Photo: Jaap Buitendijk/Jaap Buitendijk
Spoilers below for Ready Player One.
Ready Player One is the apotheosis of a rising trend in film that we might refer to as “recognition cinema” — the phenomenon of trying to please an audience by including brief references to other pieces of fiction. It’s common in — though by no means restricted to — superhero movies, which will commonly drop hints or include cameos that demonstrate a connection to elements the viewers might remember from comic-book source material or separate movies in the same shared universe.
Typically, such references are given some room to breathe so the crowd can go wild at the excitement of recognizing what the filmmakers are implying. Not so in Ready Player One. In Steven Spielberg’s latest picture, there are dozens upon dozens of pop-culture references in dialogue and mise-en-scène; so many that a single pair of human eyes is incapable of catching them all. Here, we’ve attempted to list as many of them as we could notice and scribble down in the darkened theater. Let us know in the comments if you find ones we missed, of which there are surely more than a few.
Minecraft: The popular video game is one the many worlds gamers in the film can visit as part of the OASIS virtual-reality system.
Batman: The protagonist, Wade Watts, tells us one can hang out with a virtual Batman inside OASIS, and we see him climbing Mount Everest. The Batmobile from the 1960s Batman TV show is seen in a virtual race.
The Joker: Wade’s virtual avatar is briefly modded to look like the Batman villain. Someone else in a Joker avatar hangs out in a virtual nightclub.
Harley Quinn: Seen in the virtual nightclub.
A Nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy Krueger seen as an avatar in a battle royale.
Friday the 13th: Jason Voorhees seen as an avatar in a battle royale.
Star Trek: OASIS creator James Halliday has a Star Trek–themed funeral. Later, we see a Klingon bat’leth weapon on a windowsill.
Street Fighter: Logo seen in a marketplace for gamers. Characters Ryu and Chun-Li make appearances as player avatars in fights. A character uses Ryu’s famed “hadouken” fireball to attack someone.
Speed Racer: Speed’s car, the Mach 5, is seen in a virtual race.
Bigfoot: The famous monster truck is seen in a virtual race.
Back to the Future: Wade drives a virtual DeLorean. A modified Rubik’s Cube called a Zemeckis Cube (named after Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis) allows a character to travel back in time.
Tron: A light-cycle is seen in a virtual race.
Akira: A motorcycle modeled after Kaneda’s is seen in a virtual race.
Jurassic Park: The T. rex is seen as an obstacle in a virtual race.
King Kong: Seen in as an obstacle in a virtual race.
Last Action Hero: Characters race past a marquee advertising a movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character.
The Iron Giant: The titular robot is a weapon built by Wade’s friend Aech.
Battlestar Galactica: The 1970s version of the Galactica ship is seen as a virtual toy.
Alien: A chestburster is used by Wade’s love interest, Artemis.
Aliens: Space-marine spaceship the Sulaco is seen as a virtual toy.
Silent Running: Spaceship Valley Forge is seen as a virtual toy.
Dune: The planet Arrakis is mentioned as a virtual destination.
Goldeneye: The video game is mentioned as Halliday’s favorite. (He prefers the “slappers only” mode.)
Superman: Wade’s avatar is briefly modded to look like Clark Kent.
Spider-Man: Wade mentions that he was given an alliterative name to sound like Spidey’s alter ego Peter Parker or …
The Incredible Hulk: … the Hulk’s, Bruce Banner.
Looney Tunes: Young Halliday is seen near a Marvin the Martian toy.
Space Invaders: Halliday is repeatedly seen wearing a shirt advertising the game.
Asteroids: Mentioned by Halliday’s business partner, Ogden Morrow.
Galaga: Poster for the game seen in Halliday and Morrow’s offices.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure: Halliday mentions the film.
Star Wars: Stormtroopers briefly seen as avatars in a battle royale. R2-D2 toy seen on a floor.
Borderlands: Unspecified game accoutrements available in a virtual marketplace.
Overwatch: Unspecified game accoutrements available in a virtual marketplace.
War of the Worlds: A crashed Martian ship is the site of a virtual meeting.
Tootsie Pop: A character mentions the candy as a metaphor.
Knight Rider: The car, KITT, is briefly seen.
Beetlejuice: Title character seen as someone’s avatar.
Mortal Kombat: Goro seen as someone’s avatar.
The Dark Crystal: Mentioned by Halliday.
Citizen Kane: Multiple references to Rosebud.
Purple Rain: Wade briefly dresses as Prince’s character.
Mad Max: Mentioned.
Gremlins: Graffiti related to the film briefly seen.
Christine: The titular car from the 1983 Stephen King adaptation is seen in a virtual race.
“Thriller” music video: Wade briefly dresses as Michael Jackson’s character.
Duran Duran: Wade briefly dresses as a band member.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension: Wade dresses as the title character for an extended period of time.
Battletoads: Titular toads seen as avatars.
Saturday Night Fever: An extended dance sequence is based on the film, complete with Bee Gees soundtrack.
The Breakfast Club: Mentioned by the villain, Nolan Sorrento.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: Mentioned by Sorrento.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High: Mentioned by Wade.
Animal House: Mentioned by Wade.
Robotron: Mentioned by Sorrento.
Joy Division: Band T-shirt seen on Art3mis’s real-life body.
Dungeons and Dragons: A virtual space is named after the role-playing game’s creator, Gary Gygax. A 20-sided die is briefly seen.
The Fly: The 1986 remake is mentioned as a film Halliday once saw.
Say Anything: Mentioned as a film Halliday once saw.
Simon: The classic toy is seen as a possession of Halliday’s.
Thundercats: Wade wears a belt referencing the show.
Hello Kitty: A sticker for the brand is seen on a motorcycle.
The Shining: An extended sequence is set in a replica of the Overlook Hotel.
Punk’d: Aech mentions “being punk’d.”
Nancy Drew: Mentioned by a character.
Atari 2600: Becomes a crucial plot point when it’s revealed that Halliday has hidden a key to beating OASIS in a virtual version of one of the antiquated system’s games.
Centipede: An Atari 2600 game mentioned by Sorrento’s underlings.
Pitfall: An Atari 2600 game mentioned by Sorrento’s underlings.
Swordquest: An Atari 2600 game mentioned by Sorrento’s underlings.
Motorcross: An Atari 2600 game mentioned by Sorrento’s underlings.
Adventure: An Atari 2600 game that is crucial to the ending.
Spawn: Seen as an avatar in a battle royale.
Child’s Play: Chucky is used as a weapon during a battle royale.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The versions of the characters from the recent film reboot are seen as avatars during a battle royale.
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla: Sorrento morphs into Mechagodzilla during a battle royale.
Gundam: Wade’s ally Daito morphs into a Gundam robot during a battle royale.
Madballs: A madball is used as a weapon in a battle royale.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day: While sinking into a pit of lava, the Iron Giant gives a thumbs up.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Wade uses the Holy Hand Grenade in a virtual fight.
Mario Kart: Aech jokingly mentions the game during a car chase.
Joust: Poster for the film seen in Halliday’s childhood bedroom.
Raiders of the Lost Ark: Poster for the film seen in Halliday’s childhood bedroom.
Forbidden Planet: Toy robot from the film seen in Halliday’s childhood bedroom.
Pac-Man: Poster for the game seen in Halliday’s childhood bedroom.
2112: Poster for the Rush album is seen in Halliday’s childhood bedroom.
The A-Team: Van seen in a virtual race.
Halo: Soldiers seen as a group’s avatars.
Sonic the Hedgehog: Title character seen as someone’s avatar.
Virtual reality is the air guitar solo of modern cinema: a frenetic imagined activity in a made-up world that exists one level below the already made-up world of the story. Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, adapted from the 2011 YA novel by Ernest Cline, takes us on a freakily spectacular VR gaming ride through an infinitely malleable universe involving a frantic splurge of 70s and 80s pop culture references, including cheeky bits of Spielberg’s own creation. There’s loads of geekupmanship – though real geeks won’t be happy about the holy hand grenade of Antioch being deployed without counting to three.
Ready Player One: Ernest Cline on how his gamer fantasy became a Spielberg film Read more
But as with all VR on film, from Tron in 1982 to the new Jumanji of 2017, I found a weightless, frictionless quality to this inner zone of digitally rendered experience. It’s a close encounter of the pixelated kind. Where’s the beef? And the movie is left with the tricky and anticlimactic business of negotiating the relationship between virtual reality and the boring old actual sort.
The film is set in 2045, and though we may yet see a fashion for YA dramas about pre-apocalyptic utopias, Ready Player One isn’t one of them. The future world is pretty badly beaten up after a series of wittily imagined seismic catastrophes, including the “bandwidth riots”. Cities are massive scuzzy slums and virtual reality is the opium of the masses. Tye Sheridan is Wade Watts, a lonely teenager living in Columbus, Ohio, which is now a gruesome favela of trailers stacked on top of each other. His only interest isstrapping on the VR headset and entering the alternative universe of Oasis, as a mythic avatar named Parzifal. Here is a limitless fantasyscape of the mind where people can play games and have experiences. (The film hints subliminally at X-rated experiences in motels for those interested.) They can win digital money in various contests but possibly blow it all – “lose their shit”.
The game’s creator is the late James Halliday, played by Mark Rylance, an ubernerd genius who is a cross between Willy Wonka, Steve Jobs and Tim Berners-Lee. Before he died, Halliday hid three clues in his world for an “Easter egg” that would allow the discoverer complete control of this fabulous spectral kingdom. So Wade is an egg hunter or “gunter” along with some friends, including supercool Samantha (avatar: Art3mis), played by Olivia Cooke, on whom he has a painful cybercrush. His best friend is Aech (Lena Waithe). But creepy corporate goon Sorrento, played by Ben Mendelsohn, wants to grab the egg, and crush all these creative individuals for whom the Oasis is a wonderful playground. There’s a funny performance from TJ Miller as Sorrento’s morose henchman i-R0k.
The Oasis sure is a weird setup. We are invited to believe in the dreamy almost Christ-like vision of Halliday and his Easter egg, but he has created what amounts to a horrible Matrix blue-pill of global addiction. Wade’s Aunt Alice (Susan Lynch) has had her life effectively ruined by a violent boyfriend Rick (Ralph Ineson) who is hooked on its gambling potential. It isn’t at all clear how or if Wade will reform this, on finding the egg. Then there are those 80s references, including a gobsmacking romp through the world of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. It’s 2045: how has Halliday conceived this obsession with that period? At one stage we see a simulacrum of his childhood bedroom, which looks like he grew up in the 70s and 80s. Did he grow up in some retro theme park? Or do future connoisseurs simply believe pop culture simply died with the fall of the Berlin Wall?
Facebook Twitter Pinterest We’re going on an egg hunt … Ready Player One. Photograph: Jaap Buitendijk
Well, the movie does sort of answer these worries with the first clue that Wade chases after. He spots the great man’s whimsical and subversive interest in “going backwards” and realises that it may be the key to the extraordinary drag race in a fabricated New York. That really is a sensational, gasp-inducing sequence with an uproarious, showstopping appearance from King Kong. The solution to this clue brings the curtain down on the first act, but the first act is where nearly all the juice is. From then on, the action gets clotted and muddled and somehow contrives to separate Samantha from Wade and his friends to create a narrative crisis.
It’s a film in which Spielberg’s traditional reverence for the wonder and idealism of youth has had to compromise with wised-up survivalist toughness of the new YA mode. But what extraordinary visuals this films conjures up, with images that appear and disappear like quicksilver memes.
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From filmmaker Steven Spielberg and adapted from the book by Ernest Cline, the sci-fi action adventure epic Ready Player One is set in the year 2045 and follows Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), as he escapes in the OASIS, an immersive virtual universe where most of humanity spends their days, living as any avatar they so choose and with only your own imagination as a limitation. When the OASIS was created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance), he embedded a three-part contest into it to find a worthy heir for his immense fortune and total control of this virtual world, and as Wade and his friends, called the High Five, take on the challenge, they put themselves directly into the path of danger.
At a conference at the film’s Los Angeles press junket, director Steven Spielberg talked about why he wanted to make Ready Player One into a movie, the challenges of telling this story, feeding off the passion of the cast, working in such an abstract way that they wore virtual reality goggles on set to fully understand what the world would look like, why this movie was such a great escape, the enormous task of getting all of the pop culture rights, why he’d never go back and rework any of his own movies (after that E.T. disaster), and the role nostalgia plays in his own life.
What was it about this story and these characters that made you want to make Ready Player One?
STEVEN SPIELBERG: I think anybody who read the book, who was connected, at all, with the movie industry, would have loved to have made this into a movie. The book had seven movies in it, maybe twelve. It was just a matter of trying to figure out how to tell the story about this competition, in both of these worlds, and to make it an express train, racing toward the third act and, at the same time, make it a cautionary tale about leaving us the choice of where we want to exist. Do we want to exist in reality, or do we want to exist in an escapist universe? Those themes were so profound for me. That theme is consistent throughout the whole book, but there are so many places we could have taken the book.
Why was this a film you were so passionate about making?
SPIELBERG: I had a passionate and amazing cast, and I fed off that energy. I’d come to work into work and Olivia [Cooke] would be, “Okay, what do we do now? I can’t wait!” And Lena [Waithe] would say, ‘”Throw anything at me. I’m ready for it!” Every cast member was like that. Ernie [Cline] gave us a playground to basically become kids again, and we did. We made the movie on an abstract set. The only way the cast could understand where they were is that we all had virtual reality Oculus goggles. Inside the goggles was a complete build of the set that you see when you see the movie, but when you took the goggles off, it was a big white space. It was a 4,000 square foot, white, empty space called a Volume. When you put the goggles on, it was Aech’s basement or Aech’s workshop or the Distracted Globe. The actors had a chance to say, “Okay, if I walk over there, there’s the door and there’s the DJ.” It was really an out of body experience to make this movie, and it’s very hard to express what that was like.
That material has issues of its own. Mr. Cline’s book — readable and amusing without being exactly good — is a hodgepodge of cleverness and cliché. Less than a decade after publication, it already feels a bit dated, partly because its dystopian vision seems unduly optimistic and partly because its vision of male geek rebellion has turned stale and sour.
In the film, set in 2045, Wade Watts (a young man played by the agreeably bland, blandly agreeable Tye Sheridan) lives in “the stacks,” a vertical pile of trailers where the poorer residents of Columbus, Ohio (Oklahoma City in the book), cling to hope, dignity and their VR gloves. Humanity has been ravaged by the usual political and ecological disasters (among them “bandwidth riots” referred to in Wade’s introductory voice-over), and most people seek refuge in a digital paradise called the Oasis.
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That world — less a game than a Jorge Luis Borges cosmos populated by wizards, robots and racecar drivers — is the creation of James Halliday (Mark Rylance). After Halliday’s death, his avatar revealed the existence of a series of Easter eggs, or secret digital treasures, the discovery of which would win a lucky player control of the Oasis. Wade is a “gunter” — short for “egg hunter” — determined to pursue this quest even after most of the other gamers have tired of it. Among his rivals are a few fellow believers and Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), the head of a company called IOI that wants to bring Halliday’s paradise under corporate control.
In the real world, IOI encourages Oasis fans to run up debts that it collects by forcing them into indentured servitude. Sorrento’s villainy sets up a battle on two fronts — clashes in the Oasis mirroring chases through the streets of Columbus — that inspires Mr. Spielberg to feats of crosscutting virtuosity. The action is so swift and engaging that some possibly literal-minded questions may be brushed aside. I, for one, didn’t quite understand why, given the global reach of the Oasis, all the relevant players were so conveniently clustered in Ohio. (If anyone wants to explain, please find me on Twitter so I can mute you.)
But, of course, Columbus and the Oasis do not represent actual or virtual realities, but rather two different modalities of fantasy. Wade’s avatar, Parzival, collects a posse of fighters: Sho, Daito, Aech and Art3mis, who is also his love interest. When the people attached to these identities meet up in Columbus, they are not exactly as they are in the game. Aech, large and male in the Oasis, is played by Lena Waithe. But the fluidity of online identity remains an underexploited possibility. In and out of the Oasis, Art3mis (also known as Samantha, and portrayed by Olivia Cooke) is a male fantasy of female badassery. Sho (Philip Zhao) and Daito (Win Morisaki) are relegated to sidekick duty. The multiplayer, self-inventing ethos of gaming might have offered a chance for a less conventional division of heroic labor, but the writers and filmmakers lacked the imagination to take advantage of it.
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The most fun part of “Ready Player One” is its exuberant and generous handing out of pop-cultural goodies. Tribute is paid to Mr. Spielberg’s departed colleagues John Hughes and Stanley Kubrick. The visual and musical allusions are eclectic enough that nobody is likely to feel left out, and everybody is likely to feel a little lost from time to time.
Nostalgia? Sure, but what really animates the movie is a sense of history. The Easter egg hunt takes Parzival and his crew back into Halliday’s biography — his ill-starred partnership with Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg), his thwarted attempts at romance — and also through the evolution of video games and related pursuits. The history is instructive and also sentimental in familiar ways, positing a struggle for control between idealistic, artistic entrepreneurs (and their legions of fans) and soulless corporate greedheads.
Halliday is a sweet, shaggy nerd with a guileless Northern California drawl and a deeply awkward manner, especially around women. Sorrento is an autocratic bean counter, a would-be master of the universe who doesn’t even like video games. These characters are clichés, but they are also allegorical figures.
In the movie, they represent opposing principles, but in our world, they are pretty much the same guy. A lot of the starry-eyed do-it-yourselfers tinkering in their garages and giving life to their boyish dreams back in the ’70s and ’80s turned out to be harboring superman fantasies of global domination all along. They shared their wondrous creations and played the rest of us for suckers, collecting our admiration, our attention and our data as profit and feudal tribute.
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Mr. Spielberg incarnates this duality as perfectly as any man alive. He is the peer of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, and a Gandalf for the elves and hobbits who made Google, Facebook and the other components of our present-day Oasis. He has been man-child and mogul, wide-eyed artist and cold-eyed businessman, praised for making so many wonderful things and blamed for ruining everything. His career has been a splendid enactment of the cultural contradictions of capitalism, and at the same time a series of deeply personal meditations on love, loss and imagination. All of that is also true of Halliday’s Oasis. “Ready Player One” is far from a masterpiece, but as the fanboys say, it’s canon.
