Ninjas don't hug. BO55man69 is one of the worst passwords ever, and how do people sit down in the OASIS? Join us for a conversation about Ready Player One, a Sci-Fi Action film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Ernest Cline's best-selling novel.

In this episode, we explore some of the pop culture references and nostalgia of Ready Player One. They crammed a lot of fan favorites into this film—everything from Battletoads, Mortal Kombat, and Halo—to Back to the Future, The Iron Giant, and The Shining. In 2045, the world is harsh, and most of humanity spends their days in an immersive virtual universe. In short, there's a competition to find three keys that lead to a golden egg. Find the egg and win complete control of the OASIS. Naturally, we got a little side-tracked by some of the details, like the omnidirectional treadmill Wade uses as a part of his gaming rig. Taylor treads a little too close to our reality with the thought of "big corpo" enslaving us to pay off our debts, and Willie thinks this film gets lost somewhere in the middle of the pack. Joseph thinks—is it more enjoyable than GAMER? Yes. Is it more fun than the original Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter? Nope, lol. (Enter 80s rock music)

Here's the full transcript for this episode.

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