The OASIS that Spielberg puts on screen is a visual marvel - obviously computer-generated as befits the fact it’s a fictional video game, but realistic enough that it doesn’t just feel as though you’re watching a very expensive cartoon. For any filmmaker, that toy box is an enticing prospect, and there’s no-one better to play in it than Steven Spielberg. For most, it’s an existence worth escaping and to do so, humans plug themselves into the OASIS, a virtual world where anything is possible. How the world got like this isn’t explicit (although both the “corn syrup droughts” and “bandwidth riots” are mentioned), but it’s not so outlandish you couldn’t see it happen. Wade Watts ( Sheridan), named to sound like a superhero’s alter-ego, lives in the Stacks - a shanty town of campervans piled perilously on top of each other.

Set in Columbus, Ohio (relocated from the Oklahoma City of the book) 27 years from now, the world is overpopulated and, if not quite yet a dystopia, certainly thinking about it. And as the giant ape appears, all lingering doubts are dispelled - it’s clear the film is going to deliver on its thrill-ride promise, and then some.

There’s a moment, not long into Ready Player One, where hundreds of cars, including a DeLorean, the A-Team van and the Plymouth Fury from Christine (which happens to be driven by Lara Croft) are all racing each other through New York when, having already outmaneuvered the Jurassic Park T-Rex, King Kong swings into view.

Real player one