Ready Player One blasts onto the big screen
The smash-hit book enters a new reality.
Virtual reality (VR) is one of the most exciting technologies of modern times. Wearing a headset, you can be transported into incredible, computer-generated worlds. Meanwhile, new technology, known as haptics, is being designed to even give users a realistic sense of touch in a VR environment.
Countless books and films have introduced futuristic worlds in which VR is an everyday fact of life, but none as vividly as Ready Player One.
The book, by Ernest Cline, was a hit when it was published in 2011, and has gone on to become a classic. Set in the year 2044, it tells the story of a teenager called Wade Owen Watts. In Cline’s vision of the future, Earth has taken a turn for the worse: the planet is facing an energy crisis, and life in the real world is miserable. To get away from their troubles, millions find relief in the Oasis, an amazing VR simulation.
Now, Wade and the Oasis are being brought one step closer to life, with the release of an eagerly anticipated new film. Directed by Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg, who also made E.T. and The BFG, Ready
Player One will introduce the stunning virtual world of the Oasis to the big screen.
Armies of technology experts are working hard to make perfect VR a reality in our world, but in Wade’s the success of the Oasis is down to one man: James Halliday. Halliday dies and in his will he announces that anyone who can follow an incredible treasure hunt through the Oasis will inherit his gargantuan fortune, as well as take control of the computer simulation itself. With an all-star cast and mindbending special effects, the film is as brilliant as the book, and offers a glimpse into the amazing virtual worlds that may one day become our reality.
Ready Player One is in cinemas now, certificate 12A.