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Actors: Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, Ally Sheedy
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about WarGames |
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An intelligent, computer whiz teen, thinking he's hacking into a computer company's system, accidentally hacks into a govt. computer that controls the nation's nuclear weapons.
The computer has the ability to think and learn.
The teen thinks he's playing a war game, but the computer thinks its real.
The military believes they're under attack by Russia. They brace for impact and prepare to retaliate.
The teen finds the scientist that created the computer and they convince the general that its not real and not to launch the missiles.
When the attack doesn't happen, the computer arms the missiles and prepares to launch them.
The teen makes the computer play tic-tac-toe against itself. The computer learns that there's no way to win. The computer then plays out every possible war scenario and learns that there's no way to win that either.
The computer learns that nobody wins a nuclear war. It shuts down the missiles and ends the war game.
--BRANDON SWENSON, Resident Scholar
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Matthew Broderick's high school antics this time are light years ahead of Ferris Bueller's. To impress his classmate Jennifer (Sheedy), David Lightman (Broderick) remotely raises her English grade to “A” in an instant. Then he makes plane reservations to France. As a 1983 computer hacker, he can have this kind of fun long before graphical interfaces and Pentium chips.
Bored, he begins a game of “Global Thermonuclear Warfare” which is supposed to simulate the “chess game” mentality which might initiate war with the Soviets. But when he inadvertently back-doors the Pentagon, their mainframes take it seriously and issue alerts high enough to land David in federal custody. He fails to convince General McKittrick (Coleman) that it's not for real, as the general asks, “who do you know in Paris” and “why don't I believe you?”
When David escapes, he and Jennifer realize the only person who can stop this is the reclusive Dr. Falken who wrote the actual program. The pair have little time to deduce his whereabouts before the attacks begin.
--Angry Jim Magin, Resident Scholar
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David Lightman (Broderick) is an underachieving teen in Seattle -- a good video gamer and computer nut, but not doing well in school. One day he accidentally hacks into the mainframe computer at NORAD (the national missile defense facility in the Colorado Rockies) and, thinking he's playing another game, sets the computer off on a several-day exercise to determine how to win a global thermonuclear war. The military and computer people at NORAD (headed by a fairly straight Coleman and Barry Corbin doing a crusty general) believe an attack is really underway -- once, twice, maybe more -- while David and his friend Jennifer (winsome Ally Sheedy) attempt to make up for his mistake and locate the computer's inventor, Stephen Falken -- reportedly deceased. This 1983 movie's premise and clunky depiction of computer technology have not worn well with time, but the acting and basic anti-war message make for decent entertainment.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of WarGames |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 26.7%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 33.3%
Time/Era of Movie:
- 1980's-1999
Technology/treasure/info search
Yes
involving:
- computer info
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- student
Age:
- a teen
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- short/standard straight (man)
Body type
- average (man)
Events of movie makes character more...
- tougher
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
How much in movie?
- 80%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- West
- Pacific NW
Island?
Yes
City?
Yes
City:
- Washington D.C.
- Chicago
Misc setting
- fort/military installation
- scientific labs
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
How many deaths in film?
- 0 (not a murder mystery)
How much use of techno gadgets?
- 4 (a fair amount)
Kind of violence:
- mission to protect something
- mental battles
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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