25 modern book-to-screen adaptations that didn’t let us down

Ready Player One

Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One received a lot of positive attention from readers of science-fiction and fantasy novels around its 2011 release. It wasn’t until it was adapted as a film in 2018 that non-readers began hearing about the story — and it’s one that filmgoers quickly began praising, which is really no surprise when you consider Steven Spielberg was at the helm of the adaptation.

Set in the year 2044, the story imagines a future where human beings spend their time in a virtual-reality world called the OASIS. Our main character Wade has spent the majority of his life studying the puzzles of the OASIS, most of which contain callbacks to the previous decades the game’s creator lived through. And when the creator dies, he challenges players to find an Easter Egg that will grant them both his fortune and his OASIS.

Wade is determined to be the one who takes control of the OASIS, but he soon discovers that the other players are willing to do anything to triumph. The book and movie chronicle Wade’s struggle to stay alive and one-up the other players, and both do a great job of keeping the plot action-packed and suspenseful.

The film also does a good job of conveying the atmosphere of the OASIS, making the setting simultaneously futuristic in nature and nostalgic with all of its references to the past. For a movie set in 2044, there are plenty of references to the ’80s — and if Stranger Things is anything to go by, you know filmgoers and TV watchers love revisiting that decade.