Ready Player One Trailer Explained: 10 Things We Learned

In the novel, Parzival's virtual activities in the OASIS are shown to have a very real impact on Wade's life, most startlingly in the bombing of his home. However, the trailer hints at a great deal more going on in the real world.

First, at 1 minute 34 seconds in, we glimpse a scene which definitely didn't exist in the novel: Wade and Samantha cornered by soldiers from IOI (an evil corporation desperate to claim the OASIS for themselves), forced to run for their lives for real, whilst Samantha's voiceover warns "this isn't just a game; I'm talking about actual life and death stuff."

Later, while the two sit side by side in a dirty looking room surrounded by tents, Samantha says, "welcome to the rebellion, Wade." Again, not a scene from the novel, and it would suggest a whole new dimension to the story, with Wade not only battling IOI as Parzival, but joining some kind of a real-world resistance.

This all seems to confirm what Mark Rylance (Spielberg's go-to guy after Bridge of Spies and The BFG, who stars here as Halliday) told Vanity Fair back in July: "the film is very faithful to the book, but also an original story... people who read the book will still not know how it’s going to work out."

That said, certain key aspects of Cline's were always guaranteed to be there...