WarGames

WARGAMES is one of those rare gems that children of the 80's have a seminal bond with. Despite the obvious age of the technology in the movie, from its paranoid Cold War opening tensions to the staggering moral climax, Director John Badham's cyber-espionage thriller still far surpasses any subsequent stabs at the genre such as 'The Net', 'Sneakers' or 'Hackers.'

80's fans have many of their golden memories rooted in the dawn of the modern home computing age and the nostalgia of Imsai 8" Floppy Discs, Commodore PET's, TRS-80's, Sinclair ZX-81's, Apple II's, Atari's, Odyssey2's, Vic20s, Commodore 64s and ZX Spectrums is brought flooding back by sight of David's bedroom. The world he inhabits is a graveyard of classic voice synthesisers, 300 baud acoustic couplers, mass prefix dialers, Galaga arcade machines, 7-11's, and Dr Pepper. A world many of us prefer to the callous and unattainable computer design of movies like 'Swordfish'.

This was a film far ahead of its time. It anticipated the Internet and the many security problems we have come to recognise since. Matthew Broderick's geeky yet talented hacker is a joy and he is put to magical use by the excellent screenplay as we see him escape from various situations (using a coke can pull-ring to get a dial tone on a payphone; or using a miniature tape recorder to escape from a room at NORAD). This being his first role, Wargames illuminated a rising star in Broderick, who went on to do other venerable 80's work like John Hughes' classic comedy 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off.'

"I worry about that kid, sometimes I think we're all going to get electrocuted" (David's Mom)

Yes, this is also a funny movie. David's family are a source of much amusement. The way David's dad butters his corn is priceless, as is his exchange with his wife on discovering she has not cooked it:

"This corn is raw!"

"Yes, you can just taste the vitamin A and C, it's great!"

Could we have pills? And cook the corn?!"

Or how about David's witty retort to the annoying Biology teacher:

Teacher: "Who first suggested the idea of reproduction without sex?"

David: "Your wife?"

Kudos must go to writers Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parkes for a gripping yet sensitive screenplay with a strong moral backbone and depth of character study. Of course, as in movies like 'Jumpin' Jack Flash', everyone feels the need to speak whatever they type and the voice synthesiser is invented here for the purpose of easier aural communication but all of this is pretty seamless in the film. David and Jennifer really connect, but with only a minimum of sexual tension. Most touching is David's revelation that he cannot swim, and always thought there would be plenty of time. There are no real villains in the movie, this story is about humanity coming to grips with the futility of nuclear war. The youthful exuberance of the two teenagers in contrast to the resigned Falken manifesto on extinction makes for resonant and thoughtful cinema. As the computer discovers, 'the only winning move is not to play,' - a lesson that many parts of the world have still not learnt today.

Wargames certainly lives on and is being discovered by a whole new generation of fans, here's one woman's recollection of seeing the movie in the cinema back in 1983:

"My boys rented this recently and it brought back memories of when I went to its opening night in Dayton, Ohio. Being a computer professional, I was very interested in what this movie was going to be like. I noticed that most of the seats were filled with fellow computer-geeks. The movie was intense and great, but the thing I will always remember most is what happened in the theater itself. When W.O.P.R. was going crazy looking for the launch code, someone in the theater yelled at the top of their lungs, "Control-C! Control-C!" ...many of us lost it at that point."