''Ready Player One'' is a 2018 American science fiction action film based on Ernest Cline's novel of the same name. The film was co-produced and directed by

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

, written by Cline and Zak Penn, and stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller,

Simon Pegg Simon John Pegg (; born 14 February 1970) is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter. He came to prominence in the UK as the co-creator of the Channel 4 sitcom ''Spaced'' (1999–2001), directed by Edgar Wright. He and Wright co-wrote the ...

and Mark Rylance. The film is set in 2045, where much of humanity uses the OASIS, a

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

simulation, to escape the real world. A teenage orphan finds clues to a contest that promises ownership of the OASIS to the winner, and he and his allies try to complete it before an evil corporation can do so. Development of the film first began in 2010 when

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

acquired the rights to the book. In July 2015, Spielberg signed on to direct and produce the film, with casting commencing in September 2015. Filming began in England in June 2016 and was completed in September that year. The visual effects were handled by

Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American Film, motion picture visual effects, computer animation and stereo conversion digital studio founded by George Lucas on May 26, 1975. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lu ...

, Digital Domain and Territory Studio, with some pre-visualization work done by The Third Floor, Inc.. As with the novel, many popular culture references appear throughout the film, including those to the ''Back to the Future'' franchise, ''

The Iron Giant ''The Iron Giant'' is a 1999 American animated science fiction film directed by Brad Bird and produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation. It is loosely based on the 1968 novel '' The Iron Man'' by Ted Hughes (which was published in the United ...

'', '' The Shining'' and the ''Godzilla'' franchise. ''Ready Player One'' premiered at

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

in Austin, Texas on March 11, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on March 29, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised Spielberg's direction, the visual effects, brisk pacing, and the performances of both Sheridan and Rylance. It was also a commercial success, grossing over $607 million worldwide against a $155–175 million budget, and earned a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 91st Academy Awards, 24th Critics' Choice Awards, and 72nd British Academy Film Awards. ''Ready Player One'' was awarded the title of Best Science Fiction Film at the 45th Saturn Awards, and a further two Outstanding Achievement Awards from the Visual Effects Society. A sequel is in development.

Plot

In 2045, people seek to escape from reality through the virtual reality entertainment universe called the OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation), created by James Halliday and Ogden Morrow of Gregarious Games. After Halliday's death, a pre-recorded message left by his avatar Anorak announces a game, granting ownership of the OASIS to the first to find the golden

Easter egg Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian holiday of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are commonly used during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The ...

within it, which gets locked behind a gate requiring three keys which players can obtain by accomplishing three challenges. The contest has lured several "Gunters", or egg hunters, and the interest of Nolan Sorrento, the CEO of Innovative Online Industries (IOI) who seeks to control the OASIS himself by inserting intrusive online advertising. IOI uses an army of

indentured servants Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract called an "indenture", may be entered voluntarily for a prepaid lump sum, as payment for some good or ser ...

, and employees called "Sixers" to find the egg. Wade Watts, an avid Gunter using the avatar Parzival, participates in the first challenge, an unbeatable race, along with his best friend Aech, and Art3mis, a female avatar whom Parzival has a crush on. Parzival regularly visits Halliday's Journals, a simulated archive of Halliday's life and hobbies, run by the Curator. Wade receives the Copper Key from Anorak after he wins by driving backward, while Art3mis, Aech, and his friends Daito and Sho, all win the race afterward, later being collectively named the High-5 on the OASIS'

scoreboard A scoreboard is a large board for publicly displaying the score (sport), score in a game. Most levels of sport from high school and above use at least one scoreboard for keeping score, measuring time, and displaying statistics. Scoreboards i ...

. Sorrento asks the mercenary i-R0k to learn Wade's true identity, intent on bribing him to win the contest on IOI's behalf. Wade and Art3mis discover from the Journals that Halliday once dated Morrow's wife Karen "Kira" Underwood. Wade and Art3mis visit the Distracted Globe

night club A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

to look for clues, where Wade confesses his love and true name to Art3mis. They survive an IOI raid in which Art3mis abandons Wade, explaining that her father died in debt to IOI. i-R0k, who was eavesdropping on their conversation, informs Sorrento of his findings. Sorrento contacts Wade with his offer. When rejected, Sorrento attempts to kill Wade by bombing his home, killing Wade's aunt Alice and her abusive boyfriend Rick among others. Art3mis' player Samantha Cook takes Wade in. Together, they realize the second challenge relates to Halliday's regret of not pursuing a relationship with Kira. Along with Aech, Daito, and Sho, Parzival and Art3mis discover that Kira and Halliday had watched '' The Shining'' during their first and only date, and they search for the Overlook Hotel's recreation. Art3mis asks Kira to dance and wins the Jade Key. Sorrento's subordinate F'Nale Zandor storms the Gunters' hideout, taking Samantha to an IOI Loyalty Center to pay off her father's debt. Wade escapes with the help of the other High-5 users, Helen Harris (Aech), Toshiro (Daito), and Zhou (Sho) in Helen's truck. Samantha escapes confinement after hacking Sorrento's OASIS rig. The third challenge is found in Castle Anorak on Planet Doom, where players must guess Halliday's favorite

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridg ...

game to earn the Crystal Key. iR0k places a forcefield around the castle using the Orb of Osuvox, but Art3mis can disable it. The High-5 lead an army of OASIS players against the Sixers. Sorrento fights back but Aech, Daito, and Art3mis destroy his avatar. Parzival destroys Samantha's avatar, allowing her to flee IOI while the High-5 picks her up, and reaches the console, but Sorrento detonates the Cataclyst bomb, wiping out every avatar on Planet Doom including himself. Parzival survives using an

extra life An extra life is a video game item that gives the player another life. Extra Life may also refer to: * Extra Life (fundraiser), a fundraising event * Extra Life (band), an experimental band from Brooklyn * '' Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter' ...

coin given to him earlier by the Curator in a bet. He plays the 1980 game ''

Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

'', winning the Crystal Key by locating

Warren Robinett Joseph Warren Robinett Jr. (born December 25, 1951) In the A. Merrill interview, Robinett says he was 26 in November 1977. is an American video game designer. He is most notable as the developer of the Atari 2600's ''Adventure'' and as a founder ...

. He uses the three keys to enter a treasure room, where Anorak offers him a contract to sign. Parzival recognizes it as the one Morrow signed when Halliday forced him out of Gregarious Games and refuses to sign it. Anorak transforms into Halliday, who expresses his regrets in life, handing over the Easter egg. The bombing results in the arrests of Sorrento and F'Nale. Ogden Morrow appears, revealing he is the Curator. Wade decides to run the OASIS with the High-5, inviting Morrow to join them as a consultant. As the IOI Loyalty Centers shut down, the High-5 make the controversial choice to close the OASIS every Tuesday and Thursday, so people can spend time in the real world.

Cast

* Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts / Parzival, a Gunter who wishes to win the egg hunt so he can move out of his impoverished neighborhood of stacked trailers called "the Stacks". His avatar's name is derived from Percival of Arthurian Legend. * Olivia Cooke as Samantha Cook / Art3mis, a well-known Gunter who works with various allies to ensure the OASIS is kept free and out of the hands of IOI, both inside the game and in real life. Art3mis is Samantha's pink-skinned Avatar with pink hair, named for

Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

. * Ben Mendelsohn as Nolan Sorrento / IOI-655321, the CEO of Innovative Online Industries who seeks full control over the OASIS. His avatar of IOI-655321 is an armored businessman. * Lena Waithe as Helen Harris / Aech, a Gunter and long-time friend of Wade's who works as a mechanic in the OASIS. Her avatar of Aech is a male

cyborg A cyborg (, a portmanteau of ''cybernetics, cybernetic'' and ''organism'') is a being with both Organic matter, organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.T.J. Miller as the voice and motion-capture of i-R0k, a freelance dealer and mercenary often employed by IOI. He shares his name with a character from the novel, but is otherwise unrelated. Unlike the other characters, his true appearance outside of the OASIS is not shown. *

as Ogden "Og" Morrow / The Curator, a co-creator of the OASIS who eventually left the company and is concerned that many people have developed an unhealthy dependency on the game. His avatar in this film is the

Curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

, who works at the Halliday Journal archives. * Mark Rylance as James Halliday / Anorak the All-Knowing, the deceased co-creator of the OASIS who reveals after his death that an Easter Egg is hidden in the OASIS that grants control over the OASIS to its winner. His avatar of Anorak the All-Knowing is an old, tall wizard. * Philip Zhao as Zhou / Sho, a young Chinese Gunter and one of the "High Five". He is based upon Akihide "Shoto" Karatsu, a Japanese Gunter featured in the novel. Zhou's avatar of Sho is a

ninja A , or was a spy and infiltrator in pre-modern Japan. The functions of a ninja included siege and infiltration, ambush, reconnaissance, espionage, deception, and later bodyguarding.Kawakami, pp. 21–22 Antecedents may have existed as ear ...

. * Win Morisaki as Toshiro Yoshiaki / Daito, a Japanese Gunter and one of the "High Five". His avatar of Daito is an armored

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

. Unlike the book, Daito is not killed by IOI and survives to the end. *

Hannah John-Kamen Hannah Dominique John-Kamen (born 7 September 1989) is an English actress. She is known for her television roles in ''Black Mirror'' (2011–2016), '' Killjoys'' (2015–2019), ''Brave New World'' (2020), and Netflix miniseries '' The Stranger' ...

as F'Nale Zandor, IOI's head of operations in the physical world and for their indentured servant programs at IOI's Loyalty Centers. *

Susan Lynch Susan Lynch (born 1971) is an actress from Northern Ireland. She is known for her role in the 2003 film '' 16 Years of Alcohol''. Her other film appearances include '' Waking Ned Devine'' (1998), '' Nora'' (2000), '' Beautiful Creatures'' (200 ...

as Alice, Wade's aunt who Wade has a poor relationship with * Ralph Ineson as Rick, the boyfriend of Alice who mistreats Wade * Perdita Weeks as Karen "Kira" Underwood, Morrow's wife who Halliday also loved *

Turlough Convery Turlough Convery (born 18 March 1991) is an actor from Northern Ireland. He is best known for his role as Bear in series 3 of the BBC Three series '' Killing Eve'', as Liam in '' My Mad Fat Diary'', and as Arthur Parker in the ITV series '' San ...

as IOI's chief oology expert who leads the other IOI oology experts at finding the right video game to grant the Sixers access to the Easter egg Lulu Wilson, Letitia Wright, Mckenna Grace, and Jane Douglas of

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

group

OutsideXbox OutsideXbox, or Oxbox, is a British YouTube channel and group consisting of Jane Douglas, Andy Farrant and Mike Channell. The group also has a sister channel, Outside Xtra, or Oxtra, consisting of Ellen Rose. The group is best known for video ga ...

make

cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

s in the film, with Wright as a rebel who can be seen at Samantha's safe house, Grace and Wilson as students using the OASIS when Halliday's pre-recorded will was shown, and Douglas as a Sixer.

Production

Development and casting

bought the film rights for producers Dan Farah and Donald De Line in June 2010, one year before the book was published. Ernest Cline was set to write the script for the film, which De Line and Farah would produce. Eric Eason rewrote Cline's script, and Zak Penn was hired to rewrite the previous drafts by Cline and Eason (who became uncredited for the final draft), along with Village Roadshow Pictures coming aboard. Warner Bros. attempted to convince

Christopher Nolan Sir Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British and American filmmaker. Known for his Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbusters with complex storytelling, he is considered a leading filmma ...

to direct the film as his next project after '' Interstellar'' (2014), but he declined. Afterwards the studio made a shortlist of potential directors including

Robert Zemeckis Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker known for directing and producing a range of successful and influential movies, often blending cutting-edge visual effects with storytelling. He has received several accolades incl ...

Edgar Wright Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical Film genre, genre films, which feature extensive utilisation of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zo ...

Matthew Vaughn Sir Matthew Allard Robert Vaughn (legal name Matthew Allard Robert de Vere Drummond; born 7 March 1971) is an English filmmaker. He has produced films including ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' (1998) and ''Snatch (film), Snatch'' (2000 ...

, and

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand filmmaker. He is best known as the director, writer, and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy (2012–2014), both of which ar ...

. A directorial offer was also sent to Josh Trank, who turned it down twice. Steven Spielberg finally signed on to direct and produce the film, which Kristie Macosko Krieger also produced, along with De Line and Farah. Cline and Penn made several revisions while adapting the novel to film. Most of these changes were to eliminate scenes that would be uninteresting in a visual format, such as when Wade beats a high score in ''

Pac-Man ''Pac-Man,'' originally called in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The pla ...

'', or recites all the lines from the film '' WarGames'' (1983). In 2016, American musician

Moby Richard Melville Hall (September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, disc jockey, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "amo ...

said he had tried to make the book into a movie, but discovered that Spielberg had taken the role before him.

Elle Fanning Mary Elle Fanning (born April 9, 1998) is an American actress. Her works include both independent films and blockbusters, and her accolades include a National Board of Review Award, in addition to nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and ...

, Olivia Cooke and Lola Kirke were the frontrunners for the role of Art3mis; with Cooke announced as having been cast in the role by September 2015. In January 2016, Ben Mendelsohn joined the cast. In February 2016, Tye Sheridan was confirmed to play Wade, after a lengthy casting search for the role.

Barry Keoghan Barry Keoghan ( ; born 18 October 1992) is an Irish actor. His accolades include a BAFTA Award, along with nominations for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was listed at number 27 on ''The Irish Times'' list of Ireland ...

screen-tested for the part.

was added to the cast in March, with Mark Rylance joining in April. By June, T.J. Miller,

, and Win Morisaki had also been cast in the film. In July, Philip Zhao joined the cast, with Lena Waithe, Ralph Ineson, Mckenna Grace, and Letitia Wright being revealed as appearing in the film over time prior to the film's release. In October 2019, '' Doctor Sleep'' (2019) director Mike Flanagan revealed that

Jack Nicholson John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. Nicholson is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, often playing rebels fighting against the social structure. Over his five-de ...

, who portrayed Jack Torrance in '' The Shining'' (1980), was approached to appear in the film, but declined the offer due to his retirement.

Filming

Production was slated to begin in July 2016, but on July 1, 2016, screenwriter Zak Penn confirmed that the first week of filming had already been completed, meaning that filming began on June 24, 2016. In August and September 2016, filming took place in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, England, standing in for

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

. Birmingham filming included on Livery Street in the Jewellery Quarter area of the city, which was used for multiple scenes in the film. Ludgate Hill Car Park on Lionel Street, in which caravan homes were partially built, was also used, and a planned explosion there caused some local businesses and residents to call emergency services as no prior notice was given by the production team. Other locations in the city included the former industrial area of Digbeth, and some of the city's landmarks were erased and replaced with CGI buildings to create a dystopian future Ohio. Outside of Birmingham, filming also took place at

Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden is an Film studio, studio complex in Leavesden, Hertfordshire, Leavesden in Watford, Hertfordshire, in the East of England. Formerly known as Leavesden Film Studios and still colloquially known as Leavesden Studio ...

and at Solaris House, the former

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

headquarters in

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. Principal photography wrapped on September 27, 2016.

Visual effects

(ILM), Digital Domain, and Territory Studio developed the visual effects, with some pre-visualization work done by The Third Floor. For three hours three days a week, Spielberg met with ILM, which was in charge of the OASIS segments and produced the bulk of the visual effects shots, with 900 in total; Spielberg remarked that "this is the most difficult movie I've done since ''

Saving Private Ryan ''Saving Private Ryan'' is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set in 1944 in Normandy, France, during World War II, it follows a group of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller ( Tom Hanks) ...

''", as three 3-hour long meetings a week were necessitated to discuss the visual effects. Visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett stated that the VFX team would collaborate with Spielberg and writers Cline and Penn: Part of the film takes place in a virtual space based on the Overlook hotel in

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

's 1980 film '' The Shining''. It was mostly a digital recreation using high-quality

telecine Telecine ( or ), or TK, is the process of transferring film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in this post-production process. Telecine enables a motion picture, captured origi ...

of the original film, allowing new camera angles and shots that did not appear in the original. Some original footage from ''The Shining'' was also used, with ILM's modifications. Only a few scenes involved real actors (such as the appearance of the Grady twins) and required reproduction of ''The Shining''s physical sets. The ''Shining'' sequence was post-processed with

film grain Film grain or film granularity is the random optical texture of processed photographic film. Film grain develops due to the presence of small particles of a metallic silver, or dye clouds, developed from silver halide that have received enough ...

and other aging effects to make the new footage closely resemble the original. The VFX team built the Overlook Hotel sequence in the digital realm, consulting Kubrick's blueprints. ILM also produced digital versions of ''Ready Player One'''s many cultural references, including the DeLorean time machine from the ''

Back to the Future ''Back to the Future'' is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985 ...

'' films; the Iron Giant; Chucky; and

King Kong King Kong, also referred to simply as Kong, is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. The character has since become an international pop culture icon,Erb, Cynthia, 1998, ''Tracking Kin ...

, modeled after the 1933 film version. The ''

Tyrannosaurus rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' () is a genus of large theropoda, theropod dinosaur. The type species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' ( meaning 'king' in Latin), often shortened to ''T. rex'' or colloquially t-rex, is one of the best represented theropods. It live ...

'' from ''

Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton, centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of De-extinction#Cloning, cloned dinosaurs. It bega ...

'' was created from the base model ILM had created. Digital Domain facilitated pre-visualization (with The Third Floor),

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mocap or mo-cap, for short) is the process of recording high-resolution motion (physics), movement of objects or people into a computer system. It is used in Military science, military, entertainment, sports ...

, and virtual sets, and also created 300 visual effects shots for the primarily live-action portions of the film. The virtual sets were powered by game engines and were used congruently with the motion-capture process, with previsualization supervisor Scott Meadows explaining that in real time Spielberg would "put on a headset and scout the sets and make adjustments."

Music

On June 9, 2016,

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (November 15, 2022)Classic Connection review, ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

was initially going to compose the film's score. However, in July 2017, Williams left the project in favor of scoring Spielberg's '' The Post'', and

Alan Silvestri Alan Anthony Silvestri (born March 26, 1950) is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator and music producer of film scores. He has received two Grammy Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two ...

took over scoring duties. The score was released by WaterTower Music as a two-CD set on March 30, 2018, with vinyl and cassette releases projected. At Spielberg's request, Silvestri references his own music from ''

'' within the film's score, as well as quoting music by other composers, including

Max Steiner Maximilian Raoul Steiner (10 May 1888 – 28 December 1971) was an Austrian composer and conductor who emigrated to America and became one of cinema of the United States, Hollywood's greatest musical composers. Steiner was a child prodi ...

's theme from ''

'', Akira Ifukube’s

main theme In music, a subject is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a musical composition, composition is based. In forms other than the fugue, this may be known as the theme. Characteristics A subject may be perceiva ...

from ''

Godzilla is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', that debuted in the eponymous 1954 film, directed and co-written by Ishirō Honda. The character has since become an international pop culture icon, appearing in various media: 33 Japanese films p ...

'', and the score by

Wendy Carlos Wendy Carlos (born Walter Carlos; November 14, 1939) is an American musician and composer known for electronic music and film scores. Born and raised in Rhode Island, Carlos studied physics and music at Brown University before moving to New Y ...

and Rachel Elkind from ''The Shining.''

Cultural references

''Ready Player One'' pays homage to popular culture from various time periods, mainly the 1970s and 1980s but also extending to the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s; reviewers have identified over a hundred references to films, television shows, music, toys, video games, anime, and comics from these eras. Cline did not have any issues with these copyrighted elements when he published the book, but was aware that securing all necessary rights would be a major obstacle for a film adaptation. This task was eventually made easier thanks to Spielberg's reputation in the film industry. In the end, Spielberg estimated that they managed to get about 80% of the copyrighted elements they desired. Somewhat ironically, the production was unable to secure the rights to Spielberg's own ''

Close Encounters of the Third Kind ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film, science fiction drama film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François ...

'' from

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

. The ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' module '' Tomb of Horrors'' features in an important episode of the book, the "Copper Key challenge", but that reference was excluded from the film, where the challenge features a huge car race in New York instead. However, the film does reference the module: artwork of the ''Tomb of Horrors'' demon appears on the back of Aech's van. Similarly ''

Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...

'', which was integral to the plot of the book, was shelved as ''

Blade Runner 2049 ''Blade Runner 2049'' is a 2017 American Epic film, epic neo-noir science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green (writer), Michael Green, based on a story by Fancher. A sequel to ''Blade ...

'' was in production at the same time as ''Ready Player One'' and the producers at

Alcon Entertainment Alcon Entertainment, LLC is an American indie film and television production company, founded in 1997 by film producers Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson. Since its establishment, Alcon Entertainment has developed and financed films that ar ...

feared that Spielberg's film could damage the commercial prospects of their film; as a replacement, the creative team had the players play through the events of '' The Shining'', to which Spielberg was able to secure the rights, as an homage to his friend Stanley Kubrick. Penn and Cline also thought that the film could be the opportunity to replace such a lengthy sequence with a more action-heavy one. Once they decided to use ''The Shining'', they were doubtful at first that Spielberg would accept the change, but Spielberg did go for it. While Cline's original work heavily used the character of

Ultraman The , also known as ''Ultraman'', is a Japanese science fiction media franchise owned and produced by Tsuburaya Productions, which began with the television series '' Ultra Q'' in 1966. The franchise has expanded into many television shows, fi ...

, the rights over the character were still under legal dispute, requiring them to replace him with the titular robot from ''The Iron Giant'' and the

RX-78-2 Gundam The is a fictional piloted robot (mecha), introduced in 1979 in Yoshiyuki Tomino's and Sunrise (company), Sunrise's anime series ''Mobile Suit Gundam''. In the series, it is a prototype weapon for the Earth Federation when it falls into the hand ...

. Although Spielberg recognized that his films were a significant part of the 1980s popular culture cited in the book, he opted to remove many references to them to avoid accusations of vanity. Cline believed Spielberg wanted to avoid self-references to films he directed, due to the criticism he received for his film ''

1941 The Correlates of War project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 3.49 million. However, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that the subsequent year, 1942, wa ...

'', which lampooned his own previous works '' Jaws'' and ''

Duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...

''. Cline said he had to convince Spielberg to include some iconic elements, such as the DeLorean time machine from ''Back to the Future'', which Spielberg conceded as he only produced the film. Spielberg also allowed the ''

'' from ''Jurassic Park'' to be included. Cline also asked ILM to include a reference to ''

Last Action Hero ''Last Action Hero'' is a 1993 American fantasy action comedy film directed and produced by John McTiernan and co-written by Shane Black and David Arnott. It is a satire of the action genre and associated clichés, containing several parodies ...

'', one of Penn's first screenplays, without Penn's knowledge; a movie marquee in the Manhattan race segment bears the name "Jack Slater", the character

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder, known for his roles in high-profile action films. Governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger, ...

played in that film.

Release

Theatrical

''Ready Player One'' was originally scheduled to be released on December 15, 2017. However, on February 9, 2016, it was delayed to March 30, 2018, to avoid competition with '' Star Wars: The Last Jedi''. In January 2018, it was announced the film's release date had been moved up one day to March 29. The film had its world premiere at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas on March 11, 2018 (as part of the

Film Festival). Warner Bros. distributed the film worldwide, with Village Roadshow Pictures distributing in several overseas territories. Around the same time, the massively multi-player online game platform ''

Roblox Roblox (, ) is an online game platform and game creation system developed by Roblox Corporation that allows users to program and play games created by themselves or other users. It was created by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 200 ...

'' held an event based on it. The winner of the event was the user r0cu.

Home media

''Ready Player One'' was released on digital copy on July 3, 2018, and on 4K UHD

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

, Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

on July 24, 2018. The film debuted at the top of the NPD VideoScan First Alert chart, a tracker of combined domestic Blu-Ray and DVD unit sales, for the week ending on July 27, 2018. It retained the No. 1 spot on the chart for the week ending on August 4, 2018.

Reception

Box office

''Ready Player One'' grossed $137.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $469.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $607 million. ''

Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. It is updated several times a day, with en ...

'' had estimated it would need to gross at least $440 million to

break even Break-even (or break even), often abbreviated as B/E in finance (sometimes called point of equilibrium), is the point of balance making neither a profit nor a loss. It involves a situation when a business makes just enough revenue to cover its tot ...

, given its $175 million budget. In the United States and Canada, ''Ready Player One'' was projected to gross $40–50 million from 4,100 theaters over its first four days. It made $12.1 million on its first day, including $3.75 million from Wednesday night previews. It ended up grossing $41.8 million in its opening weekend (for a four-day total of $53.7 million). It made $24.6 million in its second weekend, finishing second behind newcomer ''

A Quiet Place ''A Quiet Place'' is a 2018 American post-apocalyptic horror film directed by John Krasinski. The screenplay was written by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods from a story they conceived, with contributions by Krasinski after he joined the project. T ...

'', and $11.5 million in its third weekend, finishing in fourth.

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 71% with an average score of , based on reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Ready Player One'' is a sweetly nostalgic thrill ride that neatly encapsulates Spielberg's strengths while adding another solidly engrossing adventure to his filmography." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 based on 56 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, and those at PostTrak gave the film an 82% overall positive score and a 65% "definite recommend". In a review for '' RogerEbert.com'', Brian Tallerico wrote that the film's "overwhelming" nature and non-stop action will likely thrill fans of pop culture; while he observed narrative weaknesses, such as a lack of depth among the supporting characters, he felt that they ultimately do not hinder the film from working "on the level of technical, blockbuster mastery that Spielberg helped define". Writing for '' Variety'',

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for '' Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...

called the film a "coruscating explosion of pop-culture eye candy" and found the sequence based on ''The Shining'' to be "irresistible". However, he criticized Spielberg's separation of fantasy and reality, and he said the film has "more activity than it does layers". '' IndieWire''s Eric Kohn characterized the film as "an astonishing sci-fi spectacle and a relentless nostalgia trip at once" and praised both the sequence based on ''The Shining'' and Penn's screenplay, particularly with respect to Mendelsohn's character. Nevertheless, he remarked that the film "drags a bunch in its final third". Alissa Wilkinson, writing for '' Vox'', praised both the quality and quantity of the

worldbuilding Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world or setting (narrative), setting, sometimes associated with a fictional universe. Developing the world with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, culture and ecology is a k ...

. She also commented on just how dystopian the future portrayed is, where the main characters fight to save the OASIS and the escape from reality it represents, with arguably less concern for the problems of the real world. Film and television critic Matt Zoller Seitz praised ''Ready Player One'' and noted the undercurrent of sadness present in the film, stating that "I don't think Spielberg gets enough credit for making sad films that most people interpret as happy, and complex films that are immediately dismissed as simple or confused". Seitz concluded that the film "is a mess, but it is a fascinating and complex one..." In March 2019, a year after the film's release, Seitz determined that with ''Ready Player One''s images commenting on capitalism and popular culture, the film was the second-most "interesting ndsubstantive" big-budgeted fantasy in 2018 after ''

Black Panther A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...

'', admitting that "I still think about 'Ready Player One''a lot, especially concerning the world around me." Monica Castillo was more critical of the film in her review for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' and drew attention to the absence of

character arc A character arc is the transformation or inner journey of a character over the course of a story. If a story has a character arc, the character begins as one sort of person and gradually transforms into a different sort of person in response to c ...

s, the lack of resolution for plot holes in the novel, and the bloating of scenes in the film by trivia.

Alonso Duralde Alonso Duralde (born May 18, 1967) is an American film critic, author, and podcaster. He has been a writer and editor for ''The Film Verdict'', ''The Wrap'', ''The Advocate (LGBT magazine), The Advocate'' and MSNBC.com. Personal life Duralde ...

, writing for ''

TheWrap ''TheWrap'' is an American online news organization that covers the business of entertainment and media. It was founded by journalist Sharon Waxman in 2009 and is based in Los Angeles. The site features original reporting, analysis, and editor ...

'', found the usage of pop culture references lacking, and found his experience watching the film as "feeling bombarded with images, bored by the lack of an interesting story, and irritated with my own cultural past. I've never been much of a video-game player, but by the finale, I was ready to ' Leeroy Jenkins!' my way out of the theater".

Accolades

Legacy

''Ready Player One'''s depiction of a pop culture-dominated virtual world has drawn comparisons to Meta's investments in the

metaverse The metaverse is a loosely defined term referring to virtual worlds in which users represented by avatars interact, usually in 3D and focused on social and economic connection. The term ''metaverse'' originated in the 1992 science fiction ...

in the 2020s. Upon the unveiling of the

Apple Vision Pro The Apple Vision Pro is a mixed reality, mixed-reality headset developed by Apple Inc., Apple. It was announced on June 5, 2023, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) and was released first in the US, then in global territories thr ...

mixed reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

headset in 2023, many commentators compared its design to the headsets seen in ''Ready Player One''. A promotional video produced by

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

that accompanied the Vision Pro's announcement also mirrored a scene in ''Ready Player One'' in which Wade Watts uses his headset to enter the OASIS.

Sequel

When asked about a sequel to the film, Cline stated: "I think there's a good chance that, if this one does well, Warner Bros. will want to make a sequel. I don't know if Steven pielbergwould want to dive back in, because he would know what he is getting into. He's said that it's the third-hardest film he's made, out of dozens and dozens of movies". Cline wrote a book sequel, titled '' Ready Player Two'', which was released on November 24, 2020, stating in the acknowledgments that he had consulted Spielberg on the final draft of the book and where to take a potential film adaptation. On December 22, 2020, Cline announced that a sequel was in the early stages of development. Spielberg confirmed that the film was still in development as of March 2024, stating that he would not direct the film unlike its predecessor, but produce it.

References

External links

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