The Ready Player One trailer is an assault on the senses

Steven Spielberg returns to sci-fi in what is set to be one of the biggest films in 2018

Warner Bros has released the first full trailer for Steven Spielberg's pop culture odyssey and Ernest Cline adaptation, Ready Player One.

Set to Van Halen's 'Jump', it gives a good look at the OASIS virtual reality system humans in 2045 have turned to and all the experiences that can be had inside it, from gravity-defying drag races to dance battles in space.

The tone for the dystopian movie looks to be lighter than expected however, at least in comparison to a Spielberg sci-fi like Minority Report.

The official synopsis is as follows:

The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger.

Joining Tye Sheridan (X-Men: Apocalypse, Mud) are Olivia Cooke (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Bates Motel), Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One – A Star Wars Story, Bloodline) and T.J. Miller (Deadpool, Silicon Valley), with Simon Pegg (the Star Trek movies, the Mission: Impossible movies) and Oscar winner Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies, Dunkirk).

Directed by Spielberg from a screenplay by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline, Ready Player One is slated for release worldwide beginning 30 March, 2018.