One to Add to Your Collection - "WarGames"

It seems like eons ago when movies were released that tapped into the Cold War hysteria.  It was the one facet of the 80s that was not too pleasurable.  There were never any major conflicts going on, but we were constantly reminded that the Soviets were the bad guys and at any minute, they could go ape crazy.  Or even that we could inadvertently prompt them too if we had some over ambitious hackers.

The start of "WarGames" immediately set the stage for tension to come.  Two Airmen operating a missile silo have a warning go off which starts the procedure for them to launch their nuclear missile.  It would mean the start of WWIII.  One of the Airmen is determined to do his job while the other isn't certain it's not just a drill. 

The producers let us know right from the beginning that the human element can be unpredictable.  Because you know...computers, which are built and programmed by humans, are just so much more reliable.

They made hacking look so easy in this flick.  Then again, most movies about hacking always seem to do that.  Matthew Broderick as the boy genius David Lightman worked his computer as if anyone could do it.  Especially when he found a way to get into his school computer and change his grades.  I was only 13 at the time, but don't think I wasn't thinking about looking into that possibility when I would eventually get into high school.  I still made the honor roll without that, but I'm just saying it had a lot of students thinking.

Broderick did this one three years before his eventual classic "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" would kick of his comedy career in movies.  That hit overshadowed his potential as a terrific dramatic actor that "WarGames" had showed.  It's interesting because the same thing could be said for Dabney Coleman.  The both of them would eventually demonstrate they had impeccable comedic timing; however, their dramatic flair is what helped make "WarGames" an excellent film. 

What "WarGames" did was effectively represent what would happen if we depended too much on computers.  There is always the talk of human error that could lead to war.  Perhaps someone would get to emotional.  This flick took it the other way and explained how a computer could make an even bigger mistake.  It became yet another movie that put us on the brink of WWIII in the 80s.  Thank goodness the movies are as close as we ever came.