The Hero’s Journey through Virtual Reality in Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One

This essay analyzes Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One as a modern hero myth. Set in an Internet-based hyper-connected virtual reality, Spielberg’s science fiction film explores the dilemmas of high technology through virtual reality games resulting from the development of Head Mounted Display devices. To analyze the narrative, Vogler’s 12 stages of the hero’s journey are used, with a focus on three key factors. First, the virtual-reality game world is utilized as an important setting throughout the film. The heroic narrative is influenced by the complementary relationship between reality and the virtual world, and shared with the public through live Internet broadcasts. This allows audiences with virtual-world experience to have emotional support and admiration for the hero. Secondly, there are characteristics of the modern technological hero. The protagonist, Wade, is an impoverished teenager who loves computer games and has extensive knowledge in that field. These characteristics are familiar to the modern digital generation, allowing audiences to become deeply immersed in the hero’s story. Lastly, there is the active narrative provided by the computer game situation. Computer games are activities in which players manipulate various ‘controls’ to produce results. This important element allows audiences with gaming experience to intuitively understand and relate to those situations, as well as participate vicariously in the outcome of the adventure. As future societies are accelerating into interconnectivity via the Internet, Ready Player One is a film that will resonate with audiences by combining characteristics of a hyper-connected society with the narrative stage of a hero’s journey.