Ready Player One (film)

Ready Player One is a 2018 film adapation of the novel of the same name by Ernest Cline, directed by Steven Spielberg. It takes place in the year 2049, where the entire world is hooked into a virtual reality massive multiplayer online role-playing game called "OASIS". OASIS is so popular that on top of the many different worlds to travel and the many weapons, items and vehicles you can create/buy there, it also is the most dominant source of economic revenue -- meaning that the money you gain in the game, you gain in real life as well. However, if you lose, you lose everything -- the money, clothes, your avatar, you name it.

It tells the story of Wade Watts, an orphan raised by his aunt, who enters the game through his Avatar Parzival. He become one of the many "Gunters" on the hunt for an Easter Egg that the Game Creator, James Halliday, left behind prior to his death. Whoever gets the Easter Egg gains ownership of the company behind OASIS, as well as OASIS itself and all of Halliday's shares, worth up to half a trillion dollars. Along with Parzival, many people are after the egg for their own reasons:

• Aech, Parzival's best friend, a game mechanic who helps maintain busted vehicles and commissions various creations.
• Daito and Sho, a Samurai-and-Ninja-themed Gunter duo who mostly fight for coin and artifacts.
• Art3mis aka The Sixer Fixer, whom Parzival has a massive crush on, and a badass gunter who has a major grudge against the Sixer's boss.

Said boss is Nolan Sorrento, the CEO of Innovative Online Industries (IOI), the company that produces the many real world gadgets needed to access OASIS. Determined to gain control and ownership of OASIS, Sorrento employs a personal army of indentured servants, researchers and random gamers to find and solve the clues Halliday left behind.

After Parzival and his friends figures out the first two clue and solve the corresponding challenges, Sorrento focuses his attention on him, trying everything he can to get the egg. Parzival in returns works with his fellow Gunters in hopes to stop him.

With the exception of certain changes, the movie pretty much follows the same story as the book, even including as many pop cultural references the book itself has been known for.

Tropes used in Ready Player One (film) include:

• Adaptation Distillation: While the movie does follow the novel closely. Certain changes to it have been made for various reasons.
  • The first clue takes place in a race instead of a Joust match. The race itself is impossible to beat. With obstacles including but not limited to King Kong, guarding the finish line. With the clue itself simplified into just going backwards rather than forwards. Which Parzival uses to gain the key.
  • The second clue, takes place in a recreation of the Overlook Hotel, from the movie The Shining; rather than Zork like the Novel. However much like the book, Art3mis gets it first.
• Armor-Piercing Punch: After Sorrento is arrested, he is put in the same patrol car as F'Nale Zandor who was stewing over the beating she received from the High Five. When Sorrento tries to persuade her into planning their next move, she socks him in the face. Shutting him up as the cops take them away.
• Big Bad: Nolan Sorrento. He has vast amounts of wealth, an army of gamer mooks called Sixers that do his grunt work for him and a team of Halliday Scholars, who help him crack codes and attempt to manipulate Wade into thinking he's not so bad.
• Big Brother Instinct When Sho is revealed to be an 11 year old boy named Zhou. Wade is impressed, calling him badass much to his glee. However, during the tail end of the final battle, Parzival is very protective of Sho. When they try to cross the destroyed bridge, using Aech's Iron Giant; I-Rok tries to stop them both, by shooting off the Giant's fingers. The first thing Parzival does, is keep Sho from falling. Sho in turn is able to literally disarm I-Rok with the Glaive from Krull.
• Brick Joke: The X-1 Haptic Bootsuit is a big one. For context, the bootsuit is a full body haptic suit designed to fully immerse the player into the game. Any sensations they feel in the game, they feel in real life. First it gets advertised all over through billboards in "The Stacks." Second, when Wade argues with Rick regarding the former's gloves; Wade remarks that Rick couldn't win an artifact hunt if he had a full bootsuit. When Wade as Parzival wins the first Key, he spends the added prize money on a Bootsuit for himself. Which later comes to use when he and Art3mis go to the Distracted Globe (See The Tease below.) However Reality Ensues, when the Sixers come busting in. While neither got Zero-ed out, Parizval did sustain hits from their guns that hurt him in real life. Later on before his Aunt Alice and Rick are killed by Sorrento, Rick is seen wearing a bootsuit. Last but not least in The final battle between Parzival and Sorrento, Parzival flash kicks Sorrento in the groin. Since Sorrento was also wearing a Bootsuit, that means Wade kicked Sorrento in the nuts so hard he nearly broke them.
• Convergent Non Sequitur: When Parzival prepares for his date with Art3mis at the Distracted Globe, among the outfits he was choosing; he picks Buckaroo Banzai's outfit. Believing that if he showed up in the outfit of his favorite movie, Art3mis would be impressed. Aech among most warnings, tries to tell him not to be that guy. When Parzival goes to the Distracted Globe and Art3mis meets him there, she practically squees over his outfit stating that she loves Buckaroo Banzai.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: While Sorrento is the villain, his company IoI did make enough of a profit. By providing products for people to immerse themselves in the Oasis. Such as X-1 Haptic Bootsuit.
• The Dreaded: Many characters fall under this trope.
  • Art3mis being called the Sixer Fixer has weight to it as the beginning of the movie has her take out as many Sixers as she could in the race challenge.
  • I-Rok, a mercenary under Sorrento's employ has spent the longest in the Oasis than anyone else has ever. 10 years of upgrading and prepping himself so that nothing can stop him. He's also a crack shot with his rifle and barely has to say a few words to clear a table full of gamers away.
• Easter Egg: On top of the contest being based around the concept of this trope, there are many Easter eggs in the movie. Some of which are items, costumes and even avatars that take on the form of an item or person from a popular movie/tv show/video game/etc.
• Even Evil Has Standards: When Sorrento threatens to use the Cataclyst to destroy all the avatars on Planet Doom, I-Rok backs him up by holding Sho hostage. It started out as an effort to intimidate Parzival into surrendering the third key to IoI. But when Parzival refuses, Nolan decides to go through with the threat. Since the Cataclyst is said to wipe out all including whoever uses it, I-Rok objects. Not wanting to lose "10 Years worth of shit." Inside of him. When Parzival fights Sorrento, I-Rok lets Sho go and tries to make it out of the Oasis before the bomb goes off. He makes it to the portal, but before he can reach it, the bomb explodes. Taking him and the remaining portal with him along with everyone else.
• Fanservice / Fan Disservice: Played for laughs during The Shining challenge. Aech who has not seen the movie, wanders aimlessly around the Overlook Hotel. After learning the hard way about the elevator full of blood, he/she is swept away in said blood and thrown into Room 237. Upon seeing the bathtub lady in her originally sexy nude form, he/she becomes enamoured with her. However much like Jack Torrence, Aech looks in the mirror and back at the woman who's now a rotting old lady. As if things couldn't get worse for Aech, Jack Torrence and the Old Lady try to kill him/her.
• GIRL: Joked about between Aech and Parzival. Parzival has a massive crush on Art3mis and while preparing for their date at The Distracted Globe, Aech, who suspects ulterior motives regarding Art3mis; makes various claims to try to talk him out of it. Such as the age old internet joke that Art3mis may be a guy in real life. When Aech reveals himself in the real world as a woman named Helen Harris, it becomes an inversion of the trope. And their talk regarding this trope is what clued them in to each other's identities.
• Gondor Calls For Aid: Deliberately invoked during the third challenge. Art3mis tasks the High Five into raising an army on Planet Doom, while she takes down the forcefield created by the Orb of Osuvox. When Parzival goes to Castle Anorak, he calls the entire Oasis. Giving a Rousing Speech to them in an effort to persuade them to join the fight. It doesn't seem to work at first, until the inhabitants of every planet, in all their pop culture glory come running in. Most of them Gunters like the High Five.
• Groin Attack: During the final fight between Parzival and Sorrento, Wade does a Super Kick which nails Sorrento in the groin. Because Sorrento is wearing an X-1 Haptic Bootsuit, he feels the kick in real life. Since the Super Kick is extremely powerful, the pain from the bootsuit was so unbearable that once Sorrento Zeros out, the first thing he takes off is the codpiece of the suit.
• It's Personal: Two examples of Gunters having a grudge against IoI and Nolan Sorrento.
  • The first is Art3mis. She has a beef with Nolan Sorrento and IoI, because her dad was addicted to the Oasis. The result put him in so much debt that he was forced to join the loyalty program to pay it off. Said loyalty program requires recruits to be locked into the Oasis and forced to do manual labor for IoI and The Sixers, until the debt is repaid. As bad enough as that is, interest increases the more you are in the center, putting you in a state of perpetual debt. As if things can't get any worse, her father among many loyalty members worked himself to death. Art3mis relentlessly hunts for the egg as well as destroys any Sixer she comes across earning the name "The Sixer Fixer." Her obsession so deep, that she is extremely protective of Parzival to the point where she berates him for saying his real name. As well as disgusted at him for immersing himself in a world that contributed to her father's death, ignorant to the real world suffering IoI causes people on a secondly basis. However once Wade loses his aunt in an assassination attempt by IoI, she recruits him to her cause.
  • Parzival himself. Before, he was mostly looking for the egg as part of his love of the game and personal gain. However things get rocky after IoI catches wind of his winning the Copper Key. Nolan Sorrento tries to offer him money to help IoI find the Egg. While Parzival is tempted, he refuses both out of principle and out of disgust regarding Sorrento besmirching Halliday's name. Sorrento in turn has F'Nale bomb his aunt's house with IoI drone missiles. In an attempt to assassinate him. While Wade. his aunt and her boyfriend Rick didn't get along, he still loved her enough to try to warn them of the attack. When Wade and Toshiro hack Sorrento's rig, making him think he's in the real world and they're holding him at gunpoint; he makes mention of his willing to kill Sorrento just for killing his aunt.
• Precision F-Strike: During the battle at the Castle of Anorak, Aech hands a game weapon over to Parzival. Said weapon turns out to be an unstable Chucky doll who will try to kill anyone near it. When Parzival and Art3mis, finally throw him out, the first Sixer he lands on has this to say before getting killed:

 Sixer: It's FUCKING CHUCKY!!!

• Rousing Speech: Parzival gives one in an effort to get the Oasis, to join the fight on Planet Doom.

 Parzival: Citizens of the OASIS: I'm Parzival, first to the key. I am here talking to all of you now because our future is threatened. For people who will not stop at nothing to win this contest. Some of you already know this. You have lost much more than just your avatars or your weapons. Some have lost their freedom. Some have lost their lives. And now, this. A force field around the third challenge. I only came here to escape the shitty hand that life dealt with. But I stayed, like many of you...because I found something much bigger than just myself. I found a cause. I found my friends And yes, I know it is kind of a groaner, but...I found love. And I don't wanna lose it to this colossal douchebag named Nolan Sorrento. He thinks that we're all too distracted to even notice...Nolan Sorrento thinks that we won't put up a fight. And now we're supposed to hand him the OASIS? He thinks that we won't even put up a fight. Well... I say he is wrong. I say, tell that to the gunter clans in the gold mines of Gygax. Ask yourselves... Are you willing to zero out for the OASIS? Are you willing to fight? I am Parzival of the HIGH five. In the name of Art3mis and in the name of Aech. In the name of Daito and Sho. We ask you to join us on planet Doom. In the name of James Halliday himself...Help us save the OASIS.

• The Tease: Art3mis does it non stop at The Distracted Globe. While both are dancing, she moves close to him asking if he came prepared. Asking what kind of Haptics he was wearing. First she rubs his arm which he can see and feel through his bootsuit. When he reveals he's got the X1, she slides under him, feeling him up from his thighs, to his crotch to up his torso. Which naturally he also feels in real life. However the moment is ruined when he tries to confess his love and reveal his real name to her. As if things can't get any worse, The Sixers come in and crash the party in an attempt to kill both, Parzival and Art3mis.
• Worthy Opponent: Parzival to Sorrento. Throughout the entire movie, despite Nolan tempting Wade and trying to kill him both in the real world and the Oasis; he has a lot of respect for him. The most prominent moments being: When he first meets Parzival in the IoI office, he tries to appeal to his love of pop culture, but when Parzival sees through it he drops the act and seemed glad he said no. When he thinks Wade is gonna shoot him for having his Aunt Alice killed, he tries to calm him down thinking he's really snapped. Even telling him where Samantha is locked up. When Parzival rallies up the gamers, rather than be mad, he's amused at his audacity. Before Parzival fights him, he tries one last time to get him to back down offering $50 Million dollars to sweeten the deal. When he finally manages to reach Wade to shoot him, he couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger when he sees the Egg. Instead staring at him in awe and surrendering to the police.
• You! Get Me Coffee!: Why Sorrento hates Halliday so much. He was an intern working at Gregarious Games and even expressed ideas for a membership program which could help the company profit more. However Halliday flat out ignores the ideas, only complimenting him on getting his coffee order right.