Ready Player One: Ranking Every Character From Worst To Best

2. James Halliday

Ready Player One Mark Rylance
Warner Bros.

If it wasn't clear before, it is now: Mark Rylance should be in every Spielberg movie. The actor has proved to be a lucky charm for the director in recent years, and he follows up his excellent turns in Bridge of Spies and The BFG with another superb performance here.

His James Halliday is a nerdy tech-genius who falls somewhere between Willy Wonka and Steve Jobs, and we get a very clear understanding of his motives for leaving it all behind to one lucky individual and the slight tragedy at the core of the character, while coming across as slightly Gandalf-esque in the OASIS.

He may not be the lead character, but he helps provide the emotional core of the movie, and has its most affecting scene towards the end.

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Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.