Warner Bros. dropped the new trailer for Steven Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’ on Facebook Live on Sunday, much to the delight of sci-fi adventure and Spielberg-movie fans. The film will hit theatres on March 30, 2018.
Based on its namesake debut novel by Ernie Cline, ‘Ready Player One’ appears to be packed with spectacular VR adventure and a quite a bit of retro pop-culture references if the trailer is anything to go by.
The year is 2045 – the place, Columbus, Ohio.
The film’s indigent teenage protagonist Wade Watts – by his own admission, a name picked by his dad “because it sounded like a superhero’s alter ego like Peter Parker or a Bruce Banner” – finds himself in a “tiny corner of nowhere,” with nowhere left to go except the OASIS.
In an over-populated, polluted, and corrupt existence, the virtual reality world of OASIS – the brainchild of the now dead James Halliday – provides the only escape from the all-pervading destitution and gloom.
OASIS is a “whole new virtual universe” where people go for “all the things they can do, but they stay for all the things they can be.”
It’s definitely much more than just a game AND it can be a dangerous place.
There is no dearth of the retro factor, as well – right from Speed Racer’s Mach 5 and Adam West’s Batmobile to King Kong and Chucky – all sharing the same virtual space created by the genius, Halliday.
Halliday appears to the gamers in a posthumous recording inside OASIS and offers half a trillion dollars and total control of the OASIS to whoever first finds the hidden Easter Egg he has created.
“I created a hidden object; an Easter Egg,” says Halliday. “The first person to find the egg will inherit half a trillion dollars and total control of the Oasis itself.”
And thus begins the scramble for the hidden egg.
Watt’s OASIS avatar, Parzival, teams up with his virtual friends in the OASIS in search of the all-promising egg and in doing so, attracts the attention of Innovative Online Industries (IOI), a corporate behemoth that wants the ultimate prize for itself.
IOI considers OASIS “the world’s most important economic resource” and will go to any lengths to have total control of Halliday’s creation.
The company hires the services of several online players to beat Watt at his game by getting to the egg first and the promised prize and control. For them, it’s the “control of the future” and they will treat it as “nothing less than war.”
Watch the trailer here.
Some fan reactions
You ever though of seeing A gundam, the iron giant, Overwatch, Tomb Raider, Street Fighter, King Kong and more in one movie? I didn’t. Steven Spielberg and Ernest Cline, thank you for #ReadyPlayerOne pic.twitter.com/6MXLIWmvfr
— Lutbarg (@Lutbarg) December 10, 2017
This guy’s legs lmao ?who allowed this poster to be released #ReadyPlayerOne pic.twitter.com/Nm6CvqShUI
— Asher (@asher_nieman) December 9, 2017
There is nothing wrong with the new Ready Player One poster.#stopbodyshaming pic.twitter.com/crbuRC8tYM
— Paultoes (@paultoesjohn) December 9, 2017
Chucky has a cameo in #ReadyPlayerOne, which will be the 1st time he’s appeared on the big screen since 2004.
Also 1st time he’s been in the same movie as Freddy.
Also 1st time Spielberg has directed him. pic.twitter.com/cmSz4LT4Ff
— John Squires (@FreddyInSpace) December 10, 2017
Anyone else notice they got the RX-78 in #ReadyPlayerOne #Gundam pic.twitter.com/brRauBbKwi
— Mike471 (@Mikhael471) December 10, 2017
In the wake of the new trailer, here’s my essay about Art3mis, the “trophy woman” of #ReadyPlayerOne.
One of my proudest articles I’ve written so far. https://t.co/EXbd64qYck pic.twitter.com/geJdOy3pw1— Beth Elderkin (@BethElderkin) December 10, 2017
Starring
- Tye Sheridan as Wade Owen Watts / Parzival
- Olivia Cooke as Samantha Evelyn Cook / Art3mis
- Ben Mendelsohn as Nolan Sorrento
- T. J. Miller as a bounty hunter
- Simon Pegg as Ogden Morrow
- Mark Rylance as James Donovan Halliday / Anorak
- Win Morisaki as Daito
- Lena Waithe as Aech
- Hannah John-Kamen
- Philip Zhao as Shoto
- Ralph Ineson as Rick
- Letitia Wright as Reb
- Mckenna Grace
Director: Steven Spielberg
Music: Alan Silvestri
Based on: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Releasing: March 30, 2018