Ready player one tells the story of a not so distant future where society has crumbled and most people now live in what are called stacks (they look like caravans on top of each other, hence the name). A virtual reality has been created where most people spend their time playing video games this is called the Oasis.
The main character is called ‘Wade’ he spends most of his day’s playing in the Oasis trying to solve the clues to 3 Easter eggs that have been programmed into the Oasis by its now dead creator. The film has references to loads of other movies and tv-shows from the 80’s.
Within the Oasis each player has their own avatar, this is the persona they wish everyone else to see them as.
What follow is an entertaining film following this lone player and his attempt to find and solve the 3 challenges and collect the ultimate prize before the corrupt IOI corporation can. Along the way he meets up with fellow players who help him in this quest.
The challenges all involve completing a task 1st to claim a key that opens a door to a new clue. The first challenge is what seems like a simple driving / racing game, 1st to finish the course wins the prize however the course is ‘protected’ by a tyrannosaurus rex from Jurassic park and King–Kong.
No one has yet managed to finished the course as they have never managed to defeat Kong at the last hurdle. In search of inspiration out hero goes to a holographic archive of Oasis’s creator to hunt for clues. Eventually they decipher a small clue which leads him to a ‘secret cheat’ that enables him to complete the 1st challenge and turns him into a virtual superstar with the Oasis.
This also brings him to the attention of the corporation who attempt to foil his every move so they can claim the prize for themselves. In doing this they attempt to kill him on the real world as well as the virtual one. When they do this they fail which only fuels his desire to win.
As the movies continues there are references everywhere, from Battlestar Galactica to the shining, from the iron giant to firefly they are all there. Our hero’s car of choice for racing is the DeLorean from back to the future.
Overall what we have is a great family movie, but one that has loads of movie and pop culture references for the movie buff.
