New Ready Player One Trailer Takes Us Right Into Our Video Game Future

Ready Player One is here to transport us to our VR headset-wearing, video game-living future.


The latest trailer, released Thursday (February 15), is set to the familiar classic "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. This time, Merethe Soltvedt's slowed-down, ethereal cover of the song gives off a very different vibe: one that fits perfectly with the film's dystopian setting.


Directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel by Ernest Cline, Ready Player One stars Tye Sheridan as orphaned Wade Watts, a name fit for a superhero (like Peter Parker, Bruce Banner... Or Scott Summers, Sheridan's X-Men: Apocalypse character). Watts leaves his reality for the Oasis, a virtual universe created by James Halliday (Mark Rylance) where "the limits of reality are your own imagination."


Right after Halliday's death, Watts embarks on a challenge to gain control of the Oasis — and also several others, including villainous Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn). As seen in the trailer above, a full-blown war breaks out, with Sorrento on one side and Watts as a key segment of the rebellion.


Ready Player One hits theaters March 29.