Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline’s zeitgeist-defining Ready Player One is one of 2018’s most anticipated films, if only for the nostalgic rush that will no doubt accompany the story’s novel use of pop culture touchstones like Back to the Future, the Iron Giant, Duke Nukem, and, as we see in the film’s new trailer, psychotic doll Chucky and a triumphant King Kong. That trailer dropped today, and it offers not just a grander look at OASIS, the story’s virtual world, but also some more details about the plot.
Here, we meet Mark Rylance’s James Halliday, who announces that, in anticipation of his own death, he’s planted an “easter egg” in the OASIS. Whoever finds it, he says, will receive not just a cash prize but also full control of the OASIS. Tye Sheridan’s Wade Watts, in pursuing that secret, finds himself drawn into the “rebellion” alongside Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), putting him at odds with Ben Mendelsohn’s antagonist. Along the way, we’re also offered a glimpse at how people are rendered in the virtual world, which looks rife with characters from a Final Fantasy cutscene.
Simon Pegg and T.J. Miller co-star in the film, which arrives on March 30th, 2018.