WarGames

1983's WARGAMES was one of a handful of Hollywood films in its decade to feature a brilliant, yet underachieving teen who gets in over his head and nearly causes an international incident.  Actually, he nearly causes the end of the world.  Another such movie was the underwhelming THE MANHATTAN PROJECT, in which a kid steals plutonium from a factory and builds an atomic bomb to protest our "warmongering" government.   Blowing everyone up seems to be an effective, if permanent, method of voicing one's dissent.

And high schooler David Lightman, amiably played by Matthew Broderick, nearly does the same after hacking into a military supercomputer known as WOPR (War Operation Plan Response), which was designed to predict nuclear war outcomes.  But he only sought to change his (and that of his cute friend Jennifer, amiably played by Ally Sheedy) failing grade in biology.  Well, and also play some schoolboy pranks like booking tickets to France.  In his pursuit of online games, he taps into a mysterious, unidentified computer system and is stunned to find "Global Thermonuclear War" listed with checkers and chess.  Too tempting not to try that one.  It's detailed and fun, and in his game immersion he can't fathom that his strategic missile launches are interpreted by NORAD as a declaration of war by the Soviet Union.

David and Jennifer become scared shitless, understandably, when their games make the evening news. Lightman begins an investigation that leads to the now retired and reclusive (to say nothing of batty) genius named Falken (John Wood) who many years earlier created "Joshua", a program within WOPR.  But not before the FBI nab David for suspected espionage, and his rather tense meetings with NORAD engineers (including Dabney Coleman, in slightly less asshole mode than usual) and military officials who are skeptical of all this technology.

WARGAMES sounds like it could be a deadly serious thriller, and perhaps original director Martin Brest intended such, but replacement John Badham creates a light, endlessly entertaining popcorn nailbiter that nonetheless delivers some real chills.  Back in the '80s, we all believed this scenario could come to pass.  Myself and many of my friends used to discuss the plausibility of it all.  The Cold War, even in its waning days, was scary stuff.  Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes' script riffs on those themes, and films like FAIL SAFE.  Updated to the generation that spent hours trying to best games like Centipede and Galaga.

The teens in this movie seem to be the only sane ones in the bunch.  All the adults act foolish in one way or another.  Everyone from David's parents to top government officials. As Leonard Maltin theorized, maybe this movie was so popular with youth because all the adults in it are "boobs".  Maybe Badham was trying to make a statement here, that they were all burned out from the '60s and '70s.  Look at Falken, for cryin' out loud.  Maybe the artificial intelligence he created robbed him of his soul.  Maybe this movie isn't so dated after all.