WarGames.

Falling deeper into the 80's kick that I've been on, I stumbled on this sci-fi classic and realized it was past time that I saw it.  WarGames follows a high-school nerd named David (played by Matthew Broderick) who inadvertently stumbles upon a computer program that is capable of learning and even accessing nuclear launch codes.  That's the gist of it, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The movie begins with a scene of military men going through multiple security checks to take a well guarded post surrounded by computers.  Suddenly, they are given the order to initiate a nuclear strike on America! There is a moment of intense drama while one soldier yells at the other to turn the key while he suffers a breakdown because of the moral dilemma he faces.  Very good.  Cut to the aftermath where we learn it was just a simulation (one of many apparently) to ensure that soldiers would follow orders to launch nuclear weapons without hesitation.  This leads the chief computer systems programmer, McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) to insist that humans should be taken out of the decision process and launch codes should be activated by a program when given the authorization.

David is a slightly above-average high-school student who likes playing video games.  He slacks off in school and gets bad grades, but that doesn't matter because he turns out to be a capable hacker.  David uses his talents to change his and his girlfriend Jennifer's (Ally Sheedy)  to stay out of summer school, and book a free trip to Paris.  In the midst of this harmless hacking, he stumbles into the backdoor of a program and initiates a game of Global Thermonuclear War. As it happens, that is not a game for the program, named Joshua after the inventor's son, as winning the game is the same as real life for Joshua.  David goes on to spend the rest of this film trying to, you guessed it, save the world.  As watching this movie is so fun, you will have to find out what happens for yourself by watching it!

The production of this movie is flawless, which makes WarGames a fantastic step back in time.  I love the huge server computers, the analogue pay phones, the computer screens, the line-coding;  everything here offers a good look into the technology of the 80's.  The direction of this movie is textbook; John Badham executes great cinematography that streamlines the plot in a fun and easy to follow manner.  There's a few good laughs, logical conclusions, good photography and thanks to the cast, some pretty solid acting!  Good acting seemed to be hard to come by in the 80's, but this cast worked well together and I thoroughly enjoyed this pre-Terminator tale of caution against the rise of the machines!  It's good for the whole family and I highly recommend it; four out of five stars!

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