Photo Credit: Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros.
Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One – the big screen adaptation of Ernest Cline's 2011 debut novel – got a full trailer late on Sunday, which gives us a better idea of what the film will be about beyond being a giant collection of references and Easter eggs for every other franchise out there.
The sci-fi story, set in 2045, follows a youngster named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) who gets away from his humdrum real life to live and enjoy an advanced virtual reality game called OASIS, much like everyone else around him. Upon the death of its founder James Halliday (Mark Rylance), his will reveals that there's an Easter egg inside OASIS (we know it's meta), and that the first person to find it would inherit his wealth and the system itself.
The new two-minute Ready Player One trailer does a good job of setting up that premise, including the poverty-stricken nature of Watts' real world, and the endless (virtual) possibilities of OASIS. "It's the only place where I feel like I mean anything," Watts says at one point. An advanced body suit even allows players to feel the touch of others, and the in-game currency has become the only stable currency that means anything.
Owing to that, control of the OASIS is coveted by nearly everyone, including major corporations who stand to benefit massively. That pits Watts – who goes by the moniker Parzival – and his new friend, Samantha Cook / Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) against their might, which unfolds both inside and outside the OASIS. Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One) plays the big bad Nolan Sorrento, head of a big company that's interested in monetising OASIS.
Ready Player One – which marks Spielberg's return to sci-fi as director after 13 years – also stars T.J. Miller (Silicon Valley) as bounty hunter i-R0k, Simon Pegg (Star Trek) as Ogden Morrow, Letitia Wright (Black Panther) as Reb, Lena Waithe (Master of None) as Aech, and Hannah John-Kamen (Black Mirror) as F'Nale Zandor among others. It's going to be one of the biggest movies in 2018, with a reported budget of $185 million (about Rs. 1,190 crore).
Ready Player One will release March 30, 2018 worldwide.
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