Based on Ernest Cline’s 2011 novel, “Ready Player One” is set in the year 2045, where a virtual reality software called OASIS helps humans escape the desolation of the real-world. Our J.P. gives his take on the latest film from the legendary filmmaker, Steven Spielberg.
READY PLAYER ONE
Warner Bros. Pictures
- Opens wide: Thursday, March 29, 2018
- MPAA Rating: PG-13 for “sequences of sci-fi action violence, bloody images, some suggestive material, partial nudity and language”
- Run Time: 140 minutes
- Directed by Steven Spielberg
- Produced by Steven Spielberg, Donald De Line, Dan Farah, Kristie Macosko Krieger
- Screenplay by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline
- Based on “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline
- Starring Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance
Studio Synopsis:
From filmmaker Steven Spielberg comes the action adventure “Ready Player One,” based on Ernest Cline’s bestseller of the same name, which has become a worldwide phenomenon.
In the year 2045, the real world is a harsh place. The only time Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) truly feels alive is when he escapes to the OASIS, an immersive virtual universe where most of humanity spend their days. In the OASIS, you can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone—the only limits are your own imagination. The OASIS was created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance), who left his immense fortune and total control of the OASIS to the winner of a three-part contest he designed to find a worthy heir. When Wade conquers the first challenge of the reality-bending treasure hunt, he and his friends—known as the High Five—are hurled into a fantastical universe of discovery and danger to save the OASIS and their world.
Three-time Oscar winner Spielberg (“Schindler’s List” [director & picture], and “Saving Private Ryan” [director]) directed the film from a screenplay by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline. It is based on the novel by Cline, which has spent more than 100 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List, recently climbing to the #1 spot, as well as reaching #1 on Amazon’s Most Read Fiction chart. “Ready Player One” was produced by Donald De Line, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Spielberg and Dan Farah. Adam Somner, Daniel Lupi, Chris deFaria and Bruce Berman served as executive producers.
J.P.’s Take:
When the real world gets you down enter the “Oasis,” a surrealistic virtual reality universe of pure imagination in “Ready Player One.”
The song used in the trailer for “Ready Player One,” “Pure Imagination” — made famous in the 1971 fantasy film “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” — feels very much at home in this dystopian journey. Indeed “RPO” is embedded in the virtual world and steeped in 80’s/90’s and today’s pop culture.
For the film’s protagonist Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), the real world, living in the “The Stacks” of Columbus Ohio, is a burnt out shell of existence. For its inhabitants, the only way to escape such dismal conditions is to turn on, tune in and drop out of life entirely — only breaking from the VR universe for bathroom breaks, food and other normal human behavior. However, Wade sees truth in haptic technology, where he and four other youth enter the void to restore hope and dignity to his home land.
Acclaimed director / producer / writer Steven Spielberg tackles the subject of gaming and its affects on the psyche with zeal, buoyancy and expertise, while serving up a good helping of yesteryear memorabilia and hyper-gaming action in awe-inspiring IMAX 3D.
What drives the film is not just its stunning visuals, but the integration of ideals involving fandom, escapism, the down fall of civilization and corporate control. Ernest Cline, the mastermind behind the novel “Ready Player One,” and co-writer Zak Penn crosscuts these plot points between the real world and virtual one somewhat seamlessly. This magic carpet ride on cellulose not only pays homage to such cinematic icons as Stanley Kubrick and John Hughes, the pop-culture artifacts serve as a road map for a historical treasure hunt. They also furnish viewers with an unconventional path to heroism that speaks to multiple generations. You know the type, those who were once the dreamers of today’s technological construct and those following in their footsteps.
For ages, the human race has developed ways to escape from the real world and find bliss in altered states of being. This is very much the premise of “RPO,” in which the new drug is virtual reality and the only way to drown your sorrows is to enter a dreamlike consciousness. Yet, that comes with a new set of problems altogether. What was explored in movies like “The Matrix” trilogy is the idea of your consciousness being highjacked as you are manipulated to do someone’s bidding.
The threat here in “RPO” stems from the film’s antagonist, CEO of Innovative Online Industries (IOI) Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn). Sorrento, who was once an intern for the creators of the Oasis, James Halliday (Mark Rylance) and Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg), climbed the corporate ladder to seek full control and access to the Oasis after Halliday’s death. His evil plan to impose his totalitarian regime upon the down trodden, basically making them slaves to the proverbial and literal “system.”
Like “Tron,” however, the battles are fought on the gaming platform, where a group of “gunters” (short for egg hunters) called the High Five, surfs through Halliday’s legacy for clues left behind to thwart Sorrento and IOI’s efforts. It becomes an affectionate romp through the life of a genius, which explores Halliday’s most intimate moments: from his failures, to successes and the chances not taken.
Cast performances are true to character and nicely presented with each baring parable to the real world they live in. The High Five characters include Wade Watts / Parzival (Sheridan), Akihide Karatsu / Sho (Philip Zhao), Toshiro Yoshiaki / Daito (Win Morisaki), Helen Harris / Aech (Lena Waithe) and Samantha Cook / Art3mis (Olivia Cooke). Additional castmates are T.J. Miller (voicing i-R0k, a freelance weapons and magic item dealer and bounty hunter), Hannah John-Kamen (IOI operations F’Nale Zandor), Letitia Wright (Reb), Susan Lynch (Alice), Ralph Ineson (Rick), and Perdita Weeks as Morrow’s wife Karen “Kira” Underwood.
As a kid of the 80’s, I found myself glancing back at my own life and remembering the good ole times where movies and music were inventive and electrifying. It also brought back memories of missed opportunities. “Ready Player One” is one of those films that pays tribute to a past of new and exciting ideas, yet does so with eclecticism that just about everyone can appreciate. It is a nerd’s paradise and enjoyable one at that.