Disclaimer: This post contains spoilers for Ready Player One, so if you have yet to see the film, then I recommend coming back to this piece after you have — unless you don’t mind a fun, key aspect of the film’s plot getting revealed. And no, if you’ve read the book, you are not immune to getting spoiled.

Ready Player One has finally exploded into theaters, and while it’s considered to be a flawed movie, most critics walked away from the film having had a good time (I gave the film a B in my review, which you can read by clicking the link below). Of course, with Steven Spielberg being at the helm, it’s more of a surprise that we ever had doubts that it would at least be a solid ride.

RELATED – Ready Player One Review: A World Worth Getting Immersed In

Although if there was one surprise I had, it’s how different it was from the book. The book itself is cinematic in nature, that I figured adapting it for the big screen would require very few changes. Oh, how wrong I was. They pretty much went in, dug in their heels, and hacked away at the book’s structure and main set pieces. Those who read the book may have noticed that the challenges in the film didn’t really resemble the challenges from the novel. The biggest change: the second challenge.

In the novel, that challenge had to do with literally reenacting one of James Halliday’s favorite films.

“In the book, it’s more like a karaoke thing that you do, and Ernie’s a big fan of Last Action Hero,” co-writer Zak Penn told CinemaBlend. “One of the big changes was you walk through and have to repeat the lines from the movie, I said ‘No, let’s do Last Action Hero. Let’s throw you into the movie!’ Wouldn’t it be better, no matter what movie it is, if there was an adventure in the movie? Ernie was like ‘Totally. Absolutely.'”

So what movie did they opt to throw our heroes into? None other than Stanely Kubrick’s horror classic, The Shining. Within the movie itself, they had to find a key detail that had to do with a clue left by Halliday, but of course, had to deal with some of the film’s horrors along the way.

What did you think of this change? Was it a huge plus for you, or did it rely too heavily on nostalgia? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: CinemaBlend