The average human attention span is about eight seconds, which is not a problem at all for "Ready Player One." It’s a visual masterpiece. From the moment it begins, you’re sucked into following the protagonist, Wade Watts, through the technicolor bacchanalia of the OASIS – the flawless virtual dream world where a populace racked by poverty and famine seeks to escape from reality. This film (based on the 2011 novel by Ernest Cline) has been heralded for months as one of the most anticipated movies of 2018, and with good reason. As well as the creative merit of the film, it has a striking and timelessly relevant plot.

Spoiler alert: it’s about rising up against tyrannical forces in the name of freedoms.

Regardless of where your opinion sits on the causes of it, there is no denying that our culture, politics, and belief systems are currently in a major state of flux. If you have any interest in historical literature, you will know that where there is uncertainty, there is dystopian fiction. The flux makes a perfect backdrop for the release of a film like “Ready Player One.”

Cautionary tales under the cover of dystopias are very much in demand in such times (see the recent reimaginings of stories such as “The Handmaid’s Tale” on HBO and “1984” on Broadway). We bear witness to tellings and retellings of fallen governments and societies in peril, from franchises like “The Hunger Games” to books like “Fahrenheit 451,” as a means of grappling with the big issues that sit behind such cultural shifts. But do we deal with them, truly, or do we just use such tales as another means to avoid the realities of the matter?

The genius of “Ready Player One” is that it taps into something that others of its genre do not: escapism. Where the majority of dystopian fiction put us over the shoulder of an unlikely hero to watch their attempts at overthrowing the flawed system directly, “Ready Player One” explores the flip side of that coin; the apathy that allowed the dystopia to exist in the first place.

As dearly as I love my generation, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that we place far too high a premium on sitting back and being entertained. It could be argued (and has been argued by our Baby Boomer predecessors ad nauseam) that we prize the freedom to be apathetic over all else. We opt for easy indulgence over meaningful action more often than we’d care to admit: empty gestures, escapist media, shitposting, etc. This film ups the ante exponentially by giving us an entire manic dream world to escape into, a whole other layer of reality to explore that neglects the problems of the real one entirely. This immersion is important to note.

So often, we get the modern data vacuum nodded to or merely acknowledged in dystopian fiction, such as Offred’s pre-Gilead job as a journalist in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” In “Ready Player One,” we see the OASIS as, in a way, the main character of the story; the setting, the subject, AND the ultimate concern.

However, the most interesting point in the film for me had nothing to do with the OASIS, but rather, with the world that it ignores. The narration from Wade opens with a brief history of strikes, riots, wars, and events that brought the post-America he lives in to its knees, and yet, we never hear again (in the film, at least) of the plagues and problems of the literal world in which he exists. The story is entirely concerned with the virtual reality.

When we aren’t in the OASIS, we’re discussing it or trying to get back into it as soon as possible, or trying to figure out how to best serve it. There is even an entire IRL resistance dedicated to keeping the game free and safe for all of its users. While we are swept up in these efforts, we almost forget that Wade lives in a trailer stacked on top of other trailers, or that he has no friends outside of the game, or that his family is dead, or even that the entire outside world is stricken with poverty. We don’t even see Wade grieve at all after witnessing the death of his aunt firsthand. He’s so concerned about his quest for the sake of the virtual reality that the actual realities of his life don’t even seem to phase him.

But we know that we’re dealing in real humanity with these characters; they have all of the normal responses to loneliness, rejection, grief, joy, fear, pain, friendship, and love, and we see that in their interactions. We even see the entire population of this place rise up and fight as a unit against the potential oppression of their beloved game. We know that the people of this world are wholly capable of compassion, empathy, rational response, even large-scale protest, and we see all of that reflected through their actions in the OASIS. And yet, the real world is left to suffer.

All of this energy is thrown into the game by those who want to escape a suffering world, and they do not even realize all they could be doing to ease its suffering just with the power of their attention. This populace basically staged a coup in the OASIS, and yet, we see them apathetic and strewn about the real world; downtrodden, and doing nothing. In bearing witness to this unfolding from the comfort of a movie theater, we unwittingly do exactly what they do. We get so caught up in the distraction that we don’t even acknowledge the heinous reality that made it necessary in the first place.

The real-world parallels to this are almost too obvious to cite. We live on a planet racked by poverty, homelessness, violence, war, corruption, greed, hunger, oppression, and disease. And yet, here we are, in the feed, reading articles.

While the movie has us seeing this all too real virtual reality through Wade’s perspective, I would posit that Halladay, the lofty creator of the OASIS, is the real hero of the story. While every other character, Wade included, is worked into a tizzy over the state and control of the OASIS, he is the only one who openly acknowledges that it is, in fact, just a game. In both the novel and the film, Halladay quotes Groucho Marx, saying, "I'm not crazy about reality, but it's still the only place to get a decent meal." The inventor of this great escape is somehow the only one to acknowledge outright that it is not and can never be a substitute for reality, and he keeps his feet on the ground until the end on this point.

In a story that touches on the heroism of pragmatism through a character like Halladay, I find it to be an interesting choice that we are left rooting for the rights of the fantasy above all else, without ever truly acknowledging the circumstances that brought about its success. We never meet the administrations or individuals responsible for the very real dystopia in which the story is set, and yet we bow and quiver to entertainment magnates like Sorrento as the big bad wolves because they control the game.

The film eerily reflects the current state of culture in the United States in this way; most people my own age (or of any age, for that matter) will know the names of tech royalty such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, but if you were to ask American individuals who their current House representatives were, more often than not, you'd come up empty.

This draws attention to an important, yet easily overlooked point in “Ready Player One.” Despite the otherworldly feel of the OASIS, it does mirror true life. As you move in reality, your avatar moves in the game. If you’re being shaken about in the real world, you cannot keep your footing in the OASIS either. The surroundings may look different, but there is no way to turn off the consequences of your actions in either world. No matter what you choose to see, what you do is reflected the same in both worlds. You can escape your surroundings, but you are made to deal with your choices literally in both realities.

The average human attention span is eight seconds. At that rate, it's easy to get sucked into the most bright and colorful thing that catches your attention. Hell, instead of chipping away at the homework mountain on my desk, I used my Saturday to go to the movies and subsequently write this article. We're all victims of our own draw to the next gratifying thing, and there is nothing wrong with letting that take hold at times. What is an issue is forgetting to moderate the use of our energies.

The art we consume, be it in video games, live shows, movies, television, music, or books, will either be a distraction or use its platform to make some sort of point. The issue isn't in the media; it's in our addict-like consumption of it, and in our failure to follow it with meaningful action outside of said media. We can watch and rewatch “The Handmaid’s Tale,” but we must remember as we do it that Margaret Atwood called it “speculative fiction” and not sci-fi for a reason.

We can get lost in the OASIS of “Ready Player One,” but we cannot forget how that utopia is programmed against the backdrop of a society in ruins to poverty, famine, and war.

It is one thing to hear and be moved by another’s take on a big issue through their work, but it is something else entirely to think that listening is all you are obligated to do in response. If you only take one thing away from dystopian fiction, let it be this:

Apathy. Is. Never. A. Solution.

The year “1984” has already passed. “The Handmaid’s Tale” took place in 1985. “The Hunger Games” is set in the 2070’s. “Fahrenheit 451” is in the 2050’s. “Ready Player One” takes place in 2042. Each of these years lands either in my parent’s lifetimes, will land in my lifetime, or will be in the lifetime of the next generation to survive me. Each of these dystopias shares a common theme, the populace settled for distractions, and did not do anything meaningful until it was already too late. The OASIS does not actually exist, but the issues it serves as an escape from are all too real. The problems it serves to distract us from are just as many games to be played as anything pixelated.

Picture this: Clean water and sustainable food production as free lives. Accessible medicine as unlimited healings. Elected positions as leveling up. Meaningful legislation as successful mods. Good government budgeting as proper allotment of coins. Every improvement in someone’s life as an Easter egg. You can throw some of your energies into making these things happen in the real world. Or, there is the OASIS.

You get no tutorial, just this warning. Select your game carefully. Depending on what you choose, you may not always have the luxury of changing your mind.

Player one, are you ready?