The Search for Significance in Ready Player One

Many a hero has undergone rigorous trials in an effort to claim a prize without price. Heracles completed 12 Labors to earn his freedom. Perseus had to deal with Medusa and a sea monster before he could rescue Andromeda. Jason faced tons of difficulties to claim the Golden Fleece.

But the most famous quest of all is that for the Holy Grail—a prize achievable not by the strongest or swiftest or smartest, but the most worthy. The most holy. And it’s the quest the movie explicitly invokes with the name of its hero, Parzival.

The Holy Grail is, of course, one of the holiest symbols in Christendom. And in Medieval literature, Parzival (spelled in a dizzying number of ways) was one of the Grail’s most prominent and stubborn seekers.

But Parzival experienced a ton of disappointment in his years searching for the Grail, mainly because of his estrangement from God. It takes a spiritual turnaround (beginning on Good Friday) to get Parzival’s quest back on track.

The Grail is less a muscular, heroic quest than it is a spiritual one, where those worthy to even see it must be filled with humility, compassion and a closeness to the Almighty.

The quest for Halliday’s Easter egg is much the same. Even though Sorrento has almost limitless resources to solve Halliday’s puzzles, and even though many an “egg hunter” (or “Gunter” in the movie’s terminology) may be more skilled at certain tasks than Parzival, Parzival seeks to win the prize by understanding Halliday better than anyone else.

He does so by diving into a library of cryptic Halliday memories—sacred texts and files, of sorts, a virtual Bible Parzival and other Gunters pore over in an effort to understand a distant, sometimes inscrutable creator.

But Parzival’s quest requires more than simply understanding the mind of Halliday. He must understand the creator’s heart. In the end, Parzival’s own wishes and desires for OASIS must match those of Halliday himself, if he’s to be truly worthy. Parzival’s quest here isn’t just about skill or knowledge. It’s a winnowing and honing of the spirit, just as the original Parzival’s was.