How The Ready Player One Ending Could Be Teasing Ernie Cline’s Sequel
This story will have Ready Player One spoilers. Stop reading now if you haven't seen the movie!
The closing scenes of Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One introduced a new wrinkle that we didn't read about in the book. Not Wade (Tye Sheridan) and Samantha (Olivia Cooke) closing the OASIS for two days a week -- though that was an original choice. Instead, we saw Wade -- after winning the overall competition -- interact with his idol, James Halliday (Mark Rylance), in the program that the genius created. Only, Halliday is dead. Isn't he? CinemaBlend recently had Ready Player One screenwriter Zak Penn as a guest on the recurring podcast ReelBlend, and when we asked his for clarification on this unusual scene, Penn revealed to us:
That's right, Ernie Cline, the author of the source novel for Ready Player One, is hard at work on a follow up story that will be set in the OASIS. And seeing as how Cline worked hand in hand with Zak Penn on the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's movie, there's no chance that he'd allow him to make such a major change to the status of James Halliday (Mark Rylance) without teasing that this might be a concept that he wants to explore about the OASIS.
In the scene in question, Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) meets with Halliday (Rylance) in a recreation of the programmer's childhood bedroom. A young version of Halliday also sits there playing a console video game on an old TV set. Halliday acknowledges that he keeps this version of himself nearby. Does this mean that Halliday somehow found a way to upload his consciousness INTO the OASIS, and he can personify himself at any stage of his existence? It seems like a master of virtual reality would have that capability.
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Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.