Adaptation Month - Ready: Player One

Ready: Player One is a book written by Ernest Cline, released in 2011, the film adaptation was released in 2018 co-written by Ernest Cline and Zak Penn, who has co-written for Marvel and DC films both good and bad (and in the case of Elektra, terrible)

In the director’s chair is Steven Spielberg, who is no stranger to adaptations and is of course one of the master visionaries of our time.

But how does this fare as an adaptation? Let’s start with a brief rundown on my thoughts.

Ready: Player One the book is a fun read, but there are problems. It’s reliance on 80's pop culture and just the wealth of references to it scattered throughout the book can be a bit much. In addition, the nature of the story requires a f*ckton of exposition. Then we have Wade himself who has problematic moments, including a couple of comments that could be considered transphobic.

Ready: Player One the film is a visual treat as you’d expect with Spielberg and they did well to modernise some of the ideas presented in the book. Wade is less of a problematic character but unfortunately he’s not left with very much character, and neither is anyone else. It does have a similar problem with exposition, its first 20 minutes or so is full of it and there’s a number of major bits of plot convenience but it’s not unenjoyable.

What they kept

The basic setup of the film is pretty much book accurate. The OASIS being a virtual reality simulator (+10) where you can be whoever you want and explore worlds dedicated to pretty much everything you can imagine (+10), the game being a single life and you losing everything if you die (+10.) The real world being overpopulated, and thanks to various disasters land being scarce, poor people are forced to live in stacks (+10) essentially motorhomes stacked on top of each other

The creators being John Halliday and Ogden Morrow (+10) but Haliday being the sole owner (+10) after Morrow sold his shares (+10). Haliday’s death in 2040 leading to the release of a message, he’s handing over his entire fortune and control over the OASIS to whosoever finds his hidden easter egg (+10) which requires the collection of 3 keys (+10)

The two main parties after it being the Gunters (+10) who tend to work alone or in small clans and the Sixers (+10) employees of an organisation named IOI (+10) who seek to open the OASIS to advertising and subscriptions (+10). But neither side having any luck for 5 years (+10)

Our hero, Wade Watts (+10), a young man living with his uncaring aunt and her long list of asshole boyfriends (+10) uncovering the secret to the first key, becoming a celebrity in the process (+10) him soon becoming one of 5 to do so, with his best friend Aech (+10), his crush Artemis (+10), and Daito (+10) being among them. Wade falling head over heals for Artemis (+10) and the two going to a party together (+10) where he confesses his feelings to her and she rejects him (+10)

Sorrento, the head of the Sixers (+10) offering a chance for Wade to work with them and Wade refusing (+10), Sorrento revealing he knows who Wade is and blowing up his stack (+10) Wade only surviving because he accesses the OASIS from a convenient hideout (+10). Wade receiving a coin whose purpose was unknown at the time (+10)

The second key being found by the 5 (+10), Sorrento working out that the final key is in Haliday’s base, castle Anorak (+10) and erecting a force-field around it (+10), Wade making a speech to rally the public for an all-out assault on the castle (+10), Sorrento entering the fight in Mecha-Godzilla (+10), the shield falling thanks to inside treachery (+10) and Sorrento activating a bomb that wipes every player on the planet off the board (+10), Wade surviving this thanks to the coin being an extra life (+10)

Wade ultimately being presented with a big red button that would completely wipe out the OASIS (+10) and being told to live in the real world too (+10), Wade agreeing to share his ownership of the OASIS with his clan (+10) and Sorrento’s arrest (+10)

Other small details they adhered to include Haliday’s crush on the girl who would become Morrow’s wife and her untimely death.(+5) Aech turning out to be a black woman (+5), Art3mis turning out to be a girl named Samantha who’s embarrassed of her birth mark (+5).  The idea that anyone who got into debt could be imprisoned by IOI and forced to work for them until their debt is paid (indefinitely) (+5) Wade being so named because of the alliterative superhero motif (+5) and his choice of vehicle being the Delorian from Back to the Future (+5)

I count a decent 420 adaptation points there, but it’s not just about what they kept, let’s get to…

What they Changed

OK, this is going to be a long list. The one weird change when it comes to the setup is they describe the situation being result on corn-syrup riots and bandwidth wars, as opposed to the book where it was global warming (-5) this is very silly

Whilst they allured to the school planet Ludus in the film, this was supposed to be Wade’s starting location, in school (-5) and where the first key was located (-5) Incidentally it was from Wade’s school records that Sorrento worked out his identity in the book, as opposed to Ir0k overhearing him say it to Artemis (-5)

Each key was supposed to open a separate gate which generally had their own challenges associated with them (-5).

Aech and Artemis had relatively human designs in the book (-5), this is particularly an issue for Aech as it alludes to some backstory which we’ll get to.

The first key challenge was not a random race, it was a game of joust found in the Tomb of Horrors from Dungeons and Dragons (-5)

The second key challenge rather than being a zombie dance party in the middle of the Shining, was about collecting trophies in a game of Zork (-5). The third key was actually pretty easy, but unlocking the gate required 3 keys at once (-5) it was not just a game of adventure but a 3-stage battle, involving Tempest (-5), a roleplay of Monty Python, and then gaining the easter egg from Adventure.

The entire book is from Parzival/Wade’s perspective so scenes that dedicated to Sorrento are film only. (-5) Sorrento in the book is also the head of the Egghunting division, not the head of IOI entirely (-5), it’s not especially important but when Parzival gives his removal as a condition for him helping them, his superiors were more than happy to accept.

Ir0k is a different character in the film. In the book he was just some asshole who knew Parzival and Aech, and allowed everyone to make the connection to Ludus by bragging that he knew both of them from there (-5) in the film he’s Sorrento’s right hand in the Oasis for some reason and is voiced by TJ Miller.

I don’t believe Wade stole his aunt’s gloves in the book, most of his Oasis tech is stuff he salvaged and repaired himself (-5) the problem with his aunt is that she really only used him for extra food vouchers (-5) and when he brought a laptop home, she stole it to help cover their rent (-5)

Tying the egg hunt more to Haliday as a person as opposed to his pop cultural knowledge is a tad odd (-5) as that’s the justification for most of the pop cultural references. Here are few changes made to accommodate this. The library with the ask-Jeeves bot is film only (-5) in the book, you could access films and such at any time as part of your user interface. Haliday’s memories were not part of that research (-5) (for that matter, how is it possible to access Haliday's memories, were all of these conversations recorded?) this consequence of this is that it makes the first riddle a lot easier than in the book. (-5) The party Wade and Art3mis attended was not related to the memories in the book, it was a celebration of Morrow’s birthday (-5), Haliday never went on a date with Kira in the book, he was too shy to ask her out (-5)

There are some changes made to account for updates in tech as we see characters like the Arkham Knight and Harley Quinn being in the game, along with worlds like minecraft being there, whilst drones are used for deliveries in the real world. References to Disney properties that would have to be visualised are removed. Since these don’t detract from the experience and are understandable when it comes to rights issues, I won’t be deducting points for this.

Sho is Shoto, not sure if that’s a modification or just a pronunciation thing (-5), the device that let’s them turn into any giant robot was in fact specifically Ultra-man in the book, his 3-minute limit came from the show itself. (-5) the Iron Giant was not featured in the book, seeing the pacifist giant robot fight was somewhat controversial, I understand (-5)

The real world resistance movement is film only (-5) and so is the IOI henchwoman (-5), the capture of Art3mis (-5) Aech’s van conveniently showing up with Sho(to) and Daito (-5) the action scene in the real world as Parzival plays for the key (-5) them tricking Haliday using his stupidly obvious login details (how does that even work anyway?) (-5) and Parzival shooting At3mis to get her out of IOI before she got caught (-5)

Wade won the extra life by playing a perfect game of pac-man in the book, he won a bet with Ask Jeeves-bot in the film. I guess it’s probably quicker that way (-5)

A sharp deduction of 165 points, leaves this running at 250 points, but now for the big bits

What they left out

Whilst they made a point of showing how Sorrento’s plans to make money from the OASIS, there’s no actual mention of how the game itself made money. It’s basically funded by micro-transactions with fuel, use of stargates or teleportation costing money (-10) this is important as various companies approached our 5 champions about using their avatars for advertising, which Wade at least accepts and that’s how he earned the money for various expenses (-10)

The order of events is changed so Wade is outed after Art3mis breaks up with him. This isn’t true in the film, in fact they only got together after the destruction of his home. (-5)

After said destruction Wade does not approach the house like an idiot, and goes under an assumed identity and leaves the stacks, using his aforementioned riches and black market contacts to acquire a secure flat (-10) Wade taking chemical showers that dissolve all his hair so he could better fit into the suit (-10), installing a programme that required him to exercise (-10) and having Max Headroom as his AI (-5)

After Art3mis broke up with him, Wade resorted to cyber stalking, it’s probably for the best they cut this out (-10) but it’s interesting to me that we find out what she looks like early on, in the book Wade never saw Art3mis until after found the final key (-5)

I don’t think we ever see the Sixers actually get onto the leaderboard in the films (-10), which is weird, don’t you need all 3 keys, ya dipsh*ts?

Aech’s backstory, it’s fairly simple. She was a black woman in a society of racists (so not unlike our own) so like her mother before her she created a white male OASIS Avatar to explore the opportunities, unfortunately whilst her mother was fine with her doing that, coming out as gay was too much, and she was kicked out, forced to live in the van (-10)

Shoto and Daito in the books were strangers to each other, they met in the OASIS and became ‘brothers’ within (-10) unfortunately it’s not such a happy ending as IOI tracked down Daito and threw him to his death in the real world (-10)

It was Parzival who infiltrated IOI in the book (-5), he used his fake identity to fake being in debt and get arrested (-10), and then used black market exploits to hack IOI whilst he was connected to their servers (-10) this allowed him to download data on their Haliday research, what information they had on the other gunters, and footage of evidence used to pin the stack bombings and Daito’s murder on IOI (-10) he also uses this opportunity to plant an attack that would disable the force-field around castle Anorak (-10)

Kira whilst mentioned has most of her backstory removed. She was one of the only nerdy girls that would attend the Dungeons and Dragons clubs favoured by Haliday and Morrow (-10), as I’d previously mentioned Haliday was in love with her but never managed to find the courage to tell her, she did marry Morrow but ultimately died when she crashed her car on an icy road heading up to their mansion (-10)

Morrow being part of the plan and trying to ensure the integrity of the competition is true to the book (+5) but the means in which he does this are substantially different. He isn’t the Ask Jeeves bot in the book, he is an exceptionally powerful character, able to eavesdrop on conversations, single-handedly defeat an IOI ambush (-5) and in the real world he summons the 4 survivors to his mansion to complete their final task in relative safety (-10)

At the end of the second gate, each of the victors had a chance to choose a giant robot, this is how Sorrento ended up with Mecha-Godzilla in the final fight (-10) Parzival chose Supaiderman from the Japanese Spider-man show.

The Hi-Five were never a clan in the book, they worked alone for the most part, only teaming up out of convenience, Aech gave Parzival a clue to the location of the second key, to return the favour for Parzival inadvertently doing the same for the first (-10) a considerable part of the book was about Parzival looking over the clues. I do understand why they were cut, but it loses adaptation points (-10)

Another 220 points lost, meaning the total score is 30

Ready Player One by necessity needed to make substantial changes to its plot and characters to make the jump to film, this excuses some but not all of the changes made. It benefits from Spielberg’s directing and a decent cast, but suffers from a villain who went from hateable to lame and the sheer volume of contrivances and conveniences. I’d say the book is better, but I can understand if you just can’t ignore the issues with it.

Next up, we’ll be looking at the Darkest Minds