50 Fun Facts About Ready Player One

Who wrote the 2011 novel Ready Player One?

It was his debut novel; he had earlier co-written the screenplay for Fanboys and won the Austin Poetry Slam twice.

In what year is Ready Player One set?

The world is gripped by an energy crisis after fossil fuels run out, so people escape into the OASIS.

What is the name of the virtual universe where most of the story takes place?

The film spells it out as the Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation.

What is Wade Watts's avatar called?

He named himself after the Arthurian knight who sought the Holy Grail, spelling it to get a unique handle.

Who created the OASIS and left the Easter egg contest in his will?

Cline modelled him partly on Willy Wonka, Howard Hughes and Ultima creator Richard Garriott.

What is Halliday's avatar called?

Anorak is British slang for an obsessive geek; the avatar is a tall wizard in black robes.

How many keys must a player find to reach the Easter egg?

Copper, Jade and Crystal, each opening a gate.

What are the three keys made of?

The Copper Key sat unfound for five years after Halliday's death.

What are people who hunt for Halliday's Easter egg called?

It is short for egg hunters; the Sixers are IOI's corporate army.

What does IOI, the villainous corporation, stand for?

It is the world's main internet service provider and wants to plaster the OASIS with ads.

Who is the head of IOI's egg-hunting operation?

Cline named him after Atari founder Nolan Bushnell as a "subtle tribute".

In the novel, where does Wade live at the start?

The stacks are trailer homes piled on top of each other; the film moves the stacks to Columbus.

In the novel, which arcade game does Wade beat the lich Acererak at to win the Copper Key?

The tomb is a recreation of the Dungeons & Dragons module Tomb of Horrors on the school planet Ludus.

In the novel, which 1983 film does Wade have to role-play line-for-line to clear the First Gate?

He plays Matthew Broderick's David Lightman; the film cut this scene as too dull to watch.

In the novel, what does Wade win for playing a perfect game of Pac-Man?

He only discovers it is an extra life after IOI's doomsday device wipes out every avatar in the sector.

In the novel, which Infocom text game does Wade solve on the planet Frobozz to earn the Jade Key?

He then blows a 2600-hertz tone on a Cap'n Crunch Bo'sun whistle, a nod to phone-phreaking lore.

In the novel, which band's album 2112 provides the clue on the planet Syrinx?

Playing the "Discovery" section reveals how to open the final gate.

Which Atari 2600 game, home of the first video game Easter egg, holds Halliday's egg?

Programmer Warren Robinett hid his name in it in 1980; in the book Parzival also plays Tempest and quotes Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

What is Art3mis's real name?

She named her avatar after the Greek goddess of the hunt.

Who is Aech in the real world?

Her avatar is a white heterosexual man, which is the point; Lena Waithe played her in the film.

How is Aech pronounced?

The name is a phonetic spelling of the letter.

The Japanese hunters Daito and Shoto take their names from what?

In the book IOI murders Daito and passes it off as suicide; in the film he survives.

The OASIS co-founders, Halliday and his best friend Og, were inspired by which real-life pair?

Cline said Morrow is more like Jobs, the charismatic leader; his avatar name nods to the Wizard of Oz.

How does IOI try to kill Wade after he refuses to work for them?

Wade is out at the time; his Aunt Alice and her boyfriend Rick are killed.

In the novel, how does Wade get inside IOI's headquarters to sabotage the force field?

From IOI tech support he hacks the intranet, plants a timed booby trap and steals evidence of Daito's murder.

Who narrated the Ready Player One audiobook?

Wheaton is even mentioned in the text; he returned for Ready Player Two.

What was the grand prize in the real-life Easter egg hunt Cline hid in the novel?

Craig Queen won it in 2012 by setting a Joust world record, and collected it on the TV show X-Play.

Which two awards did the novel pick up in 2011-12?

The Alex Award goes to adult books with special appeal to teenagers.

Who directed the 2018 film adaptation?

Warner Bros. tried Nolan first, then shortlisted Zemeckis, Wright, Matthew Vaughn and Peter Jackson.

Which director did Warner Bros. first try to sign after Interstellar, before Spielberg?

Josh Trank also turned the job down twice.

Who plays Wade Watts in the film?

Olivia Cooke beat Elle Fanning and Lola Kirke to the role of Art3mis.

Which Oscar winner plays the OASIS's late creator in the film?

Simon Pegg plays Ogden Morrow and Ben Mendelsohn is Sorrento.

In the film, how does Wade win the seemingly unbeatable opening race?

The Copper Key follows, and the five leaders become the High Five on the scoreboard.

Which Stanley Kubrick film provides the setting of the film's second challenge?

ILM rebuilt the Overlook Hotel from Kubrick's blueprints, and Jack Nicholson declined to appear.

Which animated robot replaced Ultraman in the film because of a rights dispute?

The book's Ultraman artifact is what kills Sorrento's Mechagodzilla.

Which English city stood in for Columbus, Ohio, during filming?

Livery Street in the Jewellery Quarter appears in several scenes; the studio work was at Leavesden.

Who scored the film after John Williams left to do The Post?

Fitting, since Silvestri wrote the Back to the Future music and the DeLorean is Parzival's car.

Roughly how much did the film gross worldwide?

Most of it came from outside North America; the budget was $155-175 million.

For which Academy Award was the film nominated?

It won Best Science Fiction Film at the Saturn Awards.

Where did the film premiere in March 2018?

Cline lives in Austin, where he was a poetry slam champion in the late 1990s.

In the film, who turns out to be the Curator of Halliday's Journals?

Wade invites him to help run the OASIS as a consultant.

What controversial rule does the High Five impose on the OASIS at the end of the film?

The idea is to make people spend more time in the real world.

Which two video game characters have credited speaking roles in the film?

Cara Theobold and Vic Chao reprised their game roles.

What was the title of Cline's 2020 sequel?

It centres on a brain-computer interface left behind by Halliday and was widely panned.

What was Cline's second novel, published in 2015?

Fanboys was his 2009 screenplay; The Stacks was the Atari 2600 game made for the book's Easter egg contest.

How many years passed after Halliday's death before the first key was found?

The prologue dates the find to the evening of February 11, 2045.

Which author of The Martian wrote 'Lacero', a Ready Player One fan-fiction story later printed in a 2016 edition?

The story appeared online in 2014 and was included in Subterranean Press's limited edition of the novel.

Which actor, later a star of Saltburn, screen-tested for the role of Wade Watts in the film?

Tye Sheridan was confirmed in February 2016 after a lengthy search; Elle Fanning and Lola Kirke were frontrunners for Art3mis.

In the film, who plays the IOI mercenary i-R0k, whose real-world face is never shown?

He shares a name with a character from the novel but is otherwise unrelated to him.

Warner Bros. bought the film rights to Ready Player One how long before the novel was published?

The studio signed on the same day Cline closed his publishing deal with Random House in June 2010.