Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One” predates the recent influx of nostalgic media (“Stranger Things,” ”It,” “Will & Grace”), but it could not have been more punctual. This adaptation of the eponymous 2011 Ernest Cline novel is a dense nostalgia-fest which intrigues cinephiles, gamers and ‘80s pop culture fans alike without alienating those unfamiliar with such fandoms. But the film asserts itself as more than a fun, masturbatory nerd flick by focusing on the most transcendent aspects of life, tenderness and play.
“Ready Player One” is set in a dystopian 2045 overwhelmed by poverty and overpopulation. To escape the strife of daily life, people spend their time in the Oasis, a virtual reality gaming system created by the late trillionaire James Halliday (Mark Rylance). The Oasis allows users to embody personal avatars — often of different sexes or species — in planets and worlds throughout the game. Planet Doom houses Valhalla-esque battles in which winners can usurp real-world currency from defeated opponents. Minecraft World is more straightforward.
The film follows the journey of Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), an orphaned teenage boy living with his aunt and her abusive boyfriend in the stacks — stacked trailers that house low-income residents — of Columbus, Ohio. Wade spends his time in the Oasis as Parzival, and plays alongside his tech-wiz best friend Aech (Lena Waithe), famous female blogger Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) and warrior friends Sho (Philip Zhao) and Daito (Win Morisaki). The Oasis proves to be an engaging escape for Wade and his virtual friends, but it is the prospect of finding Halliday’s Easter egg that keeps gamers in the Oasis.
In a detailed exposition, the film reveals that it has been five years since Halliday’s passing and the launch of a contest within the Oasis to discover the game’s Easter eggs. The eventual victor of the challenge is gifted the inheritance of Halliday’s Gregarious Games and control of the Oasis — the world’s most precious economic resource. “Ready Player One” is about Wade’s efforts to find the Egg alongside his fellow ‘gunters’ (egg hunters) before Nolan Sorento (Ben Mendelsohn), the leader of Gregarious Games competitor Innovative Online Industries, and his hired “gunters” do.
“Ready Player One” contains the familiar, dystopian moral struggle between exploitive corporate suits and the presence of a disgruntled underclass who yearn to defend their rights. But Cline and Spielberg collectively posit a fresh take to that conflict through their storytelling approaches. Cline changes challenges to find the eggs and axes the exposition of Halliday and Ogden Morrow’s (Simon Pegg) childhood friendship. These are only a few of the changes. Cline’s co-writing of the screenplay for the film adaptation of his book was effective, because his intimacy with the narrative clearly comes through within the characters’ dialogue.
Parzival’s omniscient voice-overs, which can sometimes feel over-explanatory, effectively lasso in audience members who might get lost in the film’s sea of ‘80s references. There is an outstanding sequence in the film where Parzival, Aech and their friends are in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.” Yes, in the film. Aech expresses some anxiety about what may happen, having never seen the film, and her fellow ‘gunters fill her in on their experiences watching the movie. Simple here-you-go gestures like this one recur throughout the film.
Spielberg’s decision to jam-pack the film with nods to John Hughes and Tears for Fears ballads gives the film the ‘80s zeitgeist elements people likely anticipated. The pairing of those elements with the VR premise of Cline’s politically allegorical near future makes the film work. In hindsight, having a car-racing scene through a virtual Manhattan with cameos from King Kong and a T-Rex may have been too on the nose. But I never found myself thinking “I get it, enough already” — which is a good thing.
The central romance, which develops between Wade and Art3mis’ creator, Sam, is youthful and sweet. Cooke compellingly plays Sam/Art3mis as the clever “gunter” she is. Similarly, Sheridan gives Wade a boyishness that is quintessential of the fanboys with whom I went to high school. Unfortunately, we spend so much time interacting with their avatars that it becomes difficult to get invested in the humans behind them toward the film’s climax. Comparatively, Waithe’s, Zhao’s and Morisaki’s characters give the film its rich wit and essential fighting sequences, but are underserved by their short screen time. Another noteworthy performance comes from Mendelsohn, who plays into his toothy, maniacal corporate douchebag role with chutzpah. Look out for Sorento’s avatar, who pointedly resembles a bloated Don Draper.
No performance in the film is as entrancing as Rylance’s. Halliday, in all his endearing neuroses, is the emotional fulcrum of the film. His wizard avatar, Anarak, warmly guides the winning avatars closer to the Easter egg through clever riddles. But more enrapturing are Halliday’s tender, stuttery and introspective scenes to which the film effectively tethers its slicker sci-fi elements. Halliday’s speeches are brief but generous in their wisdom. They remind the audience that, amid moments of anxiety, it is essential to cherish those dear to us and enjoy the quiet splendors of real-life play.
“Ready Player One” is an inviting sci-fi film that critiques the nadirs of industrialization and encourages the audience to appreciate reality’s mirth. The book’s central message, that the reader should cherish reality, is delivered alongside ‘80s music hits and touching sentiments that are bound to thrill.
Grade: B+
A&E Editor | adesola.thomas@emory.edu
Adesola Thomas (20C) is from Hampton, Ga., a place she refers to as "the land of cow pastures." She is a double major in political science and English. She enjoys cooking, long scenic walks and looking at pictures of black labs on the internet. The first song Adesola ever learned how to rap all the way through was Kanye West's "Herd Em' Say" which she now feels mildly conflicted about. Adesola brings up Greta Gerwig's "Lady Bird" at least once a day and wrote every one of her college admissions essays about the social impact of "Saturday Night Live." She can hide up to twelve pencils in her afro and enjoys writing about people and art.
