Line #85 Fridge/ReadyPlayerOne2018


1	!This page contains unmarked spoilers. You have been warned!
2
3	!FridgeBrilliance:
4	* The clan of Gunters that Parzival forms is called the High Five. When Parzival asks for a high-five from the curator (who is not in his clan), he's refused.
5	** The same is true with [=Art3mis=] after their brief test in Aech's garage. He offers a high five, but she doesn't give it to him. And this was before any of them ended up being on the top of the scoreboard.
6	* The [=BTTF=] references are everywhere, from the [=DeLorean=] to the Zemeckis Cube to [=Art3mis=] calling Parzival "[=McFly=]" as she signs out. But there are subtler parallels too. In [=BTTF3=], Marty erases his bad future by going hard reverse in the street race with Needles, same as Parzival during the race trial.
7	** He technically does that in the first film as well. Marty's home life didn't look like it was going well, with his mom as an alcoholic and his father being a wimp. After the accidental changes he made in the past, he ended up finding his family happier and living better than they had before.
8	* A movie about the greatest Easter Egg hunt of all time…was released on Easter weekend, 2018.
9	* Why are the IOI oologists so happy for Parzival even though he beat them to the task by thinking better than they did? Because IOI probably hired the best people they could find when trying to win the contest. IOI likely poached the best people from the top Gunter clans. They are just happy someone finally won after all these years.
10	* Oingo Boingo’s song “Dead Man’s Party” isn’t used in the film, but the zombie ball during the second trial is a literal “dead man’s party!”
11	* The Curator being Ogden Morrow is hinted at a few times:
12	** His seemingly out-of-character astonishment at there being only one mention of Kira in Halliday's Journals makes sense when you know he is actually an avatar for Ogden Morrow, Kira's husband. Morrow would have remembered having had other conversations with Halliday about Kira, and had clearly assumed they would all be there.
13	*** More than that: his ignorance of her absence from the archive suggests that he's been deliberately refraining from watching those particular memories, because he'd prefer to keep his ''own'' recollections of his late wife pure and personal, rather than wallow in someone else's.
14	** The Curator's discomfort at replaying scenes from the journals is because he remembers the conversations first-hand, and it is undoubtedly a painful memory.
15	** The way he talks about Nolan Sorrento when he was an intern at Gregarious Games ('The only thing he knows about Halliday is how he liked his coffee') implies he was there, and knew both men.
16	** The Curator doesn't stop the first video after Parzival says he had seen enough (which ends up helping him, since the end of the conversation holds the clue to the first task)? Ogden's emotional reaction to the video is apparently making him unwilling to end it immediately.
17	*** Actually, it's more likely that Ogden was purposely holding it open for a few more seconds to let Parzival hear the clue he needed. This is evidenced by the fact that Ogden keeps staring after Parzival as the video plays, and only turns back to the screen once Parzival turns around. This is Fridge Brilliance in itself: Of course Ogden, who probably understood the spirit of Halliday's contest more than anyone, would want to give a clever and dedicated player like Parzival as many helping hands as possible, if only to keep IOI's dirty hands off of the OASIS.
18	** Also, it's been five years. He may have decided for himself, or been acting on some subtle hint Halliday left for him, that it's high time he ''did'' start dropping a few hints for likely-looking Gunters.
19	* When Wade bets the Curator "all my coin" that Kira was only mentioned once, the Curator pays up with a quarter. The "extra life" provided by that quarter saves Wade from zeroing out after the Cataclyst detonation—thus preventing Wade from losing all his coin.
20	** The quarter being an extra life also makes a reference to how quarters were used exactly that way in old arcades.
21	** It also makes sense that if ''anyone'' in the OASIS would have access to such a thing, Ogden would. He was in on the original design work for the system, and there might very well have been an "extra life" mechanic which Halliday and he had been trying out just between themselves, before opting not to implement it. So perhaps that "extra life" is one he'd earned in a pre-release playtest session, and never got around to using, ''or'' inactivating when they dropped that idea: a souvenir/relic from the dawn of OASIS.
22	* In the PVP free-for-all seen early in the movie, the avatar used by Wade's aunt's trailer-trash boyfriend is James Raynor, a central character from the ''{{VideoGame/Starcraft}}'' single-player campaign. One of ''Starcraft'''s main themes is that its human forces are "trailer trash in space."
23	* That ''Film/TheShining'' is known for making huge changes to the book it was based on is a plot point in ''this'' movie, which ''also'' makes huge changes to the book it was based on. It gets even more charmingly meta when you consider that Stanley Kubrick was Steven Spielberg's good friend and mentor, someone he looked up to. So by including a Kubrick reference, Spielberg is engaging in the same sort of fannish hero worship in his movie that Ernest Cline did ''of Spielberg'' in his book.
24	** Even more Fridge Brilliance when you listen to some of Spielberg's interviews about where they met for the first time. Spielberg had met Kubrick in the Colorado Room set where Jack is seen writing his novel throughout the film while visiting the sound stages at the studio for ''Raiders Of The Lost Ark''. When the High Five enter the recreation of the film, it's in the Colorado Room set that Spielberg met Kubrick in.
25	** In-Verse, the inclusion of ''The Shining'' references also makes perfect sense, given Halliday's unspoken messages for seekers of the Egg. Stripped of its supernatural trappings, ''The Shining'' at its core is the story of a man who lets his obsessions with the past and the creative process destroy him from within: unhealthily descending into the unreal, forsaking his humanity, and turning on the people he loves. Halliday may have wielded a pen rather than an ax, but one can't help wonder if he saw some of Jack Torrance's ugliness in himself, reminiscing about Ogden as he designed the Easter Egg Hunt at the end of his life. Yet another example of Halliday warning his potential heir: don't repeat my mistakes.
26	*** Even more fridge brilliance when you take into account the description of Halliday's home life in the book. Both his parents clearly didn't understand him, similar in a way to how both Jack and Wendy didn't understand Danny and his abilities.
27	* While the placement of their meeting in real life is much earlier in the movie than in the book, a nod is made in that Samantha and Wade meet both times in an area surrounded by plants, on the garden roof of her base in the movie, and in the center of Og's hedge maze in the book.
28	* When Aech asks Sho if ''The Shining'' was scary, he says, "I had to watch it through my fingers." It makes sense when you discover that he's an eleven year-old kid.
29	** Double points for fridge logic for foreshadowing when you realize that Aech is an African-American, making his trip through the VR version of ''The Shining'' playing around with the "black person dies first in a horror movie" trope before it's subverted by Parzival and [=Art3mis=] rescuing him from the maze.
30	*** Even more horrifying when you realize that for ''The Shining'' played that trope straight, as the only primary black character in the entire cast is the first person to die on screen, and in a very horrific way. Every other death mentioned is often backstory (like with the ghosts) or off screen (Jack freezing to death). That means Halliday's recreation of ''The Shining'' may have had that rule built into it, staying true to the source material.
31	* The OASIS creator James Halliday's favourite music video is "Take on Me"... which is about a woman being drawn into an imaginary world that blurs the line between fantasy and reality.
32	** Also, Wade and Samantha running from IOI is practically a gender-flipped version of the video's chase scene.
33	** Some seriously meta FridgeBrilliance. Given how much of a pop culture maniac Halliday was, there's an additional message there. The follow up to "Take On Me," was a song called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3ir9HC9vYg "The Sun Always Shines on TV,"]] which is an incredibly melancholy song about regret, lost love, and trying to escape the pain. Topping it, the video starts [[spoiler: with the couple from "Take on Me." He turns back into a cartoon and vanishes. The video itself is the band performing in a church to an audience of mannequins. ''Now'' look at what happened with Halliday and Kira. He blows it with her, and ends up having to run away...essentially becoming a cartoon.]] The sun always shines on TV, and the Oasis is much sunnier than the reality outside it. It's also worth noting that "Take On Me" was a BlackSheepHit for the band; "The Sun Always Shines on TV" is closer to their usual output.
34	** You think that's brilliant? How about his favorite song, "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles? The main theme behind the song is that technology has changed music, essentially music videos (a new medium) destroyed how people listened to new music. In other words, music videos took over music as it was (and the fact the video for the song was the first one shown on MTV is not without its irony). But here's where the Fridge Brilliance comes into play: The OASIS basically "killed" every other means of entertainment in a similar manner, as the OASIS has become the replacement for radio, movie theaters, TV sets, comic book shops, stores and libraries. Essentially, Halliday's choice of making "Video Killed The Radio Star" being his favorite song reflects on exactly what his creation did to everything: it took over all forms of media, just like how the "technology" mentioned in the song took over music (and, indeed, ''all of entertainment'', if you read the song as a television-then-video-games-supplant-audio-shows ballad) from radio.
35	* The face of Sorrento's avatar looks like Superman, or possibly his Injustice counterpart, OR his evil counterpart from the Crime Syndicate of America, Ultraman.
36	** More tellingly, Sorrento's avatar wears a suit, only bigger and shinier. In [=OASIS=], you can look like anyone, anything, and any gender, whatever the player wants. So, why does Sorrento's avatar look so...mild...in comparison. ''Because that's who he is.'' A businessman. To him, the [=OASIS=] is just another ploy to squeeze money from an already bankrupt world, as evidenced by his plan to fill the game world with enough ads to cause seizures. And the EarPieceConversation he has with Wade shows he has no interest in popular culture beyond how he can manipulate his potential customers. Sorrento's avatar advertises what kind of person he is.
37	** It's also telling that while everyone else has avatars expressing who they like to be (and can't be in real life). Sorrento's lack of modification to his avatar? He's got it good in reality, and doesn't have a need to make his fantasy much better than reality.
38	** In the third place, it's a reference to how the book describes the sole company-approved Sixer avatar: blue business suit with their employee number above the left breast pocket, telling everyone you're a corporate shill and to pay you no mind.
39	** I read it more as him seeing himself as "the big cheese", so like the second option but with more... ego. His avatar ''is'' pretty big and chunky, and physically intimidating.
40	** Fittingly, Wade quotes Lex Luthor once. In a twisted away, this reflects that Wade is Sorrento's rival, only the former is the good guy and the latter is the bad guy.
41	* "[[ArcWords Take the Leap]]" has a theme of taking a chance on love, but if you take into consideration [=Art3mis'=] words about what it takes to be a "true gunter", it applies to the first challenge as "[[StealthPun taking a leap of faith]]". In fact, in all three challenges, it requires taking a leap of faith in one form or another. The second one is rather [[LiteralMetaphor obvious]]. But the final one is about playing "Adventure" (''the right way''), even at the possible expense of sinking through the ice.
42	* At first, [=Art3mis'=] insecurity over her birthmark might seem like the film enforcing [[HollywoodHomely Hollywood Homelyness]] on her. But then you realize that she has spent most of her time in the Oasis, where everyone looks however they want. Like many people in RealLife, she believes that she is ugly because the media she consumes consists of people looking impossibly beautiful.
43	** Speaking of Arty's birthmark, notice how the fellow Resistance member she seems to trust and associate with the most, and whom she sends to retrieve Wade after the attack on the Stacks, has a mark on the same area of his face and head as she does? Granted, his is a tattoo instead of a birthmark, but it's possible that she likes working with him because his chosen "look" reminds her that an unusual facial mark needn't be a source of shame or embarrassment.
44	*** Actually, it's a shoutout to Mass Effect, as Garrus Vakarian has a similar tattoo (not the exact, but similar) to the one seen in the film.
45	* The movie makes nods to the initial discovery of the solutions of the first two keys in clever ways. Wade's discovery of the answer to the first riddle/puzzle is almost entirely by accident both times, and both answers hinge of turns of phrase and language puns. The second is thanks to [=Art3mis=]'s dogged determination to keep Sorrento from being first to the egg; thus, she discovers the Jade Key first, though she finds the key offscreen in the book.
46	* At first, the change in how Parzival obtains the extra life from book to movie appears very jarring; instead of earning it by luck, because he happened to be exploring part of Halliday's past and decides to play a perfect game of Pacman on the right machine, he is just handed it by one of the former owners of the OASIS. At first, that seems like cheating, but he receives it because he told Ogden something he didn't know about Halliday: that Halliday had purged Kira from the archives. Imagine how Ogden feels: he's remembering all those times he talked about his wife and putting together how Halliday must have felt together with the fact that Halliday forced him to sell his shares later on. He's not thinking about the contest at all at that point; he just hands over the best artifact he has on him (which he doesn't need, with his avatar's immortality) as a 'thank you' and, like in the book, it's pure luck that it turns out to be useful.
47	* During the final battle, we see Mechagodzilla roast the Iron Giant. This may be unintentional, but it acts as a homage to the book that inspired ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant''. In the story, the Giant challenges an invading black space dragon to a contest of bravery. Each had to withstand something very hot (the Giant had to sit in a bed of burning oil while the dragon had to [[MakesSenseInContext lie on the sun]]). The one to either die or call it quits would be the loser. What essentially happens here? More-or-less the same thing. The Iron Giant is burnt by the invading black Mechagodzilla and is visibly in pain, but [[RuleOfSymbolism gets a second wind to fight him again]].
48	** Another MythologyGag to both the Iron Giant ''and'' Mechagodzilla: the latter breathes an atomic breath, right? Why could the Giant withstand the atomic breath? Watch the ending of "The Iron Giant" and think real hard on that.
49	* Why can't Aech use his weapons against the zombie during "The Shining" challenge? Simple enough, because the Curator [[AsYouKnow mentions]] that in the archives of Halliday's memories, there are no violent weapons or artifacts allowed. And for intents and purposes, they were still in the archives, so Aech was disarmed.
50	** It also explains why the Sixers themselves were panicking during the challenge, not because they're wimpy, but because they're up a creek without a paddle.
51	* The secret cheat in the race to earn the first key acts as a nice allegory for why Halliday favors reliving the past so much: everything is easier and the problems you will face in the future don't exist yet. Those problems only exist for those moving forward.
52	** It may also be a reference to how in some older racing games, a cheaty way to win was to drive in reverse, then forward again, thus "passing" the finish line while the other racers barely left.
53	* A funny part in the movie is that Aech wordlessly scanned Parzival and [=Art3mis=] and saw their respective heart rates (beating like crazy, and sedate). For a moment, this begs the question, [[FridgeLogic how could Aech know their heart rates when neither of them were wearing a haptic suit]]. But then, this idea comes into one's head: the haptic gloves! They happen to get a register for the heart rate through their pulse ''in their wrists''.
54	** It makes sense that even cheapo glove-and-mask VR rigs for OASIS would have pulse monitors, too: it's probably a safety measure, to discern if a player is getting dangerously over-hyped-up by their experience's intensity and to boot them out altogether if they're about to have a heart attack.
55	* Wade Watts says that his father gave him that name because it sounds like a superhero name like Peter Parker. Like Peter, and most other superheroes in general, he needs to do his best to keep his true identity a secret because once it’s revealed, the villains will not hesitate to take advantage of it and people close to him will be in serious danger, something Wade learned the hard way.
56	* It would seem Halliday's Easter Egg Hunt was meant to keep the likes of Sorrento from winning all along. Only someone who was not only skilled at the game, but could ''think'' like him and understand the Oasis was both blessing and curse could win.
57	** Sorrento is a business man, the kind who believes that progress should move forward really fast. But to earn the first key, you have to think like Halliday: he wanted things to move ''backwards'' really fast.
58	** For obvious reasons, "The Shining" level is meant to be too scary for someone like Sorrento (or at least his sixers) so they would be too scared or [[WrongGenreSavvy unprepared]] to get through the level without so much as soiling themselves. Furthermore, finding the key requires a understanding of Halliday's deeper regrets, namely not pursuing Kira, something a businessman like Sorrento [[EvilCannotComprehendGood would have trouble grasping]].
59	** The third key being in [[spoiler: Atari's Adventure game]] is pretty obvious, but the ''reason'' it was there in the first place was also important. At the time, Atari didn't believe in crediting its programmers or having them be able to put their name to their work, as they felt that the games were a team effort and the company owned the rights. [[spoiler: The very first Easter Egg put into games was done so as an act of protest against Atari's policy. The creator signed his work against Atari's orders, but not in a way that could be found if you were just focused on winning. It's also a shot at Sorrento, as the game programmers of the era were considered interchangeable drones, just there to make the company money, like the Sixers in-universe.]]
60	** Halliday's SecretTestOfCharacter at the end of the film means that Sorrento would have '''never''' won the challenge, even if he had all three keys. We don't get to see what would have happened had someone signed that paper instead of realizing that the correct course of action is to walk away, but it probably wouldn't have been pretty, especially since Sorrento would have tried to handle the matter personally instead of sending one of his sixers.
61	* Moreover, the four challenges (three keys plus the contract) weed out people who lack the qualities Halliday either values in himself, or regrets he never acquired:
62	** Winning the Copper Key requires an ability to think outside of the box and not follow the crowd, a virtue that helped Halliday come up with the innovations that made him a half-trillionaire.
63	** Winning the Jade Key requires an ability to intuit others' feelings and emotional needs, and the courage to see it through in fulfilling your own: something that insecure uber-nerd Halliday never accomplished.
64	** Winning the Crystal Key requires an appreciation for pop-cultural history and a love of pure exploration, as opposed to competitiveness: something Halliday drew upon to craft the OASIS's environment and aesthetic, making it the mind-blowing phenomenon it became.
65	** And passing up the Contract requires good judgement: to whit, recognition that victory achieved by disappointing those you respect - Halliday, by leaving his best friend by the wayside and losing Ogden's trust; Wade, by nearly re-enacting a deed he ''knew'' Halliday, his and every techno-geek's great hero, had lived to regret - is no victory at all.
66	* Fridge-Heartwarming: If one remembers "Ready Player One" has elements of "Willy and the Chocolate Factory"(and/or "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"), it makes the part where Parzival turns down the contract all the more sweeter. The contract signing the OASIS to him is the equivalent of Willy Wonka say "Absolutely not", and Parzival refusing to sign it is parallel to Charlie choosing his family over the Chocolate Factory. In other words, like Charlie, Wade chose to stick with his [[FamilyOfChoice family]].
67	* Speaking of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", there's something apropos about the movie bringing up Stephen King and "The Shining" as "a creator who hates his creation". This movie unto itself is a futuristic take on "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", and it was another book that was also adapted into a movie that the author ultimately hated.
68	* The AngstWhatAngst over Wade losing his aunt in the bombing. Out loud, he didn't refer to her as his aunt, calling her "my mother's sister." He also derisively claims that she spends more time and energy on the string of shitty boyfriends. Frankly, despite her sort-of mother figure portrayal, it's not that hard to see that Wade and Alice weren't close at all, and so he only felt for her death the same as he did for the neighbors who got killed in the bombing.
69	** It also helps that in the book, Alice was a drug addict who frequently abused Wade on the basis that since she was forced to take care of him, he deserved all the shit he got. If even a fraction of those character traits carried over to her movie counterpart, then the combination of that and above would make Wade tolerant of her at best and resentful at worst.
70	* Some cultural critics of the movie (and the book, to a much greater extent), point out just how retrograde the world of the Oasis is, based on media that was FairForItsDay at best. But then you see Halliday and you know why. [[spoiler: Of course, it reads like the reactionary fantasy of a cisgender, heterosexual, white American male {{Manchild}}. Its creator was exactly that, trying his best, but too hamstrung by his limited reference frame and mental health issues to expand it much.]]
71	* Something that was mentioned in the book went unsaid in the film: that Aech/Helen is a lesbian. HideYourGays? Yeah, possibly. In the book, though, while Wade was a little surprised, after talking to Helen for a bit, he realized that his friend's sexual orientation didn't matter all that much. The gayness being glossed over and not made overt could be seen as the film trying to be true to that.
72	** It was mentioned. Aech tried to make out with naked tub lady in ''The Shining'', Just nobody cared.
73	** Could be ValuesDissonance or ValuesResonance. Back in the Eighties, the appropriate way to treat a situation like someone coming out was as a non-issue. Aech being into girls was never a secret anyway. Wade and Aech talked about hot girls all the time. The fact she's a ''woman'' was the surprise. Wade's approach of shrugging it off and "So what? This doesn't change that you're my best friend and I'm sticking with you" was ''the'' way to handle it back then.
74	* It seems like a bit of a stretch that all five members of the High Five are in the same city, but think on it. In the book, Wade moves to Columbus so he can have the best connection to the [=OASIS=]. It's not so absurd that the rest of the Five used their coins to pay for travel fare and moved in as well.
75	* Though many misattribute Wade and Daito sporting guns on Sorrento as a reference to ''Film/PulpFiction'', it's actually not. If you pay attention to the gun and suit Daito wears, he's wearing the same outfit and using the same gun as Cobb does in the first dream scene from ''Inception''. Then you discover that four out of the High Five are making Sorrento think he's in the real world in order to get information from him. Basically, the High Five pull a Mind Heist on Sorrento.
76	* In the initial scene, it seems odd at first that the only visible advertisement in the entire stacks is a single large video billboard. Then you realise that none bothers to look at the outside world anymore so there's little profit to be made advertising there.
77	* Many people have questioned how Art3mis was able to go backwards on her bike to complete the first challenge. However, what many people miss is that the clue is to "go backwards", not that you had to drive backwards. This suggests that she turned the bike around and went backwards on the track and the same trick had worked.
78	** Alternate, she ''really did'' have the bike re-rigged to drive backwards. Grafting new abilities onto your ride is probably a routine practice for racers in the OASIS.
79	* Although it may feel like a bit of ThrowItIn of more 80's nostalgia and just trying to make a CoolCar cooler still, the inclusion of the ''Series/KnightRider'' KITT scanner on the ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' [=DeLorean=] is actually quite appropriate: both KITT and the BTTF [=DeLorean=] were designed by the same design and construction coordinator, Michael Scheffe.
80	* Wade's AdaptationalAttractiveness. In the book he is described as pudgy, but in the movie he is not. But then you wouldn't really be overweight if you spent a good chunk of everyday running on a treadmill and flailing your arms around, even if it was to control a video game character.
81	** There is actually a real world precedence to this, as some users have said the combination of games like ''VideoGame/BeatSaber'' and ''Thrill of The Fight'' (a VR boxing game) helps serve as a good means of working on cardo.
82	* The odd proliferation of the Field Repair E-Frame from ''WesternAnimation/{{Exosquad}}''. Why is the mech from a MauveShirt all over the place, instead of the protagonist's? Someone likely figured it would make a good choice for a free giveaway to entice customers to buy the others. A lot of people, even if they didn't intend to collect E-Frames, or didn't remember the series, would've picked it up because hey, free mech! It's even smarter in the Doylist sense: As a tech-head, Aech would find the Field Repair E-Frame a useful tool in OASIS, thus it's initial appearance. Afterwards, why waste the model?
83	* Many people have complained about how Wade's neighbors show up and yet do nothing to stop Sorrento approaching the van. In combination of the fact that no one wants to get shot and fear anyone wielding a gun, when you take into account they're there, they do have an impact on how things could have played out. Had they not been there, Sorrento would have strolled right up to the van, opened it and shot Wade before he could get the Egg, leaving it open for IOI to still have a chance to claim it and the OASIS. However, due to them showing up, he approaches much slower and more cautious, which buys Wade enough time to get the Egg. Just by being there for him and in Sorrento's way is enough to help Wade win the Egg Hunt.
84	* Many may have noticed the inconsistency of where the picture of Kira is in The Overlook during The Shining Challenge scene. It's presented in being in the hallway to Room 237 (which is depicted as being on the ground floor), but then is shown to be in the hallway to the Gold Room. But then when you take into account the source film, it makes sense that the location would appear to change, since the set for the original film was designed to confuse the audience. One such example is the often cited "Impossible Window" in Ulman's office (where Jack is interviewed for the job and is also see as the location of the hotel's CB radio), which looks like the sunlight is shining into. However, the main lobby outside of the office shows a hallway that goes behind Ulman's office, basically making the window impossible. And throughout the film, there are items that change or disappear and then reappear as the scene goes on to the point where it's possible that Kubrick designed it to be as such, as there'd be no way a perfectionist that he was known to be would have allowed for such noticeable errors. With that in mind, the location of Room 237 and the changing location of Kira's photo makes sense and that the inconsistency was intentional to reflect the source material.
85	* In i-R0k's last appearance, the arm he'd lost [[spoiler: to Sho's Glaive]] has been replaced by a squirmy, anime-looking black tentacle. Naturally he's choose a biological prosthetic: his high-tech mechanical limb had just failed him, and a ''less'' high-tech replacement would look "steampunk", one of the three things he hates.
86	* Any of all of the changes made to the film were actually predicted by the book itself once you remember the ending of the prologue:
87	-->'''Wade Watts''': Dozens of books, cartoons, movies, and miniseries have attempted to tell the story of everything that happened next, but every single one of the, got it wrong.
88	** In a meta sense, this means the movie itself can be an InUniverse attempt to tell the events of the book and like Wade said, it didn't get every detail right.
89
90	!FridgeHorror:
91	* ''Everything'' F'Nale Zandor and her gang of mooks implies. She runs IOI's combat operations; they're the ones who bomb Wade's stack, they're later seen raiding [=Art3mis'=] Resistance hideout using surprisingly competent sweep-and-clear tactics, and they show impressive competence while pursuing Aech's van. Why would IOI employ a blooded mercenary unit? The implication is that IOI kills people and blows stuff up ''[[ButForMeItWasTuesday on a regular basis]].'' This is only heightened by what she says to Sorrento during an early conversation about Wade. "Is this ''another'' conversation we're not really having?"
92	* While Wade and his friends safely strap themselves in when playing in the Oasis, it's shown that a lot of people don't strap themselves into anything while playing and end up stumbling around their living room. How many people are accidentally tripping, burning themselves, punching family members and so forth on a daily basis while playing OASIS? Furthermore, we see in the end, when Parzival calls all gunters for an impromptu assault, that tons of people are playing OASIS ''in the street'', and even running down the sidewalk during the battle. How many real-life casualties did the battle cause by players getting hit by cars or falling down manholes and such? Hell, we have [[http://pokemongodeathtracker.com/ real life]] instances of this already, and they don't involve VR goggles or full bodysuits.
93	** The woman playing while standing on her couch, completely ignores her son who's trying to tell her that the stove is on fire. Their house could easily burn down and kill them all. Or even them and ''many more'' people, if they're in an apartment building or Stacks.
94	* The fact that the setting is in post-societal collapse and close to anarchy. Even in the "happy ending" where Wade and his friends gain control and IOI is defeated, the basic premise hasn't changed: that the real world is so shitty that people constantly play in the OASIS to escape their depressing reality. This could be the focus of a story in itself, but is barely even remarked upon. It's ''briefly'' mentioned that real life is what matters, but all of the stakes of the story are tied up with the OASIS and its creator, which are portrayed as basically good, rather than a symptom that something is ''very wrong'' with the world.
95	** Don't forget as well that people do work in the OASIS as a career, that a lot of markets work through it. [[spoiler:So their shutting it off for two days of the week is putting a hard break on economies. Imagine the effects that has on markets and people's livelihoods.]]
96	** Let's not forget the ethical implications of shutting down the OASIS, even temporarily; put simply, as said above the OASIS is against the backdrop of a CrapsackWorld (where de-facto slavery is openly practiced and corporations casually commit acts of terrorism), and Wade is effectively forcing people to live in that world. More specifically, it's mentioned that you come to the OASIS for what you can do, but stay for who you can be. People don't just simply live vicariously through their avatars; for some people it is their life. They may have made their only friends in the OASIS, or may only be able to make friends there for whatever reason. Call it sad or futuristic or what have you, but objectively speaking we clearly see that people attach as much significance to their avatars and their possessions as they do their actual bodies (i.e "Losing your shit means losing your shit") because in a way ''they are'' if we're talking about something that is so immersive and so heavily used. Let's also imagine people who've found communities of people like them only through OASIS (think LGBT and other minorities on the internet for a real life example) or those who've managed to escape abusive or neglectful households through the OASIS (Wade himself is this, though it's more clear in the book). Now imagine that you are now effectively banned from your community/surrogate family/escape from terrible reality. It's tempting to snark that Wade more or less saved the OASIS from IOI only to force people from using it two days a week like some screentime-measuring nanny, but even the most overbearing nanny can't bring about the existential horror of effectively ''locking you out of your own body for two days every week''. In short, the message about appreciating the real world falls kind of flat when the world is established as so dystopian that people are literally living their lives outside it.
97	** Arguably, that's the ''point'', people becoming so addicted to [[LotusEaterMachine the Oasis and the escape it provides]] that they put up with stuff in their real life that would otherwise be intolerable, thereby making sure the CrapsackWorld ''stays'' that way. Halliday intended it to be a fun place for people to connect, relax, and play, but it quickly became [[BreadAndCircus such a good circus that the politicians and corporations didn't even have to pony up the bread]]. [[spoiler: Ogden realized this explicitly, which was a contributing factor to his falling out with Halliday. Halliday even realized this himself, ''way'' too late. Despite being a virtual god inside the Oasis, his reality was lonely and sad. He had failed to [[CannotSpitItOut confess his feelings to Kira]], alienated his best friend and business partner (who, again, turned out to be right, but Halliday was too stubborn to admit it), and was crippled by mental illness, dying unfulfilled and miserable.]] It did a damn good job of making sure everyone was too doped up, putting all their energy (and money) into the Oasis to actually fight for better real world conditions. The whole bit with Alice and her LowerClassLout of a boyfriend who blew their meager savings on upgrades? The "loyalty centers" and their indentured servants? Frankly, the only reason they were allowed to exist was because of everyone's dependency on VR. Guys like Sorrento thrive when no one is [[ApatheticCitizens paying enough attention or are too apathetic]] to hold them accountable. Forcing a two day per week shut down also prevents companies from forcing people to work in the Oasis until they drop dead, mandating everyone gets time off. Sometimes, pulling the plug is the only option, and it keeps Wade from becoming either Halliday or Sorrento.
98	** Add the CreativeSterility inside the Oasis, which is based on pop culture that is 30-40 years old by our standards, 70 years old by their standards. [[https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/3/26/17148350/ready-player-one-book-backlash-controversy-gamergate-explained Some critics]] have pointed out that the whole thing is incredibly reactionary for TheNewTens with its WhiteMaleLead and lack of media references that ''aren't'' centered around white or Japanese male protagonists. In-universe, Aech is a ''genius'' at mods, and that kind of intelligence could be applied to engineering real-world solutions to the PostPeakOil energy crunch. But as long as Aech is building Iron Giant replicas, there's no reason to apply that skill elsewhere. [[spoiler: Or the fact that, in the book, she was kicked out for being gay, which means the culture either stalled out or went ''backwards'' in terms of LGBTQ+ acceptance. The fact that her avatar is furthest from her real appearance than the others is telling; there still aren't a lot of black lesbians in pop culture.]] As long as you can play on the Oasis, you don't have to build new things and the dominant cultural messages won't be challenged, either.
99	* Near the end of the film, [[spoiler:Wade requests every player in Columbus to help stop the IOI trucks that are chasing him and his friends in the real world, revealing his real name in the process. The last time he did that, it ended with a Stack bombed and several people dying. This time, he’s revealing his name to the everyone around the world who’s watching his live broadcast. While there’s nothing bad happening as the whole world seems to be rooting for him at the moment, the fact remains that Wade had just told the everyone who he is and where he lives. What’s to say that there aren’t any more people like IOI who’s going to take advantage of them and try to ruin Wade’s life in the future?]]
100	** His identity would have been made public regardless since [[spoiler: he won the contest and is now in charge of the company, it's like knowing Sorrento's avatar at this point]].
101	** Not to mention, everyone at the Stacks knows him as Wade Watts, their neighbor and fellow occupant of the Stacks and may not have known his avatar was Parzival. Him saying his name and addressing those who live at the Stacks is a call for help to his neighbors, because he knows that they'd rather see him win it than to let the IOI get it. And sure enough, everyone was there, including Ms. Gilmore, who so happens to be the first to Sorrento to tell him to step off. [[spoiler: Not that they actually did anything to help in the end]].
102	*** Actually, they did do something, though not the audience may not realize it. [[spoiler: Had they not been there, Sorrento would have walked straight up to Aech's van and then shoot Wade before he got his hands on the Egg. Due to them being there, they unknowingly slowed him down due to him being cautious. He was surrounded by a group of people and had to keep his guard up while approaching the truck because he knew there was the possibility that someone could have easily grabbed him the moment he dropped his guard.]]
103	*** Simply having so many people standing there as potential ''witnesses'' probably helped, too.
104	** This seemed like a deliberate rebuttal to [[spoiler:the idea of hiding behind an alias. Yes, it means people can't hurt you, but it isolates you and means that people can't help you either]].
105	** Killing Wade or the people around him isn't going to make anyone but his legal heirs (presumably the other High Five) rich, however. Others might certainly try to ''scam'' the Five out of a fortune in future, but just murdering the gunters outright ceased to be a profitable course of action the instant Parzival's hands touched the Egg.
106	* OASIS money is at least integrated with the rest of the economy if not entirely supplanting preexisting forms of currency. Anyone familiar with [=MMORPGs=] will note that they are notoriously vulnerable to in-game inflation.
107	** [=MMOs=] run into that issue without regular money sinks in the system to remove currency from the economy. In the Oasis there's the constant consumption of fuel as seen in the race. In addition to money is constantly circulating in the economy so one cannot just easily accrue large sums without substantial risk which is part of what also drives MMO inflation.
108	* The long opening establishing shot is a superficial tour of Wade's home, showing various normal people conducting their lives, mostly within OASIS. We have dancer lady, surfer dude, pole dancer, pizza dude, the gardener woman, and their various family members. We see the gardener during the finale, but none of the rest - odds are they're all dead or badly injured from Sorrento's drone attack on the Stack. We only saw them for a moment, but enough to establish basic character traits, and they were just snapped out of existence by a corporate weasel.
109	* Thank goodness Sorrento isn't very observant, because when Artemis confronts his avatar in the Mechagodzilla cockpit, she's still wearing the Sixer armor, which has ''an identification number'' plainly visible on its chest. Had he been just a little quicker on the uptake and memorized the number, he could've zeroed in on the station where that particular "Sixer" was linked up, rather than pulling the helmets off players one by one.

Context Fridge / ReadyPlayerOne2018