History YMMV / ReadyPlayerOne2018

* HarsherInHindsight: Morrow is sort of drowning himself in nostalgia, being the Curator of the Halliday Journals. His best friend and his wife are both dead, he's locked out of Gregarious Games, and the movie makes no mention of Halcydonia Interactive, the company he and Karen created after Morrow was forced out of Gregarious. One might assume that Morrow is spending time with his best friend the only way he can now.

* SpiritualAdaptation:

** One might expect another epic Music/JohnWilliams score for a film of this nature, but he bowed out mid-production to do ''Film/ThePost'' instead. So Spielberg brought in the equally perfect Music/AlanSilvestri who even, at certain moments, actually uses pieces from the ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' score.

** Moreover the film ends with Halliday advising Wade to avoid his mistakes and find fulfillment in real life instead of video games, which Wade does by turning off the OASIS two days every week so people can experience reality and keep their addictions to the OASIS to a cool. Fair enough. But Wade found everything Halliday didn't (mainly a circle of close friends and a girlfriend) ''exactly because'' of his devotion to the game. It's the whole basis of his GondorCallsForAid speech.

** Moreover the film ends with Halliday advising Wade to avoid his mistakes and find fulfillment in real life instead of video games, which Wade does by turning off the OASIS a few days every week so people will experience reality instead. Fair enough. But Wade found everything Halliday didn't (mainly a circle of close friends and a girlfriend) ''exactly because'' of his devotion to the game. It's the whole basis of his GondorCallsForAid speech.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The Chinese are big fans of this movie, as they gave WB the company's biggest opening weekend in the region ever and gave it an incredibly high score of 9.2/10 on Douban (a feat rarely accomplished for a Hollywood movie). Unlike a lot of Hollywood films released in China around the same time, such as ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'' and ''Film/PacificRimUprising'' (which plummeted after their opening weekends), ''Ready Player One'' actually succeeded in maintaining audience interest, grossing $218 million in total (over $80 million more than its US/Canada gross). All things considered, this isn't too surprising, given that many moviegoers in China are also gamers, and that their love for ''Film/{{WarCraft|2016}}'' was a key factor in keeping that movie from outright flopping.

** For starters, Music/VanHalen's "Jump" (almost the film's RealSongThemeTune), Music/TearsForFears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", Music/NewOrder's "Blue Monday", Music/BeeGees' "Stayin' Alive", Music/{{Blondie|Band}}'s "One Way or Another", Music/TwistedSister's "We're Not Gonna Take It", and Music/HallAndOates' "You Make My Dreams Come True". There's also Music/{{Rush}}'s "Tom Sawyer" in the promos at least.

** For starters, Music/VanHalen's "Jump" (almost the film's RealSongThemeTune), Music/TearsForFears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", Music/NewOrder's "Blue Monday", Music/BeeGees' "Stayin' Alive", Music/{{Blondie}}'s "One Way or Another", Music/TwistedSister's "We're Not Gonna Take It", and Music/HallAndOates' "You Make My Dreams Come True". There's also Music/{{Rush}}'s "Tom Sawyer" in the promos at least.

** Some people, especially anime fans, also compared it a bit with resident MMO-gone-serious series ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' due to its premise, an opinion that seems to be shared by [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2018-01-18/sword-art-online-creator-one-punch-man-murata-come-out-for-ready-player-one-event/.126614 its own creator]]. Curiously enough and for enforcing this, Creator/YoshitsuguMatsuoka, Creator/AiKayano and Creator/KoichiYamadera, who voiced Kirito, Alice Zuberg and Akihiko Kayaba respectively, works in the Japanese dub of the film as Shoto, F'Nale and Morrow respectively.

** Samantha acting as if her facial birthmark is a horrible disfigurement that will repulse Wade despite her actress being quite attractive. Moreover, the birthmark is significantly lighter than most real-life, port-wine stains, as well as less obtrusive than the tattoos and facial mods on many OASIS avatars (and it is even visually similar to those, to the point the viewer might believe it is just [[ThisMeansWarpaint warpaint]] or some kind of [[PunkPunk punk makeup]] until she explains it).

** The red-headed IOI Oology expert played by Rona Morrison earned a fair amount of fan respect for being a PunchClockVillain who manages to figure out the correct game, and correct method that Halliday wanted to test players with.