Ready Player One Teaser Trailer: Analyzed
I throw out the term "most anticipated" quite loosely, but when I say that Ready Player One is my most anticipated movie ever, I mean it. The book, written by Ernest Cline, is my favorite book of all time, so naturally when I heard a movie was in the works in 2012, I was excited. The teaser trailer from San Diego Comic-Con released last week, and needless to say I was super hyped and loved it (you can watch my reaction to the trailer here).
The film takes place in 2044 and follows a teenager named Wade Watts. The world is pretty bleak and the only escape is a virtual world known as the OASIS, which is essentially a beefed up MMORPG. Although it's a virtual reality video game, *everyone* uses the OASIS. You can get an education and a job in the OASIS, and life is essentially better and more fun there. The game's creator, James Halliday, was a huge 80's junkie and when he died, he announced that he set up an Easter egg within the OASIS for his fortune. Whoever finds the Easter egg first wins his inheritance (which is a lot of dough $$$). Everyone is obsessed with this Easter egg hunt and become serious "gunters" (egg hunters), including Wade.
The book is famously known for being filled with countless references to 1980's pop culture, especially video games and movies. As a result, many fans were curious how the film would turn out and what references it would contain. Even with just a 2 minute teaser, there is already so much to dissect. For those who haven't read the book, some of these Easter egg breakdowns will include mild spoilers, so for those who don't want to know anything about the movie, SPOILER ALERT. Now let's take a look at the teaser (for the millionth time):
One of the first things in the teaser is the Amblin Entertainment logo, which starts off as an homage to Ready Player One director Steven Spielberg's E.T. I was immediately catfished by this because I thought the teaser was starting off with a legitimate reference to E.T. in the movie! Oh well.
The first actual shot in the trailer is of the Stacks. The Stacks is a typical neighborhood in this world where trailer homes are stacked on top of each other, hence the name. Wade lives in the Stacks with his terrible aunt. As Wade makes his way through the Stacks, he passes by a woman inside a trailer home pole dancing wearing OASIS visors. At first, I thought this woman might be Wade's aunt or Mrs. Gilmore, a nice elderly woman who's basically Wade's only friend in real life. However, I think she might just be some random lady living in the Stacks.
Next, we see Wade enter his hideout where he finds solace and plays the OASIS. We see Wade put on his OASIS rig and then he enters the world of the OASIS. The first picture from Ready Player One, which was released before the teaser and shown above, shows Wade in his hideout as well. There are many Easter eggs found within this picture, such as newspapers and magazine articles about James Halliday, nerdy lunch boxes, and 80's stickers (I personally like the Garfield one).
As Wade logs into the OASIS, a cover of Gene Wilder's "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is playing in the background. This is a very suitable reference because the Easter egg hunt and OASIS are very reminiscent to the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The person walking in the middle of the frame is Wade's avatar named Parzival. He's entering a nightclub, called The Distracted Globe, where players can dance around in zero-gravity (later seen in the shot). Walking immediately past Parzival in the bottom left corner are Harley Quinn and Deathstroke, famous DC Comics villains (many people thought Deadshot was Deadpool, but it's actually Deadshot). As Parzival steps into the nightclub, we can see The Lord of the Rings' Gandalf dancing above, as well as other Warner Bros. characters dancing.
After the nightclub shot, the freakin' Iron Giant is shown next to two characters, likely Daito or Shoto (Japanese OASIS gunters whom Wade befriends). Although I'm very excited to see Iron Giant in Ready Player One, there is some controversy surrounding this decision. Spielberg announced at Comic-Con that the Iron Giant will play an important role in the film, meaning he's replacing Ultraman. Ultraman is an old 1960's Japanese TV show, and the titular character becomes a playable character and key player in the book. Having the Iron Giant replace Ultraman is an understandable decision, seeing as The Iron Giant is a Warner Bros. property and getting the rights to Ultraman was probably difficult. However, some fans are upset with this "whitewashing" since it takes away from the Japanese cultural roots and tie ins seen in the novel relating to Daito and Shoto.
Next, we can see a shot of the DeLorean from Back to the Future drifting around the Bethesda fountain in Central Park during a race in virtual Manhattan. The DeLorean is the only Steven Spielberg related reference that will be in the film, which is admittedly very disappointing because the book contains many Spielberg homages. More of the race is shown later on in the trailer.
Following this is a shot of Napoleon riding a scorpion surrounded by ostriches playing a virtual reality version of the 1982 arcade game Joust. For those who haven't read the book, the OASIS version of Joust is a crucial plot point, so seeing this is in the teaser is huge.
Right after, we see a character blasting Freddy Kreuger from The Nightmare on Elm Street followed by Duke Nukem (from Duke Nukem, duh [but we don't speak of Duke Nukem Forever]). This badass character is Aech, Wade's best friend from the OASIS, and he's wielding an assault rifle from the Halo franchise.
The next shots involve the evil corporation known as Innovative Online Industries, or IOI. IOI wants to find the Easter egg and use the OASIS for their own financial gain. In the teaser, we see IOI agents known as Sixers running into their cars in the OASIS. The subsequent shots show the real IOI employees playing the OASIS in the real world, the teaser cuts between shots of the OASIS Sixers and real players. Amongst the cars is a Batman Batmobile, the killer red car from Stephen King's Christine, and the van from the 80's show The A-Team.
After we see the Sixers preparing to race, a hand is shown revving up a motorcycle. This is none other than Art3mis, a famous blogger and renowned gunter. The bike she's riding is Kaneda's bike from Akira, a Japanese animated movie from 1988.
Once the race starts, there's a ton happening on screen. The Ford from the original Max Max can be seen on the left as well as Bigfoot, a famous 80's monster truck. More of Art3mis riding the Akira bike can be seen, as well as the DeLorean drifting through the streets and entering hover mode as it tries to dodge wrecking balls.
Finally, Wade takes off his OASIS visors, and enters reality once again. Just when we think the teaser is over, however, a close-up shot of the Crystal Key going into a keyhole is shown. There are three keys that need to be found during the Hunt, and the Crystal Key is the final key needed to win Halliday's fortune.
Even though I've gone through the entire teaser, I'm not quite done yet. If you pause at 2:03, you can see a QR code on the hood of the left gray car right before it's smashed in half. If you scan this, it will take you to this website where a real life Easter egg hunt is starting! This is such a brilliant marketing idea, and something the book also did following the release of the paperback version. For the book Easter egg hunt, I only was able to get to the first gate; still proud of that though! There isn't much happening yet for the movie hunt, but if you want to become an actual gunter and study Oology, you can join this Discord chat where real gunters discuss the Hunt. Ready Player One is shaping up to be a great film, and I cannot wait for March 2018.
Thank you so much for reading my article! What did you think about the teaser? Let me know in the comments below or Tweet me @shinjanaytor! I'd love to talk about the book or movie with anyone!