"First to the Key!": A Quick Appreciation of READY PLAYER ONE's CGI Car Race
A look back at the best sequence in one of Spielberg's most justifiably divisive films.
The first camp is something along the lines of the podrace from The Phantom Menace or the underrated final battle in Cameron’s Avatar. These types of sequences utilize certain camera angles or lighting setups that are actually achievable in the real/non-digital space. Other than a couple flourishes here or there, there’s not a noticeable shot where the animated frame defies the laws of natural physics, giving the illusion that the action is captured on an actual camera and thereby giving the cg elements a certain weight.
On the polar opposite of the spectrum is something like the Wachowski’s Speed Racer. A film that gleefully exists in the realm of the unreal. Its action scenes are not trying to portray a sense of weight, nor is the camera confined by the restraints of reality. It is a film where the camera acts as though it is a super speedy specter, flying through cartoony cars and candy colored explosions in dizzying, psychedelic glory.
Released in 2018, Ready Player One was dropped into an era where great CGI action sequences were being replaced by rather uninteresting CGI fight scenes from superhero films. The MCU’s CG action, for example, is too weightless to be in the first camp, but too visually shallow to exist in the second camp—therefore putting it in this styleless, liminal camp.
Ready Player One, on the other hand, defies this glut of middling action by introducing the film’s digital world through a spectacular, prolonged car race.
Spielberg makes it clear to the audience through filmmaking techniques–not just the contrast between live-action and animation– that there is a unmistakable separation between the real world and the Oasis. For example, while there is computer generated imagery in the futuristic, dystopian view of Columbus, Ohio, the ways in which it is utilized follow the rules set by Lucas and Cameron in the two examples I started this piece with. Nothing feels too exaggerated as to make the audience feel as if they are in the Oasis.
But then, we get to the race.
Unrestrained “camera” movements and illogical car stunts that have only been seen to this extent in Speed Racer, but with the precise and masterful filmmaking only Spielberg could infuse a sequence with; This car sequence is a marvel in a digital age of action filmmaking where a singular vision is being lost with each major blockbuster release.
The escalation of the sequence is tremendous. Over the course of the four minute long stretch, our characters speed through simulated oncoming traffic, a massive wrecking ball, a T-Rex (who looks suspiciously like a familiar face in Spielberg’s canon), and then eventually King Kong. While so much praise for this scene has stemmed from an audience’s love of seeing familiar vehicles from pop culture (as is the case with much of the love this movie gets), what I admire about it is just how much energy it is infused with. Vehicles fly through the air, slamming other players to the side of the Hot Wheels inspired course, all while the audience is still able to maintain focus on the film’s lead protagonist. What might have been a visual cluster in the hands of lesser storytellers becomes the epitome of "controlled chaos" through the eyes of Spielberg.
While the scene exists in that wonderfully heightened reality camp I’ve been speaking of, there are still mild jitters in the added to the frame or snap zooms that don’t give the sequence any misjudged readings of realism, but rather heighten a sense of danger that a film like Speed Racer–for all of its wonderful charms–lacked. What really ties it all together is how it is one of the only prolonged scenes in Ready Player One that does not feature Alan Silvestri’s bombastic score, instead relying on the raw and floor-shaking sound design from cinematic vet, Gary Rydstrom. The affect that the sequence has on me is the same as a tense Mario Kart race mixed with a grade-A simulator ride from Disney World, all funneled through the lens of the greatest director of our generation. The opening race in Ready Player One is one of those few prime examples of what CG can accomplish that practical FX simply can't.
Sadly–working off of one of the worst novels I’ve ever read–Spielberg couldn’t make the surrounding movie or the characters involved in this incredible sequence as enthralling as this opening chase. But even though the resulting film devolves into a series of callbacks and fan service (that disturbingly perpetuates a cultural lack of imagination), moments like the incredible car chase show that Spielberg cannot help himself from filling even his most mediocre films with unforgettable cinematic eye candy and pushing the envelope of modern cinematic technologies.
I, for one, am grateful we still have him.
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