Ready Player One is a pop culture fantasy, throwing all manner of Easter Eggs at the screen in a gaming-inspired dystopian VR throwback blockbuster - but does that geek ephemera mean it has that most popular of modern tropes, a post-credits scene?

There’s been some backlash against Ready Player One and its heavy use of nostalgia, but those criticisms seem to end with Ernest Cline’s book: the reviews for Steven Spielberg’s latest have been as glowing as the Easter Egg prize at the end of the movie’s competition, with specific praise for the heart at the center of the character-driven story and his (mostly) careful integration of a myriad of pop culture icons. It’s metatextuality at its most audacious, with Chucky, the Iron Giant and Halo all fitting alongside each other in the same sequence.

If you’re planning to stick around after the end of Wade Watts’ adventure in the Oasis for more, however, be warned: Ready Player One doesn’t have an end-credits scene. That doesn’t mean you should rush out, however - after the (rather strange) first song over the credits, Hall & Oates’ “You Make My Dreams Come True”, you can listen to Alan Silvestri’s full Ready Player One suite, a spectacular piece of movie music that hearkens back to John Williams’ 1980s masterworks.

All things considered, it’s quite surprising that Ready Player One doesn’t have an end-credits scene. The film is all about creative obsession, with specific focus put on how creators evolve ideas and hide secrets in their work, so to ignore the most prevalent version of this in the modern day would have been fitting; one last Easter Egg for the road. Of course, if there’s nothing more to show, it makes sense to not bother as it would alter the tone of the final scene.

That said, there may be more to show. Cline has confirmed he’s working on a sequel novel, and considering how involved he was in the first film - he’s credited as screenwriter - it’s likely that could serve as the baseline for a second film (even if Spielberg made some pretty big changes to the Ready Player One book for the movie). Whether a big screen sequel happens does, of course, depend on the box office success of the first film. It’s currently set to top the box office in its opening weekend, with initial projections of $45 million growing in light of the positive reviews.

Next: There Could Be A Ready Player Two

  • Ready Player One Release Date: 2018-03-29