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 or Amazon for a deal.

This post contains spoilers. This is not a review but more of a mini-analysis. I assume you’ve seen the movie. This is just my interpretation. You can watch the trailer at the end of this post.

WIth all the talk of nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula and both America and Russia making competing claims to greatness again, I thought it was time to revisit the 80's classic Wargames. The film is directed by John Badham and stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, Ally Sheedy and Eddie Deezen. Does it hold up? Technologically it's quite dated. Even the supercomputers look old fashioned. Our phones are many times more powerful than the graphically challenged personal computer that kids were in awe of in the early 80s. Teenagers today would not know about modems that dialed over telephone lines and so must be utterly confused by a modem that literally speaks and listens through a phone's handset. Thematically, it seems spot on for today. It's just that there are now more sophisticated hackers than the high school kid in this film. It also gets rather slow through the second half. Perhaps only a younger me was able to appreciate the adventure aspect of teenagers going against ignorant set-in-their ways adults to solve an international crisis.

The Plot

Thoughts on the Film

The film starts with a secret underground Air Force base located under a house. We are introduced to what was then considered a high tech base. It has a look similar to the interior of a spaceship, a look common in a time of fictional space operas and real-life space shuttles. The opening scene demonstrates the difficult authorization procedures required before launching a nuclear missile. Some humanity is displayed by one man who disobeys orders to turn his key and launch the missiles. This was of course a test. Reluctance is natural. That officers are more concerned that a soldier obeys a launch order than they are worried about a nuclear launch made in error. This sets up the main premise, that computers should take the place of humans as computers would not have a conscience that prevents them from talking action. It only takes a teenage hacker to accidentally cause the computer AI to attempt a nuclear strike to win a game.

Movies have taught audiences to fear artificial intelligence, from HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey to Skynet in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as well as in the terrifying conclusion to A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Similarly, this film presents an early version of an AI that appeals to human emotions with a robotic voice, but is in essence a cold sociopathic killer. Pure reason can lead to fearful conclusions that render humans just a nuisance, eventually obsolete.

For films of this time period, David is an unusual depiction of a computer expert. He is a class clown and fails classes at school. His first demonstration of hacking involves breaking into the school computers to change his grades. It's not any display of hacking ability. He merely steals the password from the principal's desk drawer. This scene is copied in a later movie of his, when his title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off also hacks into a school computer, but this time to change his attendance record.

There is a clear divide between youth and adults in the film. The old are the government officials who are willing to destroy the earth. The young are those who stand to inherit nothing but disaster. The divide extends to their teachers and parents. David and his girlfriend Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) refer to a 41-year old as being pretty old. The film is firmly seeking a teenage audience. I loved this as a kid. It's still good, but I'm not relating to the main characters anymore.

There is some talk of a plan to remake the film. Perhaps it makes sense given the present heightened security state we live in. Will people complain that a remake is destroying their childhood? Nobody should be nostalgic for cold war nuclear scares. They already attempted cold war nostalgia with a Red Dawn remake. Perhaps some people loved the superpower rivalry and fantasized about taking up guns to fight off invading communists. But Wargames is in contrast to this in seeking to prevent war rather than trying to win an unwinnable game.The 80s was in many ways a horrible time to grow up in, terrified that at any moment bombs would drop. I remember my 6th grade teacher telling me that the Russians had nukes aimed a couple blocks from our school because that would enable the bomb to take out both Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

Although the film is slightly dated and about a half hour too long, it is worth watching for its depiction of the years near the end of the cold war. Perhaps because this was the time in which I grew up, it has a very specific memory of the fears of world destruction. I was too young to really understand what it meant. I hope we aren't getting back into such a mentality.