The virtual universe of the OASIS may have provided a convenient refuge. Wade is not alone in having forsaken the world. Tents and cardboard shelters lined the streets, and the public parks I saw seemed to have been converted into refugee camps.” The number of homeless people seemed to have increased drastically. “ A thick film of neglect still covered everything in sight …. As the vehicle moves, he peers out of its window and absorbs the changes that have befallen the world: In the novel, the IOI’s corporate police arrest Wade, and he is marshalled out of his apartment complex and into a transport truck. This theme is particularly timely: COVID-19 has made apparent, for instance, the links between inequality and public health. What distinguishes the film - and its source material - is its exploration of how we negotiate with a social order rife with inequalities. Wade and Samantha dance to the Bee Gees’ ‘Stayin’ Alive’ in ‘Ready Player One.’ Inequalities Samantha stands to follow his example and her debt has already exceeded 23,000 credits.

Samantha’s father, we learn, borrowed gaming gear, built up debt and moved into the IOI in hopes to repay it, only to fall ill and die. Watts’ competitors include the Innovative Online Industries (IOI), a loyalty centre that seeks to take over the OASIS. The prize is his extensive fortune and total control over the OASIS. The central conflict in Ready Player One arises when James Halliday (Mark Rylance), one of the OASIS’s creators, dies and leaves behind a seemingly impossible quest.

And in a sequence worthy of the film’s 2019 Academy Award nomination for Achievement in Visual Effects, Watts and his romantic interest Samantha Cook (Olivia Cooke) dance to the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” (1977). In a nod to Superman, Watts dons Clark Kent glasses to conceal his identity. The Iron Giant goes to battle in ‘Ready Player One.’ (Warner Bros.) Refuge of virtual realityĮntire plot sequences incorporate existing popular characters, music and stories. The video game Minecraft (2009) is a possible setting, and throughout the film, viewers watch Chucky, the Iron Giant and Mechagodzilla in battle. Within its walls, Spielberg pays homage to many aspects of popular culture. Small wonder that the OASIS is so appealing. Accordingly, a virtual reality game known as the OASIS has become a refuge for many, including the central protagonist Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan). People have now resorted to outliving rather than fixing the world’s problems. Set in 2045 in the city of Columbus, Ohio, it speaks of a world that has weathered corn syrup droughts and bandit riots.

Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One (2018), an adaptation of Ernest Cline’s bestselling novel of the same title (2011), is a case in point. What dystopian fiction does especially well is to show how we can do more than simply repeat. As we eagerly await a return to normalcy, many say we can aspire to do better - whether we are talking about wealth distribution or global warming. Dystopian fiction seems so alluring during the coronavirus pandemic.

Ready player one