The first player to get ready (film)

The picture takes place in 2045. The protagonist is a teenager, Wade Watts, lives in a dirty, overpopulated Columbus ( Ohio ), in a slum called Stacks. People have a computer game OASIS, immersing the player in the fascinating world of virtual reality, distracting from pressing problems. The creator of the OASIS, the eccentric billionaire James Halliday (his avatar is Anorak), having died, left an Easter egg in the game, to which three keys lead. Anyone who passes the Anorak quest and gets to the first egg will receive $ 500 billion and control of the OASIS.

It is known that the first key will be the winner of the auto race, which so far no one has managed to get to the finish line. Watts (avatar - Parsifal) participates in the race, but does not go through it, but at the last moment he saves the Easter hunter Art3midu from virtual death in the clutches of King Kong . As a result of this race, King Kong breaks her motorcycle, but Wade takes Art3midu to his best friend Eych, a mechanic famous throughout the OASIS. Eich notes that Parsifal liked Art3Mida, but warns that anyone can hide behind an avatar in the game and that Wade be careful. Having been in the archive of James Holliday, Wade guesses the secret of success in the race. Having gone back at the start of the start, he wins and helps to reach the finish line of Eich and Art3mida, and Eich to his friends Daito and Sho. The five goes to the top of the OASIS rating tables and becomes famous in the virtual world. Their success has attracted the attention of IOI Corporation (Innovative Online Industries) and its head Nolan Sorrento, who also hunts for an egg. In the past, Sorrento was a subordinate of Holliday.

The IOI has a whole staff of players who have lost all of their savings in the game and become debt-dependent on the corporation - the Sixes, who try to go through the Anorak quest day and night. Entering the game, Nolan meets with an henchman under the nickname i-KrYt, who gives him a strong magical artifact - the Azuvox ball, after which he takes on the task of eliminating Parsifal. Meanwhile, he, along with Art3mida, goes to a dance club in the OASIS. As Art3mida thinks, it is there that the second key is located, they dance over the abyss, and Wade confesses her love to her along with her real name. i-KPYt punches this name in the database and passes it to Nolan Sorrento, while a six-squad attacks the club, a shoot-out occurs in which Parsifal uses one of the previously purchased artifacts, rewinding time 60 seconds back so that they can escape . Art3mida explains the importance of keeping the real names of the players secret and leaves Watts, explaining that he does important things and that Nolan should not gain power over the game. In the real world, Sorrento tries to bribe Wade, but when he refuses, he makes a terrorist attack in “piles”, killing Aunt Wade and her roommate. Wade himself escapes with the help of an unknown fighter who delivers him to the shelter of Art3mida. In the real world, her name is Samantha Cook, and she tells Watts that she represents the Resistance, whose task is to free the world from dependence on the OASIS. She needs to find an egg to free the Sixes. Parsifal and Art3mida, looking through the memories in the Holliday virtual museum, guess where the next key is. Watts wins a bet at the Museum Curator and gets a 25-cent coin . The key is allegedly hidden inside the film " Shine ." The film turns out to be a trick, but Art3mida finds the true key hidden in the image of Holliday's lover, Kira, dancing at the ball in the film. Anorak gives the last clue - the third key is in Anorak’s castle on the planet Doom . IOI protects the passage to the castle, i-KPYt activates the ball, creating an impenetrable force field over the entire zone.

IOI fighters in the real world attack the shelter of the Resistance and capture Samantha. She is taken to a debt prison and sent to virtual forced labor, as her father died as a “six” and did not manage to fulfill his duty. The remaining members of the Five manage to free her, and it turns out that Xie is 11 years old, Daito is a little more, and HH is a girl. Samantha learns that the Sixes understood how to get to the castle. To do this, go through the game " Adventure " for the Atari 2600 . Parsifal gathers players for a large-scale battle with the Sixes. The IOI cannot finish the quest, and only Parsifal succeeds because he realized that he doesn’t have to go through the game, but find the first Easter egg in the world in it. When Sorrento activates an artifact that kills all players on a level, only Parsifal survives, as he has a 25-cent coin, which gives an additional “life”. Watts gets to the third key, passing to the Easter egg of the game "Adventure", and Anorak appears in front of him. At this moment, the game completely stops for everyone except Parsifal. Anorak invites him to sign a contract and take possession of the game and wealth. Watts understands that this is the last test, and refuses the temptation. Holliday appears before him in true guise. Power over the OASIS means that Watts can completely stop the game by permanently erasing information from OASIS servers.

Sorrento is trying to kill Watts, but first he is stopped by the residents of the Stacks, and then he refuses the idea of ​​murder for unnamed reasons. He is being arrested. Watts shares power over the game between the entire Five. They decide that they will stop the game for two days a week so that everyone can get out of virtual reality and live in the real world. Wade and Samantha confess each other their love.

• Tai Sheridan - Parsifal / Wade Watts, Easter Egg Hunter (Easter Hunter) and a member of the Five, who wants to win the game and leave the "stacks".
• Olivia Cook - Art3mida / Samantha “Sam” Cook, a famous Easter Easter girl and a member of the “Five” who works with various allies to prevent OASIS from falling under IOI control.
• Ben Mendelssohn - Nolan Sorrento, head of Innovative Online Industries, seeking to gain control of OASIS.
• Lina Waite - H.H. / Helen Harris, easter and member of the Five, Wade's longtime friend. In reality, a girl. H.H. owns a virtual garage, where in his spare time he creates and repairs various cars and devices.
• T.J. Miller is i-KrYt , the bounty hunter often employed by the IOI.
• Simon Pegg - Curator / Ogden Morrow, one of the founders of OASIS, who ultimately left the company for personal reasons. Worried about people developing an unhealthy addiction to the game.
• Mark Rylance - Anorak / James Holliday, deceased creator of OASIS, hiding Easter eggs in OASIS before his death, which give the winner control of the game and all the resources of James.
• Philip Zao - Sho / Zou, an 11-year-old easter and member of the Five.
• Win Morisaki - Daito / Toshiro, easter and member of the Five.
• Hannah John-Keyman - F'Nale Zandor, Head of IOI Operations in the Physical World.

In addition, Susan Lynch plays the role of Alice, Aunt Wade; Ralph Aineson plays Rick, Alice's boyfriend; Perdita Weeks plays Kira, wife of Morrow; Letisha Wright plays the rebel, and Claire Higgins plays Mrs. Gilmore. Mackenna Grace and Lulu Wilson play the role of school students who play OASIS.

Warner bros and De Line Pictures won an auction for the film adaptation of Ernest Klein 's science fiction novel, " First Player to Get Ready", in 2010, before the publication of the novel ^[6] . Klein was appointed screenwriter for the film, produced by Donald De Line and Dan Farah ^[6] . Eric Eason rewrote the script of Klein ^[7] , and was later hired by Zach Penn to rewrite previous versions of Klein and Eason. Soon, Village Roadshow Pictures also began financing the film with WB. ^[8] Steven Spielberg signed a contract for the director and producer of the film, where Christie Makosko Krieger , along with De Lyne and Farrah, also became a producer. ^[9] “The First Player to Get Ready” - Spielberg’s first fantasy action since the 2011 Tintin Adventures: The Secret of the Unicorn and the first adventure fantasy film since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull , released in 2008 ^[10] .

Casting

There were three main contenders for the role of Art3mis: El Fanning , Olivia Cook and Lola Kirk ^[11] . In September 2015, it was announced that Cook had taken on the lead female role ^[12] . Ben Mendelson was taken on the role of the main villain, the head of the IOI corporation ^[13] . Ty Sheridan was approved for the lead role of Wade at the end of February 2016 ^[14] . In mid-March 2016, Simon Pegg went into final negotiations to get the role of Ogden Morrow, co-creator of OASIS ^[15] . Mark Rylance joined the cast as James Holliday, creator of OASIS ^[16] . In June 2016, T.J. Miller was taken on as the bounty hunter ^[17] , Hannah John-Kamen was taken on an indefinite supporting role ^[18] , and Japanese singer-songwriter Ween Morisaki was taken on the role of Toshiro Yoshiaki, also known as Daito ^[19] .

Filming

The production of the film began in July 2016 ^[20] . On July 1, 2016, screenwriter Zach Penn tweeted that the first week of filming was completed ^[21] . In August and September 2016, the shooting took place in Birmingham , England, in places of Livery Street in the Jewelery Quarter zone, where Hatters hostel was used for internal filming; other places in the city also included the former industrial district of Digbet. The film takes place in Ohio ^{[22] [23]} . The filming period ended on September 17, 2016 ^{[24] [25]} .

Special Effects

Spielberg worked with Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to control the process of working on visual effects, conducting three three-hour meetings every week with ILM ^[25] . He stated that “This is the most difficult film I have made since“ Saving Private Ryan “” ^[25] .

Cultural references

The film has very big differences from the novel.

Like the book, the film pays homage primarily to the pop culture of the 1980s , 1990s , 2000s, and 2010s . In particular, there are references to the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day , Steel Giant , Back to the Future , Radiance , to the image of Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street . Spielberg admitted that his past films were an important part of the 1980s pop culture, as indicated in the book, and to avoid being accused of “vanity”, he decided not to use most of the many references to his own films ^[26] .

On June 9, 2016, Variety announced that Spielberg’s regular employee, John Williams , plans to write music for the film ^[27] . However, in July 2017, it was announced that Williams left the project to work on Spielberg's Secret Dossiers , and Alan Silvestri was hired to compose music instead ^[1] .

The release of the film was scheduled for December 15, 2017 ^[28] . The date was then rescheduled to March 30, 2018 to avoid competition with the movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi ^[29] . In January 2018, it was announced that the release date of the film was postponed to March ^{29 [29]} .

Warner bros began distributing the film around the world, and Village Roadshow Pictures - in several foreign territories ^[30] .

The film received on average positive reviews from film critics and viewers. On the Rotten Tomatoes website , the rating is 72% with an average score of 6.9 out of 10 based on 388 reviews ^[31] . On Metacritic - 64 points out of 100 based on 55 reviews ^[32] .

Kline is working on a sequel to the novel ^[33] . To continue the film, he stated: “[...] I think there is a good chance that if the film succeeds, then Warner Bros. wants to shoot a sequel. I don’t know if Steven Spielberg would like to dive back because he will know what he is getting into. He said that this is the third most complex film that he made, out of dozens and dozens of films ^{[34] [35]} . Joint star Olivia Cook , and, apparently, the rest of the cast, “signed a contract to continue” ^[36] .

• 16 lessons of a VR-oriented future Vive Vice President Alvin Graylin analyzed VR technologies from the book “First Player Get Ready” and their prospects in reality // cybersense.ru, 08/10/2017