These days, we are discussing whether artificial intelligence will take over the world at every corner and living with cyber security crises; Here we go on a time journey towards the glorious, neon-lit and floppy disk-filled origins of all these subjects in cinema. Fasten your seatbelts, because it’s from 1983 WarGames, opens the doors of a naive but dangerous era of the cyber world for us.
Behind you from Tears for Fears Everybody Wants to Rule the WorldOpen up , and let’s take a closer look at why we love this escapist classic.
“Want to Play Global Thermonuclear War?”
A young, sympathetic character stars in the leading role. Matthew Broderick There is (David Lightman). David is a genius high school student who only wants to change his school grades or play early games that have not yet been released, with his primitive computer and dial-up modem (IMSAI 8080), which were considered a luxury for that period, in his room. But one day, he infiltrates a mysterious system in the hope of finding new games. He chooses the most attractive one from the list of games: Global Thermonuclear War.
David explains that while he was trying to fire nuclear missiles and wipe the Soviet Union off the map, he wasn’t actually playing a game, the Pentagon was WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) He does not realize that the artificial intelligence he named and entrusted with the control of nuclear missiles is connected to him. What was a fun simulation for David means World War III literally begins on the Pentagon screens!
Aesthetics in the Infancy of Technology
wargamesWatching today is like walking through the sacred lands of cyber culture and geekdom. Those gigantic cathode tube monitors in the movie, the clicking of floppy disks, those primitive “phreaking” scenes where the phone handset is placed on the modem are a visual feast.
Instead of showing technology as a cold and dark monster, the film blends it with the dim light in a teenager’s room and creates a wonderfully warm and adventurous atmosphere. Back to the FutureThe excitement and feeling of “anything is possible” in the first moment when Marty McFly connects the guitar to Doc’s huge amplifier is exactly present in the scenes where David sits in front of his computer in this movie.
What makes the movie more than just a nostalgia train is the accuracy of its subtext. The fact that Pentagon officials handed over the red button of the missiles to WOPR by saying “Humans make mistakes, let’s leave the decisions to artificial intelligence” is so familiar in the world where we are discussing ChatGPT and military artificial intelligence today! This happened recently during the Iran-US war. The film puts the human factor, empathy, and most importantly, the ability to “take a step back” against mechanization in a very sweet way.
The famous epiphany that WOPR reached by playing tic-tac-toe (sauce game) with himself at the end of the movie is probably one of the best endings in the history of cinema:
“It’s a strange game. The only way to win is to not play at all.”
Conclusion
If you want to get away from troubles and worries and feel the pure, naive but fast-paced adventure spirit of the 80s in your veins wargames It’s exactly the medicine you’re looking for. It is neither a complete dystopia nor an empty youth movie; A geek legacy that lays the foundations of cyber-culture and will make you dance in your room with its soundtracks.
Turn off your screens now (or make sure you don’t trigger a cyberwar) and be sure to give this classic a try.
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