PLAYER ONE
In 2045, to
nobody’s surprise, the world of Ready
Player One looks pretty much like the dystopia envisioned by scientists
today—overcrowded, polluted, dangerous, with millions of people living in
squalor. In Ernest Cline’s rich and
lively novel Ready Player One, the
population mostly survives the general devastation by inhabiting a version of
virtual reality, a not unlikely prospect.
Anyone with a computer can create an avatar, some idealized version of
themselves, and log into a global virtual world called OASIS, where most of
them spend a good deal of their waking lives.
The
protagonist of the novel and Steven Spielberg’s adaptation, Wade Watts,
participates in OASIS through his ancient laptop, improving his appearance by
means of a created persona, his avatar, and calling himself Parzival,
appropriate for someone on a quest for something like the Holy Grail. Inspired by the legacy of the creators of
OASIS, Wade/Parzival (Tye Sheridan) and two sidekicks, Art3mis (Olivia Cooke)
and Aech (Lena Waithe), pursue a series of cryptic clues, solve riddles, engage
in contests, and battle a horde of rivals, some of them avatars, others actual
humans, in order to obtain three magical keys and achieve a prize that will
transform their lives and OASIS as well.
In addition to the trio’s various complicated
adventures, including an ongoing struggle against the murderous head of a
corporation attempting to take over OASIS, the film depends upon the book’s
profound engagement with popular culture, particularly teen culture from the
1980s. Thanks to the memories preserved
in various electronic devices, Wade possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of comic
books, video games, movies, songs, and television shows from that time, all of
which aid him in his quest. He must, for
example, play an antiquated game against a created monster to gain access to an
important goal; a fan of Back to the
Future, he drives the famous DeLorean from that movie in an important race;
he finds himself repeating some of actions of the TV shows he has watched over
and over (Family Ties is a particular
favorite); his sidekick Aech, also an adept, enlists the comic book character Iron
Giant in a climactic showdown.
Although the movie strips down and simplifies
many of the novel’s complications, Spielberg manipulates all the avatars,
monsters, and battles with his customary skill and the usual assistance of
digital technology; in fact, the novel really seems a natural choice for his
sort of filmmaking. In a complex
sequence that some people call intertextuality he in effect makes another movie
inside his movie. He places the trio of questers
inside a perfect reproduction of The
Shining, repeating many of that movie’s most memorable moments, like the
ocean of blood by the elevators, the two sinister little girls, the decayed
crone, and even the photograph, slightly modified, of the Hotel Overlook’s
guests from the past. It’s a kind of tour de force for a filmmaker who often
specializes in such gestures.
Although I generally avoid comic
book movies, superhero movies, special effects extravaganzas, and all the other
expensive and elaborate claptrap that passes for filmmaking these days, Ready Player One actually works, with
its strong story, terrific sets, and rich context of popular culture. The translation of the novel into the visual
medium, probably partly a result of the author himself collaborating on the
screenplay, succeeds admirably. The only
surprise about the film is the very limited commentary it has inspired; it
deserves more.
