Pat Healy: Codes. To launch the missiles.
General Beringer: Just unplug the goddamn thing! Jesus Christ!
McKittrick: That won't work, General. It would interpret a shutdown as the destruction of NORAD. The computers in the silos would carry out their last instructions. They'd launch.
General Beringer: Can't we disarm the missiles?
Pat Healy: Over a thousand of them? There's no time. At this rate it will hit the launch codes in... 5.3 minutes.
General Beringer: [smiles sarcastically at McKittrick] Mr. McKittrick, after very careful consideration, sir, I've come to the conclusion that your new defense system sucks.
McKittrick: I don't have to take that, you pig-eyed sack of shit.
General Beringer: Oh, I was hoping for something a little better than that from you, sir. A man of your education.
Major Lem: [holding a telephone] General, it's the president.
McKittrick: What are you... what are you going to tell him?
General Beringer: I'm ordering our bombers back to fail-safe. We might have to go through this thing after all.
David is a teenage computer whiz kid who wants to play a war game on his computer. The type of war game: Global Thermal Nuclear War. Unbeknownst to him, he has tapped into a very real top secret super-computer, named "Joshua" by its creator, which has absolute control over the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The "game" is on between America and Russia and the countdown to World War 3 has commenced. When David learns it's not just a game anymore, he has to convince others -- including the government -- of his innocence and try to stop the game before it's too late.
It was on June 3, 1983 that MGM's "War Games" made its debut to 843 theaters throughout the United States. "Psycho II", which debuted at over 1,400 theaters that same weekend at the Box Office, was its competition as was "The Man with Two Brains" which appeared at more theaters as well. However, partly because of its timely theme, "War Games" would ultimately fire past its competitors, becoming the fifth biggest Box Office Hit of 1983.
Grossing more than $79.5 million, "War Games" was directed by John Badham who had previously directed such acclaimed films as "Blue Thunder", "Whose Life Is It Anyway", "Dracula", and, probably the biggest hit of his career, "Saturday Night Fever". The screenplay was written directly for the screen by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes which earned them an Academy Award nomination.
"War Games" was also Oscar nominated for its Cinematography as well as its Best Sound by Michael J. Kohut, Carlos Delarios, Aaron Rochin, and Willie D. Burton whose achievements won them the BAFTA.
Rated PG mainly for its profanity as well as its intensity, "War Games" starred Matthew Broderick as "David", Dabney Coleman as "McKittrick", John Wood as "Professor Falken", and Ally Sheedy as "Jennifer". Co-stars included Barry Corbin as "General Beringer" and Juanin Clay as "Pat Healy". This film was the second feature film for Matthew, Ally, and Juanin.
Filming locations for "War Games" included Snohomish High School in Snohomish, Washington (David and Jennifer's school), Anderson Island which served as the location for the "Goose Island" scenes (as mentioned in the script, the last ferry off the island really is at 6:30pm and you really are stuck there if you miss it), and other places throughout Washington state such as Seattle (Boeing and the University of Washington campus), Mount Vernon, Darrington, Steilacoom, and Lake Chelan. One would think that the 7-11 scene was filmed in Washington, too, but it wasn't. That scene was actually filmed in Big Bear Lake, Big Bear Valley of the San Bernadino National Forest in California. As for the NORAD entrance tunnel, well, I mention it in a statement below.
Here are some other things you might find interesting regarding the making of this summer hit of '83...
1. The original director was Martin Brest, and several of the scenes he shot are still in the movie. Martin was fired as director a short while into production due to creative differences. He has stated that he took NORAD'S control center layout and did a scaled down version of it for the police control center in the film "Beverly Hills Cop" (1984).
2. The writers' main inspiration for the character of Professor Stephen Falken was Cambridge Professor Stephen Hawking. Hawking was originally approached to appear in the movie, but he declined because he didn't want the producers exploiting his disability. Then they wrote it with the idea that John Lennon would play the part.
3. During their extensive research for the film, writers Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes made friends with many 'hackers' and security experts. They later wrote Sneakers (1992) another film featuring 'hackers' and security experts.
4. Barry Corbin ad-libbed most of his lines.
5. The tunnel and exterior used for the entrance into NORAD is the same tunnel used to enter and exit Toontown in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" (1988), as well as in the climax of "Back to the Future Part II" (1989). The tunnel is located in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California.
6. 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."
7. Graphics on the large NORAD war room screens were rendered in advance by an HP 9845C desktop computer running BASIC. 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. The computer's resolution was not good enough to project on a large screen or to be filmed from directly, so a high-resolution monochromatic display was connected. The images were filmed from the display, one frame at a time, one color at a time, using filters for red, green, and blue. The process took about 1 minute per frame of film.
8. The NORAD Computer System (NCS) used 1950's-era systems in 1983. After "WarGames", visitors for the NORAD tour constantly asked to see the modern computer rooms. Partly driven by this, in coming years color displays (mostly on Sun workstations) started replacing the much older equipment. Incidentally, NORAD only detected threats. Strategic Air Command, until 1992, handled responses to threats.
9. The studio had the Galaxian (1979) and Galaga (1981) arcade machines delivered to Matthew Broderick's home, where he practiced for two months to prepare for the arcade scene. (Must've been nice!)
10. When David makes a joke directed at his teacher about asexual reproduction the laughter heard afterwards is considered to be the rest of the kids in the classroom. But John Badham (director) said that some of the crew didn't know the punch line and laughed out loud during the scene. That laughter was left in the sound track, and if you listen closely you will hear what is clearly adults laughing out loud, rather than classroom snickering.
11. 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.
12. When David is having his computer dial random phone numbers in his search for Protovision, the telephone numbers listed on the screen are not of the traditional fake "555" variety. This isn't a problem since the area code is "311". This particular area code number does not exist and will never be used as a real telephone number. This number was set aside by AT&T years ago for special purposes as was the case of "411" and "911".
13. The phone number that David used to call the NORAD W.O.P.R. computer was 399-2364.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. The delegation from the city of Birmingham, Alabama, visiting NORAD is a tribute to director John Badham's hometown.
17. 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.
18. Crosby Stills & Nash submitted a song for the soundtrack called "Wargames", (that was originally from their "Allies" album) but was edited out of the film at the last second. However, United Artists still used the video for the song, featuring footage for the film, as a promotion video that did receive airplay on MTV.
19. In the original script NORAD ends up giving David a part-time job, and he works as McKittrick's assistant; just as McKittrick said he started out as Falken's assistant.
20. A video game version of this movie was made in 1984 for the ColecoVision, Commodore 64 and Atari 8-Bit Computer. The game started out greeting you as Professor Falken and you would play a game of Global Thermonuclear War. Your objective was to stop nuclear war from occurring by protecting the country with various military vehicles and weapons in a set time limit without reaching Defcon 1.
And now you know.
But just one last fact about the film...
Believe it or not, this movie inspired the United States Congress to create and update the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984. Representative Dan Glickman (D-Kansas), opened the proceedings by saying: "..are gonna show about four minutes from the movie 'WarGames,' which...outlines the problem fairly clearly." A House committee report solemnly intoned: "'WarGames' showed a realistic representation of the automatic dialing and access capabilities of the personal computer."
And now you know even more!
The following are picture stills from the film, starting with the key characters...
And now some picture stills from the film that will follow a bit of the story line without giving too much away...
David Lightman: What's that?
Stephen Falken: Futility. That there's a time when you should just give up.
Jennifer: What kind of a lesson is that?
Stephen Falken: Did you ever play tic-tac-toe?
Jennifer: Yeah, of course.
Stephen Falken: But you don't anymore.
Jennifer: No.
Stephen Falken: Why?
Jennifer: Because it's a boring game. It's always a tie.
Stephen Falken: Exactly. There's no way to win. The game itself is pointless! But back at the war room, they believe you can win a nuclear war. That there can be "acceptable losses."
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