Ready Player One Trailer, My Thoughts

In 2011, Ernest Cline wrote the dystopian science fiction novel Ready Player One. The book told the tale of a teenage boy named Wade Watts living in a future ravaged by global warming and an energy crisis. To escape the roughness of his world, he and many others spend their time in the OASIS, a virtual reality world where one can be whatever they wanted.

Five years previously, OASIS's co-creator, James Halliday had passed away, and his final will and testament was a massive hunt: An Easter Egg that when found, would grant the giver superuser power over the OASIS and a massive fortune. When Watts finds one of the keys to the egg, it leads to an epic quest, using Halliday's obsession with 1980s pop culture to find the other keys.

The book has been highly praised, and won several awards. And now...it's betting adapted to film, helmed by, appropriately enough, Steven Spielberg. And here's the trailer.

The trailer begins with Wade Watts introducing himself, while walking through the Stacks, the large improvised skyscrapers made from trailers. It looks...very much like I imagined it, all ramshackle and slapdash. Yeah, if the world looked like this, I'd want to spend all my time in a virtual reality, too.

Oh boy, the city is doing that Doctor Strange warping thing. Is the Doc on a bender?

Hey, Wade's got the DeLorean with the KITT scanner in it, just like in the book! Awesome!
I wonder what that music is in the club scene. Is that New Order? Sounds like them.

I'm guessing the girl is Art3mis.

Let the hunt begin! Gunters, grab your gear, and stock up your inventory with all your healing potions!

Aw yeah, Van Halen!

Hey, is that Sofia Boutella? Man, she's getting everywhere these days. Good for her.

Hmm, it seems they'll be playing with the plot a bit. Makes sense, they probably did have to change some things for the film adaptation. It looks like in this version, the "gunters" (The people who hunt for Halliday's Easter Egg, the term is a corruption of "egg hunters") are an actual rebellion that are fighting to get the egg from the megacorp Innovative Online Industries (IOI). Maybe in this version, the IOI have a more tyrannical grip on the world. A corporatocracy. This is the GOP's wet dream.

Oh man, that final battle looks like it'll be AWESOME. I imagine the makers must've had to shell out a TON of money for the licensing. Seriously, look at all these characters! I saw Overwatch's Tracer, Street Fighter's Chun-Li, a freakin' GUNDAM, Chucky from Child's Play, and people have pointed out other hidden cameos, like the Mach 5 from Speed Racer and the Batman '66 Batmobile. King Kong, THE IRON GIANT. Man, this is so cool.

I loved the book, so I am excited for the movie. I can't wait to see what they do with this.