Wargames: or How I learned to Worry About Dropping the Bomb

Wargames: or How I learned to Worry About Dropping the Bomb

John Badham’s Wargames is not only a box office hit, but also a critically successful film and socially important film that unmasks the hacker process while also giving the audience a lesson in nuclear warfare and adolescence.  Wargames is undoubtedly rooted clearly in post-modernism with references to Kubrick’s classic Dr. Strangelove. 

             In a new world where technological breakthroughs in digital control; hackers had the potential to bring any company, government or individual in to complete submission.  Wargames, in 1983 had in fact shown the new realities of a potential new world war because of what a single hacker could do with malcontent or carelessness.  The film scares reality in to its audience about potential cyber-attacks the United States could be facing.  As Stephanie Ricker Schulte references in her article The Wargames Scenario: Regulating Teenagers and Teenaged Technology, even the United States Congress addressed the issues of computer hacking in various subcommittees.  The film’s protagonist David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) shows the audience not only to dial in to the internet, but also how a hacker could inadvertently hack in to a defense system and unintentionally cause World War Three.  Personally, I know next to nothing about hacking or advanced computer tricks, so to see it on-screen not only allowed me to see the ease in attacking someone through cyber warfare it also leads me to question whether or not I am safe from these attacks.  I honestly became one of the film’s target recipients of the simple theme of safety. 

            Clearly demonstrated in Wargames is the difference between youth and adult.  As a paradigm in many teenage angst films the kid is always right and adults are stupid.  There really is not much difference in Wargames, only this time it is not about a stupid argument pertaining to going on a trip or to a rock concert, this time it is about nuclear holocaust.  Technically the problem was in fact caused by three kids, David, his “girlfriend,” Jennifer Mack, and the aptly named computer Joshua.  The computer Joshua who had begun the games is named after the son of the first adult to trust in the youths, Dr. Falken.  Throughout the film David Lightman and (Ally Sheedy) endure intense persecution from the authority figures of the film only to come back and prove that the kids had the solution the entire time if the adults had bothered to listen.  This demonstrates the ignorance of the parents to the idea that kids can fix their own mistakes if they are granted the opportunity in doing so.  As well as using teenage angst to drive the film, Wargames also pays homage to its nuclear predecessor Dr. Strangelove.  

            It is hardly unnoticeable if you have seen Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove to not notice certain similarities in Wargames.  The first one being in disconnect and pure ignorance and idiocy that the Government’s share in terms of nuclear consequences.  As portrayed in both films the central Governments do not have the foresight to look beyond immediate consequences and goals in destroying the opposition.  By not realizing this and condemning the world to nuclear holocaust reality sets in for the audience.  Another similarity comes in the setting of most of the picture.  Dr. Strangelove and Wargames both share the main set piece of the film, being the war room.  It is in the war room that most of the debauchery takes place.  It has become the setting of one of the greatest lines in cinematic history being “Gentlemen you can’t fight in here this is the war room.”  This line is actually similarly referenced where a military official that he couldn’t run inside the war room, suggesting that information should be handled calmly and without transparency.  One of the last homages I noticed came in character to similarity to Dr. Strangelove’s Major TJ “King” Kong, played by Slim Pickens.  This character is iconically remembered for riding a nuclear bomb to his death.  Picken’s character is nearly mirrored in General Beringer as both characters are southern war hawks that are hell bent on launching nuclear weapons for the safety of their own country.  The irony being that launching a nuclear war head would actually be the leading event causing their country’s downfall.

            As hackers have charted a seemingly uncharted world during the 1980’s in the internet, it can be seen the dangers of irresponsibility and danger hacking can put the world in.  Similarly to the imminent danger Dr. Strangelove portrays at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis between John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, similarities can be seen in the 1980’s as Ronald Reagan and Yuri Andropov once again threaten nuclear war.  Wargames, is a film that at the peak of nuclear tension between Cold War contenders the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics we are reminded of the potential outbreak and disaster of nuclear war.  Stephanie Ricker Schulte says “The film positioned the establishment as unprepared and ignorant, placing nongovernmental individuals as the world’s saviors, the only ones able to use technology for good.”