VGFlicks: Ready Player One (Part 4)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

Today: More spoilers as I explain the last 20 minutes of the movie, then my final thoughts - which are going to be pretty long.

Personally, I wouldn't sign unless it's a real piece of paper in the real world,
but I doubt that's the correct answer.

Yep, Wade used his real-life VR set-up to kick someone's
ass. ...Kinda impressive actually.

When we left off, ParZival had found the last key mostly unhindered, thanks to an Extra Life given to him earlier. He unlocked the last gate, discovering a room filled with riches, as well as a table with a contract. Halliday’s avatar, the wise Anorak (I still can’t get over the fact that his character is basically named “Winter Coat”), welcomes him inside and explains that by signing the contract, ParZival will be the sole owner of the OASIS and Halliday’s wealth. Outside, IOI’s forces are closing in on the van driven by Helen, with Nolan Sorrento’s henchwoman F’Nale even getting inside, but the team fights and kicks her out. I guess her name is lying, she’s not the villain of the finale.

With the threat removed, Wade sits and ParZival sets the pen to the contract, only to realize that something is fishy. Remember when I said that every challenge also included a part of Halliday’s regrets? This contract-signing scene is a parallel to what happened between Halliday and his business partner Ogden Morrow, of Gregarious Games. Halliday forced Morrow out of the company, and had his partner sign away his shares in the enterprise. After which, now lonely at the top, Halliday seemingly retreated into the OASIS for the rest of his life…

I mean, he seems integrated to the place much better than other CGI
characters in movies with real-life environments...

Having figured it out, ParZival tosses away the pencil. That was the right answer, as after confirming such, the place transforms to resemble a normal room in a live-action house, with Anorak now turned into the late James Halliday. No word is ever said on whether it’s a super-advanced AI or some kind of brain upload. The former seems more likely but then again, with all the mad stretches in technological prowess Halliday has accomplished - it's said he built the OASIS all by himself - the latter might not be so farfetched. Wade is walking around this room as his avatar, though, which is odd. This movie may be the first case of CGI characters in live-action environments where the animated characters aren’t supposed to blend in or pass off as real. We know it isn’t. This sequence is still in the OASIS. The room even has a child-aged James playing the Atari 2600 on an old TV set in the corner.

Halliday presents to ParZival the main feature of the room: A big red button which, when pressed, will release a worm virus that will completely erase the OASIS. Quick reminder that Wade is currently playing in a moving van, getting shaken left and right, with Sorrento now chasing after them in an IOI truck. “Try not to push it by accident on your first day,” as Halliday says.

Of course it's a big red button. The '80s loved that trope.

The fun and games always stop when someone
brings out a real weapon.

While the creator looks around this room for the Easter Egg, in order to give this hunt’s winner the well-deserved closure, Helen’s van gets to the Stacks in Columbus, where the IOI truck rams into them. Out comes Sorrento, who’s soon surrounded by people from the Stacks who heard from Wade earlier what IOI did - kill Wade’s family, and many other people, by bombing one of said Stacks. Everyone backs off when the boss of IOI brandishes a gun, though.

Oooo. Glowy.

Meanwhile, Halliday had been telling ParZival that no matter how great the virtual world is, there are experiences that can’t be had in a simulated world and reality will always be more important. ParZival is handed over the Egg just as Sorrento busts the van’s doors open, pointing his weapon at the kids, only to see Wade in awe, his hands emitting light, the screen on his VR set showing that he is holding the golden Easter Egg.

That’s when the cops show up to arrest the head of IOI, for bombing, but also because he pointed a fucking gun at a bunch of teenagers with hundreds of eyewitnesses around. Can’t go around blaming a one-armed man for that one. Off to the cop car you go.

"Thanks for playing my game." An innocuous phrase that we, gamers,
have read often, yet feels so powerful when said face-to-face by
the creator themselves.

Hi Og!

Halliday thanks ParZival for playing his game, and leaves for good with his younger self. Interpret that however you will. Wade exits the game just in time for another person to show up to the van: Ogden Morrow himself, holding the real contract - but Wade refuses to sign it unless he can share ownership of the OASIS and Halliday’s wealth with his team. Cops also show up to take a statement from the group following Sorrento’s arrest. Helen had sent them the recordings of Sorrento admitting responsibility for the bombing, so she gives them her statement.

These people either love the new heroes... or really hated IOI
and are happy that the company's basically gone.

Who earned who? They both fought to be together, and
kicked ass together, even apart.
That's what matters, right?

Oh, did you know Ogden was the Curator of the Halliday Journals? He reveals it at the end. We also get a narration from Wade, explaining everything he did afterwards. He and his group hired Ogden as consultant, then forbade IOI from using the OASIS in the Loyalty Centers, meaning the company could no longer enslave people into the game. Last thing they chose to do? Shut down the OASIS two out of seven days of the week, to force people to live in the real world every once in a while. On paper, good idea, in execution, well… Considering how closely tied to the OASIS the world’s economy has become, are we sure it’s a wise move? Hm, maybe it’ll encourage some people to actually put some cash on the side in real-life accounts, just so they don’t end up broke from losing a friggin’ game.

The End, roll credits.

I didn’t want this to be a four-part review, and in fact I probably could have trimmed it down a bit. I feel like there’s a lot of time spent explaining core elements of the plot, which is necessary for a movie as complex and with such a large backstory as Ready Player One. However, it’s a sign of effort being put into world-building, which isn't wasted as long as there's a good, interesting story to back it up.

Admittedly, real life in RPO is pretty depressing, and
that's why people got into the OASIS. But when something's
bad, you try to make it better! You don't flee from it!

The moral of anti-escapism has been presented with various levels of subtlety over the years, ranging from “don’t lose yourself in fiction” to “You’re an idiot if you like this book you’re reading right now”. Ready Player One goes for a similar Aesop on escapism, basically going “Pop culture is awesome and you should enjoy it, but don’t let it consume your life”. Admittedly, the moral works better in the movie than in the book. However, both pieces of media have the same problem: The message is muddled because our protagonist, Wade Watts, would have never seen his life improve significantly had it not been for an obsessive love for the pop culture of a particular decade. The challenges of the movie version at least justify their existence by also tying into real life events from James Halliday’s life, and contain Aesop of their own on top of the main one. (Again: Quoting an entire movie’s script from first to last page doesn’t really carry the same weight.)

On the topic of references: Due to the source material, this film relies a lot on Easter Eggs, surprise appearances from characters all over the place, from Marvin the Martian to Tracer and everything in-between. At least one video out there has spotted 300 different Easter Eggs. Ready Player One is one of those films that is best watched with the Pause and Rewind buttons nearby, which is sometimes great - but it can also be distracting. I guess you’ll enjoy the film if you can get past the references (because there’s still a lot of scenes that don’t actually rely on them), but if you’re taken out of the experience every time you recognize someone or something from another work, then the film may not be for you.

Admittedly, Daito and Shoto's players don't get as much
when it comes to development in the film, but there's
stuff that needs to be cut for a book-to-film adaptation.

On the topic of changes between the book and the movie: Pretty much all of them are good. Splitting Wade’s insane set of abilities and roles among his friends for the cinematic adaptation leads to a more believable story. According to what I’ve read in the book, Wade solved most puzzles, completed some insane challenges alone, had the hacking skills, was the one captured and forced into slavery by IOI all so he could destroy it from inside… he did everything and only needed his friends for some precise tasks. Expanding the roles of the other members of the High 5 is a very welcome change. I'm a bit angry that Samantha is relegated to "kidnapped woman", but unlike most examples she helps teh team a lot from inside the IOI  building. As for Nolan Sorrento, who was only a high-ranking employee of IOI in the book (and the head of IOI in the film), who also did almost everything by himself; that’s split between himself, I-R0k and F’Nale. The movie thankfully cuts out most of Ernest Cline’s filibusters and leaves only the commentary that matters for the plot. I feel that the story is better contained; it utilises all the beats of the classic Hollywood blockbuster that Steven Spielberg does so well, but the result is more enjoyable than if it followed the plot of the book without major changes. I feel like those changes add a lot of meaning to various scenes of the film. They add some internal logic and character motivations here and there, especially on the character of James Halliday.

And of course, great performance from Simon Pegg as
Ogden Morrow (and the Curator), portrayed over
multiple periods of the man's life.

The actors are all doing well in their roles, from Tye Sheridan as Wade to Ben Mendelsohn as Nolan Sorrento, Lena Waithe as Aech/Helen Harris, Olivia Cooke as Samantha… T.J. Miller is okay, but I don’t want to give him any praise. Props to Mark Rylance as James Halliday, portraying the awkward and somewhat asocial creator to great effect (though I admit it makes him sound like he's on some good drugs 90% of the time). The soundtrack is stellar, whether it’s the original orchestral soundtrack or any of the famous songs from the ‘80s that show up here and there, like Staying Alive or We’re Not Gonna Take It. You know how I have a tendency to praise the music (or sometimes a single track) even in meh or bad video game films? This one was relying on famous songs already.

That Shining scene is a must-see.

The special effects are great. I love many of the set pieces, and I especially love the attention to detail with the Stacks, each person’s own VR set-up, and of course the climactic chase scene. That attention to detail carries into the OASIS, with characters utilizing video game mechanics (like changing appearances, pulling items from an inventory or traveling through portals). I am astonished at the sheer size of the worlds created for the animated scenes and visited by characters. But of course, I am also impressed at the number of characters that show up, even for a single cameo, and the level of detail on every character as well. Then there’s the Shining scenes and the last moments of the contest, in Halliday’s room. I love the contrast between the real world (or replicated live-action footage) and the CGI characters, which are meant to feel out of place in that environment (unlike other live-action movies with CGI main characters, who pretend that the animated character really is part of the world).

I don't think I'm gonna believe that scene anytime soon...
Though I still think it's pretty cool.

There are things that stretch my suspension of disbelief, some plot holes and other elements that I can’t quite get past. How did the Sixers of IOI get the first key? How likely was it that the entire team of heroes lived in Columbus? Just what IS that Halliday at the end? Are we really supposed to believe that Halliday built the OASIS alone? Or that he has literally created levels based on all the movies he has watched, that people can then visit, with the same live-action environments and even the film grain? Or, in fact, that live-action room at the end? Why did he create a bomb that could kill everyone on a planet if the game’s economy has come so tied to the real world’s? Why hasn’t he put measures in place to make sure people wouldn’t go penniless IRL from just losing at a video game? Why didn't moderators, or even authorities, put a stop to IOI's Loyalty Centers as soon as those things led to deaths? And just how the heck do multidirectional treadmills work anyway?

King Kong is chasing the DeLorean.
Just one of many weird combinations.

The movie is flawed, but I definitely enjoy it. I understand that not everyone can appreciate the self-congratulating tone of these massive crossovers, these movies that seem to exist solely to cram in as many references as possible. I actually liked it more for the story around the references than for the various moments where those references pass by, even if it’s enjoyable to recognize stuff here and there. It’s long (140 minutes), but there was a lot of elements to set up and a lot of characters and backstory to show.

I think I like it for another reason: Ready Player One takes a lot of concepts seen in other movies about video games, and executes them better. It’s about a game taking the world by storm and becoming a competition with huge money for who wins, but it’s more hopeful than Gamer. It presents VR gaming realistically, with a few additional touches, and presents a treasure quest said to be almost unbeatable, but does it better than Spy Kids 3D. Arguably, it puts more focus on the references than Wreck-It Ralph did, but whether that’s a good thing is up to each person. It banks on nostalgia, but does it way, way, WAY better than Pixels.

I like this movie!

It made me want to review another story in which a game has taken over the world. Just give me some time, it's a Wii game.