In previous trailers for Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg’s expensive-looking adaptation of Ernest Cline’s novel of the same name, we’ve seen references to King Kong, The Iron Giant, Back to the Future, Street Fighter, and Akira. There’s also a legally required dramatically slowed-down cover of “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. But outside of Elliott and E.T. flying across the moon in the Amblin logo, Spielberg hasn’t slipped in any nods to his own films, which seemed odd considering how obsessed Ready Player One is with 1990s nostalgia (yes, there are Battletoads).
But at 1:28 in the latest trailer, we see this.
That’s “Rexy” from Jurassic Park — which, adjusted for inflation, is Spielberg’s third highest-grossing film, after E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Jaws — chasing after a truck. Unfortunately, there are no bathrooms and/or lawyers to be found.
But now that Señor Spielbergo’s union American equivalent (see? I can do references, too, Ready Player One) has opened the proverbial pandora’s box, it’s only a matter of time before War Horse or Short Round shows up in a teaser. Here’s the official synopsis for Ready Player One.
The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday. When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger.
