That Time That Ferris Bueller Almost Started WWIII

War Games.

The idea of a world ending nuclear war had been around for decades but no one had ever considered that it might be an unthinking computer (or was it?) that would be the end of all of us. The film stars Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy and Dabney Coleman and was released in June of 1983.

Matthew plays David, a Seattle high school student and hacker

Ally Sheedy is his friend and they unknowingly break into the NORAD computer system that controls all of the nuclear weapons in the US arsenal.

Sounds tempting....but what games are available? Lets take a look at the list....

Well, what teenage kids wouldn't want to play a game called "Global Thermonuclear War"? Only problem is the computer doesn't understand the difference between the simulation and the real thing and plays havoc with the real nuclear command system, WOPR.

(incidentally, the lights on the side of the movie prop above was controlled by a guy sitting inside it with an Apple II computer)

So, David gets arrested for hacking into the system and he is taken to NORAD (still makes no sense to me) where he escapes and with Ally Sheedy's help, finds the man that wrote the original computer code, Dr. Falken. Together they try to convince him that the computer program he created, Joshua, is trying to play the game for real. Eventually he decides to help them and they're on their way back to NORAD (where David DOESN'T get in trouble for escaping). But in a strange, I-never-understand-the-thought-process-behind-this-one moment, they actually let the kid that broke into the system have access to the command console....

....and they even let him sit down and type commands into the system.

 In the end (spoiler alert!) the computer learns that in this game, there is no winner...

....Another happy ending.

Now, I know I sound like I'm not a fan of this film, but I really am. I've just been staring at the small plot holes for 30 years so I'm razing it a bit. But I recommend seeing this film for just about anyone. Sure the computer graphics are dated and the main character is taken directly into the most high security area in the country but its moral message about using a computer for nefarious purposes is completely lost behind the anti-war message.....and isn't that what the 80's was all about?