"Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham! blares happily in WADE'S dimly lit room. It is too dark to see the space clearly.
WADE I'm up!
WADE stands in the slowly brightening darkness, stretching. As the light increases, we see how different is body looks, though we do not see his face. While WADE actually is taller, he appears even more so as he has lost weight. WADE has slim muscles, not overly worked-out. The bed reshapes itself into his haptic chair in the center of the room, above his omni-directional treadmill and below large, articulated arms attached to the walls and ceiling. The technology takes up most of the room and includes a sleek OASIS console, smell/air filter tower, and surround sound speaker system in the walls. WADE's haptic suit has been upgraded as has his gloves and visor. The window has been more carefully repainted black. The kitchen is also clean.
WADE (from behind and from the shoulders down) shuffles towards the wall with the tiny, stainless steel bathroom with shower. The wall's monitor changes from a rotating security camera view (hallway, lobby, roof, elevator) to MAX HEADROOM, his system agent software.
MAX G-g--good morning, Wade! Rise and sh-sh-shine!
WADE Good morning, Max.
MAX I think you mean "good evening", Rumpelstiltskin. It's 7:18 pm, OASIS Sta-sta-standard Time, Wednesday, December thirtieth. (looking down as WADE pees) Uh-oh! It appears you've sp-sp-sprung a leak!
Conversation continues just as it does in the book
MAX makes a pouting face and drifts out of the screen, turning it back into a mirror. WADE finds himself looking at his own image. WADE looks alien with only stubble and his thinner face. He looks away to finish peeing. Done, WADE reseals his haptic suit and exits the bathroom.
Exercise scene continues as in the book followed by showering, which seems very futuristic--like a car wash.
WADE finishes cleaning, drying, and dressing in a new haptic suit. While his apartment is no longer littered with garbage, it is dreary, empty, and lifeless. WADE finally looks like he registers his surroundings and he is sad/scared/depressed.
WADE Extend chair.
The haptic chair reassembles itself inside the room, dominating it, hulking in the middle. The metal looks like bars to a circular prison. WADE registers his acknowledgement of what it means on his face: sad/scared/depressed.
p. 194
