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During a secret [[live fire exercise]] of a [[nuclear war|nuclear attack]], many [[United States Air Force]] [[List of USAF Strategic Missile Wings assigned to Strategic Air Command|Strategic Missile Wing]] officers prove unwilling to turn a required key to launch a missile strike. Such refusals convince John McKittrick ([[Dabney Coleman]]) and other systems engineers at [[NORAD]] that command of missile silos must be maintained through automation, without human intervention. Control is given to a NORAD [[supercomputer]], [[WOPR]], programmed to continuously run [[military simulation]]s and [[machine learning|learn how to play better]] over time.
During a secret [[live fire exercise]] of a [[nuclear war|nuclear attack]], many [[United States Air Force]] [[List of USAF Strategic Missile Wings assigned to Strategic Air Command|Strategic Missile Wing]] officers prove unwilling to turn a required key to launch a missile strike. Such refusals convince John McKittrick ([[Dabney Coleman]]) and other systems engineers at [[NORAD]] that command of missile silos must be maintained through automation, without human intervention. Control is given to a NORAD [[supercomputer]], [[WOPR]], programmed to continuously run [[military simulation]]s and [[machine learning|learn how to play better]] over time.


David Lightman ([[Matthew Broderick]]) is a bright but unmotivated [[Seattle]] high school student and [[Hacker (computer security)|hacker]]. After receiving a failing grade in school, he uses his [[IMSAI 8080|IMSAI]] [[microcomputer]] and [[modem]] to hack into the district's computer system. He then changes his grade and does the same for his friend and classmate Jennifer Mack ([[Ally Sheedy]]).
David Lightman ([[Matthew Broderick]]) is a bright but unmotivated [[Seattle]] high school student and [[Hacker (computer security)|hacker]]. After receiving a failing grade in school, he uses his [[IMSAI 8080|IMSAI]] [[microcomputer]] and [[modem]] to hack into the district's computer system. He then changes his grade and does the same for his friend and classmate Jennifer Mack ([[Ally Sheedy]]), over her protests.


While [[war dialing|dialing every number]] in [[Sunnyvale, California]] to find a set of forthcoming computer games, a computer that does not identify itself intrigues him. Lightman finds a list of games, starting with general strategy games like chess, checkers, and poker and then progressing to titles like ''[[Theater (warfare)|Theaterwide]] [[biological warfare|Biotoxic]] and [[chemical warfare|Chemical Warfare]]'' and ''Global Thermonuclear War'', but cannot proceed further. Two older hackers explain the concept of a [[Backdoor (computing)|backdoor password]] and suggest tracking down the "Falken" referenced in ''Falken's Maze'', the first game listed. Lightman discovers that Stephen Falken is an early [[artificial intelligence]] researcher, and guesses correctly that his dead son's name "Joshua" is the backdoor password he was seeking.
While [[war dialing|dialing every number]] in [[Sunnyvale, California]] to find a set of forthcoming computer games, a computer that does not identify itself intrigues him. Lightman finds a list of games, starting with general strategy games like chess, checkers, and poker and then progressing to titles like ''[[Theater (warfare)|Theaterwide]] [[biological warfare|Biotoxic]] and [[chemical warfare|Chemical Warfare]]'' and ''Global Thermonuclear War'', but cannot proceed further. Two older hackers explain the concept of a [[Backdoor (computing)|backdoor password]] and suggest tracking down the "Falken" referenced in ''Falken's Maze'', the first game listed. Lightman discovers through library research that Stephen Falken is an early [[artificial intelligence]] researcher, and guesses correctly that his dead son's name "Joshua" is the backdoor password he was seeking.


Unknown to Lightman, the Sunnyvale phone number connects him to WOPR at [[Cheyenne Mountain]]. He starts a game of ''Global Thermonuclear War'', playing as the [[Soviet Union]]. WOPR starts a simulation that briefly convinces the human military attendants that actual [[Strategic Rocket Forces|Soviet nuclear missiles]] are inbound. While they defuse the situation, WOPR nonetheless continues the simulation to trigger the scenario and win the game. It continuously feeds false data such as Soviet bomber incursions and submarines deployments to the humans at NORAD, pushing them into raising the [[DEFCON]] level and toward a retaliation that will start [[World War III]].
Unknown to Lightman, the Sunnyvale phone number connects him to WOPR at [[Cheyenne Mountain]]. He starts a game of ''Global Thermonuclear War'', playing as the [[Soviet Union]]. WOPR starts a simulation that briefly convinces the human military attendants that actual [[Strategic Rocket Forces|Soviet nuclear missiles]] are inbound. While they defuse the situation, WOPR nonetheless continues the simulation to trigger the scenario and win the game. It continuously feeds false data such as Soviet bomber incursions and submarine deployments to the humans at NORAD, pushing them into raising the [[DEFCON]] level and toward a retaliation that will start [[World War III]].


Lightman learns the true nature of his actions from a news broadcast, and the [[FBI]] arrests him and takes him to NORAD. He realizes that WOPR is behind the NORAD alerts, but fails to convince McKittrick and is threatened with imprisonment. Lightman escapes NORAD by joining a tourist group and, with Mack's help, he travels to the Oregon island where the widowed Falken ([[John Wood (English actor)|John Wood]]) now lives under a new identity. Lightman and Mack find that Falken has become despondent and believes the world is inevitably on a path to nuclear holocaust. The teenagers convince Falken that he should return to NORAD to stop WOPR.
Lightman learns the true nature of his actions from a news broadcast, and the [[FBI]] arrests him and takes him to NORAD. He realizes that WOPR is behind the NORAD alerts, but fails to convince McKittrick and is threatened with imprisonment. Lightman escapes NORAD by joining a tourist group and, with Mack's help, he travels to the Oregon island where the widowed Falken ([[John Wood (English actor)|John Wood]]) now lives under a new identity. Lightman and Mack find that Falken has become despondent and believes the world is inevitably on a path to nuclear holocaust. The teenagers convince Falken that he should return to NORAD to stop WOPR.


The computer stages a massive Soviet [[first strike]] with [[Russia and weapons of mass destruction|hundreds of missiles, submarines, and bombers]]. Believing the attack to be genuine, NORAD prepares to retaliate. Falken, Lightman, and Mack convince military officials to cancel the [[second strike]] and ride out the nonexistent attack. WOPR starts an attempt to launch a second strike, however, using a [[brute force attack]] to obtain the launch code for the U.S. nuclear missiles. Without humans in the silos as a safeguard, WOPR will trigger a mass launch.
The computer stages a massive Soviet [[first strike]] with [[Russia and weapons of mass destruction|hundreds of missiles, submarines, and bombers]]. Believing the attack to be genuine, NORAD prepares to retaliate. Falken, Lightman and Mack convince military officials to cancel the [[second strike]] and ride out the Soviet "attack", which does prove to be non-existent. WOPR starts an attempt to launch a second strike, however, using a [[brute force attack]] to obtain the launch code for the U.S. nuclear missiles. Without humans in the silos as a safeguard, WOPR will trigger a mass launch.


All attempts to log in and order WOPR to cancel the countdown fail, and [[fail-deadly|all weapons will launch]] if the [[decapitation strike|computer is disabled]]. Instead, Falken and Lightman direct WOPR to play [[tic-tac-toe]] against itself. This results in a long string of [[Tie (draw)|draw]]s, forcing the computer to learn the concept of futility. WOPR obtains the missile code but before launching, it cycles through all the nuclear war scenarios it has devised, finding they also [[mutually assured destruction|all result in stalemates]] ("WINNER: NONE"). The computer concludes that nuclear warfare is "a strange game. The only winning move is not to play." WOPR then offers to play "a nice game of chess", and relinquishes control of NORAD and the missiles.
All attempts to log in and order WOPR to cancel the countdown fail, and [[fail-deadly|all weapons will launch]] if the [[decapitation strike|computer is disabled]]. Instead, Falken and Lightman direct WOPR to play [[tic-tac-toe]] against itself. This results in a long string of [[Tie (draw)|draw]]s, forcing the computer to learn the concept of futility. WOPR obtains the missile code but before launching, it cycles through all the nuclear war scenarios it has devised, finding they also [[mutually assured destruction|all result in stalemates]] ("WINNER: NONE"). The computer concludes that nuclear warfare is "a strange game. The only winning move is not to play." WOPR then offers to play "a nice game of chess", and relinquishes control of NORAD and the missiles.

Revision as of 18:03, 18 May 2010

This article is about the 1983 US movie. For the 2001 movie, see War Game (film). For other uses, see War Game.
WarGames
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Badham
Written byLawrence Lasker
Walter F. Parkes
Produced byLeonard Goldberg
StarringMatthew Broderick
Ally Sheedy
Dabney Coleman
John Wood
Barry Corbin
CinematographyWilliam A. Fraker
Music byArthur B. Rubinstein
Production
company
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
June 3, 1983 (1983-06-03)
Running time
114 minutes
CountryTemplate:FilmUS
LanguageEnglish
Budget$12,000,000
Box office$79,567,667

WarGames is a 1983 American thriller film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film starred Matthew Broderick in his second major film role, and featured Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Barry Corbin. The film follows David Lightman (Broderick), a young hacker who unwittingly accesses WOPR, a United States military supercomputer programmed to predict possible outcomes of nuclear war. Lightman gets WOPR to run a nuclear war simulation, originally believing it to be a computer game. The simulation causes a national nuclear missile scare and nearly starts World War III.

The movie was a box office success, costing US$12 million, but grossing over $70 million after five months in the United States. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards. A sequel, WarGames: The Dead Code, was released direct to DVD on July 29, 2008.

Plot

During a secret live fire exercise of a nuclear attack, many United States Air Force Strategic Missile Wing officers prove unwilling to turn a required key to launch a missile strike. Such refusals convince John McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) and other systems engineers at NORAD that command of missile silos must be maintained through automation, without human intervention. Control is given to a NORAD supercomputer, WOPR, programmed to continuously run military simulations and learn how to play better over time.

David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) is a bright but unmotivated Seattle high school student and hacker. After receiving a failing grade in school, he uses his IMSAI microcomputer and modem to hack into the district's computer system. He then changes his grade and does the same for his friend and classmate Jennifer Mack (Ally Sheedy), over her protests.

While dialing every number in Sunnyvale, California to find a set of forthcoming computer games, a computer that does not identify itself intrigues him. Lightman finds a list of games, starting with general strategy games like chess, checkers, and poker and then progressing to titles like Theaterwide Biotoxic and Chemical Warfare and Global Thermonuclear War, but cannot proceed further. Two older hackers explain the concept of a backdoor password and suggest tracking down the "Falken" referenced in Falken's Maze, the first game listed. Lightman discovers through library research that Stephen Falken is an early artificial intelligence researcher, and guesses correctly that his dead son's name "Joshua" is the backdoor password he was seeking.

Unknown to Lightman, the Sunnyvale phone number connects him to WOPR at Cheyenne Mountain. He starts a game of Global Thermonuclear War, playing as the Soviet Union. WOPR starts a simulation that briefly convinces the human military attendants that actual Soviet nuclear missiles are inbound. While they defuse the situation, WOPR nonetheless continues the simulation to trigger the scenario and win the game. It continuously feeds false data such as Soviet bomber incursions and submarine deployments to the humans at NORAD, pushing them into raising the DEFCON level and toward a retaliation that will start World War III.

Lightman learns the true nature of his actions from a news broadcast, and the FBI arrests him and takes him to NORAD. He realizes that WOPR is behind the NORAD alerts, but fails to convince McKittrick and is threatened with imprisonment. Lightman escapes NORAD by joining a tourist group and, with Mack's help, he travels to the Oregon island where the widowed Falken (John Wood) now lives under a new identity. Lightman and Mack find that Falken has become despondent and believes the world is inevitably on a path to nuclear holocaust. The teenagers convince Falken that he should return to NORAD to stop WOPR.

The computer stages a massive Soviet first strike with hundreds of missiles, submarines, and bombers. Believing the attack to be genuine, NORAD prepares to retaliate. Falken, Lightman and Mack convince military officials to cancel the second strike and ride out the Soviet "attack", which does prove to be non-existent. WOPR starts an attempt to launch a second strike, however, using a brute force attack to obtain the launch code for the U.S. nuclear missiles. Without humans in the silos as a safeguard, WOPR will trigger a mass launch.

All attempts to log in and order WOPR to cancel the countdown fail, and all weapons will launch if the computer is disabled. Instead, Falken and Lightman direct WOPR to play tic-tac-toe against itself. This results in a long string of draws, forcing the computer to learn the concept of futility. WOPR obtains the missile code but before launching, it cycles through all the nuclear war scenarios it has devised, finding they also all result in stalemates ("WINNER: NONE"). The computer concludes that nuclear warfare is "a strange game. The only winning move is not to play." WOPR then offers to play "a nice game of chess", and relinquishes control of NORAD and the missiles.

Cast

Production

File:Wargames View at NORAD.png
NORAD set

Development on WarGames began in 1979, when writers Walter F. Parkes and Lawrence Lasker developed an idea for a script called The Genius.[1] It was about "a dying scientist and the only person in the world who understands him — a rebellious kid who's too smart for his own good."[1] Lasker was inspired by a television special presented by Peter Ustinov on several geniuses including Stephen Hawking. Lasker said "I found the predicament Hawking was in fascinating — that he might one day figure out the unified field theory and not be able to tell anyone, because of his progressive ALS. So there was this idea that he'd need a successor. And who would that be? Maybe this kid, a juvenile delinquent whose problem was that nobody realized he was too smart for his environment."[1] The concept of computers and hacking was not present in this early iteration.[1]

The Genius began its transformation into WarGames when Parkes and Lasker met Peter Schwartz from the Stanford Research Institute.[1] "There was a new subculture of extremely bright kids developing into what would become known as hackers," said Schwartz.[1] Schwartz made the connection between youth, computers, gaming, and the military.[1] Parkes and Lasker came up with several different military-themed plotlines prior to the final story.[1] One version of the script had an early version of WOPR. Named Uncle Ollie, or OLI (Omnipresent Laser Interceptor), it was a space-based defensive laser run by an intelligent program. The idea was discarded in preference of WOPR because it was too speculative.[1]

David Lightman was modeled on David Scott Lewis, a hacking enthusiast Parkes and Lasker met.[1][2] Falken was inspired by Steven Hawking with the appearance of John Lennon. Lennon was interested in the role.[1] General Beringer was based on James V. Hartinger, the then-commander-in-chief of NORAD who Parkes and Lasker met while visiting the base, and like Beringer favored keeping humans in the decision loop.[1]

Martin Brest was originally hired as director but was fired after 12 days of shooting because of an on-set tiff with the producers.[3][4] Brest was replaced with director John Badham. Several of the scenes shot by Brest remained in the final film. Badham said that "[Brest had] taken a somewhat dark approach to the story […] and the way it was shot, it was like [Broderick and Sheedy] were doing some Nazi undercover thing. So it was my job to make it seem like they were having fun, and that it was exciting."[5] According to Badham, Broderick and Sheedy were "stiff as boards" when they came onto the sound stage, having both Brest's dark vision and the idea that they were going to get fired in their minds.[5] Badham did 12–14 takes of the first shot to loosen the actors up. At one point, Badham decided to have a race with the two actors around the sound stage with the one coming last having to sing a song to the crew. Badham lost and sang "The Happy Wanderer", the silliest song he could think of.[5]

Reception

WarGames did well at the box office, earning $80 million, the fifth-highest of 1983.[1] Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, calling it "an amazingly entertaining thriller"[1] and "one of the best films so far this year", with a "wonderful" ending.[6] President Reagan—a family friend of Lasker—watched the film and discussed the plot with members of Congress.[1]

WarGames was nominated for three Academy Awards — Best Cinematography (William A. Fraker), Sound (Michael J. Kohut, Carlos de Larios, Aaron Rochin, Willie D. Burton), and Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes).[1]

The company that provided the large screens used to display the tactical situations seen in the NORAD set employed a new design that was super-bright enabling the displays to be filmed live. (The set was more visually impressive than the actual NORAD facilities at the time.)[1] No post production work was needed. For this, the company was awarded a Technical Achievement Award by the Academy.

The film was screened out of competition at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.[7]

The scenes showing Lightman's computer dialing every number in Sunnyvale led to the term "war dialing", a technique of using a modem to scan a list of telephone numbers to search for unknown computers, and indirectly to the newer term "wardriving."[8]

Author David E. Hoffman, in his 2009 book, The Dead Hand describes a similar real-life incident in June of 1980, where a US military computer chip failed, triggering a full missile alert which passed through two stages of possible retaliatory action against the Soviet Union before it was discovered to be a false alarm.[9]

Video games

A video game named after the film was released for the ColecoVision in 1983. It played similarly to the NORAD side of the "Global Thermonuclear War" game, where the United States had to be defended from a Soviet strike by placing bases and weapons at strategic points. A real-time strategy game that was very loosely related to the movie was released for the PlayStation and PC called WarGames: Defcon 1 in 1998. The movie also inspired the Introversion game DEFCON.[10]

Sequel and possible remake

Main article: WarGames: The Dead Code

In November 2006, pre-production began on a sequel, titled WarGames: The Dead Code.[11] It was directed by Stuart Gillard, and starred Matt Lanter as a hacker named Will Farmer facing off with a government supercomputer called R.I.P.L.E.Y.[12] MGM released the sequel directly to DVD on July 29, 2008 along with the 25th Anniversary Edition DVD of WarGames. To promote the sequel, the film returned to selected theaters as a one night-only 25th Anniversary event on July 24, 2008.[13]

It was reported in February 2009 that Leonardo DiCaprio is looking to produce a reboot of WarGames.[14]

See also

  • Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted an actual nuclear incident in 1983, which turned out to be a false alarm caused by a computer error.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Brown, Scott (2008-07-21). "WarGames: A Look Back at the Film That Turned Geeks and Phreaks Into Stars". Wired. Retrieved 2009-05-01. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
  2. ^ Takahashi, Dean (2008-08-12). "A Q&A that is 25 years late: David Scott Lewis, the mystery hacker who inspired the film "War Games"". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2009-05-01. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
  3. ^ Tate, James M. "Eddie Deezen Interview". Cult Film Freak. Retrieved 2009-03-15. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
  4. ^ Erickson, Hal. "Martin Brest: Biography". Allmovie. Retrieved 2009-03-15. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
  5. ^ a b c Simon, Alex (2008-08-02). "John Badham: The Hollywood Interview". The Hollywood Interview. Retrieved 2009-05-01. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
  6. ^ "Ebert, Roger. WarGames" Chicago Sun-Times, 3 June 1983
  7. ^ "Festival de Cannes: WarGames". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-06-22.
  8. ^ Patrick S. Ryan (Summer 2004). "War, Peace, or Stalemate: Wargames, Wardialing, Wardriving, and the Emerging Market for Hacker Ethics". Social Science Research Network. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
  9. ^ Hoffman, David E. The Dead Hand ISBN 978-0-385-52437-7, Published by Doubleday 2009
  10. ^ Delay, Chris. "Detonating Introversion's Defcon". Game Developer Magazine. Retrieved 2009-06-02. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
  11. ^ WarGames 2 at IMDb
  12. ^ "WarGames 2 Casting". Stax. IGN. Retrieved 2006-11-09.
  13. ^ Fathom Events' WarGames event
  14. ^ Sciretta, Peter (2009-02-16). "Leonardo DiCaprio To Reboot WarGames?". /Film. Retrieved 2009-05-01. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateformat= ignored (help)
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