Ready Player One Shows The Dark Side Of Corporate Nostalgia

The Movie Presents A Dystopian Society Holding People Down

Make no mistake, Ready Player One‘s future is a true dystopia. The Columbus Stacks are futuristic slums plastered with invasive advertising and full of people utterly disconnected from reality. The world is stacked against them, with the only way out via OASIS access. This makes this virtual world the perfect machine for the greedy to manipulate the desperate. In fact, despite racing against them from the start and later joining the rebellion, Wade still uses IOI tech to access the OASIS throughout the movie.

It’s easy to say The OASIS is the last safe haven, but that’s a fake truth. While it offers an escape, nobody knows each other – just the version they want to present. It’s a parallel to internet-obsessed culture, and you can see this best in how the film’s much-discussed nostalgia is used. Gunters and their ilk are simply basking in the things they love, while IOI is trying to weaponize it, finding ways to manipulate it to make money. Nolan Sorrento is fascinating in this regard because he manipulates nostalgia, treating it as a product and a tool.

What Ready Player One Is Really Saying About Nostalgia

Ready Player One’s Many Easter Eggs Have Been Called “Pandering,” But There Is More To It Than That

Ready Player One has countless Easter Eggs and references to various fandoms and IPs, and this has earned it some criticism over the years. It’s commonly believed that name-dropping books, movies, and various nostalgic media are a ploy to pander to audiences and, therefore, make more money. However, when delving into the movie’s themes, there are far more important lessons concerning pop culture. Ready Player One is about balance. It’s about enjoying games, movies, and TV shows but understanding that reality is far more important.

Why A Ready Player One Movie Sequel Never Happened

Delays & An Underwhelming Sequel Book Stalled Plans

Steven Speilberg’s Ready Player One was released in 2018, and Ernest Cline released a book sequel, Ready Player Two, just a few years later in 2020. Shortly after the novel’s release, Cline announced (via Inverse) that the second movie was already “in the early stages” of production, but there has been limited news since then. This may be a result of delays caused by the pandemic and strikes. Official confirmation of a Ready Player One sequel could be on the way. However, it would be a challenging project.

Cline’s Ready Player Two book received overwhelmingly negative reviews, which makes the idea of a movie based on the same story less than promising. Additionally, the book’s sequel sees Wade continue to struggle with an even more dangerous OASIS addiction, which leads him and Samantha to break up. The emergence of the virtual James Halliday as an out-of-control AI villain also significantly contradicts the story Spielberg told. Therefore, if a Ready Player One movie sequel were to happen, it would likely look very different from Cline’s book.

There’s A Hidden Easter Egg That Reveals One Of Halliday’s Clues

The Clue Is In The Movie’s Music Score

There were plenty of Easter eggs hidden in The Oasis, although players had to find three specific ones to win the game. However, it also turns out that there was a hidden Easter egg that revealed one of Halliday’s clues that many people missed until much later. This clue actually appeared in the music by composer Alan Silvestri. Specifically, there was something in the theme for “The OASIS” that viewers could hear when Wade first entered the VR world in the movie.

The track features Latin lyrics, giving it an ominous and almost religious feel. However, according to the Blu-ray special features, the lyrics have a hidden meaning and serve as a hidden Easter egg. The lyrics in the chorus are, “Father’s egg, easter egg, find me, come find me.” According to Silvestri, Spielberg wanted people entering the OASIS to be viewed as a “religious” experience, explaining the score. Silvestri added the Easter egg lyrics on his own (via CinemaBlend)

“This idea begins to develop that there is a place in the film where Samantha and Wade read the second clue. So, we’re talking at lunch and it’s like ‘what is easter egg in Latin?’ And it’s ovum patrice tui. That’s kinda cool. So that was it. That whole opening piece is the second clue of the film in Latin and the chorus is ‘father’s egg, easter egg, find me, come find me.'”

This leads to Ready Player One‘s clues, as the Latin lyrics that play when Wade Watts enters the OASIS actually say ‘Easter egg,’ hinting at what is to come.