WarGames

My son Aaron has always been hooked on playing video games. He started as soon as he could hold a controller in his hands. In those early days, the device was clunky and often did not respond to the touch as most players would have liked, but it didn’t matter one iota to a true gamer. The thought of beating the clock or competing against a computer was intoxicating and limitless. Getting to the next level would always produce squeals of delight and celebration. At the time, it all seemed totally harmless and a fun way to pass the hours away.

I was no different from any other 30-something parent in the 80s. I encouraged this activity and reveled in my children’s successes when passing another level. I tried many times to share this pastime with my son, but I truly lacked the type of eye-hand coordination it required. Aaron and my daughter, Ilisa Rae, would often laugh at my attempts. I got used to it after a while, and I decided to let it go, let them, and just remember how gaming made them feel. Besides, I was much better at board games, and sometimes I’d even win a game or two of Uno.

Over the years, computer games have gotten much better. Some even had an air of authenticity. Skills had to be honed. Practicing every day was often a necessity, and every new system or game that came out had to be acquired and mastered. This “need” has not changed or really diminished over the last forty years. Gamers will always be gamers and will still feel the same anticipation every time a new game hits the market. Case in point… guess what Aaron wants for his birthday in a few weeks? I can’t help but smile and open my memory box while ordering the latest version of his favorite game.

I can still see Aaron as a fourth grader riding his bike home from his neighborhood school. He and his sister were latchkey kids since I usually had longer teaching days whenever I was directing the school plays. The rule was they both had to call me the minute they arrived home. Then we could debate what they wanted to do or where to go. It was a different decade, and we lived in a very safe middle-class area. No judgments, please. Ilisa always wanted to go to her best friend’s house a block away. This was easy to agree to, and sometimes her friend would come over to our house with her mother’s permission. Again, a no-brainer. Aaron was different. He wanted to ride his bike to the gaming store a little further away, but still in the confines of our neighborhood. This would take some creative planning on my part to make sure I always knew where he was at all times. The owner of the gaming store knew Aaron and me very well. We were there many times a week. He was a good guy and loved talking to Aaron about the world of video gaming. He and I came up with a plan that allowed Aaron to call me when he left our house, when he arrived at the video store, when he left the store, and finally, when he arrived back home. This was before cell phones, so those landlines were all we, as parents, had to track our children. Primitive, right? But this plan worked perfectly all the time for as long as Aaron wanted to rent a new game during the school year. Thank goodness for kind people in this world and for my student assistant who would sit in my office to answer my phone while I was working on stage. Sometimes it does take a village. And the look of pride, independence, and pure joy on Aaron’s face when I came home each night was simply priceless and etched deep within my parenting soul. Gamers hold a special place in my heart even though it is truly not my thing.

In the 80s, Hollywood became enamored with all the infinite possibilities a computer could provide for hard-core gamers. Our society was fixated, and from this point forward, a darker side exploded with the introduction of hackers. These were game-minded people who took it to another level by exploring the challenge of getting into areas that were restricted to the general public. We have laws in place today to stop this onslaught from the darker side, but in 1983, there were no guardrails. This doesn’t mean every video gamer had the potential to become a hacker. They were few and far between back then, and they were mostly looking for the next thrill or a possible pathway to impress someone. The movie studios came up with a winner that shook the gaming industry and included every scenario a screenwriter could dream about, including a smart, nerdy teen, a cute, spunky girl, and an accidental, unthinkable hack into the world of global thermal warfare. Let the WARGAMES begin…

WARGAMES was nominated for three Oscars (Best Screenplay, Cinematography, and Sound). It did win a BAFTA for Best Sound. It had a relatively small budget of only $12 million and grossed worldwide just under $80 million. It was the first film to introduce the term firewall to the public, a word still scrutinized today in the AI world. The movie’s tagline is still relevant, “The only winning move is not to play.” This is such a concise way to phrase what current governments around our planet are grappling with in earnest. The name of the main computer, WOPR, was an inside joke that changed the letters from the original, BRGR, a real-life NORAD computer used to predict war strategies. WARGAMES tried to duplicate the incredible computer design for the movie by building it out of wood and spraying it with metallic paint. The price tag was a cool million, one of the most expensive sets of its time. NORAD refused to allow any cameras near the real thing. A smart move, and NORAD later did admit that the film’s version was much nicer and fancier.

The success of WARGAMES does rest on several shoulders. The ensemble of actors gathered was spot-on. Matthew Broderick as David was not a well-known actor. FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF came after. Broderick did his research, though, and worked for several months with “hackers” to teach and give his fingers the ability to fly across the keyboard. His lessons were learned well. Broderick enjoys ad-libbing at times and luckily was allowed to explore his tenacious, teenage geekiness to sheer perfection. He has a knack for allowing his puppy-dog eyes to shine through every moment with brilliant, subtle finesse. He always looks so innocent even when his character is being arrested at a real 7-Eleven convenience store in Big Bear, California. His downplayed sincerity and goofiness win over the audience every time.

Ally Sheedy (THE BREAKFAST CLUB), playing Jennifer, is the total opposite of David. She is the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type of personality. She is cute, energetic, and smarter than she looks, especially when it comes to street sense. The two of them were well cast. It is definitely a yin-yang relationship, but it did take close to three months for Sheedy to be offered the part after many callbacks. WARGAMES was a career-launching pad for both Broderick and Sheedy.

The entire ensemble fit well together and included the amazing acting skills of Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Barry Corbin, who improvised every one of his lines as the General. Wood’s character as Falken was modeled after the genius mind of Stephen Hawking, an authentic computer geek. Naming the computer Joshua pulled at every audience heartstring. Listening to the gentle banter between the creator and computer produced several emotional arcs even though Joshua spoke with a very monotone voice. It was all extremely well-planned, clever, and understated.

John Badham (SHORT CIRCUIT, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER) was the director. He knew the story he was determined to share on screen, and nothing less would do. His creativity shone brightly as he wove audiences through this intriguing dilemma of dangerous innocence. When he was denied access to the NORAD Command Center Tunnel, he took audiences in through another location in Griffith Park, California. Amazingly, it worked, just as well as when the jeep trying to enter the gates really caused an accident and crashed the vehicle. This was an “oops” moment that found its way into the final cut. His research took him far, and even though none of the locations were the real deal, audiences believed that they were sitting in the center of where the stakes are a DEFCON 4 and our world could be destroyed in the blink of an eye. Kudos to his ingenuity and magical imagination.

WARGAMES made me think about how easily life as we know it could end. It reinforced the point that our futures are at the mercy of the few or, worse yet, at the impersonal mind of a computer. The current news is full of warnings from those who hold the control, yet are currently asking for help and guidance so that humanity might live beyond this decade. These are terrifying times. They were then and still are today, which definitely makes WARGAMES a cyber, tech, computer classic. Even though years have passed, our planet is back in the 80s once again, trying to figure out if AI should slow down or speed to an unknowable future with major consequences. What to do… what to do. I watch Aaron’s four-year-old son as he is just beginning to game with his dad. Where will his generation take humanity? Will we learn and be mindful of this enormous responsibility? Perhaps every gamer should be required to review WARGAMES before it is too late.

WARGAMES is available on AMC.