20 Most WTF Movie Moments Of 2018 (So Far)

14. The Shining Homage - Ready Player One

Overlook Hotel Shining
Warner Bros.

Steven Spielberg's feature-length celebration of nerd culture is jam-packed full of references to classic video games and movies, but by far the most substantive and technically impressive homage has to be the extended tribute to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.

The sequence in question sees the heroic gang known as the High Five enter a re-creation of the classic horror movie, at which point they encounter a boatload of Shining iconography within the iconic Overlook Hotel: creepy twin girls, an elevator full of blood, that famous 1921 photograph (but with Mark Rylance replacing Jack Nicholson), dancing ghosts, a beautiful naked woman who turns out to be not-so-beautiful, and even an axe through the door.

In a movie that sometimes overdoes it with shallow nods to beloved pop-culture mainstays, this one really felt like it came from a place of love, and its totally unexpected nature only made it all the more stunning.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.