Is it a game, or is it real?

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, Ally Sheedy, Barry Corbin, Juanin Clay, Kent Williams, Dennis Lipscomb

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ - great

"Mr. McKittrick, after very careful consideration, sir, I've come to the conclusion that your new defense system sucks." – Gen. Beringer

Why watch this? If computers can ever do this, we ALL need to be concerned!

Plot Summary: A young computer whiz kid accidentally hacks into a top-secret military supercomputer while searching for new video games. Unbeknownst to him, he begins playing a realistic game of Global Thermonuclear War with the government's program. He must then race against time to convince the authorities, and the computer, that he was just playing a game.
 

Dad's Preview: As the cold war droned on in the 1980's, fear of nuclear war was the subject of a lot media. This film took that possibility to a potential (and quite scary) end. The USA's missiles are all controlled by a massive central computer (called WOPR). The system suddenly goes to Def-Con 4, people start scrambling to determine what the hell is going on. The culprit is a bright teen who hacked to the system, and thought he was playing a video game. WOPR considers it to be real. If you are looking for a reason why modern AI is bad - THIS IS IT!

United Artists, Sherwood Prod.; MGM/UA Entertainment Co.