Memories are a weird thing. We have them, we swear by them, we fight over what they tell us sometimes. Memories sometimes lie to us. That is where I am with Wargames, a classic example of “It was the 80’s” movies. You see, I rewatched it earlier this week because I am on vacation from my day job and wanted to watch something fun. Something I thought I knew but could not remember many of the finer details. Turns out I don’t remember the beginning of Wargames at all. I mean, in my memories, the movie starts with Matthew Broderick messing around with his computer dialing numbers and such trying to find game companies and attempting to gain access to their computers in an effort to have more games to play. That is NOT how Wargames starts. It is much darker, very much so more than I remember.
To say it was like watching a brand new movie to me is almost an understatement. At least that is accurate for the beginning.
The real beginning of Wargames is all about military stuff, something I thought got down and heavy a little later in the movie. There is a surprise drill of a nuclear strike that puts front and center a problem with the current method of launching a counter-attack. People. Most notably, the men in the silos that are in control of the missiles actually being launched. Certain people failed to follow orders, even when threatened at gunpoint, and that is a problem. Something key members in the United States government, and its military, aim to fix with computers.
That is the basis of setting up WOPR - War Operation Plan Response. This computer will, in essence, be in control of the nuclear launch codes - with a little bit of human oversight involved. Very little it seems.
WOPR, when it is not putting missiles of death into the air, sits around and works on war simulations to better hone potential targets, ways to prevent as much death on our side as possible, etc. You know, war computer things.
Now, to the part that I remember being the opening for Wargames.
The star of the movie Matthew Broderick, playing David Lightman, is obviously a delinquent at school and only interested in playing with computers. He is very one sided at this point. He has been able to appear decent at school thanks to knowing where the school administrators keep the password for the computer where the grades are stored (which luckily is connected to the Internet).
No biggie for an uber computer hacker to adjust his grades and those of his friend, Jennifer Mack (played by Ally Sheedy). One day while in Lightman’s room, he decides to show off a bit for Mack by arranging for flight tickets for her and a companion. This appears to be a nonchalant move on Lightman’s part but it comes back to bite him in the ass later.
Also, Lightman’s computer conveniently connects to an unknown computer that is not interested in discussing who it is. This is apparently not how things work according to Lightman who states (paraphrasing a bit) - “the more complicated the system is, the more they have to help you out”. Sorry man, that is not how computers work then or now.
Little things like this make Wargames somewhat comical but you have to remember, that “was the 80’s” and then it all makes sense. Somewhat. If you lived through it. Then again, maybe not. It is little things like this that make watching some movies decades later harder than we thought it would be. Times change, things are discovered, and computers don’t have to be nice to you because they are complex.
Anyhow, back to the review.
Not knowing that he has connected to not only a government war computer, but THE government war computer, Lightman gives the computer a command. He asks for a list of games and the government computer obliges by listing the available games -
Falken’s Maze Chess Checkers Backgammon Poker and the list continues. Theaterwide Biotoxic and Chemical Warfare Global Thermonuclear War
You may be thinking that Lightman should have realized his mistake at this point. You could be right. The problem is, back then and even today, games with names like Global Thermonuclear War, or similar, are commonplace and are named such to attract attention from potential customers. Lightman just assumes these are the “real man’s” games and proceeds with asking to play Global Thermonuclear War.
This is where WOPR stops him dead in his tracks.
Without a login and password, Lightman is not going to be seeing what Global Thermonuclear War is like. Oh boy does he not realize what he is in for here.
Relying on some fellow hacker friends, Lightman gets a tip about backdoor access into the computer based on the name of the first game on the list - Falken’s Maze.
Lightman searches out Falken and discovers that his first name is Stephen, he had a son that died, and he was a dedicated researcher in the field of artificial intelligence.
Using this information, Lightman eventually gains access to WOPR, though he does not know anything more about the computer he is interacting with past the games available, particularly the one he chose to play, Global Thermonuclear War.
While this is going on, things at NORAD, where WOPR is located, are absolutely bat crap crazy. The government sees this as an attack from Russia (the side that Lightman is playing in his “game”) and they are attempting to react accordingly while figuring out why early warning systems failed (technically they did not fail, there was nothing physical in the air to report).
Before I end this portion of the review I feel confident in saying that Lightman is arrested by the FBI and in a gross negligence of protocol taken to NORAD and he realizes the brevity of his activity.
Now, to properly enjoy Wargames, you are going to have to suspend your computer knowledge. There was no Windows back then. Everything was pretty much done by typing commands into the computer, similar to how Lightman interacts with WOPR. Also, there was no Facebook, or other social media, back then so there was no way for him to simply message the hackers or get alerted to the FBI coming after him. Also, yes, parents were like that back then, there was no crying at school and getting your parents in trouble for telling you to get down there right then to handle the trash situation that your lack of doing your chores caused. It was a different time.
I still love Wargames. It is a fun movie to just zone out with and enjoy the ride. Something like the first couple Terminator movies but with less explosions and violence. Just ignore that Dead Code crap movie.
You can enjoy Wargames on various movie services via Roku. Vudu is where I watched it, free with ads. If you prefer to own a copy, check eBay
