WarGames Movie Review

WarGames (1983)

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Written by: Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes
Directed by: John Badham
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, John Wood
Rated: PG
Watch the trailer

Plot
A young man finds a back door into a military central computer in which reality is confused with game-playing, possibly starting World War III.

Verdict
Often referenced in pop culture, it's little more than a fantasy adventure movie, buying into the cold war paranoia of the '80s. A teen hacks into a military computer and is the only one that can save the world. This has interesting ideas about allowing a computer to make military decisions and the limitations of programming, but that is a byproduct of the plot, not the focus.
Skip it.

Review
This movie was one of the first mainstream movies to depict the internet and dial up, contributing to federal U.S. policy and stoking fears of a "WarGames Scenario."

The nuclear missile crisis of the '80s propels the plot as an under achieving hacker, David, manages to piece together the puzzle and try to stop a military computer. No one believes David and why would they? It's a ridiculous story. He's able to access a military computer which then may launch missiles.
The top scientists in the military are no match for high school student David.

Matthew Broderick plays David.

The funny thing is that even today ICBM missile silos are running on the same technology. They're woefully outdated which should be concerning.

David manages to find the original programmer for the military computer, and in a way this movie is a caution to making everything automated. Computers don't often understand nuance as it's difficult to program. This computer wants to win the game based on its programming must like Skynet decided to  destroy humans based on its programming in The Terminator.

The penultimate moment comes when David and the computer's programmer must convince the military computer not to win the 'game' and inadvertently start World War III. This is achieved through tic-tac-toe. The computer realizes some games have no winners and only result in stalemate. "The only winning move is to not play." It's a great idea, but is only an ancillary idea to the movie.