WarGames
Directed by John Badham7.194%76%
A young computer whiz kid accidentally connects into a top secret super-computer which has complete control over the U.S. nuclear arsenal. It challenges him to a game 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 ?
Cast of WarGames
WarGames Ratings & Reviews
- Jacob O’Neal3d agoI was a fan of director John Badham back in the day. Thanks to this film, Project X and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off I was a big Matthew Broderick fan as well. This movie was very interesting to me back in the day. Before we even knew what a hacker was, they showed us in this film. Granted, it was a much more primitive version of hacking. There was a great supporting cast with Ally Sheedy, Barry Corbin and Dabney Coleman. The story was both ridiculous and innovative. A kid gets on line and begins playing games with a government computer that was built to play war games. He starts the game with the computer and it begins a countdown to World War III. The good stuff was the acting and directing. This was all top notch and everything you want from an 80’s cheese fest. It delivers in spades that way. However, the story is so incredibly unbelievable that you have to sometimes struggle with disbelief. I mean, why are Broderick and Sheedy suddenly attacked by a Pterodactyl? It’s not virtual reality. I know it turns out to be remote controlled, but it was a really strange moment that comes out of nowhere. The movie has moments like that all throughout. But the issues are far less than the fun. If you surrender yourself to the movie and just suspend disbelief as best you can, you’re gonna find yourself having a lot of fun with this film. John Badham was great at making high concept, low budget movies entertaining in the 80’s. Take Short Circuit, Blue Thunder, Stakeout and Bird On A Wire (I know it’s 1990 for that one, but it was shot in 89) for example. War Games is another Badham classic. If you like 80’s movies, you’ll like War Games.
- Michael SurberMarch 12, 2025The first thing to remember is, this movie is from 1983. If you can accept that, this is a great movie. It is very dated but still brings a lot to the table. Good performances from some terrific actors. "Shall we play a game?"
- YorkshireHillbillyMarch 3, 2025I adore this film. I spent many an hour as a young teenager faffing around with my PC and similar floppy disks. Recently I mad my own version of the WOPR using 12 8x8 LED dot matrices and a Raspberry Pi Pico, which has 2mb of flash storage on a device the size of about 2 quarters laid flat on the desk. I love 80s computer science fiction it had a slow burning sophistication that's long since been forgotten with today's CGI.
