10 MORE Times Doctor Who Appeared In Movies

9. Ready Player One

Doctor Who TARDIS Ready Player One
Warner Bros. Pictures

Ready Player One – both the Ernest Cline novel and the Steven Spielberg-directed 2018 film adaptation – is one big homage to pop-culture.

The premise is that the world's population is addicted to an online virtual reality called the OASIS, which, like the real internet, is full of movie and TV references. More obvious examples from the movie are scenes set in The Shining's Overlook Hotel and on Voltron's Planet Doom, but Doctor Who fans have to keep their eyes peeled to get their fix.

One of the many challenges that protagonist Wade Watts has to overcome is a seemingly unbeatable race, which, of course, he beats. After his victory, Wade's avatar goes to a workshop with his friends, and tucked in the background, you can spot the familiar shape of a blue police box.

The TARDIS isn't the only fictional gizmo in the shop either – half of The Iron Giant takes up most of the foreground, while the Ferrari from Ferris Bueller's Day Off can also be spotted.

Spielberg is said to be a Whovian himself, and reportedly came close to being involved in a Doctor Who revival in the mid-1990s, which eventually became the 1996 TV Movie. But this Ready Player One easter egg is as close as he's got.

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Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.