feeding ground for ravenous corporate opportunists like Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), whose endless greed prompts him to use the vast resources of Innovative Online Industries (depicted as 101 in the OASIS, but referred to as "IOI") to run farms of "gunters" (Easter egg hunters) to seek out the answer to Halliday's final riddle, no matter who gets in his way.
Ready Player One is surprisingly deft in its handling of such a vast swath of pop culture references. In many ways, its creators are crafting a mixed media collage of the world, recycling the materials from what has come before. Many audiences will look at the assorted nods these wistful memories of yesteryear and smirk, chuckle, or gasp as their favorite properties are acknowledged. (Rather than rattle off the myriad examples, suffice to say I smiled at seeing my favorite horror movie of all time given special recognition midway through Ready Player One, with an excruciating attention to detail befitting a consummate filmmaker like Spielberg and his departed friend and colleague.) The combination of all of these varied references somehow turns OASIS into a complete and defined world with its own personality and identity. It makes you wonder about if you were to create a world, what things you would put in it; furthermore, if everyone had a say as to what that world would look like, it might look something like OASIS. This makes OASIS a kind of democratic utopia (in theory), where everyone's individual involvement makes the world into something that is a pure reflection of what each of us desires. But companies like IOI have found a way to monetize this virtual world, perverting the pure equality that comes from such a paradigm. They put their own "pay-to-win DLC" spin on it that recalls real-world examples of video game companies that leech off of consumers, capitalizing on the addictive aspects of OASIS to make its players into their helpless thralls. Yet even with greedy and unscrupulous CEOs and misguided celebrity programmers, the OASIS would be nothing without the people who play it--and in 2045, everyone plays it. After Halliday kicks off his posthumous "golden ticket" routine (in a truly pointed nod to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, with Sorrento as Slugworth), OASIS becomes a battleground to decide not just the future of the virtual world, but the real one.
Wade narrates Ready Player One, and does so with immense reverence for both OASIS and its creator, almost to the point of zealotry. OASIS is essentially his religion, as it is for countless others in this dystopian future. He speaks of vacation planets where you can "surf a fifty-foot wave in Hawaii, skate down the pyramids, and climb Mount Everest with Batman". Only it isn't actually Hawaii, the pyramids, or Mount Everest; and there is no Batman. It has been said that Spielberg's movies sometimes possess an underlying sadness to them, and that seems to be especially true in Ready Player One. Much of it has the trappings of an "Amblin-era" film--or homages to them, like "Stranger Things"--and even the plot and the stacks themselves are reminiscent of The Last Starfighter. As Wade descends from his high-rise trailer, he passes by several people in the throes of their virtual reality indulgences. (They really should close their blinds before jacking in.) Ready Player One has a kind of naivete about what people would do given unlimited freedom in a virtual playground, but it is consciously aware that they would practically abandon their real-world plights in favor of virtual ones. (And to think that the robotic overlords in The Matrix never had to imprison their human batteries; they simply should have created a better game, and their victims would do the work for them.) Approaching Ready Player One from this perspective casts a dour light on these moments of nostalgia. Instead of being uplifting acknowledgements of our beloved past, they become shackles, empty advertisements that do nothing to fill the existential void within for those that seek fulfillment in a realm that is more of a nightmare than a dreamscape. This is a world where the heroes have pacified themselves, where consumerism has become the predominant religion--where the world has ended not with a bang but a power-down jingle. When avatars explode, they burst into coins absorbed by their victorious opponents--triumph over others and prosper. Even the film's soundtrack becomes a hypnotic siren song, luring an audience that longs for the joys of yesteryear onto its rocky shores. Songs like Van Halen's "Jump" carries subtly dark connotations when juxtaposed with Wade's descent from the stacks, and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' "I Hate Myself for Loving You" speaks for itself where it concerns the addictive global obsession that is OASIS. Moments where pop culture references clash--like the great race through a virtual New York City, or the final confrontation on "Planet Doom"--sprouts various "who would win between" debates that superficially entertain, but are deliberately without context. This speaks to the hidden theme underlying the OASIS that the specter of Halliday ultimately opines: that nothing can replace reality. Wade comes to appreciate this over time, growing up from spouting his wellspring of trivial knowledge about Halliday and--like everyone else--using him as little more than a personified treasure map. Wade begins to actually sympathize with the melancholy man who desperately wanted to live the life he could never bring himself to embrace while he drew breath. It is this lesson that Halliday imparts to Wade which makes up the real treasure at the end of his adventure.
Recommended for: Fans of a visually-stunning sci-fi adventure movie that paradoxically combines a glowing embrace for those beloved icons of yesteryear with an admonishment of worshiping false idols. And like with the aforementioned Superman quote, different audiences will appreciate Ready Player One based on their respective interpretation of the film as either a simple action adventure or a contemplation on the dangers of compromising your humanity for a simulacrum of it.
Ready Player One is surprisingly deft in its handling of such a vast swath of pop culture references. In many ways, its creators are crafting a mixed media collage of the world, recycling the materials from what has come before. Many audiences will look at the assorted nods these wistful memories of yesteryear and smirk, chuckle, or gasp as their favorite properties are acknowledged. (Rather than rattle off the myriad examples, suffice to say I smiled at seeing my favorite horror movie of all time given special recognition midway through Ready Player One, with an excruciating attention to detail befitting a consummate filmmaker like Spielberg and his departed friend and colleague.) The combination of all of these varied references somehow turns OASIS into a complete and defined world with its own personality and identity. It makes you wonder about if you were to create a world, what things you would put in it; furthermore, if everyone had a say as to what that world would look like, it might look something like OASIS. This makes OASIS a kind of democratic utopia (in theory), where everyone's individual involvement makes the world into something that is a pure reflection of what each of us desires. But companies like IOI have found a way to monetize this virtual world, perverting the pure equality that comes from such a paradigm. They put their own "pay-to-win DLC" spin on it that recalls real-world examples of video game companies that leech off of consumers, capitalizing on the addictive aspects of OASIS to make its players into their helpless thralls. Yet even with greedy and unscrupulous CEOs and misguided celebrity programmers, the OASIS would be nothing without the people who play it--and in 2045, everyone plays it. After Halliday kicks off his posthumous "golden ticket" routine (in a truly pointed nod to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, with Sorrento as Slugworth), OASIS becomes a battleground to decide not just the future of the virtual world, but the real one.
Wade narrates Ready Player One, and does so with immense reverence for both OASIS and its creator, almost to the point of zealotry. OASIS is essentially his religion, as it is for countless others in this dystopian future. He speaks of vacation planets where you can "surf a fifty-foot wave in Hawaii, skate down the pyramids, and climb Mount Everest with Batman". Only it isn't actually Hawaii, the pyramids, or Mount Everest; and there is no Batman. It has been said that Spielberg's movies sometimes possess an underlying sadness to them, and that seems to be especially true in Ready Player One. Much of it has the trappings of an "Amblin-era" film--or homages to them, like "Stranger Things"--and even the plot and the stacks themselves are reminiscent of The Last Starfighter. As Wade descends from his high-rise trailer, he passes by several people in the throes of their virtual reality indulgences. (They really should close their blinds before jacking in.) Ready Player One has a kind of naivete about what people would do given unlimited freedom in a virtual playground, but it is consciously aware that they would practically abandon their real-world plights in favor of virtual ones. (And to think that the robotic overlords in The Matrix never had to imprison their human batteries; they simply should have created a better game, and their victims would do the work for them.) Approaching Ready Player One from this perspective casts a dour light on these moments of nostalgia. Instead of being uplifting acknowledgements of our beloved past, they become shackles, empty advertisements that do nothing to fill the existential void within for those that seek fulfillment in a realm that is more of a nightmare than a dreamscape. This is a world where the heroes have pacified themselves, where consumerism has become the predominant religion--where the world has ended not with a bang but a power-down jingle. When avatars explode, they burst into coins absorbed by their victorious opponents--triumph over others and prosper. Even the film's soundtrack becomes a hypnotic siren song, luring an audience that longs for the joys of yesteryear onto its rocky shores. Songs like Van Halen's "Jump" carries subtly dark connotations when juxtaposed with Wade's descent from the stacks, and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' "I Hate Myself for Loving You" speaks for itself where it concerns the addictive global obsession that is OASIS. Moments where pop culture references clash--like the great race through a virtual New York City, or the final confrontation on "Planet Doom"--sprouts various "who would win between" debates that superficially entertain, but are deliberately without context. This speaks to the hidden theme underlying the OASIS that the specter of Halliday ultimately opines: that nothing can replace reality. Wade comes to appreciate this over time, growing up from spouting his wellspring of trivial knowledge about Halliday and--like everyone else--using him as little more than a personified treasure map. Wade begins to actually sympathize with the melancholy man who desperately wanted to live the life he could never bring himself to embrace while he drew breath. It is this lesson that Halliday imparts to Wade which makes up the real treasure at the end of his adventure.
Recommended for: Fans of a visually-stunning sci-fi adventure movie that paradoxically combines a glowing embrace for those beloved icons of yesteryear with an admonishment of worshiping false idols. And like with the aforementioned Superman quote, different audiences will appreciate Ready Player One based on their respective interpretation of the film as either a simple action adventure or a contemplation on the dangers of compromising your humanity for a simulacrum of it.