Ready Player One - Book references in the film to 'Wargames'?

Question

Finally got around to watching the film version of 'Ready Player One'.

Obviously the film doesn't stick to the book when it comes to the tasks/tests but I did notice references to the main book themes:

• Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Wade buys and uses a 'Holy Hand-Grenade'
• 2112 by Rush - Halliday has a 2112 poster on his wall and Aech is wearing a 2112 t-shirt
• Tomb of Horrors - The 'demon' logo from tomb of horrors is on the back of Aech's camper van

But, one of the main tasks is a recreation/acting of 'Wargames' so is there a reference to it in the film ?

Answer 1

According to Ernest Cline, no, and here's why:

Cline: “Some things had to change because we couldn’t get the rights. Like we had talked about getting Blade Runner. But because I think they were making the sequel at the time we weren’t able to get Blade Runner. So then we started to look at other 1980s films.

“War Games also was unavailable. And also War Games was something that worked on the page, but also was more of a dialogue-driven movie and not necessarily a visually stunning movie. And we wanted a movie that was more visually striking.”