Ready Player One Trailer Explained: 10 Things We Learned
1. It's A Lot More Timely Than We Might Have Expected
While some have accused Ready Player One of being an indulgent exercise in nostalgia and adolescent male wish fulfilment (and not without reason), this is to overlook the intelligent projections Cline's story makes about how internet culture might advance in the years ahead, with gaming and social media amalgamating - and the wider population spending less and less time in the real world.
Parzival's struggle to find the Easter Egg first isn't just about fortune and glory; it's about ensuring the OASIS does not wind up in the hands of a greedy corporation who want to force its users to pay, and exert control over what is or is not allowed within the virtual universe. As Ben Mendelsohn's antagonist Sorrento declares, the OASIS is "the world's most important economic resource."
Whilst Cline was merely alluding to fears that have long existed about the fate of the internet, these themes have proved eerily prescient in the run-up to Ready Player One's release, with America's FCC announcing plans to repeal net neutrality; a move that has prompted widespread condemnation and concern.
And so, when Ready Player One shows the ordinary users of a virtual reality world uniting in defiance of corporate profiteers who seek to monetise that which is not rightfully theirs, we can't help but note the real world resonances.
Perhaps we need this film a lot more than we might have thought right now.