Watch the Thrilling new Trailer for Steven Spielberg’s Return to Blockbuster Filmmaking With Ready Player One

Steven Spielberg’s return to blockbuster filmmaking looks about as thrilling and massive as you’d expect. Behold, a brand new trailer for Ready Player One, Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline’s ‘80s-loving sci-fi novel, a eye-popping, futuristic romp set to Van Halen’s “Jump” and boasting some of the most striking visuals in Spielberg’s recent career. Watch it for the frame filling details, stay for the King Kong cameo.

The film follows Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), a gamer from Columbus, Ohio, who joins a worldwide contest to find an actual Easter egg hidden in the virtual reality world OASIS by its’ creator, James Halliday (Mark Rylance) after his death. The idea is that whoever finds the Easter egg will have proven him or herself worthy enough to take control of the vast, possibly infinite virtual reality world. Naturally, there are others who see the potential of having the OASIS (and all those likely dollars associated with it) for themselves, and they are led by the brutal Nolan Sorrento (played by the scene-stealing Ben Mendelsohn), who aims to take the OASIS, monetize it, and leave it for only the most wealthy players. Wade is eventually plucked from relative obscurity, due to his prowess within the game, to help a group of “gunters” find the Easter egg and keep the OASIS free. A revolution is afoot, only in this world, you can literally be anything you want—only in this new version of the game, you’ve only got the one life.

It’ll be fascinating to see what Spielberg did with the cultural references that populate and enliven Cline’s novel (you can see touches of it throughout the trailer, from the aforementioned King Kong cameo and the soundtrack to players choosing very ‘80s-specific avatars, like the anime Akira). Spielberg also turned to you all and did a bit of crowd-sourcing for avatars he could use in the film—certainly a first for the legendary director. The director also used motion-capture technology for Ready Player One, one of the many tools at his disposal that has grown by such leaps and bounds since he last deployed it on Tintin.

Joining Sheridan, Rylance and Mendelsohn are Olivia Cooke,  T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg and Hannah John-Kamen.

Ready Player One opens in theaters on March 30, 2018.

Featured image: Tye Sheridan in Steven Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One.’ Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.