An intelligent, computer whiz teen, thinking he's hacking into a computer company's system, accidentally hacks into a govt. computer that controls the nation's nuclear weapons.
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The computer has the ability to think and learn.
The teen thinks he's playing a war game, but the computer thinks its real.
The military believes they're under attack by Russia. They brace for impact and prepare to retaliate.
The teen finds the scientist that created the computer and they convince the general that its not real and not to launch the missiles.
When the attack doesn't happen, the computer arms the missiles and prepares to launch them.
The teen makes the computer play tic-tac-toe against itself. The computer learns that there's no way to win. The computer then plays out every possible war scenario and learns that there's no way to win that either.
The computer learns that nobody wins a nuclear war. It shuts down the missiles and ends the war game.
The review of this Movie prepared by BRANDON SWENSON
Matthew Broderick's high school antics this time are light years ahead of Ferris Bueller's. To impress his classmate Jennifer (Sheedy), David Lightman (Broderick) remotely raises her English grade to “A” in an instant. Then he makes plane reservations to France. As a 1983 computer hacker, he can have this kind of fun long before graphical interfaces and Pentium chips.
Bored, he begins a game of “Global Thermonuclear Warfare” which is supposed to simulate the “chess game” mentality which might initiate war with the Soviets. But when he inadvertently back-doors the Pentagon, their mainframes take it seriously and issue alerts high enough to land David in federal custody. He fails to convince General McKittrick (Coleman) that it's not for real, as the general asks, “who do you know in Paris” and “why don't I believe you?”
When David escapes, he and Jennifer realize the only person who can stop this is the reclusive Dr. Falken who wrote the actual program. The pair have little time to deduce his whereabouts before the attacks begin.
The review of this Movie prepared by Angry Jim Magin
David Lightman (Broderick) is an underachieving teen in Seattle -- a good video gamer and computer nut, but not doing well in school. One day he accidentally hacks into the mainframe computer at NORAD (the national missile defense facility in the Colorado Rockies) and, thinking he's playing another game, sets the computer off on a several-day exercise to determine how to win a global thermonuclear war. The military and computer people at NORAD (headed by a fairly straight Coleman and Barry Corbin doing a crusty general) believe an attack is really underway -- once, twice, maybe more -- while David and his friend Jennifer (winsome Ally Sheedy) attempt to make up for his mistake and locate the computer's inventor, Stephen Falken -- reportedly deceased. This 1983 movie's premise and clunky depiction of computer technology have not worn well with time, but the acting and basic anti-war message make for decent entertainment.
The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
