The Strange Disappearance Of Ready Player One 

As someone who is generally not exactly rushing to see the next sci fi film, I thought this movie was incredible.

I think the movie’s concept is why these references were purely that. Since everything is under the premise of a video game, it’s hard to maintain character purity within the references as they are really just people with unlockable content in the plot of the movie. & In Kong’s case, he’s just serving as an obstacle in the game. If you can overlook all these references & not desire character preservation & simply appreciate it for how plot uses them, I still think it’s a good movie.

I legitimately can’t believe RP1 came out just 4 years ago. It feels like it came out in 2012

I love this movie. It’s in my top 10. I rewatch it all the time.

It disappeared because it was more of a style over substance movie. In terms of visual effects and imagery, it’s freaking amazing. In terms of story and characters, it’s very generic and derivative and meh, at least in my personal opinion.

This is my love/hate relationship with the advent of advanced CGI. It's so beautiful to look at and I'm sure the animators work really hard to create that amount of detail and smooth movement. But when not woven into well written stories, they feel like tasty, albeit unhealthy meals.

I think that you approached the movie in a more sentimental and dramatic way than you should have. I am the biggest fan of Iron Giant, The Shining etc and the depth and meaning of these stories and characters. But Ready Player One was something else, and its intention was not to honor these stories but just to make the audience have fun, seeing references to their favorite movies in a new Spielberg story. I personally just had fun watching DeLorean in a race, Iron Giant using that laser from his eyes in a war against an evil corporation or King Kong as an obstacle. It is meant to be just fun and it is fun. And The Shining sequence... Honestly I loved that experience of reliving that atmosphere but in a different story. It is nostalgia, it is familiarity, it is all the fun we had and it is used in another good story by Spielberg. Trying to go deeper is not relevant imo. I can see the Iron Giant as what he really is in his own movie. In this one he is frying bad guys in a virtual battlefield! Hell yeah! I think it is a good story with a good conclusion, fun all the way through and just because it is not as great as Spielberg's other films that doesnt make it bad or not memorable. It has its weak points just as any "not a classic" movie has. But I would recommend this to any of my friends for a good time and that amazing The Shining sequence!

I Honestly loved the movie and wish they do another one.

I think we all understand that these characters aren't characters here, they're just that "shells" of those characters, they don't have to represent what characters were meant to

The thing about the misused older characters such as the Iron Giant and ing Kong is: That is completely accurate and correct about how those entities would be treated in a place like the Oasis. That is precisely how multimedia corporations operate, especially in gaming. Basically on the level of having Pyramid Head in a kart racer. So this works for the setting. Because of the setting, this should be the only movie able to get away with this stuff.

RP1 was actually spot on with how the common online arena player sees these ip's. Naruto and other characters that never use firearms be gun clappers in fortnite, removing them eons away from their original context. Also, the lego movie is not a (very) good comparison bc those characters are really supposed to be themselves (albeit hyper parody), whereas RP1 players just use the skin. Example, most kids never watched jaws, but they know it's a killer shark, tho. And I don't know or care how bruno mars feels about point blank shotgun blasts, but I look hella smooth putting somebody on they ass with one. Speilberg knew what he was doing. You pay (or do your own) for pop culture character skins to run around online with so many others that it turns into an ocean of references that you struggle to keep track of.

I first read the book in 2016, alternative school. Instead of doing my actual work I would sneak in reading as much of this book as I could and it changed my life. I finished the book and just needed more so I Googled the name. Found out there was a movie in production scheduled to be released years from then. Fast forward to the release of the movie, I watched it, it was amazing.

This is EXACTLY how an MMO would use these properties, visuals for players to act like they have that "skin" or "powers" of the franchises...so maybe the point was done too well in the context of the Oasis itself (and expanded upon in the book)..maybe it doesnt work in the movie sense, but it is CERTAINLY how an MMO would "use these references" as in game objects

Saw the movie, then decided to read the book. I grew up playing the games referenced in the book - and I think Speilberg made the right choice on the three challenges. I don't think the challenges in the book would have appealed to a large audience and probably have been a snooze fest. On the other hand, I wish the loyalty center thread had been closer to the original. (I think changing who went into the loyalty center and how they got in and out, dumbed down the story a bit too much.)

Just my two cents, all of what you brought up near the end about the nostalgia and homage of the references is absolutely true, Iron Giant is indeed acting very different from how he is originally portrayed, among many others. However, I think that's exactly the point here. That's not THE Iron Giant, it's AN Iron Giant, a commission piece that is being piloted by H. (Or like, puppeted... controlled? Anyways) The point being that in all these scenarios these are pretty surface level homages because that's all they are in the world of Ready Player One and the Oasis. Parzivel may drive an awesome DeLorean Time Machine with some custom adjustments here and there, but that's not the Time Machine Marty Mcfly dives headfirst into time and time again. Gundam is fantastically realized and works more or less how it it established to, but it's not really the RX-78-2, it's just an awesome and functional robot that looks like it, Amuro never touched those controls. (If it even has controls? Was Daito just controlling it like H did with the Iron Giant?) Getting back on topic, your criticism is valid, and I agree with quite a few of your points, however in regards to the wild video game world these characters reside in, I think thematically it makes sense that as amazing as these toys are, they are not original nor do they share any true meaning with their real world counterparts. They may be "rare" or "unique" or even custom built like H with the Iron Giant, but as much as they can pull off they are just meant to function and look cool at the end of the day. Not just for the film and its narrative decisions, but for the characters owning and interacting with them as well. All that being said, still a great video, just wanted to share my thoughts on why H wasn't considering the lore of Iron Giant during a massive pop culture war lol. As amazing as these things are, especially during such an important and decisive battle, they are all just tools. Beloved, incredible, iconic tools; but still just tools. Absolutely loved this movie when it first came out, finding every reference I could took so much of my time, and re-watching it recently with a friend in Bigscreen via the Quest 2 was oh so deliciously ironic while providing a great time once again. I don't think I'll ever stop thinking about this movie, or watching it for that matter. It's not the deepest thing in the world but the attention to detail in every frame of every brilliantly realized reference as well as the amazing wish fulfillment of seeing it all, it will keep me coming back for a long time. Thank you coming to my TedTalk, you may now move on with your life. Have a good one! 👍👌🖐

as someone who gets very little references , this was a family favourite which we all enjoyed watching together on the tv. It was fun and entertaining and memorable.

I think you’re right that many of Ready Player One’s references are just “thing exists“ and don’t try to reinvent or reimagine them in a meaningful way. The Iron Giant is a particularly notable example of that. But I disagree about The Shining sequence. I think it is a nice tribute to Spielberg’s friendship with Kubric that ties into the friendship between Halliday and his friend who helped him design The Oasis. Halliday’s biggest regret was losing his friend, and Spielberg’s allusions to Kubric offer a metacommentary on that

I thought this movie was good and I think paying this much attention to the references alone is entirely missing the point. The movie is about exploring the past of Halliday, finding out why he made the oasis and what he stands for within the world, which we come to find out is that he found it very inportsnt to balance your love of pop culture/the oasis with your love for real life. Like you discussed in the sequence regarding the shining, the whole scene was set up based on the premise that Halliday valued pop culture MORE than going on a date with that girl. That was his mistake, and the whole point was that the sequence ISNT about the shining, but about his regret in the moment. So, sure. The movie is throwing a bunch of pop culture at you. But the sheer amount of it was not pointless, rather an accurate depiction of how over-exposed we are and how you need to see through all of it to get to the heart.

This movie was awesome. I wish there would be a second movie

Considering all the recognizable characters in the game are simply other players using skins of their favorite characters I can understand why they dont behave like the actual characters that we know. When you see Batman in Ready Player One you know its just somebody in their basement with VR goggles so we don't expect to see the dark night himself or behave in a certain way.

It doesn't disappear, it's in my heart 💜

The book is also chocked full of references to 80s culture, but they all seem to be more genuine references/homages to nerd culture many younger people won't know about. I felt encouraged to join in and learn about all of the references I hadn't heard of. On the other hand, more obscure references won't play as well for a more general audience, so I understand why they couldn't follow the book.

I'm sorry, I loved this movie and all the nostalgia in it. The Shinning reference was a great twist. Things aren't always what they seem. I've watched this movie a few times and I will watch it again!

Wow. Such an incredible analysis. Thank you!

It wasn’t supposed to be the iron giant, it was a classic anime mech. Which makes a lot more sense in the context than the iron giant did.

My problem with the movie is how much of the book was discarded, both in content and style/heart. A lot of the references in Ready Player one in the book actually tied back to Halliday and his personality. The references were obviously a love letter to the 80s and everything they stood for, but they also defined who Halliday was as a person. While some of the referenes were made for the audience/reader in specific, a lot of them were explaining the interests, the mind and the personality of who Halliday was. You made a brief mention of how a scene was different in the book around the 5:00 mark in the video. Much of the book was like this. We missed Dungeon's and Dragons references, Zork, the perfect game of pacman, and so on. Many of the keys were different, and they all actually lead to a gate rather than the story being "Collect 3 items you win" story. Each of these were tied back to a moment in Halliday's life and showed meaning to why he liked them and enjoyed them. Halliday at the end of the day wanted to share his love for the things he grew up with, the way his life was shaped and moulded around them, and where he was in life. He only wanted to pass his company on to someone who embodied and understood him and his love for everything. Think back to some of your favorite pieces of media through out your life, or anything you really enjoyed. I'm sure you can really remember where you were in life, and how you were feeling, and why they were important to you. Much of that was lost in the movie, and I feel the book captured it perfectly. The book isn't perfect itself no, but the movie is far off from what the book achieved. I feel thats why it faded from the public. People liked it for the references that were ultimately just thrown in, and fans of the book moved on as it lost its meaning from what they remembered. While there's suppose to be a second movie. I can be almost certain its also not going to live up to what was written in the book.

🙏 With great respect , the moral story of Ready Player One is to defend the freedom to use the internet from being charge by Mega Tech with heartless business people! Not much Studios & Directors can rendered this movie as Enjoyable to Watch as Steven Spielberg & his Studios ... 🌷🌿🌏💜🕊

the shining sequence is more spielberg paying respect to one of his favorite film makers imo

To me it looked and felt like pure nostalgia baiting and riding. It beats you with the nostialgia fists in your face every couple of seconds and screams "REMEMBER THAT? DO YOU LIKE IT? LIKE IT NOW!" This was pure incompetence.

I feel like part of the problem here is that you are looking at this movie through the lens of someone who cares and knows things about the properties in this movie. If you look at it from the point of view of your average player, these are just skins that look cool, nobody cares that the Iron Giant (which is a great movie btw) was anti-gun, to a gamer he looks cool and kicks ass. As a child of the 80s I loved all the pop references and after watching this and reading the comments I realize I NEED to read this book.

I watched it in theaters with my dad(a man who grew up in the 70s and 80s), and we both enjoyed it thoroughly... and forgot it thoroughly. Everything you said in this video is absolutely true, nostalgic cues for the sake of nostalgic cues get stale and overused after a while if not done in taste. And it's absolutely wild to think so many of these references were originally done by Spielberg himself, its like some sort of cinema inception. So the uninspired nature of these allusions makes sense, but it doesn't make it any less intriguing to think how the man who made the original references is making a movie referring to them.

I think of this movie as an 8-year old's battlefield. He may not care what the symbolism of The Iron Giant or King Kong. For him to get an army of hundreds of pop culture icons is a dream come true. Yes it could have gone better, but it isn't bad by any means. I love this movie.

J.J. Abrams is largely responsible for this line of thinking in the industry. Into Darkness and The Force Awakens paved the way for RP1 and all these movies and shows that expect praise for reminding us of something we like.

I actually loved Ready Player One ever since it came out and still do

I love this movie. All the nostalgic references made my heart happy, as I was instantly transported to my childhood. I watch it every time it plays on T.V.

Saw this in IMAX 3D and it was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had in a theater but that’s all due to its visuals

Don't necessarily love the whole movie and story but I can't deny the Gundam scene is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Didn't hurt that I'd recently gotten into gundam when the movie came out

I read the book a long time ago, and I thought it was amazing. You can see that Ernest Cline (the author) really cared about the references that he placed in, and made them work in the context of the book. When I heard about a movie adaptation, I was a bit worried, because most of the scenes in the book worked better in book format. It's a decent adaptation, but it lacks the soul that the original book had in exchange for more mindless pop culture references.

I love how, halfway through the video, you learned how to pronounce "homage". LOL!

I don't think the show is forgettable, It actually is one of the inspirations behind on of my sci-fi worlds I've been creating, the other half of the inspiration if the Mortality Doctrine by James Dashner who made Maze Runner, it has a similar concept which I've been enjoying.

This movie is the reason I am Majoring in Simulation and Visualization right now! Surprised it didn’t get more love!

I agree with almost all of what you're saying but I still love this film !

This is one of those movies I wanted to like SO much more than I did. You really nailed how & why it was such a missed opportunity.

Suprised that he didn't mention that Space Jam: A New Legacy was Ready Player One 2.0 but with Warner Bros. characters, which was the influence of the platform fighter Multiversus.

I feel like this is the movie Mark Zuckerberg watched when he began his path on being obsessed with the metaverse lol. Jokes aside though I was so sucked into this movie that to me it was believable that all these ips would be in the game, and didn't feel like a nostalgia cash grab at all. I mean, look at the "metaverses" that we have now. Things like roblox and fortnite have whole worlds dedicated to different brands and ips, and in games like Garry's mod people constantly use avatars from different ips. I think that if there was a metaverse this advanced there would be a ton of things that play on your nostalgia so they can keep you in the meta and keep advertising to you. So seeing tracer and masterchief on screen was just cool. seemed like something that would actually happen and there was no reason to suspend my disbelief.

Your opening comments killed my soul. Gosh. I loved the movie lol

This movie was incredible, gave me so much happiness when I watched it.

The movie removed all the study of the source references and just threw in the references as fast and as much as they could while making the entire movie a race story. The original book actually breathes and has a lot more depth and reverence for its member-berries.

The movie is nothing like the book. The book is phenomenal.

i forgot id seen it, but will have to watch again soon

How did you know I watched all the way to the end? Whoa!

Filmmakers like Spielberg are in a very short supply nowadays

I feel like the Shining sequence was kind of brought in because of Spielberg took great inspiration from Kubrick and wanted to feature one of his favorite Kubrick films in such an in-depth and thorough reference. Kind of like a love letter to a past legend.

You really overthought this movie dude. Its a nostalgic loveletter. Just enjoy it.

I love it. It's one of my all time favorites. In fact I just watched it earlier today

I've seen this argument made before. Frankly, I don't remember if the book was much better since I felt like many of the pop culture references were still rather shallow, often describing what the various properties were rather than why Halliday appreciated them and why he was right to have valued them. One issue I had with the movie versus the book was the pool of references. The book's collection of references is relatively limited, but that is because Ernest Cline built a fictional world based on his own nerdy Gen-X nostalgia, which is why the book resonated so much with other Gen-X nerds. The movie had a much wider pool of references to appease Spielberg's own Baby Boomer nostalgia, to pander to the expected MIllennial and Gen-Z audience, and to nod to the production companies' other valuable properties. This broader pool of references diluted the film. Additionally, the Shining sequence, in particular, makes no sense, as Halliday would have been too young to have seen the movie in its original theatrical run if he were as old in the film as he is in the book.

Also it makes me wonder if Nerdstalgic has ever read the book or played a game because the way they used the characters like Iron Giant in the final battle was completely in line with the book and also with how they would be used in real life within a virtual game world.

Look, I understand that the challenges needed to be changed, because none of them really adapted well to a movie and wouldn't be fun to watch at all, so I was really behind that (also keeps the experience fresh for someone who read the book) but where I disagree is the changes to the story that happened. While I understand the need to cut some things down because of sheer length and I guess some things don't really work out the same on screen I guess, some things have been cut that I do miss. And I am not really that happy with how they changed that first challenge because here everyone knew where it took place and had an idea that something needed to be done there, they just didn't get what the right course of action would be, while in the original nearly no one even had an idea what to do or where to begin looking. I still enjoyed it a lot btw, just missed some things.

You’re just over thinking it! I loved the book and the movie. I’m still waiting for ready player two.

I still watch the movie regularly, and I'm active in the subreddit. I don't think it's disappeared at all.

They turned the Iron Giant, a symbol of pacifism, into a war machine. Yeah, Spielberg had no idea what they symbols he was scooping up meant.

Masterful. As soon I heard what you were saying I was able to understand what was my biggest turnoff of the movie.

This video is awesome

I absolutely loved Ready Player One. It’s one of my favorite movies. 👌🏻👌🏻🙌🏻

As someone who read the book initially, I had high hopes for the movie, not crazy expectations as we know every movie adaptation of a book never quite hits right with few exceptions. After reading the book the only thing I could think of was "this needs to be a movie" and when I saw Spielberg was behind the direction I became hopeful. When I first saw the movie I didn't hate it, and still don't, there are aspects of the movie that truly capture what was happening in my head as I was reading the book, but overall the movie doesn't have anywhere near the same magic the book was able to encapsulate. I'm sure others who read the book can agree with me but overall the movie didn't have anywhere near the magic the book had. Not a bad movie, but the book was too incredible.

I really enjoyed both the movie and book. It's a fun movie, cool visuals, fantastic cast. I watch it every year or so.

I think this movie is the perfect example of a huge sum of nostalgic parts being considerably greater than it's dramatic whole.

I really liked this movie, it was a shame it wasn't a bigger hit.

This is exactly why you need a Blu-ray Disc of all the good movies you love

wait... the movie is only 4 years old? holy crap... usually I'm shocked to hear how much older something is than I thought, but this time around I'm shocked that this movie isn't already 10 years old... it feels way older to me...

It's one of my favorite movies. Everytime it comes on TV I'm pretty much watching it. I haven't seen it come on in a bit now

These fantastic bite sized essays feel like an introduction to a much larger discussion. Ever considered longer format content, to dive deeper into these topics? Love your work, thanks for the reflective inspiration.

The fact that we got even as much as we did is a minor miracle. The number of properties mentioned in the book are rather staggering. The only way to have filmed it the way it was written would be to get more than a dozen IP holders to agree to work together or license their properties for the making of said movie. So, they worked with the properties they could and replaced what they couldn't. The book is definitely better thematically, which tends to be the case in movie adaptations.

I’ve watched 3 movies ever a second time in theaters and this was one

All of the important symbolism in Ready Player One relates to Kubrick and a couple of other directors who are referenced early in the film. That's how you sort out what's important to the subtext and what isn't, and that's why The Shining was featured along with "42" aka "the answer ultimate" which is an important clue in The Shining. First example - Kong in the race sequences. Kong, like Major Kong in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove represents lust, which is one of the things holding Wade back at the beginning of the story. The Batman reference isn't really a Batman reference - it's a Tim Burton reference. When you see Pee-wee's bike just inside the doorway of Aech's garage after Kong stops Z and Art3mis, you're supposed to put those references together subliminally to understand that Wade is a greedy little horn-dog - a man child like Pee-wee, which is why Art3mis doesn't think much of him at that point in the film. The T-Rex from Jurassic Park, the other big obstacle in the race, represents greed, since greed is the sin that drives the plot in that film. Many of the other Kubrick references in Ready Player One are shape based, like the hexagon and cube, and you really have to know Kubrick's pattern of symbolism to recognize them, but some of the others are fairly straight forward allusions, like the spinning house we see just after Wade enters the OASIS for the first time - a pretty good hint at what the three keys represent. ;)

The movie does as much as the book does. Neither go deep into understanding or deconstructing any og character. Neither are a homage and that's fine. It is a nostalgia trip which relies mostly on name dropping them and losely tying it to situations. Spielberg went out of his way to avoid using as many references to him as there were in the book which was full of them. This was fun movie. End of story.

I really enjoyed this movie because it represents to me a highly possible future we’re the Internet will evolve into a virtual reality world where everyone will participate, whether for work or personal enjoyment to live out their fantasies. The inclusion of popular icons to me only represents the actual desire of those who logged on to be who they fantasize about being.

It's evident that when filmmakers truly respect and understand a character, they leverage that character's potential to their advantage in the film. For example, the utilization of the Iron Giant in "Ready Player One" could have been more impactful. Ideally, the Iron Giant would initially emerge as an imposing force on the adversaries' side, serving as a formidable 'power-up'. This would set the stage for an epic clash, during which the protagonists manage to incapacitate the Iron Giant. Upon its reawakening, we could have seen a transformative moment where the familiar, beloved Iron Giant emerges, aiding the good guys or, at the very least, ceases to fight against them. This approach would not only have added layers to the narrative, but also honored the essence of the character we know from the original "The Iron Giant".

I enjoyed the heck out of it and re-watch it many times.

It has nothing to say and what it does have to say is really unsettling: don't worry if reality is a dystopian nightmare because you can always escape into a fictional realm while reality crumbles.

I was a massive fan of the book and ended up watching the movie in theater, only later to be gifted a shirt and DVD of the movie. So, while it has dissapeared from the public's mind, it is constantly at the back of mine.

This is probably my favorite movie of all time. I need Ready Player Two!!

One of my favorites movies still

I love Ready Player One, 10/10. I love all of Spielberg’s scifi films.

Love this movie, still watch it quite often

Heard of it when news of the movie being made. Never read it, never saw it, completely forgot about it until I saw this title

This movie is soooo good watched it yesterday. I keep track of how many times I watch this movie because I love it 32 second time.

Imma say what I've said before, ready player one should've been a TV show

I watched the movie with my girlfriend, she found it cool and read the book After reading she said "it seems like the movie was made by the IOI guys" 😆😆😆

One of the best movies I’ve seen in a game world.

Hasn’t been forgotten- reason behind me buying the family oculus headsets

Not going to comment on the film, but your analysis was extremely well done! It was not unnecessarily long and it made clear points. The summary at the end was the best, that the movie relied so much on external properties that it had to kill it's own identity to do so. We only know a classic through the lens of time, and this was no classic. Great job!

I must be the only one that actually enjoyed this film highly

Ready player One was a movie that I enjoyed watching in theaters. Seeing all the references and nods and Easter eggs was fun. Then, I watched it at home later and it was immensely less fun. I watched it one more time since and I started thinking it was just stupid. Plot was weak and corny

I think we are over thinking it, I loved the movie and this just makes me want to watch it again

honestly i still love this movie. to me the little cultural nods are just there for fun and it would have cost too much time to deconstruct even a few of the characters who weren't directly relevant to the plot. also i do truly love that exchange at the end where wade asks the halliday ai/avatar if halliday is really dead. i think the implication is that the soul of halliday lives on in the thing he's created. just imagine how much that thought must have resonated with an artist like speilberg.

Such a fun movie. Loved it.

it disapered because the movie completely failed to understand the message behind the book, and instead of looking at it as the hellscape it actually is, decided to look at it as a blueprint for the future.

I LOVED this movie! Nothing will change my mind.

Loved the book & movie!