Pressing rewind is, if anything, an understandable desire these days.
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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. It wants to race into it at full throttle. Well, it just so happens that Cline has been hard at work on a continuation titled Ready Player Two. Citizens the world over plug into a virtual reality called the Oasis which, by virtue of having been invented by a GenXer named Halliday (Mark Rylance, looking like a cross between Bill Gates and Garth from Wayne’s World), is heavily influenced by all things ’80s. Mentioning the big guy, the narrating Parzival is clearly too distracted as he gets to fanboy-drooling over the robot he finally selects: Leopardon, the giant robot driven by Spider-Man in the live-action Japanese TV series from the 1970s (yes, this actually existed). Your imagination is your only limit. Mark Rylance plays James Halliday, the deceased co-creator of the OASIS who includes an Easter Egg hidden in the OASIS after his passing that grants control over the OASIS to its victor. Because while Parzival stopped an evil corporation from gaining control of OASIS and trillions of dollars, the planet is still a mess.
Steven Spielberg is back to his “pop culture mash-up” ways in his new film Ready Player One. And what was the take away for real audiences: will the average film-goer walk away from this movie thinking he or she needs to exercise more, or will they run for the nearest Oculus device to get lost in a fantasy?
After then discussing her sneaker collection, which she admits started in her youth in Chicago thanks to the Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan era (“Jordans were not just a shoe”, she said, “It was like a way of life”), Harvey asked Waithe about her experience working with director Stephen Spielberg on “Ready Player One”. Spielberg and Cline (who co-wrote the script with Zak Penn) could have given us more real-world exposition at the beginning – as the book did – so we could better understand Wade and the circumstances in which he lives.
That moment does not occur in Ready Player One, according to multiple people I spoke to who have seen the film (though that would be a delightful, tension-breaking goof for It’s Always Sunny fans). And voila! “Ready Players One”! Plus, The Shining is well represented in one of the film’s most memorable scenes. He’s got a crush on a girl he’s only seen as an avatar online (Olivia Cooke), who will soon enough present herself in the real world and not disappoint (told you, this really is a wet dream). This is of great interest to Wade/Parzival, and also IOI’s nefarious CEO, Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn, who in what I assume is another bit of pop culture reference, looks strikingly like Vice Principal Vernon from “The Breakfast Club”). Money earned in the game can be used outside of it, just as trouble made in the game can attract unwanted attention for players outside of it. He didn’t share any details about the sequel, but did talk about writing the screenplay for his 2015 novel Armada, which is also about an immersive virtual reality game. There are absolutely too many characters, video games, films, vehicles and space ships to even begin to list in this 500 word article, not to mention the joy of the surprise element of watching them appear on screen.
And the keep-them-coming nature of those VR pop-culture references that kept a smile on my face. Spielberg even throws in a few references (Citizen Kane, It’s a Wonderful Life) that were old before he came of age. “Ready Player One” is rated PG-13 and is in theaters now.
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Venues: AMC Classic Fairgrounds 10, Fox Berkshire, Fox East and R/C Reading Movies 11.
