WarGames

Film directed by John Badham, 1983

WarGames, a 1983 film about a teenage computer hacker (Matthew Broderick) who accidentally almost triggers World War III, was marketed as a youth-oriented film but became popular with audiences of all ages. Young people enjoyed seeing Broderick's character outwit grown-ups and save the world, while adults viewed the film as a commentary about nuclear war and the role of machines in human affairs.

WarGames was just one of a number of theatrical and television movies with nuclear war themes released in the early 1980s. These include Testament, a 1983 drama about a family's struggle to survive after a nuclear war; The Day After, a 1983 made-for-television movie about the effects of a nuclear attack on a midwest city; Countdown to Looking Glass, a 1984 cable “mockumentary” recounting the events leading to a thermonuclear exchange; and The Manhattan Project, a 1986 comedy/thriller in which a student builds a working atomic bomb as a school science project. WarGames was arguably the most popular and best remembered of these films. In addition to these films, many music videos, a very new art form at the time, featured images of missiles, fireballs, and mushrooms clouds, as did the video arcade game Missile Command.

This proliferation of nuclear-war-themed entertainment in the early 1980s reflected the concerns of the times. Fears of nuclear annihilation increased worldwide after Ronald Reagan won the 1980 American presidential election. The former actor's fierce, anti-Soviet rhetoric, in which he described the Soviet Union as an “evil empire,” led many to believe he was an irresponsible “nuclear cowboy” willing to launch a first strike without provocation. Reagan did little to dispel this perception. Just months before his reelection in 1984, he joked about “outlawing” the Soviet Union while testing a microphone: “We begin bombing in five minutes.”

[Page 919]Of course, Hollywood produced movies about nuclear war long before the Reagan era. Twenty years earlier, films such as On the Beach (1959), Dr. Strangelove (1964), and Failsafe (1964) had received much popular and critical acclaim. Like Failsafe, WarGames posits an accidental triggering of nuclear war—leading the New York Times to ask “Could it ever happen?”

Despite its title, WarGames does not emphasize the “war as game” theme. None of the adult characters believe that war is a competition played for fame, honor, or glory. They are professionals who perceive war as a deadly serious endeavor. The “game” of the title is the simulation they use to practice their skills, hoping that they will never need to apply those skills. However, when Broderick's character plays “global thermonuclear war” with the “War Operations Planning and Response” (WOPR) computer, it initiates a real nuclear countdown. The military officers are horrified when the game turns real.

In contrast with many antiwar films, such as Dr. Strangelove and Catch-22 (1970), WarGames does not portray the military officers as warmongering buffoons. The Air Force general played by Barry Corbin is presented sympathetically. He is skeptical of giving WOPR control over U.S. nuclear assets and agonizes over the decision to retaliate when WOPR indicates missiles incoming, not knowing whether the attack is real or a simulation. Nonetheless, the U.S. Air Force objected, albeit quietly, to the movie, saying that it contributed to public fears by misrepresenting the service's nuclear security arrangements.

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