WarGames

WarGames is a 1983 American Cold War science fiction film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy. The film follows David Lightman (Broderick), a young hacker who unwittingly accesses War Operation Plan Response (WOPR), a United States military supercomputer originally programmed to predict possible outcomes of nuclear war. Lightman gets WOPR to run a nuclear war simulation, believing it to be a computer game. The computer, now tied into the nuclear weapons control system and unable to tell the difference between simulation and reality, attempts to start World War III.

This article is about the 1983 film. For the 2001 film, see War Game (film). For other uses, see War Game (disambiguation).

WarGames
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Badham
Produced by
Written by
Starring
Music byArthur B. Rubinstein
CinematographyWilliam A. Fraker
Edited byTom Rolf
Production
company
United Artists
Sherwood Productions
Distributed byMGM/UA Entertainment Company
Release date
  • May 7, 1983 (1983-05-07) (Cannes)
  • June 3, 1983 (1983-06-03) (United States)
Running time
114 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$12 million
Box office$79.6 million

The film was a box-office success, costing $12 million and grossing $79 million, after five months, in the United States and Canada. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards. A sequel, WarGames: The Dead Code, was released direct-to-video in 2008.

Plot

During a surprise drill of a nuclear attack, many United States Air Force Strategic Missile Wing controllers prove unwilling to turn the key required to launch a missile strike. Such refusals convince John McKittrick and other systems engineers at NORAD that missile launch control centers must be automated, without human intervention. Control is given to a NORAD supercomputer known as WOPR, programmed to continuously run war simulations and learn over time.

David Lightman, a bright but unmotivated Seattle high school student and hacker, uses his IMSAI 8080 computer to break into the school district's computer system and change his grades. He does the same for his friend and classmate Jennifer Mack. Later, while war dialing numbers in Sunnyvale, California, to find a computer game company, he connects with a system that does not identify itself. Asking for games, he finds a list that starts with chess, checkers, backgammon, and poker, as well as titles such as "Theaterwide Biotoxic and Chemical Warfare" and "Global Thermonuclear War", but cannot proceed further. Two hacker friends explain the concept of a backdoor password and suggest tracking down the Falken referenced in "Falken's Maze", the first game listed. David discovers that Stephen Falken was an early artificial-intelligence researcher, and David guesses correctly that Falken's dead son's name (Joshua) is the password.

David does not know that the Sunnyvale phone number connects to WOPR at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. He starts a game of Global Thermonuclear War, playing as the Soviet Union and starts targeting American cities. The computer starts a simulation that briefly convinces the military personnel at NORAD 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, as it does not understand the difference between reality and simulation. It continuously feeds false data such as Soviet bomber incursions and submarine deployments to NORAD, pushing them into increasing the DEFCON level and toward a retaliation that will start World War III.

David learns the true nature of his actions from a news broadcast, and FBI special agents arrest him and take him to NORAD. He realizes that WOPR is behind the NORAD alerts, but because he fails to convince McKittrick, who suspects David is working for the Soviets, he faces espionage charges. David escapes NORAD by joining a tourist group, and with Jennifer's help, travels to the Oregon island where Falken lives. David and Jennifer find that Falken has become despondent and believes that nuclear war is inevitable, and that it is as futile as a game of tic-tac-toe between two experienced players. The teenagers convince Falken that he should return to NORAD to stop WOPR.

WOPR stages a massive Soviet first strike with hundreds of missiles, submarines, and bombers. Believing the attack to be genuine, NORAD prepares to retaliate. Falken, David, and Jennifer convince military officials to cancel the second strike and ride out the attack. WOPR tries to launch the missiles itself using a brute-force attack to obtain the launch codes. Without humans in the control centers as a safeguard, the computer will trigger a mass launch. All attempts to log in and order WOPR to cancel the countdown fail. Disconnecting the computer is discussed and dismissed, as a failsafe will launch all weapons if the computer is disabled.

Falken and David direct the computer to play tic-tac-toe against itself. This results in a long string of draws, forcing the computer to learn the concept of futility and no-win scenarios. WOPR obtains the launch codes, but before launching, it cycles through all the nuclear war scenarios it has devised, finding that they all result in draws as well. Having discovered the concept of mutual assured destruction ("WINNER: NONE"), the computer tells Falken that it has concluded that nuclear war is "a strange game" in which "the only winning move is not to play." WOPR relinquishes control of NORAD and the missiles and offers to play "a nice game of chess."

Cast

Production

Development

Development on WarGames began in 1979, when writers Walter F. Parkes and Lawrence Lasker developed an idea for a script called The Genius, 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." 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." The concept of computers and hacking as part of the film was not yet present.[1]

The Genius began its transformation into WarGames when Parkes and Lasker met Peter Schwartz from the Stanford Research Institute. "There was a new subculture of extremely bright kids developing into what would become known as hackers," said Schwartz. Schwartz made the connection between youth, computers, gaming, and the military.[1] Parkes and Lasker also met with computer-security expert Willis Ware of RAND Corporation, who assured them that even a secure military computer might have remote access so users could work from home on weekends, encouraging the screenwriters to continue with the project.[2]

Parkes and Lasker came up with several different military-themed plotlines prior to the final story. One version of the script had an early version of WOPR named "Uncle Ollie", or Omnipresent Laser Interceptor (OLI), a space-based defensive laser run by an intelligent program, but this idea was discarded because it was too speculative.[1] Director John Badham coined the name "WOPR", feeling that the name of NORAD's Single Integrated Operational Plan was "boring, and told you nothing".[3] The name "WOPR" played off the Whopper hamburger, and a general sense of something going "whop".[3]

The WOPR computer as seen in the film was a prop created in Culver City, California, by members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 44.[4] It was designed by production designer (credited as visual consultant) Geoffrey Kirkland based on some pictures he had of early tabulating machines, and metal furniture, consoles, and cabinets used particularly in the U.S. military in the 1940s and '50s. They were adapted in drawings and concepts by art director Angelo P. Graham. WOPR was operated by a crewmember sitting inside the computer, entering commands into an Apple II at the director's instruction.[4] The prop was broken up for scrap after production was completed. A replica was built for a 2006 AT&T commercial.[5]

David Lightman was modeled on David Scott Lewis, a hacking enthusiast Parkes and Lasker met.[1][6] Falken was inspired by and named after Stephen Hawking, with the appearance of John Lennon, who was interested in the role, but was murdered in New York while the script was in development. General Beringer was based on General James V. Hartinger (USAF) the then-commander-in-chief of NORAD, whom Parkes and Lasker met while visiting the base, and who, like Beringer, favored keeping humans in the decision loop.[1]

Filming

Martin Brest was originally hired as director, but was fired after 12 days of shooting because of a disagreement with the producers,[7] and replaced with John Badham. Several of the scenes shot by Brest remain 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." 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 would soon be fired. Badham did 12 to 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 who came last having to sing a song to the crew. Badham lost and sang "The Happy Wanderer", the silliest song he could think of.[8] He invited what Wired described as "a small army of computer whizzes on set" to advise on accuracy.[1]

Tom Mankiewicz says he wrote some additional scenes during shooting that were used.[9]

Release

WarGames did well at the North American box office, earning $79,567,667, the fifth-highest of 1983.[1][10] The film was screened out of competition at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.[11]

Reception

Critical response

Reviews for the film were generally positive. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, calling it "an amazingly entertaining thriller" and "one of the best films so far this year", with a "wonderful" ending.[12] Softline described the film as being "completely original"; unlike other computer-related films like Tron that "could (and do) exist in substantially the same form with some other plot", WarGames "could not exist if the microcomputer did not exist ... It takes the micro and telecommunications as a given—part of the middle-class American landscape". The magazine praised the film as "Very funny, excruciatingly suspenseful, and endlessly inventive, this movie is right on the mark; authentic even when highly improbable".[13] Computer Gaming World stated that "Wargames is plausible enough to intrigue and terrifying enough to excite ... [it] makes one think, as well as feel, all the way", raised several moral questions about technology and society, and recommended the film to "Computer hobbyists of all kinds".[14] Leonard Maltin gave it a mixed review calling it "Fail Safe for the Pac-Man Generation" and "Entertaining to a point". He concluded, "Incidentally, it's easy to see why this was so popular with kids: most of the adults in the film are boobs."[15]

Christopher John reviewed War Games in Ares Magazine #15 and commented that "The movie cloaked itself in a standard message, but then set out to take something we have seen many times before and retell it in a new, interesting fashion. War Games is highly entertaining, fast-moving, colorful, and mentally stimulating."[16]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 93% based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 7.63/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Part delightfully tense techno-thriller, part refreshingly unpatronizing teen drama, WarGames is one of the more inventive—and genuinely suspenseful—Cold War movies of the 1980s."[17] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[18]

Accolades

WarGames was nominated for three Academy Awards – Best Cinematography (William A. Fraker), Sound (Michael J. Kohut, Carlos Delarios, Aaron Rochin, Willie D. Burton), and Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes).[1][19] 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] The animations seen on the NORAD displays, produced by Colin Cantwell, were created using Hewlett Packard HP 9845C computers driving monochrome HP 1345A vector displays, which were still-filmed through successive color-filters. Each frame took approximately one minute to produce, and 50,000 feet of negatives were produced over seven months. The animations were projected "live" onto the screens from behind using 16-mm film, so they were visible to the actors and no post-production work was needed.[20] For this, the company was awarded an Academy Scientific and Technical Award.

Influence

WarGames was the first mass-consumed, visual representation of dial-up, remote computer access and it served as both a vehicle and framework for America's earliest discussion of the technology. In the wake of the film, major news media focused on the potential for the "WarGames scenario" to exist in reality. This focus contributed to the creation of the first U.S. federal internet policy, the Counterfeit Access Device and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984.[21]

Bulletin board system (BBS) operators reported an unusual rise in activity in 1984, which at least one sysop attributed to WarGames introducing viewers to modems.[22] The scenes showing Lightman's computer dialing every number in Sunnyvale led to the term "war dialing" (earlier known as "demon 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".[23]

President Reagan, a family friend of Lasker's, watched the film and discussed the plot with members of Congress,[1] his advisers, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Reagan's interest in the film is credited with leading to the enactment 18 months later of NSDD-145, the first Presidential directive on computer security.[2]

Video games

A video game, WarGames, was released for the ColecoVision in 1983 and ported to the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64 in 1984. 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. WarGames: Defcon 1, a real-time strategy game that was only loosely related to the film, was released for the PlayStation and PC in 1998. A tile-matching video game, "WarGames: WOPR", was released for iOS and Android devices in 2012.[24][25]

A game inspired by the film, called "Computer War" from Thorn EMI, in which the player must track and shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as crack a computer code, was released for the Atari 8-bit family, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, and Commodore VIC-20.

The film also inspired the Introversion game "DEFCON" (2006).[26]

Soundtrack

The film's music was composed and conducted by Arthur B. Rubinstein. A soundtrack album including songs and dialogue excerpts was released by Polydor Records. Intrada Records issued an expanded release in 2008 with the complete score, with expanded horn sections and without the film dialogue. In 2018, Quartet Records issued a 35th anniversary expanded 2-CD edition containing the score as presented in the film, and the 1983 Polydor album on disc 2.[27]

WarGames (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)[28] (The Beepers ("Video Fever" and "History Lesson"): Brian Banks, Anthony Marinelli, Cynthia Morrow and Arthur B. Rubinstein)

WarGames[29] (Special Collection release limited to 2500 copies. Expanded brass including extra trumpets, trombones, and baritone horns.[30])

  • Released: 1983 (2008)[29]
  • Format: LP/2 disk CD
  • Label: Intrada Special Collection Volume ISC 65
  • Writer: Arthur B. Rubinstein
  • Bonus tracks: "Two" Bonus Track Time = 3:39 – Total Score Time = 65:49 – Total Time: 69:18

Sequel
Main article: WarGames: The Dead Code

In November 2006, preproduction began on a sequel, titled WarGames: The Dead Code. It was directed by Stuart Gillard, and starred Matt Lanter as a hacker named Will Farmer facing off with a government supercomputer called RIPLEY.[31] 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.[32]

Interactive series
Main article: WarGames (interactive media)

An interactive media reboot of WarGames was announced by MGM in 2015, with Interlude serving as its co-production company. The project was described as an "audience-driven story experience", with anticipated launch in 2016.[33] In March 2016, Sam Barlow announced he has joined Interlude and would be serving as a creative lead in the series, based on his work from his video game, "Her Story", which required the player to piece together a mystery based on a series of video clips.[34] Interlude rebranded itself as Eko in December 2016, and by December 2017, slated the release of their WarGames series for early 2018.[35][36]

gollark: Yes, but nobody will bother to do it for you.
gollark: it's pretty much all-round better.
gollark: <@237328509234708481> Why not just make it the default in CCT?
gollark: Mildly Bētter Shell by Sqūid.
gollark: Yep.

See also

References
  1. Brown, Scott (July 21, 2008). "WarGames: A Look Back at the Film That Turned Geeks and Phreaks Into Stars". Wired. Archived from the original on July 12, 2011. Retrieved May 1, 2009.
  2. Kaplan, Fred (February 21, 2016). "Cybersecurity's Debt to a Hollywood Hack". The New York Times. pp. AR24. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
  3. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer "WarGames 25th Anniversary Edition DVD"
  4. Mike Fink (March 5, 2006). "What happened to the WOPR?". The Wargames IMSAI. Retrieved March 27, 2009.
  5. "New Page 1". imsai.net.
  6. Takahashi, Dean (August 12, 2008). "A Q&A that is 25 years late: David Scott Lewis, the mystery hacker who inspired the film "War Games"". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on June 2, 2011. Retrieved May 1, 2009.
  7. Erickson, Hal. "Martin Brest: Biography". Allmovie. Retrieved March 15, 2009.
  8. Simon, Alex (August 2, 2008). "John Badham: The Hollywood Interview". The Hollywood Interview. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved May 1, 2009.
  9. Mankiewicz, Tom (2012). My Life as a Mankiewicz: An Insider's Journey Through Hollywood. with Robert Crane. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 253–254.
  10. "WarGames (1983)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  11. "Festival de Cannes: WarGames". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved June 22, 2009.
  12. Ebert, Roger (June 3, 1983). "WarGames review". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on July 1, 2010. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  13. "Games at War". Softline. July–August 1983. pp. 31–32. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  14. Wilson, Dr. Johnny L. (July–August 1983). "Movie Micro Review / "WarGames"". Computer Gaming World. p. 43. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
  15. Maltin, Leonard. "23. WarGames (1983)". Leonard Maltin's Worst Ratings. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  16. John, Christopher (Fall 1983). "Film". Ares Magazine. TSR, Inc. (15): 11–12.
  17. "WarGames (War Games) (1983)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  18. "WarGames Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 6, 2018.
  19. "The 56th Academy Awards (1984) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved October 9, 2011.
  20. "Screen Art: War Games". hp9845.net.
  21. Schulte, Stephanie (November 2008). "The WarGames Scenario: Regulating Teenagers and Teenaged Technology". Television and New Media. 9 (6): 487–513. doi:10.1177/1527476408323345.
  22. Yakal, Kathy (November 1984). "Bulletin Board Fever". Compute!'s Gazette. p. 16. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
  23. Ryan, Patrick S. (Summer 2004). "War, Peace, or Stalemate: Wargames, Wardialing, Wardriving, and the Emerging Market for Hacker Ethics". Virginia Journal of Law & Technology. 9 (7). SSRN 585867.
  24. "WarGames: WOPR for iOS".
  25. "WarGames: WOPR for Android".
  26. Delay, Chris. "Detonating Introversion's Defcon". Game Developer Magazine. Archived from the original on June 30, 2010. Retrieved June 2, 2009.
  27. http://www.quartetrecords.com/wargames-2-cd.html
  28. Rubinstein, Arthur B. (1983). WarGames (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Album notes). Artist. Los Angeles and New York: United Artists / Polydor Records. p. 2. 422-815 005-1 Y-1.
  29. Editorial Review (2008). "WarGames". FilmTracks. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved May 29, 2015. Overall, WarGames is among Rubenstein's most respected career works, and given its highly disparate components, it's likely best that you preview the music in the context of the highly entertaining movie before exploring the Intrada album blindly.
  30. "WarGames". Intrada Records. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
  31. "WarGames 2 Casting". Stax. IGN. Archived from the original on July 25, 2012. Retrieved November 9, 2006.
  32. "WarGames 25th Anniversary". NCM Fathom. July 24, 2008. Archived from the original on November 3, 2010. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  33. Spangler, Todd (October 13, 2015). "MGM Rebooting 'WarGames' as Interactive Video Experience (Exclusive)".
  34. Martens, Todd (March 15, 2016). "'Her Story' creator to tackle interactive reboot of 'WarGames'". latimes.com.
  35. Spangler, Todd (December 6, 2017). "'WarGames' Interactive Series from Sam Barlow Sets Early 2018 Release Date".
  36. "WarGames gets rebooted as an interactive hacking TV show". February 9, 2018.
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