WarGames
| WarGames | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
| |
| Directed by | John Badham |
| Produced by |
|
| Written by | |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Arthur B. Rubinstein |
| Cinematography | William A. Fraker |
| Edited by | Tom Rolf |
Production
company |
United Artists
Sherwood Productions |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date
|
|
Running time
| 114 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| 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 DVD in 2008.
Contents
[hide]Plot[edit]
During a surprise drill of a nuclear attack, many United States Air Force Strategic Missile Wing controllers prove unwilling to turn a required key 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, 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 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 like "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 guesses correctly that his 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. 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 raising 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 agents arrest him and take him to NORAD. He realizes that WOPR is behind the NORAD alerts, but because he fails to convince McKittrick, 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, 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.
The computer 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, however, using a brute-force attack to obtain the launch code. Without humans in the control centers as a safeguard, the computer will trigger a mass launch. All attempts to log in and order Joshua to cancel the countdown fail, and all weapons will launch 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 missile code, but before launching, it cycles through all the nuclear war scenarios it has devised, finding they, too, all result in stalemates. 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[edit]
- Matthew Broderick as David Lightman
- Dabney Coleman as Dr. John McKittrick
- John Wood as Dr. Stephen Falken and the voice of Joshua/WOPR
- Ally Sheedy as Jennifer Mack
- Barry Corbin as General Jack Beringer
- Juanin Clay as Pat Healy
- Dennis Lipscomb as Watson
- Joe Dorsey as Col. Joe Conley
- Michael Ensign as Beringer's assistant
- William Bogert as Mr. Lightman
- John Spencer as Capt. Jerry Lawson
- Michael Madsen as Lt. Steve Phelps
- Alan Blumenfeld as Mr. Liggett
- Maury Chaykin as Jim Sting
- Eddie Deezen as Malvin
- Art LaFleur as Guard (Sgt. Ginzberg)
- Stack Pierce as Airman
- Stephen Lee as Sgt. Schneider
- Jesse D. Goins as Sergeant (as Jesse Goins)
- James Ackerman as Joshua Falken
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
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 OLI (Omnipresent Laser Interceptor), 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 SIOP (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, who Parkes and Lasker met while visiting the base, and who, like Beringer, favored keeping humans in the decision loop.[1]
Filming[edit]
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]Tom Mankiewicz says he wrote some additional scenes during shooting that were used.[9]
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