WarGames

Plot synopsis:
David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) is an intelligent, underachieving teen who spends most of his free time playing arcade video games or messing around on his computer. During an automated modem search, he finds a strange computer that appears to be affiliated with a game company. A list of games appears, but Lightman doesn't have the password. After doing extensive research, he correctly guesses it. As would-be girlfriend Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) watches, he begins playing "Global Thermonuclear War" and targets his hometown (Seattle) and Las Vegas for Soviet strikes.Unknown to the teens, the computer behind "Global Thermonuclear War" is not a game software company -- it is the War Operations Plan Response (W.O.P.R.) -- a top-secret military system that helps the Air Force decide what to do in the event of a Soviet attack. On their situation screens deep below Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, the military actually thinks a first-strike is occurring. Top programmer Dr. McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) figures out what has happened, but it seemed all too real for a few minutes.The government soon finds out who broke into their system, and Lightman is arrested and taken to Cheyenne Mountain for debriefing. It is assumed that he is affiliated with the Soviet KGB! He realizes that the W.O.P.R. is still "playing" Global Thermonuclear War, and needs to be stopped. The computer is feeding false data to the Americans, trying to get them to "move." General Beringer (Barry Corbin), a hawkish sort, is putting US forces on increasingly higher levels of Alert (known as Defense Conditions, or DefCon). When the computer convinces him that full-scale Russian attack is inbound, the General will order a counterattack.Lightman cleverly escapes from Cheyenne Mountain, seeking Dr. Stephen Falken (John Wood), the original programmer of W.O.P.R. Dr. Falken grew increasingly concerned about the program, took an assumed name and retired to Oregon. Jennifer helps Lightman to find the Doctor, and they manage to convince the cynical programmer to stop World War Three.At the last minute, while W.O.P.R. is busy feeding "game" data of inbound Soviet nuclear missiles to General Beringer's staff, Lightman and Falken arrive. They convince the General to wait and see if actual nuclear hits take place (which of course doesn't happen). The computer then tries to "guess" the encrypted launch code that will allow it to launch the US missiles and "win." Lightman and Falken try playing Tic-Tac-Toe against the super-computer, which ultimately teaches it the concept of futility. Just before launching the US missiles, W.O.P.R. quickly runs all the possible nuclear scenarios looking for a situation where it can truly triumph. It ultimately decides that Global Thermonuclear War is futile: there is no winner. Better to play a nice game of Chess.================================In a remote part of a desert, two Air Force members, one an office, the other enlisted, arrive at a seemingly abandoned house. They go through a strict security check and walk into a nuclear missile command room, bidding the previously stationed men a good night. The two begin their shift with a few checks of the equipment. After a few moments of conversation they receive a "flash traffic" message ordering them to confirm launch codes for the missiles. The codes are confirmed at the men insert the keys that will launch the missiles. The commanding officer, Jerry, demands that his subordinate, Steve, try to get Strategic Command on the phone. Steve argues that calling someone isn't the correct procedure but Jerry insists. When Steve is unable to reach anyone, Jerry continues the procedure for launch. However, when the moment arrives to turn both keys to "Launch" Jerry takes his hand off the key. Steven threatens him with a pistol...The scene suddenly cuts short and the opening titles of the film begin. Two United States government officials are arriving at NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The two men meet with the commanding general, Beringer, and the chief computer systems programmer, John McKittrick, about the two Air Force men who failed to launch their missiles. Unbeknownst to Jerry and Steve, their launch mode order was a simulation designed to test the psychological resolve of both men to launch their missiles when ordered to. After a brief discussion about the mental limits of committing such an order, with Beringer defending the tradition of having actual human beings in the command bunkers, McKittrick recommends that they "take the men out of the loop" and put computer software in the bunkers, with command of that software resting at NORAD. McKittrick also shows the officials the WOPR (War Operations Programmed Response) computer, a supercomputer system that takes all incoming data from the NORAD war room and analyzes it, creating endless scenarios of nuclear war. If McKittrick's idea is accepting and implemented by Washington, then WOPR would provide instructions as to how the United States will respond in a nuclear attack. The government men decide to pass McKittrick's idea on to authorities in DC and to the president.In Seattle, Washington, in a video arcade, a high school student, David, is playing a game called Galaga when he looks at his watch and realizes he's late for school. He passes the game on to a younger friend of his and rushes to school, late for his biology class. After a few moments sitting and reviewing a test that he'd failed, David insults his belligerent teacher and is sent to the school's disciplinary officer. While he waits in the outer office, he slyly checks a hidden list of passwords.After school, David is picked up by his biology classmate, Jennifer, who'd inadvertently helped him acquire the password -- David regularly gets in trouble with the express purpose of stealing the password, which is changed every few weeks. She takes him to his house and he shows her his room where he's set up an elaborate personal computer system. David is a computer hacker and he quickly logs in to the school's system using the password he'd stolen. He accesses his own grades and jovially changes his biology grade from an F to a passing grade. Jennifer is stunned by his actions and becomes agitated when David pulls up her grades. He changes her biology grade as well but she insists he change it back, which he does. After she leaves, he changes her grade to an A.In the bunker that Jerry and Steve worked in, their personal command equipment is removed and replaced with a remote device that will do their jobs for them. Jerry looks crestfallen.While dining with his indifferent parents, David finds an advertisement for a software company called Protovision, which plans to release new video games. David calls Information and gets the number for Protovision, as well as the the other prefixes for the area of Sunnyvale, California. He has his computer begin dialing all the numbers in the area, not only looking for the software company but other businesses that could be useful in his hacking. Later, at the video arcade, Jennifer finds David and asks if he could change her grade again. David suggests that the password might have been changed again but Jennifer insists. When they go back to David's room, David shows Jennifer that he's programmed his computer to dial every number in the Sunnyvale area, mining them for other businesses. He also tells Jennifer that he changed her biology grade already. When David checks the numbers he's mined, he finds one that will not allow him to log on. He asks it to "list games" & a list appears showing some standard games like Chess, Backgammon and Tic-Tac-Toe and "Falken's Maze". However, the last two games on the list are named "Theater-wide Biotoxic and Chemical Warfare" and "Global Thermonuclear War."David takes the list to a computer technician who tells him that though David can't get in the system through normal channels so he should look for a "back door", a password left by the original programmer that may give him access. David begins to research the name "Falken" and discovers that it's the name of a computer programmer and artificial intelligence expert from the 1960s named Steven Falken. Falken himself had a son named Joshua who died in a car accident with his mother. Falken's health deteriorated and he himself died several years before. When Jennifer visits David again, David suddenly realizes that Falken's password is his son's name. He types in the password and is granted access to the system where he poses as Falken and asks the computer if they can play Global Thermonuclear War. David chooses the side of the Soviet Union and orders both Las Vegas and Seattle to be primary targets for nuclear strikes.At NORAD, the attack suddenly appears on the screens of their command center. The simulated warheads have already gone over the North Pole, causing a brief panic -- the staff of the command center wonder how their early warning system failed to detect the actual launch. Beringer orders a change in DEFCON (DEFense CONdition) to a status level of three. Back at his room, David and Jennifer are delighted at the complexity of the "game" when David's father yells for David to clean up some garbage the family dog had spilled. David abruptly turns his computer system off and the simulation disappears from NORAD's screens. A technician rushes in yelling that the scenario isn't real. He goes on to explain that someone from the outside has hacked into the system and ordered a simulation. Though they can't pinpoint David's precise location, they determine he's in Seattle.David returns home one night to see a news report about the alert he inadvertently triggered. David quickly becomes anxious and disappears to his room. Jennifer calls saying she'd seen the news report too. David panics, worrying that government officials will find him. Jennifer tells him not to call the phone number again. While he destroys all the printouts of his research on Falken, the phone rings; the WOPR computer, AKA, Joshua, has called him. David tries to tell it that he's not Falken and that Falken is dead. Joshua doesn't accept the truth and tells David that the game program is still running; in a matter of hours Joshua will be able to launch a full-scale nuclear attack. David hangs up the phone but receives another call with the same computer tone; he unplugs his phone.Some time later David is leaving a 7-11 store when he's suddenly surrounded by FBI agents and forced into a waiting van. He's taken to NORAD and held in custody while McKittrick & Beringer meet with the FBI. They discuss how David was able to hack into the WOPR; somehow the phone lines in Sunnyvale had gotten crossed. They also assume David had either been working with another operative and was recruited by the Soviet government to be a spy. McKittrick requests that he be allowed to talk to David himself. David is temporarily released and shown around NORAD by McKittrick - David is slightly awed when he actually sees the WOPR, realizing that it's Joshua. In McKittrick's office, David is grilled for a bit - McKittrick wants to know how David could bypass his security. McKittrick receives a phone call and has to leave his office immediately. David uses McKittrick's office computer to talk to Joshua and finds out that Falken may still be alive, getting an alias and an address in Goose Island, Oregon. Moments later, he's seized by the guards, ranting to McKittrick about Joshua and Falken. He's returned to his "cell" a small, locked room in the facility's infirmary. David searches the drawers and finds some surgical instruments and a mini-tape recorder. He tricks the guard into opening the door and makes a recording of the code, opening the door himself. He rigs the door to lock permanently and escapes the infirmary through an air duct. David joins a tour group in the facility and escapes NORAD.David hitches a ride with a truck driver who drops him off near Grand Junction, Colorado. He jimmies a pay phone and calls information, asking about Falken's address in Oregon. There is no phone listing for Falken, or his alias. David next calls Jennifer in Seattle, who tells him that his parents are freaked out at their son being arrested and that he should come home immediately. David tells her he can't & asks her for money to buy a plane ticket to Goose Island. When he lands, he's surprised by Jennifer, who drove down to meet him. The two catch the ferry over to the island; on board David explains that Joshua is still playing the "game" and plans to launch US missiles in a 1st strike attack against the Soviets. Jennifer says she believes him & the two of them kiss on the way to the island.While walking around the island looking for Falken, they are nearly hit by a remote-controlled model pterodactyl. The artificial bird's owner is a friendly gentleman who turns out to be Falken himself, who tells them they're trespassing and begins to leave. When David mentions Joshua, Falken relents and invites them to his house. While showing them a film depicting extinct prehistoric creatures, he tells the teenagers that the threat of nuclear war is too great to stop and that humans are meant to become extinct, much like the dinosaurs, therefore he's not interested in stopping Joshua from completing it's mission. Falken also asks Jennifer if she ever played Tic-Tac-Toe. Jennifer says she did but doesn't anymore because it always ends in a tie. Falken reinforces his logic, saying the game is pointless.David and Jennifer argue that life is worth living and that Falken would try to stop the coming holocaust if his son were still alive. Falken doesn't have an answer & tells the two that they've missed the last ferry to the mainland. He invites them to stay but they refuse. While walking around the island again, they look for a boat. Jennifer suggests they swim to the mainland but David tells her he never learned to swim. Saddened by his failure with Falken, David becomes depressed and Jennifer comforts him. Suddenly a helicopter appears and chases them for a few minutes before Falken reveals himself as the pilot. He has them board the helicopter and they take off.At NORAD, a staff member in the war room is alerted to a missile launch from a Soviet submarine. Beringer assumes it to be a preemptive strike by the Soviets and orders the mountain facility to be sealed and orders DEFCON to be set at one.David, Jennifer and Falken arrive at the mountain just before the thick pressure door is closed and sealed. In the war room, Falken meets McKittrick and tells him the situation is a bluff engineered by Joshua. He suggests to Beringer that the Soviet Union would never attack unprovoked with all the weapons shown on the screens. He also suggests that they "ride out" the attack and let the 1st strike happen. Beringer communicates with officers from three military bases that will be hit first. He tells them to ride out the attack. When impact finally occurs, the officers report that they are very much alive. The war room celebrates and Beringer happily orders his bomber planes and missiles back to "stand down" status.Falken discovers a strange code running on one of the screens that shows 10 random numbers and letters cycling endlessly. He tells David and Jennifer that the digits are codes to launch the missiles and that Joshua is rapidly deciphering them. Falken and McKittrick try their own passwords but all access to the system is locked out. Jennifer scolds David for playing the game and David has a revelation: Joshua must be taught that certain games are unwinnable. He uses a terminal & commands Joshua to play Tic-Tac-Toe which gives him access to Joshua. David plays Joshua, resulting in a few tie games. He has Joshua play itself, resulting in hundreds of tie games until the screens change and show several hundred scenarios of 1st strikes by and on various nations, each with no winner listed. Suddenly the screens go blank and Joshua's electronic voice pops up, greeting Falken himself. Joshua says calls the game "strange" and says "the only winning move is not to play." Joshua has learned that there can be no winners in nuclear war. Joshua asks if anyone wants to play chess. McKittrick, Falken, David, and Jennifer join the celebration in the war room.

Tags: anti war

Review:
Imaginative story, great cast (who, despite other reviews, do not phone it in) Wargames is a true gem, as it was recently listed by AFI as one of the top 100 sci fi movies of all time.
While it's not a film classic, it's a very, very good popcorn thriller of uncommon craft, charm, and humanity.Seattle high schooler David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) has only a few hours to undo what he thought was a sneak preview of an upcoming computer game but what instead got him tinkering with the U.S. Air Force's WOPR (War Operation Planned Response) computer system in such a way as to trigger a countdown to World War III.
John Wood as a reclusive professor and Barry Corbin as a tobacco-chewing general get much of the kudos, and rightly, but there's a whole deep bench of quality work beyond that, like Kent Williams as a curt White House advisor, William Bogert and Susan Davis as David's out-of-it parents, Alan Blumenfeld as the swaggering bully of a biology teacher, and Juanin Clay as a beautiful but underappreciated assistant (even by herself as she uses her own mouth as an ashcan for her boss's discarded gum.) You know the casting people behind this movie were on the ball when the opening sequence features two very recognizable faces, those of Michael Madsen and John Spencer, in what were film debuts for both.That sequence with Madsen and Spencer as missile men point up another quality of "WarGames," the way the movie works in terms of setting up expectations and developing pace.
We get a macro-view where Dabney Coleman as a tunnel-visioned warroom executive effectively makes the case for "taking the men out of the loop" and then zoom back into what seems a totally unrelated story, that of slacker teen David Lightman and his high school travails.The film could have just started with Lightman, and worked its way out to the business with the WOPR.
The NORAD warroom is really a character onto itself, the ultimate source of reality in this film (and better for my money than the warroom in `Dr. Strangelove,' an obvious inspiration.) The way the cameras dart around from terminal to terminal as uniformed USAF technicians follow the progress of an apparent Soviet attack, lighting onto one of them just before he or she relays an important piece of information, is highly addictive and entertaining.There's some sloppiness in the movie.
For all the technical innovation on display, it's ironically appropriate we remember it for showing us how to butter an ear of corn, because it's the human side of the equation `WarGames' keeps in its sights at all times.[The DVD features a terrific, candid commentary from director John Badham and writers Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parkes that gives one a real appreciation for the value of creative license as well as factual diligence in making a film of this kind work.].
The government had these marvelous machines and the internet by which they communicated for decades before the public was given access from these ancient Commodore 64's, Amigas, and Atari home computers via phone line, back in the late 1970's.While this work is entertaining, it also bears a valid warning, even today.Broderick and Ally Sheedy both were 21, playing 17 year olds, competently.It rates a 7.6/10 from...the Fiend :..
Let's play Global Thermonuclear War. WarGames is a film which in some ways seems hopelessly dated and in other ways seems to have been way ahead of its time.
Ahead of its time this movie is.While certain aspects of the story may seem less relevant today there is no denying that WarGames is an effective, entertaining thriller.
And it often looks spectacular, most notably in the scenes which take place inside the NORAD war room, a movie set which was stunningly impressive for its time and actually would still be stunningly impressive today.
A rogue young man named David (Matthew Broderick) along with his best friend Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) hack into their high school's computer to change his grade and later on , find a back door into a military central computer in which reality is confused with game-playing, possibly starting World War III .
With that in mind the film could quite easily be classed as a bit clunky due to the now almost Neanderthal toys, games and computers used in the movie, but casting aside the nostalgia feelings I had with it, it still hits the spot as both a poignant piece of interest, and a dam good thriller as well.Matthew Broderick is David Lightman, a young computer gamer geek who is something of a whizz kid on the PC.
During one eventful sitting he hacks into a computer called Joshua and plays a game called Global Thermonuclear War, he harmlessly chooses to be The Soviet Union and proceeds to launch a nuclear attack on his own country, the U.S.A. Trouble is is that the game is for real and the wheels are in motion for World War III!.It helps to remember the time this film was made {for those old enough of course}, for it was the time of the ever worrying cloud of the Cold War, a time when nuclear war was more than a hearsay threat.
Never had the capabilities of computers been so realistically portrayed than in WarGames, a film that introduced the world to home computers, hacking, and how humanity can be replaced by machines (as well as the idea that nuclear destruction is still a threat).When two missile controllers fail to launch a missile during a test launch due to uncertainty, government bigwig McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) introduces his superiors to WOPR (War Operation Plan Response), a giant super-computer that repeatedly plays games with itself to generate stats and results of possible nuclear war outcomes.
With WWIII nearing, the movie takes some twists and turns and it's all good fun.Broderick is well-cast and this is probably one of the roles, along with Ferris Bueller, that stereotyped him as a continual teenager--which makes it hard for him to get adult roles nowadays.
(He's in the upcoming remake of "The Producers"--yay!)Ally Sheedy and Dabney Coleman both have supporting roles.I thoroughly enjoyed this film and rate it a solid "4" of five stars.Trivia note: Sheedy and Broderick both appeared in separate movies by John Hughes: "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "The Breakfast Club.".
the sequence where Broderick's character gets the password for the school computer.) Hacker movies have rarely come this close to being real - and, as someone who had been there and done that at about that time, it was scarily right.In no way is this one of the greatest movies ever made.
Kind of like The Goonies, it is a movie that finds a young kid in an extraordinary situation, except that rather than the Indiana Jones type adventure that the Goonies go on, David (a young Matthew Broderick) has inadvertently come frighteningly close to starting a massive nuclear war between the United States and Russia.We meet David early in the film after a tense missile launch training sequence (in which the men on hand do not realize that they are only participating in a training drill).
Technology is an amusing thing, especially when it's taken so seriously in the movies and then is so completely obsolete a decade or so later.Wargames, however, despite being jam-packed with outdated machinery and computer technology, is no less potent as a military thriller, because the technology is not the point of the film.
Instead, the movie tells the story of how David goes searching for video games on the 1983 version of the Internet, only to accidentally stumble upon a top-secret military database, WOPR (endearingly referred to as `Whopper') that runs hypothetical sequences of what World War III would look like, including how the Russians would react to American reactions to their actions, and so forth.
Probably the most hair-raising scene in the film is when David's mother calls him downstairs and congratulates him on passing his classes (which he had changed by hacking into the school's computer system), by which he is thrilled until he turns to look at the TV, where the news is reporting the war that has been set in motion because of his tinkering on the computer.
Wargames requires a substantial suspension of disbelief because of such things like the United States military's inability to tell whether or not those blips coming from Russia on their screens are real weapons of mass destruction of if they're just a computer game, but the fact that the world is tottering so lightly on the edge of Global Thermonuclear War, even if only because of the very presence of these types of weapons, is the frightening concept that the movie tries to get across.
We see it playing through World War III on the military intelligence screens near the end of the film (during which it evidently has a field day messing with the lighting in the room) showing missiles coming from every direction and destroying everything on the map.`This is a strange game,' it says.
Great Cold War drama.A high school kid, David (played by Matthew Broderick), accidentally hacks the powerful computer that runs global thermonuclear war simulations for the US military, and which controls the US's nuclear weapons arsenal.
Though not anywhere near as biting as Dr Strangelove in its demonstration of how Cold War paranoia and the nuclear arms race can go awry, it is a fairly chilling indicator of what could happen.Solid work from Matthew Broderick in the lead role, in only his second movie.
...not that it's just for kids.Released in 1983, "War Games" is about a computer whiz (Matthew Broderick) who accidentally hacks into a super computer that controls the US nuclear arsenal.
Broderick and his sidekick, Ally Sheedy, were both 20 at the time of filming, but look around 15-16.Although overrated in some quarters (Roger Ebert, for instance, gives it a perfect rating), "War Games" is a fun, entertaining youth adventure with some good suspense here and there.
There is no such thing as absolute security, and finding ways around things is frequently easier than anyone would ever like to think.The only thing I roll my eyes at in this movie is the whole WOPR scenario, I'm still waiting to see voice recognition that works reasonably well, let alone something with artificial intelligence.This movie was made 25 years ago, long before everyone had a computer sitting on their desk at home, and I'm still waiting to see a movie about computers that even remotely compares to "WarGames".
This factual event is the origin of the film " War Games." Herein we have a high school computer whiz kid named David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) who is seeking to play advance computer games.
"Wargames" is truly an astonishing motion picture for a myriad of reasons not the least of which have to do with both the plot and the superb dialog.David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) is a 17 year old truant case, undisciplined and lacking in academic interests whose only passion is video games.
While the movie is full of stereotypical characters (geeks, would-be geek, army nut, high school girl, brainy soft-spoken Englishman), its beauty lies in the way it explores the relationship between people and computers, emotion and decision, and also pokes into the world of AI, which seems just as far away now as it did in 1983.I have no idea how much of that technology a kid would have possessed back in '83, but it was all possible in the early days of the Internet, and in its military forebear, ARPANET.
I mean, we have this kid, David, who is a total computer nerd and spends his time playing games (know anyone like that?), hacks into an ultra sophisticated military mainframe, almost screws it up but ends up saving the world and getting the girl (the totally doable Ally Sheedy!).
John Badham directed this computer-gone-mad picture that stars Mathew Broderick as David, a rebellious teenager and computer whiz who likes to hack into his high school computer system to change his grades to an "A", or insult his science teacher.
It was an edge of the seat film, though the suspense wasn't as well done as it could've been.Matthew Broderick played David Lightman, a young computer "geek" who thinks quickly, very well, but other than him I thought the acting was pretty bland (not bad, just not great).Although I'm sure that it would've been a better movie for me had I seen it around the time it came out, in the midst of the cold war when this was much more plausible then it is now, it still was well worth the 2 hours.
He thinks he is playing a new computer game instead of actually warming up a World War.The cast also includes Ally Sheedy, Barry Corbin, Dabney Coleman and John Wood..
I know that Joshua (the computer) is outdated by today's standards and David (Matthew Brodrick) never would have broken into NORAD but it's still the best hacker movie made and one of the best cold war thrillers.
Maybe even the first I'm not sure.Bottom Line: Wargames is a quality film that will take older moviegoers back to their childhood or young adulthood and will make younger viewers think "they had computers back then?!" A true classic and one that makes a great addition to my collection..
1st watched 5/6/2001 - 7 out of 10 (Dir-John Badham): Timely, compelling drama about a kid hacking into the security system's computer system and almost starting World War III.
Broderick, who knows computers (in1983), inadvertently gets into a game (or so he thinks) of Thermonuclear War. It turns out that he has actually hacked into a military program that is feeding the U.S. information about that very subject.
The film deals a young man (Matthew Broderick) who taps into the computer's defense system and is planning to start World War III.
Watching it when I was young made me want everything Matthew Broderick's character had: Nice house, great computer set-up and computer "nerd" connections.Okay the movie might look dated now not to mention a little far fetched with a young teenager hacking into the miltary system, but so what at least it doesn't throw itself overboard like so many other films have in recent times (i.e. Independence Day, sorry if that's a dumb comparison).Interesting to also know that this was also voted "IMDB movie of the day" considering that it was shown only recently on TV (with the profanity edited though.
I love that movie because it is all about computers and Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy star in it.
It is interesting to see "Joshua" want to win this game of global thermonuclear war, but then realize at the end, that there are no winners, and the only way to win is not to ever play.
This movie plays with the real threat of that time - nuclear war.
People teach the machine not to kill people, because, "The only winning move is not to play." It sounds similar to a familiar quote: "There won't be any winners in a nuclear war." The general frame of this movie is based on the 'combinatorial thinking' of one computer which is practicing in adaptive learning of games outcomes.
Matthew Broderick plays a high school kid who loves computers and discovers a program called "ThermoNuclear War," left by a computer legend, which he thinks is a video game.
In fact, it turns out to be a great film, one that remains endlessly enjoyable despite the leaps and bounds that computer technology has made since this movie came out.Matthew Broderick stars as the likable lead, a teenage computer genius who accidentally hacks into a NORAD computer and all but brings about nuclear war.
Fraker, and well acted by a young Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy, it's a film that came out at a time when America (and by extension Hollywood) was obsessed with the idea of nuclear carnage, and while some movies used that premise for devastating emotional drama -- "The Day After," "Testament," to a certain extent "Silkwood" -- "WarGames" uses it to build an exciting, crafty adventure/suspense film, more Steven Spielberg than docu-drama.
One day, David's best friend Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) is with him and he decides to hack the toy company Protovision seeking new games and he accidentally connects the War Operation Plan Response system in a computer located at the North American Aerospace (NORAD) at Birmingham using the password Joshua that was the name of the son of its creator, the deceased scientist Stephen Falken (John Wood).
But not the system he thinks.When he taps into Joshua, David gets the chance to play Global ThermoNuclear War. And accidentally sets in motion the countdown to World War III.There is something almost blackly humorous to the way WarGames' screenplay turns.
An exhilarating and rather disturbing story dealing with the potential of computer technology to over-rule humans in a nuclear crisis, "Wargames" is a memorable thriller which made stars of Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy.
In a race against time, David and his girlfriend Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) try to track down the brilliant but reclusive programmer, Professor Falken (John Wood), who designed Global Thermonuclear War, in the hope that he may know how to stop the computer as it prepares to wipe out mankind.It's a simple but thoroughly exciting premise, played out with maximum intensity.
The other great roles in the movie were John Wood playing the enigmatic Dr Stephen Falken and Barry Corbin playing General Beringer.This film is one of my personal favorites and that is because of these two lines.Once upon a time, there lived a magnificent race of animals that dominated the world through age after age.
A final thought, there is a great quote from the WOPR computer near the end of the film about nuclear war, "A strange game.