WarGames Collection

Thriller

Science Fiction

Drama

WarGames

Sherwood Productions

United Artists

United States of America

English

Matthew Broderick

Dabney Coleman

John Wood

Ally Sheedy

Barry Corbin

Juanin Clay

Kent Williams

Dennis Lipscomb

Joe Dorsey

Irving Metzman

Michael Ensign

William Bogert

Susan Davis

James Tolkan

David Clover

Drew Snyder

John Garber

Duncan Wilmore

Billy Ray Sharkey

John Spencer

Michael Madsen

James Lemp

Gary Bisig

Gary Sexton

Jason Bernard

Frankie Hill

Jesse D. Goins

Alan Blumenfeld

Len Lawson

Maury Chaykin

Eddie Deezen

Stephen Lee

Lucinda Crosby

Stack Pierce

Art LaFleur

Brad David

Martha Shaw

Howie Allen

Michael Adams

James Ackerman

Jim Harriott

Tom Lawrence

Frances E. Nealy

Charles Akins

Glenn Standifer

Edward Jahnke

Paul V. Picerni Jr.

William H. Macy

John Badham

Lawrence Lasker

Walter F. Parkes

Leonard Goldberg

Richard Hashimoto

Harold Schneider

Arthur B. Rubinstein

William A. Fraker

Tom Rolf

Wallis Nicita

Angelo P. Graham

James J. Murakami

Jerry Wunderlich

Barry Delaney

Robert J. Doherty

Michael Germain

Lynda Gurasich

Brenda Todd

Newt Arnold

Gregg H. Bilson

Robert Scaife

John M. Schenk

Milton C. Burrow

Willie D. Burton

Carlos Delarios

Michael J. Kohut

William L. Manger

Aaron Rochin

Michael L. Fink

Tom Elliott

Marguerite Happy

Al Jones

Rick Avery

Gerald Boatright

David E. Diano

Gary R. Dodd

Ralph Nelson Jr.

Doug Pentek

Steve Yaconelli

Ray Summers

Ray Martin

Liz Randol

Robert Eggenweiler

Robert C. Decker

Joe Tuley

Mark Hoder

Harold Michelson

Joy Anzarouth

Lyla Foggia

Martin Brest

Wanna play Global Thermonuclear War?

It was with much interest to me to revisit this early 80s hacker piece armed with the knowledge of just how the advent of change in the computer world had evolved. With that in mind the film could quite easily be classed as a bit clunky due to the now almost Neanderthal toys, games and computers used in the movie, but casting aside the nostalgia feelings I had with it, it still hits the spot as both a poignant piece of interest, and a damn good thriller as well.

Matthew Broderick is David Lightman, a young computer gamer geek who is something of a whizz kid on the PC. He can change his school grades and hack into various sites he shouldn't be even looking at. During one eventful sitting he hacks into a computer called Joshua and plays a game called Global Thermonuclear War, he harmlessly chooses to be The Soviet Union and proceeds to launch a nuclear attack on his own country, the U.S.A. Trouble is, is that the game is for real and the wheels are in motion for World War III!.

It helps to remember the time this film was made (for those old enough of course), for it was the time of the ever worrying cloud of the Cold War, a time when nuclear war was more than a hearsay threat. I really think that in this day and age where computers literally do run our lives, this film stands up really well not only as a warning piece about messing with technology, but also as a gentle poke in the ribs about defence systems and the people we trust to run them. Though the film is a kind of watered down and accessible 2001: A Space Odyssey for the 80s set, it impacts well and only really suffers from a pointless romantic plot strand involving the sprightly Ally Sheedy (could they not just have been pals?) and the aforementioned dated gadgets. The ending to the film is excellent as the tension builds up nicely and we are left chewing our nails watching a game of Tic-Tac-Toe, sounds simple doesn't it? Not so.

Good honest and intelligent entertainment. 7.5/10

Ally Sheedy, whatever happened to her. When I was a little kid, I mean REALLY little she was one of the few stars I could name...and then she disappeared save for a couple memorable appearances in Psych. It's a shame.

Anyway, my fiance is a Millennial and I've been trying to introduce her and her friends to some classic films. This one was a fail. They sat through it, but really only to mock the technology. Mocking things that are old for being old is kind of one of their favorite things.

So, despite that, the film made ripples in congress and the only other film that I recall doing that was JFK. It rewrote laws.

And, it was extremely entertaining in the process, despite the fact that Matthew looked like more of a push-over than a computer geek. Not that it matters, he still played the part of a teen pretty well.

CinemaSerf

When the young computer whizz-kid “David” (Matthew Broderick) is showing off to his girlfriend “Jennifer” (Ally Sheedy) about how he can improve her grades and book them on a first class trip to Paris, he inadvertently dials a telephone number that wants to play a game. A game of thermonuclear war! Next day, the news is full of stories about the mobilisation of American defence capabilities and his phone rings again. It’s the computer, it wants to play and he’s just a little terrified. Not so afraid as he is about to get, though, when the FBI turn up and next thing he is in a top secret facility trying to explain to boffin “McKittrick” just how he accidentally tapped into a computer system that now seems to be trying to start WWIII - and nobody knows how to stop it. Can he come up with a solution before the increasingly exasperated “Gen. Beringer” (Barry Corbin) goes to DEFCON 1 and obliterates the globe? It’s a good, solid, sci-fi entertainment this film with Broderick, Sheedy and Corbin on good form, but it also serves as quite a potent reminder that, just as with “The Forbin Project” (1970), the whole idea of automating our defences and letting computers do our thinking for us is fraught with danger. Logic is the ultimate in two-dimensional thinking for a machine. For anything more nuanced, balanced or sophisticated then believe it or not, you need a hormonal teenage boy and some very basic rational thinking.

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Matthew Broderick

Dabney Coleman

John Wood

Ally Sheedy

Barry Corbin

Juanin Clay

Kent Williams

Dennis Lipscomb

Joe Dorsey

Irving Metzman

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