Movie Notes: Wargames

January 17th, 2008

= 4 stars

Starring Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman
Directed by John Badham

Synopsis

High school kid David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) is into computers. He hacks into a military computer looking for fun video games to play, and inadvertently brings the United States to the brink of nuclear destruction by starting World War III.

The Good

• Lots of retro computer stuff. Galaga, floppy disk drives, modems where the hand set goes in a cradle, green text on black screens, and that squeaky computer voice (read more here).
• David shows an amusing Macgyver-like ingenuity, demonstrating “war dialing,” guessing Falken’s password, and a gutsy escape from a locked room while a guard makes a pass at a secretary.
• Jennifer Mack (Ally Sheedy) is a balancing human element to David the nerd, especially when she helps convince the cynical Stephen Falken (John Wood) to quit playing with dinosaurs and save the world.
• Still some tense moments. The 1980s had us under the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation and this film makes this palpable.
• Positive messages about the futility of war and the danger of putting too much power in the hands of computers.
• Surprisingly not too dated. No cheesy 80s pop tunes or bad hair. The WOPR and the NORAD war room are still impressive enough despite 80s technology and an over-reliance on vector graphics.
• Some deft humor. The general says the system “sucks” and he’d like to “piss on a spark plug,” some really nerdy engineers refer to a “back door” while others run through NORAD screaming, and lastly one military guy says “put x in the center square” when the entire world is about to end.

The Bad

• Logical holes abound. The military computers don’t have access log files, the talking computer technology David has on his home PC is also used by the government, the President is contactable only by phone while all of this nuttiness is going on, and nobody notices a little screen on the side of the WOPR displaying a countdown to Armageddon.
• Falken’s change from pissed off cynic to friendly scientist happens wordlessly and without much insight into his thoughts.
• Yet another flick where the teenagers’ parents vanish when the plot no longer requires their presence.

Conclusion

Along with Tron and Weird Science, Wargames added more fuel to a youthful fascination with computers that exists to this day. It was awesome to see a high school kid able to confuse adults and throw the world into a tizzy from his bedroom and a few taps on a keyboard.

Seeing this flick today makes me realize the NORAD room technology has extended to the entire world. Everyone in NORAD stares at screens, totally mesmerized by the information spewing out of them, and accepting that knowledge as truth. While the film warns about their confidence to believe a computer, today we have given ourselves over to the machines.

But while the fear of computers aspect of Wargames hasn’t aged too well, there’s still another message: war is bad and it’s better to not start one at all. The movie’s computer learns something and so do we.

IMDB: Wargames
Wikipedia: Wargames
Rotten Tomatoes: Wargames 95%