Ready Player One, 2018
March 7, 2022 | ONEIL GOODEN
The movie “Ready Player One” by Steven Spielberg, takes place in Columbus, Ohio in the year 2045. Climate change, war, and poverty has ruined the earth’s societies. Mostly everyone in the world finds an escape from their everyday lives by playing a virtual reality multiplayer game called the OASIS, where you could create a unique character and go to several different locations. The creator of the OASIS, James Halliday dies, however, prior to his death he leaves a contest for all players to compete in. Where the winner of the challenge or “easter egg” wins the ownership to the OASIS. The easter egg consists of three different challenges that if won, a player gains one of the three keys needed to attain ownership of the OASIS. The hard part about finding the three keys is that it is not clear what game or location to find them, it is up to the player's ability in the game and knowledge of James Halliday as a person, that will help them gain the keys.
In the first level, the main character Wade Watts, who is a high school student and known in the OASIS as Parzival spends his time looking for clues to completing the challenge with his friend Aech. Ultimately, Wade finds out the clue for the first key and gets the key. In the process of doing so, he meets a new friend named Artemis who he has a crush on. As a result of being the first player to find a key, his character is idolized by the other players. His friends Artemis, Aech, and two of his other friends, Daito, and Shoto soon completes the first challenge and also received a key. Nolan Sorrento, the leader of the IOI, who are a company who employ unfair tactics in hopes of winning Halliday’s games, threatens Wade that he will be killed in the real world, if he doesn’t cooperate with his command. Wade does not cooperate and the trailer where wade’s family lives is destroyed in an explosion.
In level two, Wade attains the second key after having difficulty in the process. While find the key, Wade lets Artemis a.k.a. Samantha knows that he is in love with her. At first, she rejects his proposal fearing that he would distract her from completing the easter egg. However, she soon after changes her mind. Meanwhile, the IOI gains the second key and finds the location of the third and final challenge. The IOI went as far as setting up a barrier to keep other players from gaining access to the third location
In level three, Wade came up with a plan to allow the IOI to capture him. He uses a false identity, that kept the IOI from finding out he was Wade/Parzival. Once inside the IOI, Wade uses hacking resources to steal evidence of their criminal activity and set up a chain of events that allowed his team to reach the third level and ultimately sets himself up to be the lone player left standing and beating the easter egg. After completing the easter egg, Wade and his friends are contacted by Ogden Morrow, who is Halliday’s original business partner. He gives Wade and and friends refuge from the IOI. In the end Wade splits the winning or ownership of the OASIS with his friends. Sorrento along with the IOI is captured and the unfair tactics and damage to other players are stopped.
An example of Utilitarianism in “Ready Player One” is shown when Wade gets the decision to sign for single or sole ownership of the OASIS, instead of being the sole owner, he elects to have a joint ownership with his friends because that is what brings him the greatest happiness and pleasure. Another moral decision that Wade makes in the film, was to close the OASIS for two days every week. Doing so allowed people to go outside and do things with their lives, instead of making their happiness of playing the virtual reality game control their lives. I believe the moral lesson in doing this act and the movie as a whole is to not allow VR gaming and other technology to consume everyday life and existence, especially when life itself requires a lot of attention and maintenance.
In the article “The reactionary moralism of Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’” by Thomas Harmon, it gave numerous references of the connection of utilitarianism and how it is displayed or shown in the movie “Ready Player One”. Harmon spoke about the morality that Virtual Reality gaming had. It brought happiness and pleasure to all who played, which is the basic principle of utilitarianism. However, the age old saying of “what brings you happiness, can bring you pain” is said to be true with the virtual reality gaming. Harmon expressed “VR is addictive and has any number of social and personal detriments. The OASIS, Spielberg shows us, by distracting us from our real-world problems, allows us to acquiesce in a social-political-economic order that tolerates ever-greater inequalities between rich and poor.” (Harmon) This is why it is important to have a good balance between pleasure and pain, because pain overall is not good, and an excess of happiness/pleasure can be detrimental and cause pain. For example, In the film, Wade told Artemis his real name because he was in love and had general happiness when around her in the simulation. However, that came back to haunt him because just by saying his name, the IOI were able to find his home and end up killing his family who were inside his house. Thus, bringing him more pain than the happiness he felt. Furthermore, Harmon noted that James Halliday’s purpose for creating the OASIS was to have players experience the great pleasures of happiness and pleasure. This in itself is a direct connection to utilitarianism. In the movie, wade states “Jim always wanted everyone to share his obsessions, to love the same things he loved. I think this contest is his way of giving the entire world an incentive to do just that.” (Ready Player One) Considering that the real world is difficult, dangerous, and interaction with people can be hard sometimes, the OASIS was perfect for someone like Wade and his friends, who could use the game as an escape and be whoever they wanted to be and fit in. And on top of everything, they were able to indulge in something they loved and brought them more pleasure than pain.
REFERENCES
Harmon, Thomas P. “The Reactionary Moralism of Spielberg's ‘Ready Player One.’” Catholic World Report, 4 Apr. 2018, https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2018/04/04/the-reactionary-moralism-of-spielbergs-ready-player-one/.