Reader Player One: 10 Biggest Changes From The Book

If there was one aspect of Ready Player One that seemed most certain to be radically reworked for the screen, it was the uneasy love story of Parzival and Art3mis.

Their blossoming friendship, and Wade's subsequent infatuation with someone he's never even seen in the flesh, may well ring true to many modern readers, male and female alike, who've found love - or mistakenly thought they had - via the internet.

However, many vocal critics of the novel felt that Wade's behaviour after Art3mis rejects his romantic advances amounted to cyber-stalking, something for which the protagonist is never directly admonished. (Notably, Wade speaks of Art3mis 'dumping' him, when they had never been a couple in the first place.)

It makes sense, then, that the movie sees Art3mis/Samantha (Olivia Cooke) given a far more active and authoritative role, via a new and pretty huge plot device: a real-world resistance against the corporate villainy of IOI.

The inclusion of this whole real-world element radically changes the dynamic of the latter half of the story, as Wade and Samantha - who, in the novel, do not meet in person until the very last pages - are able to get to know one another and fall in love (with Samantha clearly requiting) under much healthier, more organic conditions.

These changes also lead to Samantha playing a much more vital role in the climax, which we'll come back to.