Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a 2018 sci-fi adventure film,
titled Ready Player One. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
In the year 2045, humanity is going through tough times after years of draughts and riots.
Most of the population escapes these problems by spending most of their time connected to OASIS,
a virtual reality created by James Halliday and Ogden Morrow of Gregarious Games.
After Hallyday's death, a pre-recorded message from him appears announcing a competition to win
ownership of the OASIS. The players must find an easter egg hidden behind a gate that needs three
keys to be opened, which can be won through different competitions. This has obviously
gained the attention of millions of fans, but also of Nolan Sorrento, the CEO of IOI,
who wants to control OASIS through intrusive online advertising. His company has people
in debt working for him as indentured servants and gamers called "Sixers", who are all hunting
for the keys for him while having access to the company's resources. Normal fans looking for the
egg are known as "gunters", and if their avatars are killed in the game, they lose every item and
all the money they may have in OASIS. One of these gunters is Wade Watts, known as Parzival online,
an orphan living with his aunt and her husband in the slums. He spends lots of his online time with
his best friend Aech, and their buddies Daito and Sho, but he's never met them in person,
and they aren't a clan, because Wade doesn't do those. One of their main activities is hunting
for artifacts, which are very powerful items that can be won at the end of every level,
but today he and Aech are joining the race again. This race is the first competition that has
appeared for the key, but it's so hard, nobody has won it yet. Because he finds his car low in fuel,
Wade decides to start at the back so he can pick up the coins dropped by destroyed participants and
notices famous gunter Artemis is also joining the race on her bike. As soon as it begins,
hundreds of cars are destroyed by the various traps or even by their fellow racers' weapons,
although it seems Artemis is able to dodge all of it thanks to the size and speed of her bike.
When they reach the part where King Kong appears, both Wade and Aech must stand
back to prevent their vehicles from falling over the destroyed highway, but Artemis keeps going,
intending to jump over the gap. Thinking she won't make it, Wade jumps out of his car and grabs her
to pull her off the bike, which ends up crushed by King Kong. Once again, nobody wins the race.
Since Aech is an expert modder, they take her bike to his workshop and while he repairs it,
Artemis tests Wade's knowledge on Halliday and scolds him for having gotten in the way. He wants
to find the easter egg merely to get rich and live in a mansion, but Artemis is trying to save
both OASIS and the real world from Sorrento. When Wade returns to the real world, her aunt's husband
hits him for having taken their gaming gloves and causing them to lose some competitions, and his
aunt threatens with kicking him out if he touches her stuff again. But Wade can't stop thinking
about Artemis and their talk about Halliday, so he decides to visit Halliday's Journals, a
simulated archive of his life that appeared after his death so people could look into his brain.
The place used to be crowded with gunters, but nobody could find anything important there,
so nowadays the only person besides the occasional visitor is the man in charge, the Curator. Wade
revisits a memory of Halliday arguing with Morrow, where Halliday shows a serious dislike for the way
his creation is changing and a hate for making up rules. He wants OASIS to be a game again, to
go backwards as fast as possible, and this gives Wade an idea. When the time comes to race again,
he ignores everyone else and starts driving backward, which Artemis notices in her mirror.
This gives Wade access to a secret, trap-less road that goes underneath the main one and takes him
directly to the finish line, where Halliday's avatar gives him the first key and a clue.
Winning the race has also gained him one hundred thousand coins, which he uses to buy various
artifacts in the game and a suit in real life that allows him to feel what his avatar feels.
Meanwhile, Sorrento is under pressure from the IOI actionists for having lost the first key,
so he connects to the game and hires I-rok, a mercenary that sells him a rare artifact called
the Orb of Osuvox before accepting the job of taking down Wade. The scoreboard top five is now
taken by Wade and his friends, who also got clues after they repeated the trick of driving backward.
Now they have a new clue, Halliday's Journals center is full of people again, and Artemis
helps Wade to disguise his avatar to avoid all the attention from other gunters. They revisit an old
memory of Halliday's where they see Sorrento used to work for him as an intern, and while nowadays
he uses that fact to get perks at his company, the truth is he never did anything for Halliday or the
game other than bringing the coffee. The memory also shows Halliday and Morrow talking about a
date Halliday had with Karen Underwood a long time before she got married to Morrow. Karen died some
time ago, but Wade still finds it strange that she only appears once in Halliday's journals,
which the Curator doesn't believe because she was a very important part of their lives.
Wade bets all his money that he is right, and after the Curator checks the files and confirms
it, he pays the bet with a quarter. The memory of Karen must be so painful that Halliday deleted
all other mentions of her, and this must be the "leap not taken" the clue mentions,
since he never confessed his feelings for her. Wade is quickly developing a crush on Artemis, and
Aech scolds him for it, mentioning he doesn't know if in real life she isn't an extremely fat dude
living in his mom's basement. He also believes Artemis may be using him for clues, but Wade
doesn't care and meets with her at a club called The Distracted Globe, where a person working for
I-rok pretends to be a fan and plants a bug on him so I-rok can listen to his conversations.
This club was created by Halliday shortly after the memory Wade and Artemis saw last time,
and since Karen is said to be a dancer, Artemis thought this could be a good place to look
for clues. They dance together on a floating platform, hoping it will trigger some event,
and Wade is amazed at how he can feel Artemis' touch in real life thanks to his suit. He
confesses he loves her and even tells her his real name, which is something gunters should never do.
Artemis freaks out and scolds him for it, saying it's just an illusion and he isn't in love with
the real her but her avatar. At that moment, IOI arrives, armed and ready to take them out.
They defend themselves the best they can with the weapons they have at their disposal,
but there are too many of them, so Wade uses one of the artifacts he bought with his victory money:
a cube that turns everything back sixty seconds. The two of them escape safely,
but Artemis kicks him in the chest for not taking this seriously since she's doing this to destroy
IOI and to avenge her father who died in one of their centers trying to pay off his debt.
She leaves him there, claiming she can't let him distract her. I-rok calls Sorrento and tells him
that by using the information he heard from his spying, he's found out Wade's identity in the real
world. Sorrento sends his employee F'nale Zandor to Wade's neighborhood, while he invites him over
for a chat - he has a special system that allows Wade's avatar to appear in real life as a hologram
in front of him. While Sorrento gives him a speech about how much he truly cares about OASIS,
Wade notices his password on a post-it stuck to the chair before turning down Sorrento's bribe,
who then shows his true colors and tells him about the bomb he's sent to his trailer,
not knowing Wade does his gaming in a secret hideout. Wade runs back home to
try to warn his aunt but it's too late, the whole building explodes and his aunt dies.
At least Sorrento thinks Wade is dead as well, but he's actually being kidnapped by a bald guy
that takes him to a hidden building nearby where the rebels live. There he meets Samantha Cook,
the girl behind Artemis, who is ashamed of the birthmark on her eye but it isn't enough for Wade
to consider her anything but beautiful. When they are about to kiss, Samantha realizes that's the
leap Halliday didn't take, so they must visit the place they had their date at: the movies.
Samantha and Wade get online together with Aech, Daito, and Sho and go to the Halliday's
Journals center to check what movie Halliday could've seen during the date. They reach the
conclusion it must be The Shining, so they enter a simulated version of the hotel from the film.
While looking for clues, they encounter many of the movie's most famous scenes, like the twin
girls and the blood coming out of the elevator, until they make it to the ballroom, which is
modeled after an old game of Halliday's. Karen is dancing with a bunch of zombies while floating on
an abyss, so Samantha jumps from zombie to zombie until she reaches her and offers her a dance.
This unlocks a new clue and the second key, which Samantha gives to Wade to keep with the first one.
Later, while they are discussing the new clue at the rebel hideout, they are ambushed by a bunch of
drones and the police sent by Zandor, who followed the bald guy after seeing him on security cameras.
Wade manages to escape while Samantha distracts them, sending a message on her phone before she's
arrested and taken to IOI to work to pay for her father's debt. Wade is found on the streets by
Helen, the person behind Aech, who has brought her van and the company of Toshiro and Zhou,
the people behind Daito and Sho - they all came after receiving Samantha's message.
After destroying the drone trying to identify the van, the group drives away, and Wade learns IOI
has already worked out the third clue and found the place of the last competition, which consists
of finding the right Atari game among thousands. Sorrento has already sent all his Sixers to the
area, and in order to stop anyone else from trying to win, he orders I-rok to use the Orb of Osuvox,
which puts a magic shield around them that can only be taken down by a different spell from
the one that activated it. The friends' priority however, is saving Samantha. Helen has a plan:
using the password Wade read on Sorrento's chair, she hacks into his hologram system and makes him
think he's left the game when in truth he's seeing Wade's and Toshiro's avatars threatening him with
virtual guns. Thinking he's in danger, Sorrento gives them the code to Samantha's rig, which Wade
takes back to Helen while Toshiro stays watching over him. They contact Samantha, who has learned
it all about the third competition because she's working there, and guide her through the steps to
unlock her rig and escape. Instead of leaving the building however, she runs to Sorrento's office,
intending to use his system to put down the shield. She manages to get in after Sorrento
catches on the hacking and leaves, so after asking Wade for the password, Samantha tells him to raise
an army as she looks at Sorrento's inventory to learn the deactivating spell before sneaking out.
Wade starts streaming a message for the world, asking people to help him protect OASIS.
Millions of gamers come to his call, and together they wait for the shield to go down,
which Samantha manages to do when she pretends to be a Sixer and gains access to a rig, allowing
her to connect to the game and send a drone to approach the orb undetected and recite the spell.
She also notices IOI has finally found the right Atari game: it's Adventure, the first videogame
to ever have an easter egg. An epic battle begins between the gamers and IOI. At first,
it seems the gamers are winning, but then Sorrento releases his special weapon:
Mechagodzilla. Toshiro retaliates by summoning a Gundam, but he only has thirty seconds to use it,
which isn't enough to defeat Mechagodzilla so he's quickly kicked out of the game.
Helen uses her Iron Giant to bring Samantha closer to Mechagodzilla's head and she uses
the chance to throw a bomb inside the cockpit, defeating Sorrento and sending him back to the
real world. They lose Helen when her Iron Giant falls into the abyss while helping them cross
to the competition area, and Zhou gets I-rok out of the way by cutting his arm with a ninja star.
Samantha realizes that in real life, Sorrento is checking out all the Sixers in order to find her,
so Wade kills her avatar on purpose so she can disconnect and escape. She manages to do so and
runs to the streets to join the others in the van while Wade and Zhou reach the competition area,
where they see a Sixer fail the competition when he beats Adventure. Wade wants to try next,
but Sorrento and I-rok arrive and take Zhou hostage. Sorrento tries to bribe Wade again
and threatens to use a bomb that will delete every avatar in the area, Wade turns him
down and tries to stop him using hand-to-hand combat to no avail. Sorrento activates the bomb
and everyone disappears, but Wade is surprised to suddenly see his avatar materialize again:
it turns out the coin the Curator had given him grants him an extra life. Wade begins to play
Adventure, explaining that to find the easter egg you mustn't win, you must find a hidden dot,
which Halliway's clue also mentioned. After achieving so in the game, Halliday's avatar
appears in front of him and gives him the last key, which Wade has trouble taking because in
real life, the van is being hit by Zandor's cars. Since the last competition is being live-streamed,
Wade reveals his real name and location to the world to ask for help, and after some struggling,
he finally manages to put the three keys in the special door Halliday has revealed for him.
Wade needs a second to take care of real life before doing anything else in-game though,
because Zandor has jumped inside the van. Working together, the team manages to kick her out,
and Wade returns to OASIS, where Halliday asks him to sign a contract to gain control of everything.
Wade quickly realizes this is just a test because this is the contract that Halliday regrets signing
since it changed his creation into something he hated. He refuses to make the same mistake,
and this gains Halliday's approval, who replaces the fantasy setting and his avatar with his real
look in his old bedroom. He shows Wade the button that can shut down the entire OASIS,
which he almost presses by accident when the van continues to be hit by Sorrento, who has
found them and is chasing them through the slums. While Halliday searches for the egg to give Wade,
Sorrento hits the van again and manages to make it stop. When he comes out of his own vehicle,
the neighbors surrounded him, remembering the building he destroyed. But Sorrento gets them
to move away by threatening them with a gun and he makes his way to the van at the same time Halliday
finally finds the egg and hands it to Wade, reminding him of the importance of reality and
how it feels to be real. Sorrento opens the van and sees the egg light on Wade's hands,
and the admiration he feels makes him hesitate in his actions, giving the police enough time to
arrive and arrest him. Wade disconnects after saying goodbye to Halliday, who refuses to
explain what he means when he says he isn't an avatar but his real him is indeed dead.
After kissing Samantha, Wade talks to the recently arrived Morrow and his lawyers,
telling him he'll split the contract between his four friends, finally admitting they're a clan.
The five friends take over OASIS, and the first thing they do is hire Morrow as a consultor,
because he now understands that Karen wasn't Halliway's biggest regret, it was losing his
best friend to a business. He accepts as long as his salary is twenty-five cents, aka a quarter,
like an arcade. The second thing is shutting down IOI's use of indentured servants to work in the
game. The third thing is rather controversial: they close OASIS on Tuesdays and Thursdays,
following Halliday's wish for people to remember reality is what truly matters.