WAR GAMES (1983)

WAR GAMES (1983)

Tagline: To David Lightman, "Global Thermonuclear War" will just be one hell of a game. To everybody else, it will be hell waiting to happen.

(Drama, Dumb Teenager, Suspense) [PG]

Shall we play a game?

In this one, a kid who is just messing around on his computer ends up finding out he can hack into the military’s computer system. Once in their system, he finds a game that he doesn’t realize could spell the end of civilization as we know it. 

First off, if you can picture yourself in the 1950s at the dawn of wonder and speculation about the atomic age, I am guessing that the horror movies of the time would have scared the crap out of you. Talking with people that were around then, that is exactly what movie producers were trying to do. Utilize the audience's fear to drive them to theaters to see how “good” would find a way to triumph against incredible odds all while being scared or astounded out of their minds. The 1980s were no exception. As kids, we literally had drills that had us hiding under our metal desks as if somehow that would protect us from radioactive fallout as thermonuclear winter ferociously rotting the flesh from our bones and we quickly turned to ash. WAR GAMES and THE DAY AFTER in that sense were the creams of the crop “nuclear war” is nothing to mess around with movies of their time. 

Performance-wise Matthew Broderick wasn’t quite ready to take his famous “day off” as Ferris Bueller, but he is stellar as “David” in this movie as much as I completely disliked his character. I really didn’t even find him relatable because I really can’t get into the head of the “let's hack the military’s stuff” kid. We do get a more likable Ally Sheedy than we get in most of her films. She's a kind more "SHORT CIRCUIT" Ally Sheedy. In this, she plays Jennifer who gets caught up in David’s crazy high-stakes game situation. I also really liked John Wood in this. He plays Falken, a kind of reclusive genius in the film. John’s other big 80’s achievement cinematically was LADYHAWKE. Outside of the 3 main characters, the rest of the cast is also very solid which helps make this movie’s simplistic plot carry some serious levity in the drama and suspense departments. 

Production-wise this movie is no joke either. Back in 1983 computers, in general, were still fairly new to most of us, and the language they had David using in the script was actually pretty groundbreaking. It was the first major film to even use the words “firewall”. The production even spent a million dollars building the set to look like what the envisioned NORAD might be in real life. I guess not even NORAD was as sophisticated as the set. They also hired a bunch of security experts as well as hackers to get background on the jargon used in the film. 

WAR GAMES is a slow burn movie and it does take the film quite some time to get to its nerve-wracking final sequence.  Having said that it’s also a bit of a haunting reminder that we are always a hack, a push of a button, a few bad congressional or Presidential decisions from complete annihilation. Surprisingly even with all that, this movie is an interesting watch still to this day due to its excellent execution and relevance to the tensions in the world today. I should also mention the score is pretty great as well. 

I don’t watch this one often, but I never see it come up on a streaming service and think, “Nah, I don’t really care for that”.  I don't remember being frightened per se by it either, but it’s actually a sobering and enigmatic (yet slightly dated) glimpse into the madness of mankind without a single ounce of blood or gore getting shown on the screen.

I have to give this thing a 6 out of 7. The script isn’t perfect and some of the dialog is shaky, but overall this thing is still surprisingly effective. Like those anti-smoking commercials in the early 2000s. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF UNITED ARTISTS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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