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 playin 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.