In 'WarGames', high school student David Lightman, a computer prodigy, accidentally hacks into a U.S. military supercomputer while searching for new video games. Mistaking reality for a game, he triggers a countdown to World War III and must work with his girlfriend and the reclusive creator of the game to prevent nuclear annihilation.
The eccentric high-concept thriller — a teenage hacker nearly starts WWIII — that made computers feel like both toy and doomsday device.
A 14-year-old hacks NORAD and almost ends the world; a generation grew up understanding that the line between play and apocalypse was a phone line. Every kid bought a modem after this.
The movie predicted the dangers of artificial intelligence and hacking, both of which are prevalent in today's society.
Badham's film about a teenage hacker and a nuclear war simulator is also the most prescient line in 1980s cinema: the only winning move is not to play. The technology has not heeded.
