Classic Movie Wednesday: WarGames (1983)

A young computer whizz kid (Matthew Brodrick) accidentally connects into a top secret super-computer which has complete control over the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Hilarity ensues when it challenges him to a game of Global Thermonuclear War between America and Russia, and he innocently starts the countdown to World War 3. Can he convince the computer he wanted to play a game and not the real thing?

Trivia: The studio had a Galaga and a Galaxian machine delivered to Matthew Broderick's home, where he practiced for two months to prepare for the arcade scene. The computer used to break into NORAD was programmed to make the correct words appear on the screen, no matter which keys were pressed. The NORAD command center built for the movie was the most expensive set ever constructed up to that time, built at the cost of one million dollars. The producers were not allowed into the actual NORAD command center, so they had to imagine what it was like. In the DVD commentary, director John Badham notes that the actual NORAD command center isn't nearly as elaborate as the one in the movie; he refers to the movie set as "NORAD's wet dream of itself." According to John Badham, the scene of the jeep trying to crash through the gate at NORAD and turning over was an actual accident. The jeep was supposed to continue through the gate. They added the scene of the characters running from the jeep and down the tunnel and used the botched jeep stunt. First cinematic reference to a "firewall" - a security measure used in computer networking and Internet security. This does not predate the existence of the Internet, however, which is considered to have started in 1969. The computer in David's room is actually an IMSAI 8080. The person who supplied the computer for the film tells how Matthew Broderick saved a shooting day by figuring out a programming sequence for the keyboard on his own after instructions were lost. The WOPR, as seen in the movie, was made of wood and painted with a metal-finish paint. As the crew filmed the displays of the WOPR, Special Effects Supervisor Michael L. Fink sat inside and entered information into an Apple II computer that drove the countdown display. Graphics on the large NORAD war room screens were rendered in advance by an HP 9845C desktop computer. In 1982 the 9845C was comprised of a base with built-in keyboard and a 14" color monitor that mounted on top. Cost of a 9845C was about $90,000 (inflation-adjusted) and the entire "desktop" computer weighed about 100 pounds.

Next to the HAL-9000 saying "I'm afraid I can't do that Dave" this movie may have the most famous computer voice in the movies and easily the most recognizable. When Joshua (the computer) asks Matthew Brodrick "Shall we play a game?" it sends chills down my back. Despite the early 80's computer technology this movie does stand up pretty well. I wonder what they would have thought back then if they could see a computer from today. It probably could easily have run that entire room (the NORAD set). This is actually the second movie of Matthew Brodrick's career (after Max Dugan Returns) and three years before really hitting it big as Ferris Bueller. Ally Sheedy plays Matthew Brodrick's girlfriend and I had a crush on her back then (I was 13). Also in this movie is that icon of cinema Dabney Coleman.