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Maggie Bomgartner

Ms. McKay

IB ELA 11 SL

2/18/2022

Ready Player One Rhetorical Analysis of Power

In March of 2018, the acclaimed movie Ready Player One was released, earning over five

hundred and eighty-two million dollars in the box office. This movie received several awards

and accolades under renowned director Steven Spielberg (who directed classic films such as

Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones), including the best science-fiction film under Saturn Awards

(2019). In Ready Player One, a dystopian futuristic world set in 2045 is portrayed where people

spend much of their time within a virtual reality video game called the OASIS. This video game

demonstrates Spielberg’s view of current global issues, such as the balance of power within

relationships and in the general community. Spielberg, in the 2018 movie Ready Player One,

develops the viewers’ sense of injustice, generates familial relationship drama, and creates

believable heroes in order to show the abuse of power in society, ultimately moving the audience

to question the balance of power in the real world.

Throughout the film, Spielberg develops the viewer’s outrage about power imbalances in

society through the use of the antagonist Nolan Sorrento and his corporate power of IOI

(Innovative Online Industries). Sorrento’s decisions as head of IOI help Spielberg show the

severe imbalance of power between corporate head and common people in the dystopian 2045,

and also play on the audience’s negative assumptions about corporate figures. The portrayal of

Sorrento contributes to the audience’s outrage and sense of injustice: Sorrento is portrayed in the

film as a sharp, unhappy businessman whose only goal is to make profit off of the Oasis and
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Halliday’s Easter Egg stocks. He will stop at nothing to take control of the OASIS, and some of

his powerful decisions within the film include: multiple murder attempts on Wade Watts’ life

(the protagonist), bombing of civilian housing, blackmail, cruel indentured servitude of

numerous civilians, and unfair domination of the challenges. Each of these actions gives

audience members a sense of unease and injustice. Viewers see murder, blackmail, and similar

actions as morally reprehensible and thus associate immoral actions with classic antagonism. In

this sense, Spielberg constructs an antagonist out of Sorrento and IOI that makes the audience

think about power imbalance through typical hero-villain film interactions.

Many science-fiction and fantasy films involve a morally just protagonist and a morally

unbalanced antagonist, allowing the audience to identify with the side of the hero. The plight of

Wade Watts gives the audience someone to relate to since his hero structure is a familiar figure

in popular culture and film, while the unstoppable Nolan Sorrento is compared to villains of both

history and popular culture. This comparison allows viewers to make connections between

people that remind them of heroes and villains, and thus alerts them to possible power

imbalances and struggles in the real world. The realistic use of Nolan’s desire to gain as much

profit as possible is coupled with unrealistic immoral decisions that are reminiscent of current

global corporations that are focused on profit above all else (such as the Trump Organization).

Spielberg uses these assumptions that the audience already has about the characters in the film

and the real world to create the audience’s feeling of unfairness in the world and awaken the

viewers to discover and change power imbalances that affect them.

The movie Ready Player One also creates power imbalance in relationships through

interactions between Wade Watts and his ‘family’ and the contrast of Wade’s wholesome

relationships. Wade is an orphan who lived with his aunt Alice and her string of unwholesome
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boyfriends (until their stack was bombed), and is often physically and emotionally abused.

Authors often use orphans in literature to gain the readers’ sympathy, as they are vulnerable and

innocent. Spielberg uses Wades’ orphan status in this movie to automatically generate sympathy

for Wade and explain Alice and Rick’s abusive behavior. Alice’s boyfriend, Rick, blames Wade

for his own poor decisions and attacks him multiple times. Rick uses his power as the grown man

of the dysfunctional ‘family’ to abuse Wade, and sometimes misuses Alice’s finances as well.

Alice also participates in Wade’s abuse. She often verbally abuses Wade, such as when she tells

him that he will be kicked out of the house for misbehavior near the beginning of the film.

Nevertheless, Wade feels a kinship to Alice since she is his closest living relative and took him

in when his parents died. Wade’s relationship with Alice shows his need for outside attention and

his loyalty to those who have helped him. Children (and teens) crave acceptance from their

parents and guardians, so though Wade found acceptance through Aech in the Oasis, his loyalty

to Alice stems from the natural need for love. This loyalty despite abuse creates further

dysfunction within Wade’s family, as it gives Alice power to abuse Wade. The dysfunction in

Wade’s ‘family’ relationships are a way for Spielberg to demonstrate that abuse of power can

occur in small-scale situations, such as in the family. This shows that Wade’s home and family

life are based on power abuse, which makes his relationships with friends seem more real and

wholesome and ultimately moves the audience to question power abuse in family settings.

Spielberg uses this personal small-scale power abuse to remind readers of the large-scale abuse

taking place on a societal level.

Wade Watts says in the film that his parents name him thus because it was the kind of

name a superhero would have. Spielberg plays on the idea that Wade Watts can become a hero

by giving him heroic qualities, decisions, and the challenge Wade presents to IOI, his abusive
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‘family’ and the OASIS power structure itself. Audiences recognize Wade’s heroic qualities

(such as his morality, determination, bravery, and strength) as traits that will help him to

overcome and overthrow the abusive powers he faces. Additionally, Wade’s decisions, such as

his decisions to put himself in danger, are used by Spielberg to make him a believable hero.

Wade isn’t perfect, and is also average-looking, which makes the audience relate and root for

him. The creation of a believable hero is Spielberg’s way of justifying the opposition against the

abusive power forces that he has made to control dystopian 2045. Viewers automatically root for

the Wade Watts’ hero persona, which conversely makes them hate the antagonistic power

sources of IOI and Aunt Alice. So, Spielberg moves the audience to think about power abuse

through simple plot and character development. Audiences are moved without them realizing it

through Spielberg’s connection with what they deem familiar.

In Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg uses his directive prowess to wield the sword of

heroism against the abusive powers of corporate IOI, Nolan Sorrento, and Aunt Alice. Even

when real world challenges and abuse may frighten individuals, Spielberg invites each person to

rise up and take up the fight against the power imbalance and abuse that make up the real world.
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Works Cited

Ready Player One. Directed by Steven Spielberg, Warner Brothers, Village Roadshow Pictures,

2018.