Books have been turned into movies for almost as long as movies have existed. It is believed that the first tome to be turned into a film was Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in 1901 entitled Scrooge, or Marley’s Ghost, which follows the cantankerous protagonist Ebeneezer Scrooge as he meets the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. Several other books by Dickens were adapted into movies around the same time, along with other classic novels like Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon.
Fast forward to 2021 and it seems like every novel, play, comic book, toy, children’s book, video game and cereal box ever made now gets its own film, TV show and miniseries. With so many books and movies to choose from, it can be hard to know how to separate the wheat from the chaff. One such instance of a book being adapted into a movie is Ernest Cline’s 2011 sci-fi adventure novel Ready Player One.
Set in a dystopian future, the story follows Wade Watts, a teenager who spends most of his time plugged into the Oasis, an online virtual reality world inhabited by nearly everyone as an escape from the social inequalities and misery that has taken over the planet due to climate change and other issues. Following the death of the Oasis’ creator, James Halliday, his will details that the person who is able to find the three Easter Eggs, which contain clues to copper keys, he has hidden throughout the Oasis will be given full control of the Oasis and will receive Halliday’s vast fortune. This leads to a global hunt for the Easter Eggs, with the large and seemingly evil corporation, Innovative Online Industries (IOI), employing hundreds of ‘gunters’ (egg hunters) to track them down before any private individual can.
With five years having passed since his death, Wade, who operates under the avatar Parzival in the Oasis, is the first person to decipher one of the clues and take possession of a copper key. This instantly makes him famous but also positions him as a target of IOI, who, after unsuccessfully trying to recruit him, make an attempt to take him out. Now the race is on to see who can capture the three copper keys first and take over the reigns of Oasis.
What makes this book so engaging is the non-stop references to pop culture nostalgia. Cline takes every opportunity he can to remind you of an old video game or movie from the 1980s. This is by no means done for the mere sake of a mention either; nearly all of the references tie directly into the plot as Wade and his new friends search through video games, movies, scenes from Halliday’s childhood and more to try and uncover the coveted copper keys. For anyone who loves that sort of thing, this is the ultimate geek out.
Being human totally sucks most of the time. Video games are the only thing that makes life bearable.”
Ernest Cline, ready player one
Another thing Cline does well is keep the reader hooked. Rarely does the story slow down, with one sequence leading quickly into the next, and new characters cropping up all the time in meaningful ways. For instance, as Parzival in the Oasis, Wade befriends someone named Art3mis, a skilled female avatar who is also a gunter that he becomes smitten with and hopes he can meet in real life. But when he declares his feelings for her, she awkwardly ignores him, making Wade feel alone. Luckily, he has the support of other friends he has met in the Oasis, including Aech and two Japanese hunters named Daito and Shoto.
If I were to register a criticism of the novel, it would probably be that the book feels a little one-dimensional at times. Cline is clearly so fixated on jamming every video game and comic book reference from his childhood into the book that he sometimes forgets to develop certain parts of the story. While he does make many attempts at developing the background of the characters involved in the story, it sometimes feels forced and even a little too saccharine. A little more time spent on the individual plights and motivations of the characters may have rounded out the novel a little better and helped it reach more people outside of the ‘nerd-osphere.’
In 2018, world-famous film director Steven Spielberg adapted Cline’s novel into a feature-length movie of the same name starring Tye Sheridan as Wade, along with Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn and others in supporting roles. Although met with somewhat mixed reviews, I have to admit that I was thoroughly impressed with the finished product. Spielberg was able to deftly blend generations of pop culture references from both America and beyond in this eye-pleasing romp that even cheekily included some characters and devices from his own past films such as E.T., the time-traveling Delorean from Back to the Future, and the Indiana Jones series.
What makes the film so enthralling is how Spielberg is able to adeptly move back and forth between the real world that Wade lives in, and the CG-animated one of the Oasis that his avatar Parzival hunts in. I read how Spielberg described the experience as like having to film two completely separate films and then cut them both together.
Another thing that makes this film fun is the sheer number of pop culture references that Spielberg is able to fit in. He goes far beyond the references in the novel to include well-known Anime characters, figures from beloved films like the Iron Giant, Freddy Kruger and Jason Vorhees, and plenty of famous vehicles like the A-Team van, the aforementioned Delorean, and even Pee-Wee Herman’s red bicycle (click here to see a larger list of references in the film).
While I love Cline’s novel and will definitely read it again at a later date, it is without a doubt Spielberg’s fast-paced, eye-catching film that gets my vote. With the pop cultures references being the central appeal of the story, as well as being able to go back and forth between the Oasis and the real world, it makes for an unforgettable movie-watching experience. Under a less talented director, this may have been a total miss, but Spielberg’s ability to inject movie magic into his films makes Ready Player One perhaps the best of its kind: a coming-of-age, sci-fi adventure that is two hours and twenty minutes of non-stop fun.
Final verdict: the movie.
Have a look at the official trailer below and click here to order your copy of the book.
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