Trivia: In the video that Halliday left behind after his death, you see floral arrangements around his coffin that are in the shape of the Star Trek's Federation symbol and one of the Enterprise. But the really cool thing is his coffin is actually a photon torpedo, exactly like Spock was put in after his death at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Complete with the blue Federation flag draped over the end of it. (00:08:05)
Trivia: After Wade introduces his own avatar, it shows a line of people waiting by a portal. Just before Tracer shows up to the portal, you can see Sonic the Hedgehog standing towards the back of the line tapping his foot in the famous idle animation from the original game where he would tap his foot impatiently if the player left him standing still for too long. (00:04:55)
Trivia: After Wade's punched by his Aunt's boyfriend, he's lying on his makeshift bed on top of the washing machine as he's thinking about what Art3mis had said to him about Halliday making rules. He leans forward and pulls his OASIS visor out of his backpack, and on it is the logo for the classic arcade game Joust. In the book of Ready Player One, the first challenge wasn't a race like in the movie, but rather having to beat a certain DnD character in a game of Joust to get the copper key. Wade was the first to be able to do so. (00:22:35)
Trivia: As Wade is explaining how people lose all their stuff if they die in the OASIS, you see a shot of Sho and Daito on Planet DOOM in a sword fight with Jason Voorhees, the iconic horror/slasher film mascot of the Friday the 13th movie franchise, wielding his trademark machete and wearing the hockey mask. (00:06:50)
Trivia: Sorrento goes into the Oasis to meet with I-R0k to get the artifact from him. When he emerges from the portal, there is a downed space craft in flames behind him. This is one of the alien space ships from the original 1953 War of the Worlds film. These ships known as "The Flying Machines" or "Tripods". (00:31:00)
Trivia: Among the other races and cars in the Manhattan race, there is a red 1958 Plymouth Fury. This is the sentient car known as Christine from the horror film and book of the same name. The killer car is seen several times through out the race, with the best view of it being right after the race starts and Aech drives past the camera in her Bigfoot, with Christine right behind Aech. (00:10:40 - 00:12:50)
Trivia: Once Parzival enters the portal taking him to the race, the camera pans over the vehicles and you can see the A-Team van in the line up. You get a more clear view of it when the bridge comes out and connects to the street they are on. And then once again as the cars are reaching the "hotwheels" jump in the race, the van is on the DeLorean's left. (00:10:30 - 00:12:30)
Trivia: After Aech picks up the EM-1 Rail Gun, she zooms in on a fight in the distance where their friends Daito and Sho are fighting. The yellow ninja that Daito kicks in the face holding an ax is Scorpion from the Mortal Kombat game franchise. (00:05:50)
Trivia: While Wade is explaining what Artifacts are after he and Aech see the Gregarious 120 glove, the shot pans over a flight of stairs where there's a huge battle of characters. You can see Chun-Li, from Street Fighter game series, sprinting across and leap into the air before grabbing a hold of someone hanging from a cliff. This shortly before they are both engulfed in a large fireball. (00:06:15)
Trivia: After Wade introduces the audience to his OASIS avatar, it shows a line of people heading to a smaller portal. Tracer from the game Overwatch, and arguably the face of Overwatch, zooms up to the portal and strikes a pose before she zooms into it with her time powers. Tracer is also seen at the dance club once Parzival changes the song to a disco number, and again is seen during the final battle. (00:04:55)
Trivia: After Wade puts on the goggles to go into the OASIS, the scene goes through a tennis ball shaped planet of sports where some hang gliders swoop down from a ledge for the Hurricane Hang Gliding and into a hurricane. Immediately you can see Dorothy's house from Wizard of Oz fly by, reenacting it being lifted into the air by the tornado in that movie. (00:03:50)
Trivia: The car that Parzival uses in the race is the DeLorean, complete with all it's customization and advances, from the Back to the Future movies. Steven Spielberg, the director of Ready Player One, was also the Executive Producer of the Back to the Future trilogy with his company Amblin Entertainment. Spielberg only allowed the DeLorean to appear as a reference and tribute to BTTF director Robert Zemeckis, rather than himself. Despite Spielberg's overwhelming impact on pop culture throughout the decades, direct Spielberg references were rather deliberately omitted from "Ready Player One" by Spielberg himself. Ironically, he intended to include references to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (Spielberg's second blockbuster after "Jaws"), but he couldn't negotiate a licensing agreement with Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. (00:11:25)
Trivia: Just before asking the computer to locate his friend Aech, Wade as Parzival is walking along a bridge. Beside him you can see Hello Kitty with two of her friends, Badtemaru and Keroppi walking along with him. Hello Kitty can also be seen again once Parzival enters the Halliday Journals building the first time in the film sitting at a desk studying with someone else. In addition, there is also a Hello Kitty sticker on Art3mis' bike. (00:05:00 - 00:22:50)
Trivia: Ryu, from Street Fighter, is seen in the first race as an avatar walking among the cars. He is walking away from the camera the way he does in his iconic end game cinematics after victory. (00:10:30)
Answer: It's a virtual reality world. Machines can do anything the programmer wants them to.