Right review time (again!), this time I've decided to reach back into the geeky times of the 1980s and one of the classic computer geek movies of its time, WarGames, starring Matthew Broderick as a 17 year old who unwittingly hacks into the American defense system at NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). So here's the usual summary.
OK so the film begins with two officers down in the missile silo who are instructed to order a live fire missile test, but one of them refuses to turn the key. The result of this sees the systems engineers at NORAD, lead by Dr John McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) proposing that the men in the silos are taken out of the loop and replaced without automation. McKittrick suggests that they use a supercomputer within the base, called the WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) which constantly runs military simulations, which the president's advisors agree to.
Meanwhile, David Lightman (Broderick), who is a school student in a Seattle high school, is an underachiever in class, but is also intelligent and a talented hacker. On receiving poor grades, David finds the school's office password to hack into their school records computer systems and changes his grades to avoid going to summer school, which he also does for his classmate, Jennifer (Ally Sheedy). Later on, David finds out about a computer company called Protovision, who are bringing out some exciting new computer games. The company is based in Sunnyvale California, so David uses his computer to call every number in Sunnyvale, during this he comes into contact with a computer that doesn't identify itself, and he probes it to find out further info, by asking for a list of games, it comes up with ones such as Chess, Backgammon, Poker and slightly heavier ones such as Theatrewide Biotoxic Chemical Warfare, and Global thermonuclear war. David goes to visit some of his hacker friends with Jennifer, and they suggest he find out more about who designed the system. David does so and tracks information on Stephen Falken (John Wood), which he got from the game on his list "Falken's maze", who was a researcher in AI, but since passed away, but he also had a son named Joshua.
David after much guessing soon twigs that the password to enter the system is Falken's son, Joshua, and enters into the computer, which then makes contact with the WOPR at NORAD, where David unwittingly asks to play Global thermonuclear war with the computer, which it obliges. However as David plays the game, the WOPR plays the game as a simulation at NORAD, which alerts the personnel there, who at first think its a possible nuclear attack from the Russians (as David opted to play as the Russian side), but it is soon averted, and they manage to track the source of the hack, i.e. in Seattle where David is. David himself is soon arrested by FBI agents who take him to NORAD where he is interrogated, but he insists that he just entered their system to play a game and nothing more. However David logs into the computer and talks to "Joshua" again who is set on completing the game, by continuing the simulation, and feeding misinformation such as Soviet bombers and submarines to the people at NORAD. David also asks it information about Falken's address, and his alias "Dr Robert Hume", but before he can go any further, he is taken by the FBI and placed in a holding room. David however manages to use his hacking skills to escape the room, and sneak out of the NORAD facility, posing as one of the tourists of the facility, he gets on a bus.
David then asks Jennifer for help, who meets up with him as they travel to the address where Falken lives, and they soon find him, as he lives alone (now a widow) and David asks him to help diffuse the situation with "Joshua" but he refuses. As David and Jennifer are about to leave (and make out!) Falken changes his mind and flies them in a chopper to the NORAD base where he implores with General Berringer (Barry Corbin) to ignore the WOPR's projections and to call off any US counterattacks, which he does and they soon find out the WOPR's projected attacks are indeed simulations. However after this the WOPR decides to try and find the codes to launch the missiles and complete the game, and from hereon in its up to David and Falken to try and stop literal global thermonuclear war.
WarGames is a very entertaining thriller, which I have fond memories of since I first saw around about the time of its release in 1983 (again I'm old!). The whole cold war situation has been told in several films prior to this one, most notably in Dr. Strangelove, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb, and Fail safe. But where WarGames suceeds really well is by taking the teenager factor into the film and let it not just be about a bunch of military and computer personnel all talking and debating in the war room, and in doing so it helps inject a bit more fun into the proceedings. And David Lightman is a likeable character, he's clearly very intelligent and resourceful, and he uses that to his advantage throughout the film, when hacking into NORAD and even escaping from it!
Cast wise, the film is also really good, and Matthew Broderick is perfect as David, the young hacker, who unwittingly hacks into NORAD and nearly ends up causing nuclear war, and he has several highlights in the film, one of which is when he responds to his biology class teacher's question "who suggested the first asexual reproduction?" to which David replies "emm, your wife??". Dabney Coleman is also excellent as the head systems analyst at NORAD, McKittrick, and he easily gets the film's best line when he takes offence at General Beringer's opinion of the WOPR, "I don't have to take that from you, you pig eyed sack of shit!". Barry Corbin is also great in his role as General Beringer, and he also delivers some of the film's best lines, one of which he improvised, when he let's David help with the crisis at NORAD "Goddamn it, I would piss on a spark plug if I thought it would do any good!". And Ally Sheedy is also good as Jennifer, David's classmate, and romantic interest, and I think its safe to say that Ally never looked cuter than she did here, and she too also get's one of the film's funniest lines, when during the whole crisis she meets up with David and says "David, is this to do with grade???". And finally John Wood is excellent as Falken, the creator of the supercomputer, the WOPR, who initially turns his back on the world, after the death of his wife and son, Joshua, he was officially declared dead, and lived his life in seclusion, only to come back into the scene when David finds him.
And as enjoyable as the film is, it does of course have a few flaws, first off I think its a ridiculous that David could hack into such an advanced supercomputer by the use of just one simple password as "Joshua". Its not exactly an airtight security system if that is the case, as it is now common practice in workplaces that computers have to have complex passwords, so that computers account can't be easily be hacked into. But of course the main defence computer at NORAD has the simple password "Joshua" to hack into it, and bingo you can play it at Global Thermonuclear War! Its just a bit silly and not too well thought out in terms of computer security. I also thought the idea of having the missile launch codes for the silo missile to be printed on the computer panels, is also really daft, (the code Joshua uses (which is clearly printed on the panel!) again leaving your security wide open for anyone to copy it down, who might have access! So overall in terms of a computer access and security its not the most well thought out of films. Another flaw that was later revealed was that they got the DEFCON (Defence condition) system ratings the wrong way round, as they said DECON 5 was Peace and 1 meant War, however in reality its the opposite, 1 is Peace and 5 is War. Plus they keep saying tic-tac-toe isn't a winnable game, but it is! Oh well.
Regardless of that though the film is very enjoyable, and there are plenty of good moments, such as where David learns to his horror that the game he has been playing, the effects of it have been revealed on the news and he races up to his room where he is contacted by Joshua, who tells him it intends to "win the game". The scene where David escapes from the NORAD facility was always one of my favourites as I liked the idea of how he used a dictaphone to record the sound of the code pass and uses that to hack into the door to open it. And of course there is the final climax where Joshua plays out a series of tic-tac-toe games to make it learn about the futility of war, before it will launch the missiles, where we see a dazzling bright display on the big screens at the NORAD control centre (people with photo-sensitive epilepsy be aware of course) flashing widly as the WOPAR plays out the games. And one of the most notable aspects of the film is of course the electronic synthesized voice of "Joshua" (kind of like a higher pitched Stephen Hawking) which comes out of the computer speakers, which is in itself a bit creepy, especially when it says "wouldn't prefer a nice game of chess?" and the moment at the end where after its ran its simulation of war games and says "Greetings Professor Falken!", you wonder what will be next???? (Well you find out anyway).
John Badham who actually took over the directorial helm from Martin Brest (Beverly Hills cop director, who was fired from the picture, 12 days into filming after a dispute) does a fine job in building up the suspense, and pacing the film, and he also kept the tone of the film somewhat more light hearted by ensuring the characters of David and Jennifer were just two teenagers who were having a bit of fun but ended up unwittingly in danger. The sets of the NORAD base are also very impressive and they were actually re-used for Beverly Hills Cop, directed by the aforementioned Martin Brest. I also can't resist but enjoy looking at David's now very antiquated looking computer equipment in his room, with the old 5.4" floppy disks, and the IMSAI 8080 microcomputer he has (now resembles something closer in size to a network router!). And briefly the music score from Arthur B. Rubinstein is pretty good as well, with some good dramatic stuff in there, just suitable for the themes of nuclear war and suspense (well they go hand in hand!).
Rightttt well that's it for my critique of WarGames, it was a bit of a bugger to write this one as I had to try and figure out the plot summary for it a bit more than usual. However its fun, and I hope if anyone reads this, enjoys it too.
That it for now!
No comments:
Post a Comment