A Ready Player One Primer: All the Books, Music, Movies, TV Shows, and Games You Need to Know
Ready Player One: A Novel
Paperback $18.00
Ready Player One: A Novel
By Ernest Cline
In Stock Online
Paperback $18.00
For a book that uses pop culture like building blocks, Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One remains a remarkably readable, remarkably personal novel. It’s the story of a bleak future world in which resource depletion and economic collapse has driven people into the virtual world of OASIS, where they can live their lives as anyone and do anything they wish.Reading it is like taking a tour of Cline’s brain, with pitstops at just about every piece of formative entertainment from his childhood and early adulthood in the 1980s. That Cline regards the decade in general as history’s most interesting pop cultural moment becomes clear from about page 2 of the book, and it goes on to form the crux of the plot—master the ’80s, master the future.
For a book that uses pop culture like building blocks, Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One remains a remarkably readable, remarkably personal novel. It’s the story of a bleak future world in which resource depletion and economic collapse has driven people into the virtual world of OASIS, where they can live their lives as anyone and do anything they wish.Reading it is like taking a tour of Cline’s brain, with pitstops at just about every piece of formative entertainment from his childhood and early adulthood in the 1980s. That Cline regards the decade in general as history’s most interesting pop cultural moment becomes clear from about page 2 of the book, and it goes on to form the crux of the plot—master the ’80s, master the future.
So, what if you’re not terribly familiar with the pop culture minutiae of the 1980s, but you want still want to read the book and see the film adaptation from Steven Spielberg—who, as the mind behind ’80s pop culture phenomenons from Indiana Jones to The Goonies, is himself name-checked in the novel, naturally? Listing every single bit of pop culture minutiae laced through both the book and the film (full disclosure: we’ve only seen the trailers thus far)—that is, noting all of the movies, TV shows, books, games, and songs referenced—would be impossible. There are simply too many. But if you familiarize yourself with the awesome stuff listed here, you’ll have the basic knowledge you need to grok the movie along with the rest of the geeks.
Ready Player One is largely focused on video games and visual media, but that doesn’t mean a few books didn’t impress Cline enough for inclusion. The inventor of OASIS, James Halliday, provides a reading list for his followers in his memoir/journal Anorak’s Almanac that includes folks like Neal Stephenson, Richard K. Morgan, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, and others—but here’s the short list of books and authors you should at least be familiar with prior to sitting down in the theater.
Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It
Paperback $17.00
Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It
Paperback $17.00
Dungeons & Dragons. One of the book’s key plot elements involved Dungeons & Dragons, the role-playing game that first rose to popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, specifically the classic campaign Tomb of Horrors, created by D&D’s creator Gary Gygax. If you’re not into RPGs and have no desire to be, you should at least understand the basics—so read Of Dice and Men, by David M. Ewalt, or at the very least, the Tomb of Horrors Wikipedia page.
Dungeons & Dragons. One of the book’s key plot elements involved Dungeons & Dragons, the role-playing game that first rose to popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, specifically the classic campaign Tomb of Horrors, created by D&D’s creator Gary Gygax. If you’re not into RPGs and have no desire to be, you should at least understand the basics—so read Of Dice and Men, by David M. Ewalt, or at the very least, the Tomb of Horrors Wikipedia page.
Player Piano
Paperback $18.00
Player Piano
In Stock Online
Paperback $18.00
Kurt Vonnegut. You don’t really need an excuse to read Vonnegut, so you might as well just read them all. The hero of Ready Player One, Wade Watts, names his virtual spaceship the Vonnegut, and several of Vonnegut’s novels clearly influenced Cline’s vision, most notably Player Piano and Slaughterhouse Five. (But read them all, seriously.)
Kurt Vonnegut. You don’t really need an excuse to read Vonnegut, so you might as well just read them all. The hero of Ready Player One, Wade Watts, names his virtual spaceship the Vonnegut, and several of Vonnegut’s novels clearly influenced Cline’s vision, most notably Player Piano and Slaughterhouse Five. (But read them all, seriously.)
Lewis Carroll. Read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass, in order to get several references throughout the story—including what a Vorpal Sword is.
A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess. Not only are there some relatively subtle references to this novel and film in the book, there are a lot of neat parallels between Cline’s virtual world, where everything is permitted, and the out-of-control youth culture Burgess depicts in his much darker story.
Douglas Adams. Specifically, his classic sci-fi comedy The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which not only informs the sense of humor Cline seeds his story with, but also gets referenced at several key moments in the story.
MOVIES / TV SHOWS
Everything from Star Wars (of course) to Star Trek (of course) to Blade Runner gets referenced in this book, but for bare-bones reference-getting when watching the movie, here are four movies and TV shows you’ll likely need to be familiar with.
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory [Blu-ray]
![Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory [Blu-ray]](https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0883929153978_p0_v5_s192x300.jpg)
Blu-ray $16.99
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory [Blu-ray]
Cast
Gene Wilder
,
Jack Albertson
,
Peter Ostrum
,
Michael Bollner
,
Denise Nickerson
Director
Mel Stuart
,
Gene Wilder
,
Jack Albertson
,
Peter Ostrum
,
Roy Kinnear
,
Julie Dawn Cole
Blu-ray $16.99
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. If the music in the teaser trailer (an instrumental cover of “Pure Imagination”) wasn’t a big enough tell, we can confirm that Ready Player One is basically a stealth remake of Roald Dahl’s most famous story—albeit more so the ’70s film version than the original novel. Regardless, the wish fulfillment structure—poor kid inherits the keys to the factory of make-believe—hits all the same beats.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. If the music in the teaser trailer (an instrumental cover of “Pure Imagination”) wasn’t a big enough tell, we can confirm that Ready Player One is basically a stealth remake of Roald Dahl’s most famous story—albeit more so the ’70s film version than the original novel. Regardless, the wish fulfillment structure—poor kid inherits the keys to the factory of make-believe—hits all the same beats.
WarGames. Cline likes Matthew Broderick a lot, apparently; at one crucial point in the novel Wade has to roleplay as David Lightman, Broderick’s character from WarGames, reciting his dialogue on cue.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Another role-playing moment in the novel takes a deep-dive into this classic comedy’s most famous scene.
Ladyhawke. To say there is a surprising amount of text spent on this early-1980s film starring Rutger Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, and (yep) Matthew Broderick is an understatement.
Brazil. The references to Brazil are subtle, but there are echoes of the delirious, paranoid fantasy world of Terry Gilliam’s cult classic in the atmosphere of Innovative Online Industries (IOI), the corporate villain of Cline’s story, making it a must-watch.
The Iron Giant. The title character from Brad Bird’s unforgettable 1999 animated film about a robot from deep space who crash-lands in America in the middle of the 1950s Red scare and befriends a young boy earns a hero shot or two in the RPO trailer. We don’t know how essential he’ll be in the final film, but there’s no bad reason to revisit this modern classic. Bring tissues.
VIDEO GAMES
Video games play a huge role in Ready Player One, because OASIS is, in essence, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG, and yes, that is a real, actual acronym people use). There are tons of references (who spotted Street Fighter II character Chun-Li in the trailer?), but here are the games you should know about.
Atari Classics: Swordquest
Paperback
$11.40
$15.99
Atari Classics: Swordquest
By
Roy Thomas
,
Gerry Conway
,
Hope Shafer
Other
Ray Garst
Paperback
$11.40
$15.99
Swordquest. This rather obscure game series is notable for a real-life contest launched by gamemaker Atari—one that resembles Wade’s quest within OASIS, albeit in low-fi ’80s fashion. Decades ago, Atari tried to get gamers excited about their adventure game series by hosting a real-life competition in which players could win recreations of fantasy objects from the game—a chalice, a crown, a philosopher’s stone—made from real precious metals and stones worth big bucks. Once all four planned games were out (Earthworld, Fireworld, Waterworld, and Airworld—the found winners were slated to compete for a grand prize: a golden sword worth $50,000. Unfortunately, the decade’s video game boom went bust after just two of the prizes had been awarded—but the tie-in comics that were released alongside the games live on!
Swordquest. This rather obscure game series is notable for a real-life contest launched by gamemaker Atari—one that resembles Wade’s quest within OASIS, albeit in low-fi ’80s fashion. Decades ago, Atari tried to get gamers excited about their adventure game series by hosting a real-life competition in which players could win recreations of fantasy objects from the game—a chalice, a crown, a philosopher’s stone—made from real precious metals and stones worth big bucks. Once all four planned games were out (Earthworld, Fireworld, Waterworld, and Airworld—the found winners were slated to compete for a grand prize: a golden sword worth $50,000. Unfortunately, the decade’s video game boom went bust after just two of the prizes had been awarded—but the tie-in comics that were released alongside the games live on!
Adventure. This classic game for the Atari 2600 was the first fantasy video game, and is deeply embedded in the DNA of the novel—even the fact that everyone is chasing keys in OASIS is a nod to this primitive (by today’s standards) video game.
Joust, Pac-Man, Black Tiger, and Tempest. All of these arcade classics have pivotal moments in the story, and a basic familiarity with them is essential—but if you have to pick one, we go with Pac-Man, as it’s connected to a big plot point that won’t make sense if you’re not familiar with classic arcade lore.
Zork. This legendary text-only adventure is an incredibly complex, puzzle-filled game that clearly inspired some of the puzzles in Cline’s story, and also plays a part in the story. You can play the game for free online today, too. Watch out for the Grue.
Dungeons of Daggorath. One of the earliest graphical, first-person perspective video games would of course be a big deal in a story centered on a virtual world, so knowing a little something about it is a good idea.
MUSIC
2112 [40Th Anniversary] [Lp]
![2112 [40Th Anniversary] [Lp]](https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0602557202700_p0_v1_s192x300.jpg)
Vinyl LP $79.99
2112 [40Th Anniversary] [Lp]
Vinyl LP $79.99
You’ll want a general familiarity with all things 1980s when it comes to music—the trailer tells you that much. But you should also minor in 2112 by the Canadian band Rush. One of the songs off that classic album is a key moment in the story.
You’ll want a general familiarity with all things 1980s when it comes to music—the trailer tells you that much. But you should also minor in 2112 by the Canadian band Rush. One of the songs off that classic album is a key moment in the story.
This barely scratches the surface of the dizzying number of references Cline packs into the book, but with this prep work to lay a foundation, even someone completely unfamiliar with the 1980s will be able to keep up. Maybe.
Are you ready for Ready Player One?