WarGames
| WarGames | |
|---|---|
 WarGames theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | John Badham Martin Brest[1] |
| Written by | Lawrence Lasker Walter F. Parkes |
| Produced by | Harold Schneider |
| Starring | Matthew Broderick Ally Sheedy John Wood |
| Cinematography | William A. Fraker |
| Edited by | Tom Rolf |
| Music by | Arthur B. Rubinstein |
| Distributed by | MGM/UA Entertainment Co. |
Release date | June 3 1983 (USA) |
Running time | 114 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $12,000,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | $74,000,000 (estimated) |
- This article is about the 1983 US movie. For other uses see War Games.
WarGames is a 1983 suspense film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. With Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman and Barry Corbin as General Jack Beringer, the film starred Matthew Broderick in his second major film role.
The movie was a box office success, costing US$12 million but grossing over $74 million after five months in the United States. With a cost of $1 million, the NORAD set was the most expensive single movie set ever built up to that time[2] (the set of the volcano lair in You Only Live Twice cost just over $1 million[3], but both these figures are approximate).
In November 2006, the pre-production of a sequel, titled WarGames 2: The Dead Code,[4] began. It will be directed by Stuart Gillard, and star Matt Lanter as a hacker named Will Farmer facing off with a government supercomputer called Ripley.[5]
Plot
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (October 2007) |
The film is set late in the Cold War period, opening on a U.S. Air Force ICBM launch control center where its crew receives orders to launch nuclear missiles at the Soviet Union; when the crew commander (played by John Spencer) refuses to launch their missiles, this is revealed to be part of a larger psychological experiment by the military, testing whether U.S. missile crews would do the same in the event of a real nuclear attack. It is mentioned that twenty-two percent of crews tested failed to launch their missiles, prompting NORAD to install an automated computer system, the "War Operation Plan Response" or WOPR, to oversee launching of U.S. nuclear missiles.
The film's protagonist, David Lightman (Matthew Broderick), is introduced as a high school computer hacker, whose gaming addiction leads to low school performance, which he covers up by illicitly accessing the school's computer database and manually adjusting his reported grades. To impress a girl he has a crush on, Jennifer (Ally Sheedy), he changes one of her grades as well, but she has him restore it. While performing an automated telephone search in an attempt to locate and hack into a computer game company, David uncovers a connection to the WOPR, although without a password, he is unable to gain access to anything more than a list of games. He assumes that this is the game company's computer, and starts digging for the password.
After consulting with a friend at a computer shop and being advised of backdoor passwords, David researches the system's programmer, Stephen W. Falken, learning that the scientist designed computer systems for the military. After studying the late Falken's biography, David is able to successfully log in to the WOPR system using the name of Falken's son, "Joshua" who died at a young age. David instructs the system to execute a game called "Global Thermonuclear War", chooses to play the side of the Soviet Union, and aims virtual missiles at American cities, unaware that the WOPR's simulations of the attack have prompted a DEFCON 3 alert at NORAD HQ.
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| Dialogue between David and WOPR |
When David learns about a brief alert at NORAD HQ through local news, he assumes he will be held responsible and begins disposing of the study materials he collected about Falken; the WOPR (now addressing itself as "Joshua") phones back, informing David that the "game" is still in progress and it is still trying to "win". David is soon arrested, taken to Cheyenne Mountain, introduced to John McKittrick (once an assistant to Professor Falken), and questioned, as the military believes he may have been recruited by the Soviet KGB. When David is later discovered using McKittrick's terminal to have a conversation with "Joshua" he is accused of espionage and confined to the base's medical infirmary -- although David is able to concoct a means of escape and blends in with a tourist group leaving the facility. From Joshua, he learned that Professor Falken is alive and living under an assumed name in Goose Island, Oregon.
After putting some distance between himself and Cheyenne Mountain, David phones Jennifer and they rendezvous near Goose Island to locate Falken. Though initially rebuffed, they talk with him about "Joshua". Falken reveals that the WOPR "never learned the most important lesson of all -- futility" (citing the game of Tic-tac-toe as an example), and that a nuclear war between the U.S. and Soviet Union may be inevitable. The cynical professor eventually decides to help stop the "game", and travels back to NORAD HQ with David and Jennifer even as Air Force personnel, reacting to the supposed Soviet activity, are locking down the base in preparation for World War III. Falken tries to convince General Beringer (never a big supporter of the WOPR) that the Soviet "activity," including nuclear missile launches, is only a computer simulation. Deciding against an immediate counterstrike, the general brings online three northern Air Force bases that are first in line for destruction.
As the countdown reaches zero, the display board shows detonations in Alaska, Maine and North Dakota. NORAD asks, "Are you still on?" and an uncomfortable silence follows, while more impacts are registered. The question is asked again, and replies come back. There's been no nuclear strike, and the order is given to stand down the missiles and recall the bombers, which had been readied to attack the Soviet Union.
They quickly discover, however, that their own security has locked them out of the missile control systems and, assuming their failure to launch their missiles as a Soviet undermining of command authority, is executing a brute-force attack on the missile launch code to perform a nuclear counterstrike itself. NORAD staff calculate that it would take longer to disconnect the U.S. missiles than it would for the WOPR to determine the missiles' launch code, and that attempting to shut off the WOPR directly would cause the now-computer-controlled U.S. missile silos to assume a destruction of NORAD HQ and launch automatically. Falken and David discover that they are unable to log back in to the system (the 'backdoor' password was removed), but they are able to play a game of tic-tac-toe against the machine, and then instruct the WOPR to play tic-tac-toe against itself. The WOPR enters a loop even as it finishes deciphering the missile launch codes, as each game of tic-tac-toe ends in a tie, "Winner: None".
With the missile launch codes discovered, WOPR displays a U.S. first strike of missiles, but one that is so quick that it's clearly a simulation. As losses are computed for both U.S. and Soviet sides, the computer reaches the same conclusion it did for the tic-tac-toe games, "Winner: None". It then calculates alternative scenarios leading to nuclear missile strikes, entering another loop as each scenario plays out the same—all ending in nuclear strikes, destruction of both sides, and no 'winner'. After calculating hundreds of scenarios at an increasingly rapid pace, the WOPR ceases simulations, displaying a message on screen as it labels the simulations as "a strange game" where "the only winning move ... is not to play". The base crew rejoices as the WOPR suggests "a nice game of chess" to play instead. At movie's end, General Berringer gives the order, "Take us to DefCon 5."
Cultural background
 | This section possibly contains original research. (May 2007) |
WarGames was a "What if?" story that wove together at least four different ideas drawn from contemporary events in the early 1980s, although some events may have been more coincidental than inspirational[citation needed]. In 1980, there had been two incidents where a computer at NORAD had triggered false alarms of a missile attack. The early 1980s were the height of the Golden age of arcade games. By 1983, teenage hackers, such as the 414s in Milwaukee, were using modems to break into computer systems across America, and were attracting the interest of mainstream media. Finally, fears of nuclear war and an exchange of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) with the Soviet Union were especially high (The Day After was broadcast later in the year).
WarGames was released on the American scene during the time of the personal computer explosion. Early personal computers were being used by young programmers and gamers across the country. The movie proved popular because many kids saw themselves in the character of David Lightman (or his would-be girlfriend). The film showed the possibilities of computers as home entertainment. The movie motivated some young programmers to write BASIC programs that simulated the WarGames movie. "Greetings Professor Falken," spoken in the vocoder "voice" of Joshua/WOPR was a catch-phrase for fans of the film.
Cast
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The popular '80s video game, Galaga, is used in the movie several times. In fact, when the tour group is being shown around Crystal Palace and the lady is asked to push the "red" button by the tour leader, the sound bite that accompanies the "welcome" message displayed on the big screen is a sound bite from the arcade game Galaga.
Awards
WarGames was nominated for three Oscars:
- Cinematography: William A. Fraker
- Sound: Michael J. Kohut, Carlos de Larios, Aaron Rochin, Willie D. Burton
- Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen): Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes
References
- ^ http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:82954~T1
- ^ WarGames trivia from the Internet Movie Database
- ^ You Only Live Twice trivia from the IMDb
- ^ WarGames 2 at IMDb
- ^ "WarGames 2 Casting". Stax. IGN. Retrieved 2006-11-09.
See also
- War dialing, a brute-force attack named after the film
- Defcon , a computer game by Introversion Software inspired by the film
- WarGames, an RTS for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation, inspired by the film
- IMSAI 8080, the computer David Lightman uses to wardial and discover the WOPR
External links
