100 Fun Facts About Ready Player One

In Ready Player One, where is the secret hideout Wade uses to log in to the OASIS?

An abandoned van is his private place to log in, and being there instead of at home is what later keeps him alive when IOI comes after him.

Which disaster grips the novel Ready Player One's world?

An energy crisis hangs over the 2040s along with overpopulation and mass unemployment, which is why nearly everyone logs in daily to get away from real life.

Who plays Art3mis in the 2018 film Ready Player One?

Olivia Cooke beat Elle Fanning and Lola Kirke to the part, and she was signed about five months before the film had found its hero.

What is Wade Watts's avatar called?

Parzival is his respelling of Percival, the Arthurian knight famed for seeking the Holy Grail; the usual spelling had already gone to players with the same idea.

Ernest Cline says which fictional character first inspired James Halliday, the eccentric game designer in Ready Player One?

Willy Wonka gave him the idea of a rich eccentric holding a fantastic contest; for the man's personality he crossed Howard Hughes with Ultima creator Richard Garriott.

What is Halliday's avatar called?

Anorak the All-Knowing borrows British slang for someone obsessively absorbed in a niche hobby, a fair label for a designer who built his whole contest out of 1980s trivia.

In Ready Player One, why is IOI's army of paid players nicknamed the Sixers?

Their employee numbers start with 6 and double as their avatar names, so IOI's hired players go by digits where everyone else picks a handle.

After the Copper Key and the Jade Key, what is the third key in Ready Player One called?

The Crystal Key comes with a warning that its gate cannot be unlocked alone: three players must turn their copies together, which forces rivals to cooperate.

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

Gunters is a contraction of egg hunters; the most devoted treat it as a full-time job, studying every 1980s film, game and song the contest's creator loved.

What does IOI, the villainous corporation, stand for?

Innovative Online Industries is the world's biggest internet provider, and it wants the prize so it can charge a monthly fee for the OASIS and fill it with advertising.

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

Nolan Sorrento takes his first name from Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, which the author called a subtle tribute and not a verdict on the man.

In the novel Ready Player One, where does Wade live at the start?

The stacks in Oklahoma City are mobile homes piled into towers; the film moves them to Columbus, Ohio, the city where the novel puts IOI's headquarters.

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

Joust is played best of three against the undead king at the end of a Dungeons & Dragons tomb; the film dropped the whole sequence in favour of a car race.

In the novel Ready Player One, which 1983 film must Wade act out line for line to clear the First Gate?

WarGames puts him in Matthew Broderick's role as the teenage hacker; the screenwriters dropped the scene because watching someone recite a whole movie would be boring.

In the novel Ready Player One, what does Wade's perfect game of Pac-Man turn out to have won him?

An extra life, disguised as a plain quarter: he only learns what it is when a doomsday weapon kills every avatar in the sector and his alone comes back.

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

Zork has to be finished in full: he returns all nineteen of its treasures to the trophy case, then blows a toy whistle from a box of Cap'n Crunch cereal.

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

Rush was Halliday's favourite band: Wade finds a guitar hidden behind a waterfall, plays part of the album on it to reveal a secret message, then lays it on the temple altar, where it turns into a key.

Which Atari 2600 game, famous for its hidden Easter egg, holds Halliday's egg in Ready Player One?

Adventure hides a secret room where programmer Warren Robinett signed his name, because Atari refused to credit its designers; finding that room is what ends the contest.

What is Art3mis's real name?

Samantha Cook had found the first key's tomb on her own before Wade did but could not beat its guardian; her avatar is named for the Greek goddess of the hunt.

In Ready Player One, who is Wade's best friend Aech in the real world?

A young Black woman: her mother taught her that a white male avatar would spare her racism and sexism online, and Lena Waithe plays her in the film.

How is Aech pronounced in Ready Player One?

Like the letter H: it is the initial of the player's real first name, which even Wade, a close friend for years, does not learn until the two finally meet in person.

In Ready Player One, what are the Japanese hunters Daito and Shoto named after?

The long and short samurai swords, worn as a pair called a daisho, suit two players who pose as brothers; the novel has IOI kill Daito and stage it as suicide, while the film lets him live.

In Ready Player One, the OASIS's two founders were modelled on which real-life pair?

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were the model for the two school friends who own the game company: one confident and charismatic, the other shy, awkward and happiest building things.

In Ready Player One, how does IOI first try to kill Wade?

They blow up his aunt's trailer after he turns down a job offer, killing her and several neighbours; he is away at his hideout, and afterwards moves to another city under a false name.

In the novel Ready Player One, how does Wade get inside IOI's headquarters?

As an indentured servant: he rigs his false identity so IOI arrests him over unpaid debt, works its help desk by day and hacks its network by night to bring down the shield.

Who narrated the Ready Player One audiobook?

Wil Wheaton is mentioned by name in the novel, so the narrator ends up reading a line about himself; his recording went on sale the same day as the book.

What grand prize did Ernest Cline offer in the real-life Easter egg hunt hidden inside Ready Player One?

A 1981 DeLorean went to the first reader to find a clue hidden in the text and beat three video-game challenges; Craig Queen drove it away from the TV show X-Play in 2012.

Which pair of awards did Ready Player One win, for libertarian sci-fi and for teen appeal?

The Prometheus and an Alex: the first honours pro-liberty fiction, and its judges liked a story of gamers saving their virtual world from domination; it ended in a tie, with a one-ounce gold coin for each winner.

Who directed the 2018 film adaptation of Ready Player One?

Steven Spielberg's clout is what made a book stuffed with other people's characters filmable: his producer spent years clearing the rights, and even then some owners said no.

Which director was approached to film Ready Player One but never made it?

Christopher Nolan was approached about a month after Interstellar opened, though he usually develops his own screenplays, and he went on to make Dunkirk instead.

Who plays Wade Watts in the 2018 film Ready Player One?

Tye Sheridan ended a casting search so long that the film had signed its heroine and its villain before it found its hero; he was then best known for Mud.

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 Ready Player One, how does Wade win the seemingly unbeatable opening race?

By driving backwards off the grid he drops into a passage under the track and skips every hazard; the hint was a recording of the game's creator wishing he could go backwards for once.

Which Stanley Kubrick film provides the setting of the second challenge in the film Ready Player One?

The Shining is the film the game's creator saw on a date with the woman he never dared to kiss, so the hunters have to search a recreation of its haunted hotel.

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

The Iron Giant already belonged to the studio releasing the film, so it was free to use, while Ultraman was tied up in a lawsuit that even this director could not get settled.

Which English city stood in for Columbus, Ohio, during filming of Ready Player One?

Birmingham's Livery Street and the old industrial quarter of Digbeth play Ohio in 2045, so the film's American dystopia is really the English Midlands; the studio work was done at Leavesden.

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

Alan Silvestri was chosen because the director had produced the Back to the Future films he scored; it was only the third of that director's films since 1974 without a John Williams score.

Where did the film Ready Player One earn more than in the United States?

China: strong local reviews, word of mouth and a holiday weekend carried it to about $218 million there, against roughly $138 million at home.

For which Academy Award was the film Ready Player One nominated?

Best Visual Effects suited a film that spends most of its time inside a computer-generated world; Industrial Light & Magic built the game scenes and Digital Domain handled the live-action ones.

Where did the film Ready Player One have its world premiere in March 2018?

South by Southwest in Austin doubled as a hometown launch, since the novel's author had long lived in the city, and the director walked on stage to introduce the film himself.

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

Ogden Morrow admits he had been watching the hunt closely from behind the archive's guide the whole time, and the winners then ask the OASIS co-creator to stay on as a consultant.

In the film Ready Player One, what rule do the winners impose on the OASIS?

It closes every Tuesday and Thursday so that people are pushed to spend more time in the real world, a decision the film itself admits was not a popular one.

In both the book and the film of Ready Player One, which colossal machine does the villain pilot in the final battle?

Mechagodzilla is the villain's last resort in both versions; in the book the hero needs an Ultraman power-up to destroy it, a character the film's makers could not get the rights to use.

In the sequel Ready Player Two, which hidden invention of Halliday's sets the story going?

A brain-computer headset lets users feel the OASIS as if it were real; Wade's girlfriend argues against releasing it, he shouts her down, and the row ends their romance.

Which novel did Ernest Cline publish in 2015, four years after Ready Player One?

Armada follows a teenage gamer whisked to a secret training base, where he learns that the alien-invasion game he has played for years was a simulator preparing him for a real war.

Where is the novel Ready Player One's first key hidden?

Wade's school planet: the tomb sat on Ludus, the same virtual world as his classroom, after five years in which nobody had found a single key.

Which bestselling sci-fi author wrote 'Lacero', a fan story later printed in an edition of Ready Player One?

Andy Weir, author of The Martian, wrote the prequel as a fan and posted it on his own website; Ernest Cline then had it printed in a new edition of the novel, turning fan fiction into canon.

Which actor, later a star of Saltburn, screen-tested for a part in the film Ready Player One?

Barry Keoghan recalls the director filming his screen test himself on a little camcorder; he missed out on the part, but later acted in Masters of the Air, a war series the same man produced.

In the film Ready Player One, who voices the mercenary i-R0k?

T.J. Miller plays him as a bounty hunter with an amusing personality, a different figure from the novel's i-R0k, who is an annoying forum troll; only the name carried over.

Which studio won the film rights to Ready Player One at auction, over a year before the novel came out?

Warner Bros. won a heated auction in June 2010, a day after the debut novel found its publisher and more than a year before readers could buy it; Paramount and Fox had both chased it hard.

Which sci-fi classic was cut from the film Ready Player One because its own sequel was being made?

Blade Runner hides the novel's Second Gate inside one of its replicant-testing machines. The producers of its 2017 sequel feared a rival release would hurt their film.

In the film Ready Player One, Art3mis races on the red motorcycle from which Japanese animated film?

Akira gave her the red bike its biker-gang leader Kaneda rides through Neo-Tokyo. It is wrecked in the opening race and has to be repaired in Aech's garage.

Which movie monster is one of the hazards on the racetrack in the film Ready Player One?

King Kong prowls the track, modelled on his look in the original 1933 film. The score even quotes Max Steiner's theme from that picture.

The robot Leopardon in the novel Ready Player One comes from a Japanese TV take on which superhero?

Spider-Man piloted Leopardon in a 1978 Toei series that gave the web-slinger a spaceship and a robot over 60 metres tall.

Which Shaun of the Dead actor plays the OASIS's surviving co-creator in the film Ready Player One?

Simon Pegg plays the co-founder who parted ways with Halliday, uneasy that people had grown unhealthily dependent on the game. He also co-wrote Shaun of the Dead.

The club dance in the film Ready Player One copies a red, yellow and blue floor from which movie?

Saturday Night Fever supplied the glowing floor of 2001 Odyssey, the Brooklyn disco where John Travolta's Tony Manero rules every weekend.

Which band's hit Jump is heard in the film Ready Player One but left off its songs album?

Van Halen took Jump to number one in the US, their biggest single, driven by a keyboard riff rather than the band's usual guitar.

Which gaming platform held tie-in events for both the film Ready Player One and its sequel novel?

Roblox ran an event around the film's release, then launched the sequel novel with a treasure hunt that sent players through seven game worlds.

The film Ready Player One was moved out of December 2017 to avoid opening against which blockbuster?

Star Wars: The Last Jedi was due the same month, so the studio retreated to the following spring, more than three months later.

In the film Ready Player One, Daito transforms into which famous anime robot for the final battle?

Gundam, in its original RX-78-2 form, is the body Daito picks for the fight. The robot is so loved in Japan that a bronze statue of it stands outside a Tokyo railway station.

In Ready Player One, how does James Halliday announce his egg contest to the world after his death?

A pre-recorded video serves as his will: it tells the public that whoever finds the egg inherits his fortune and control of the OASIS, worth trillions.

Which character does Art3mis ask to dance to win the Jade Key in the film Ready Player One?

Kira was the love Halliday never dared pursue; she married his closest friend instead. The challenge turns on his regret at never making that leap.

The opening car race of the film Ready Player One tears through a virtual version of which city?

New York hosts the race, which the film invented: in the novel the first key waits at the bottom of a recreated Dungeons & Dragons dungeon instead.

In Ready Player One, what nickname is given to Wade and the four friends who top the scoreboard?

The High Five are the leading avatars on the contest scoreboard. At the end of the film Wade chooses to run the OASIS alongside the other four.

In the film Ready Player One, what does IOI plan to fill the OASIS with once it wins control?

Advertising is the prize IOI is after: its boss wants to plaster the virtual world with intrusive ads the moment the contest is won.

In the film Ready Player One, Aech races in a virtual copy of which famous monster truck?

Bigfoot began as a Ford pickup modified from 1975 and is seen as the world's first proper monster truck. It was also the first monster truck to appear in a film.

Which Emmy-winning comedy writer plays Helen Harris in the film Ready Player One?

Lena Waithe had just won an Emmy for writing a Master of None episode based on her own experience of coming out to her mother.

Which Australian actor plays the IOI boss hunting Halliday's egg in the film Ready Player One?

Ben Mendelsohn had lately played another screen villain, Orson Krennic in Rogue One, and won an Emmy for the Netflix series Bloodline.

In the sequel Ready Player Two, the heroes cross a planet devoted to the music of which pop star?

Prince is one of the favourite things of Halliday's lost love, whose passions shape the worlds of the new quest. Another is built from J. R. R. Tolkien's mythology.

In the novel Ready Player One, which Dungeons & Dragons module hides the Copper Key?

Tomb of Horrors was written by Gary Gygax to humble players who boasted of unbeatable characters. Halliday rebuilt the dungeon in exact detail.

In the novel Ready Player One, the whistle that wins Wade the Jade Key came free with which cereal?

Cap'n Crunch boxes once held a whistle whose 2600-hertz tone could seize a telephone trunk line, a trick that made the hacker John Draper famous under the cereal's name.

The score of the film Ready Player One quotes its composer's own earlier music from which movie?

Back to the Future is quoted exactly: the director insisted on the original cue as it was heard in that film, not something similar to it.

Which star of Marvel's Wakanda films plays a rebel named Reb in the film Ready Player One?

Letitia Wright became globally known the same year as Shuri, the tech-genius princess of Black Panther. Here she has only a brief part at the rebels' safe house.

Which Overwatch hero has a credited speaking role in the film Ready Player One?

Tracer is voiced in the film by Cara Theobold, who plays her in the game. Only one other game character gets credited lines: Goro from Mortal Kombat.

Which Last Action Hero writer shares the Ready Player One screenplay credit with Ernest Cline?

Zak Penn got a hidden tribute for it: a cinema marquee in the opening race reads Jack Slater, the hero of Last Action Hero, slipped in without his knowledge.

Which comedy about a break-in at Skywalker Ranch did Ready Player One author Ernest Cline co-write?

Fanboys was his first produced screenplay, begun in the late 1990s and released in 2009 only after years of reshoots, re-edits and delays.

In the film Ready Player One, what personal reason does Art3mis give for fighting IOI?

Her father died in its debt, she explains after escaping the raid on the dance club. In the real world she works with rebels to keep the OASIS out of IOI's hands.

Which genre-film prize named Ready Player One the best science fiction film of its year?

The Saturn Award comes from an academy set up in the 1970s because science fiction and fantasy films were being passed over by Hollywood's main honours.

Which visual effects company created the OASIS scenes of the film Ready Player One?

Industrial Light & Magic built the virtual world in some 900 shots, and the film's director met its team for three hours, three days a week.

In the film Ready Player One, Wade dresses as which 1984 cult film hero for his date at the club?

Buckaroo Banzai is a physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot and rock musician all at once, and the hero of the film Wade loves above all others.

Which arcade game opens the novel Ready Player One's Third Gate challenge, with a score to beat?

Tempest, one of the first Atari games with a colour vector display, comes first: Wade must top the score Halliday left on the machine before he can go further.

In the novel Ready Player One, which company founded by James Halliday owns and runs the OASIS?

Gregarious Simulation Systems began as Gregarious Games. Its OASIS was designed as a multiplayer role-playing game and grew into a world used by nearly everyone.

In the novel Ready Player One, in which US state does the OASIS co-creator shelter Wade's group?

Oregon is where the retired co-creator has his estate. He has planes waiting to fly the group there, so they can log in safely for the last battle.

Before writing Ready Player One, Ernest Cline was a two-time city champion in which performance art?

Slam poetry made his name first: he was a Texas city's slam champion in 1998 and 2001 and released his spoken-word pieces as an album, The Geek Wants Out.

Which electronic musician said he tried to turn the novel Ready Player One into a film himself?

Moby said in 2016 that he had tried to get the book filmed, only to find that a far more famous director had already taken it on.

In the film Ready Player One, which artifact seals the last challenge's castle in a force field?

The Orb of Osuvox throws a shield around the castle until Art3mis manages to disable it, letting an army of players storm the walls.

In the film Ready Player One, why does Wade refuse to sign the final contract?

It ousted Halliday's partner years earlier, a break the inventor came to regret. Refusing to repeat that mistake is the contest's final test.

Ernest Cline put which arcade game, his own favourite, inside the Second Gate of Ready Player One?

Black Tiger, a Capcom platform game from 1987, is remade for Wade to fight through in person. Clearing it wins him a towering robot he can pilot.

In the novel Ready Player One, Wade's alias Bryce Lynch is a character from which TV series?

Max Headroom features Bryce Lynch as a child-prodigy hacker who runs a TV network's research department single-handed, a fitting cover for a player on the run.

Which programmer's hidden credit, a pioneering Easter egg, is central to Ready Player One's last challenge?

Warren Robinett hid a secret room crediting himself because Atari refused to name its designers, fearing they would bargain for more.

Which Chronicle director twice turned down an offer to direct the film Ready Player One?

Josh Trank said no twice. The studio's wish list also ran to Robert Zemeckis, Matthew Vaughn and Peter Jackson before the chair was filled.

Which actress, later Marvel's Ghost, plays IOI enforcer F'Nale Zandor in the film Ready Player One?

Hannah John-Kamen plays the head of IOI's operations in the physical world, who leads the raid on the rebels' hideout and is arrested at the end.

The film Ready Player One opened in US cinemas on which personal date for its author, Ernest Cline?

His own birthday, as it happened: he was born on March 29, 1972, and the film reached American cinemas on March 29, 2018, the day he turned 46.

Which new release beat Ready Player One to number one at the US box office in the film's second weekend?

A Quiet Place opened at number one that weekend. John Krasinski directed it and stars as a parent hiding his family from creatures that hunt by sound.

In the novel Ready Player One, how does Wade first turn his scoreboard fame into an income?

Product endorsements for virtual goods let him earn a living almost at once; the same fame also brings him to the notice of the head of operations at IOI.

Which Mystery Science Theater 3000 star co-created a podcast mocking the novel Ready Player One?

Michael J. Nelson and co-host Conor Lastowka named the show 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back, after the length of the paperback they were working through.

Which later lead of Ghostbusters: Afterlife plays a student in the film Ready Player One?

Mckenna Grace is one of the students seen as Halliday's will is shown, years before she led Ghostbusters: Afterlife as Phoebe Spengler.

Ready Player One author Ernest Cline's first children's novel features a music-loving colony of which animals?

Bats befriend a recently orphaned girl named Opal in Bridge to Bat City, a 2024 book he billed as a mostly true tall tale.

In the sequel Ready Player Two, Wade is sent to collect seven shards of which lost treasure?

The Siren's Soul, once its seven shards are joined, rebuilds the mind of the love Halliday lost, which he had secretly copied.

In Ready Player One, the avatar Art3mis is named after a goddess from which ancient mythology?

Greek myth gave her Artemis, goddess of the hunt, a fitting patron for a famous egg hunter. Her film avatar adds pink skin and pink hair.