They’re all in his mind

We finally went to see this movie (and yes, it is a movie) last night. I can now see why ‘purists’ (those who read the book first) would not particularly like the way the story got told on the big screen. But for those seeing it for the first time (like my wife), it is a spectacular ride, especially in 3D.

Here are some of the Easter Eggs:

The changes that the movie made to the book

If you think about it, how can a director of a movie bring a long narrative down into a byte-sized image? It takes days to read the book. The movie was a mere two hours and twenty minutes long. In the process some things get jettisoned, and other things get altered out of recognition.

Here are five major changes:

The ending is enigmatic

The final test was actually a blind to see if the lessons that James Halliday learned were understood by the one who completed the quest.

Conclusion

While Halliday is absentmindedly searching for the Easter Egg in his mental recreation of his boyhood bedroom, Wade asks him if he is an Avatar. When Halliday answers in the negative, Wade asks him if he’s really dead. He answers that question in the affirmative.

Then how is he really there? (It’s a rhetorical question.)