WarGames

Plot

In the film, a hacker (Broderick) equipped with a 1970s vintage IMSAI microcomputer and modem (connected to the telephone by an acoustic coupler), inadvertently gains access to the NORAD military artificial intelligence computer system, called WOPR¹, that controls the United States' arsenal of ICBMs.

Related Topics:
Hacker - 1970s - IMSAI - Microcomputer - Modem - Acoustic coupler - NORAD - Artificial intelligence - WOPR - United States - ICBM

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The teenager, under the impression that he has hacked into a gaming software manufacturer's computer database and unaware of the machine's real purpose, discovers what he believes to be a simulation video game called "Global Thermonuclear War" and begins to "play." Unbeknownst to him, WOPR sets in motion preparations for a real attack against the Soviet Union. With the aid of Stephen W. Falken (the machine's creator), disaster is narrowly averted when they visit Norad's Cheyenne Mountain headquarters and manage to teach WOPR about the futility of war by getting it to play endless drawn games of tic-tac-toe against itself which segue into cycles through all the nuclear war strategies that WOPR has devised. WOPR then learns that "the only winning move is not to play."

Related Topics:
Thermonuclear - War - Soviet Union - Cheyenne Mountain - Tic-tac-toe - Nuclear war - The only winning move is not to play

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