Movies

‘Ready Player One’ Trailer: Spielberg’s Pop Culture Smorgasbord

Ever wondered what it would be like to have Lord of the Rings, Overwatch, Knight Rider, Akira…
Ready Player One
By  · Published on December 11th, 2017

Ever wondered what it would be like to have Lord of the Rings, Overwatch, Knight Rider, Akira…

One of the most polarizing projects in some time, Ready Player One, showed off exactly what makes it tick with a new trailer. The novel written by Ernest Cline is a passionate love/hate affair, with audiences either getting overwhelmed by the number of pop culture references or absolutely falling for the Willy Wonka-esque story. Now, one of the cinemas greatest directors Steven Spielberg has brought the book to life. As a fan, there couldn’t be much more to ask for.

The bones of the story were finally revealed in this new look at Ready Player One. Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) is an orphan who has managed to find some semblance of a life in 2045. The Earth isn’t in the best of shape, so everyone pretty much relies on VR for a good time. The most prominent VR world is called Oasis and it was developed by James Halliday (Mark Rylance). A few years after Halliday has passed on, he announces a contest that is available to all citizens of Oasis. The person who finds his hidden easter egg would receive Halliday’s fortune as well as complete administrative control over Oasis. Needless to say, everyone will be trying to get their hands on Halliday’s fortune, so a race begins to be the first to find the easter egg.

Warner Bros and Spielberg provided an earlier glimpse into the world of Ready Player One, but it might have soured audiences who were already tired of the endless pop culture references contained in the novel. It really didn’t do a good job of showing why these characters are in this story or why they might important. It was basically “look we have this cool character that you care about in this movie, come see it.” There are still plenty of those type of moments in this new trailer as countless properties and characters are flashed on the screen. At least now we have a little bit more to work off of. Wade Watts will be joined on his journey by fellow Oasis user Samantha Cook/Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), as they devel into countless traps and challenges to discover the secrets of Oasis. As someone who loves the novel, it is constantly entertaining and with Speilberg at the helm, there is little chance that this won’t hit many of the same marks as the source material.

Ready Player One also co-stars T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, and Ben Mendelsohn. The synopsis is as follows:

From filmmaker Steven Spielberg comes the science fiction action adventure “Ready Player One,” based on Ernest Cline’s bestseller of the same name, which has become a worldwide phenomenon. The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger.

Ready Player One opens on March 30th, 2018.

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