Reader Player One: 10 Biggest Changes From The Book

A big part of what makes Cline's novel so compulsively readable is the central treasure hunt. Like the Harry Potter novels and The Da Vinci Code before it, Ready Player One hinges on a series of mysteries and riddles which call upon the knowledge and skills of our heroes, leading toward the grand prize at the heart of it all.

This remains in the movie, except the three pivotal challenges leading to the three keys barely resemble the tasks Parzival and company must face in the novel.

In the book, 'gunters' have spent years puzzling over one clue Halliday left, when Wade finally realises the location of the first key is on the very planet within the OASIS where his school is located (the fact that schools exist inside the OASIS is largely omitted from the film, beyond one brief reference).

Wade/Parzival then locates the key in a recreation of a cave from Dungeons and Dragons, and wins the key via arcade game Joust. This, however, is only the first part of the challenge; having found the Copper Key, he must then find the Copper Gate, and face another lengthy and nerdy challenge (which we'll come back to later).

As fun as this is to read, it would have made for pretty dull viewing, so it's for the best that the film replaces this with a seemingly impossible road race - which Wade defeats thanks to his smarts as much as his skills.

In addition, the Gates are left out completely, with all three Keys instead presented at the final challenge.