WarGames (1983)

★ 7.1 1h 54m 2,127 votes IMDb

High school student David Lightman has a talent for hacking. But while trying to hack into a computer system to play unreleased video games, he unwittingly taps into the Department of Defense's war computer and initiates a confrontation of global proportions. Together with his friend and a wizardly computer genius, David must race against time to outwit his opponent and prevent a nuclear Armageddon.

WarGames

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Cast

Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick as David Lightman Age 64 · New York City, New York, USA Matthew Broderick (born March 21, 1962) is an American stage and screen actor. Broderick began acting in off-Broadway productions in the early 1980s, soon after landing a role in Neil Simon's Brighton...
Dabney Coleman
Dabney Coleman as McKittrick Died 2024 · Austin, Texas, USA Dabney Wharton Coleman (January 3, 1932 – May 16, 2024) was an American actor. Coleman's best known films include 9 to 5 (1980), On Golden Pond (1981), Tootsie (1982), WarGames (1983), Cloak & Dagger...
John Wood
John Wood as Stephen Falken Died 2011 · Derbyshire, England, UK John Wood (5 July 1930 – 6 August 2011) was an English stage and screen actor known for his distinguished career in both classical and contemporary theater. He was born on July 5, 1930, in Derbyshire,...
Ally Sheedy
Ally Sheedy as Jennifer Age 63 · New York City, New York, USA Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy (born June 13, 1962) is an American actress. Following her film debut in 1983's Bad Boys, she became known as one of the Brat Pack group of actors and starred in WarGames (1...
Barry Corbin
Barry Corbin as General Beringer Age 85 · Lamesa, Texas. USA Leonard Barrie Corbin (born October 16, 1940) is an American film and television actor. His is best known for his role as the pompous former astronaut Maurice Minnifield on Northern Exposure (1990–199...
Juanin Clay
Juanin Clay as Pat Healy Died 1995 · Los Angeles, California, USA ​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Juanin Clay (born Juanin Clay de Zalduondo; November 26, 1949 - March 12, 1995) was an American actress who appeared in the 1983 drama-thriller film WarGames. S...

Audience Reviews

John Chard 7/10 Apr 26, 2020
Wanna play Global Thermonuclear War?

It was with much interest to me to revisit this early 80s hacker piece armed with the knowledge of just how the advent of change in the computer world had evolved. With that in mind the film could quite easily be classed as a bit clunky due to the now almost Neanderthal toys, games and computers used in the movie, but casting aside the nostalgia feelings I had with it, it still hits the spot as both a poignant piece of interest, and a damn good thriller as well.

Matthew Broderick is David Lightman, a young computer gamer geek who is something of a whizz kid on the PC. He can change his school grades and hack into various sites he shouldn't be even looking at. During one eventful sitting he hacks into a computer called Joshua and plays a game called Global Thermonuclear War, he harmlessly chooses to be The Soviet Union and proceeds to launch a nuclear attack on his own country, the U.S.A. Trouble is, is that the game is for real and the wheels are in motion for World War III!.

It helps to remember the time this film was made (for those old enough of course), for it was the time of the ever worrying cloud of the Cold War, a time when nuclear war was more than a hearsay threat. I really think that in this day and age where computers literally do run our lives, this film stands up really well not only as a warning piece about messing with technology, but also as a gentle poke in the ribs about defence systems and the people we trust to run them. Though the film is a kind of watered down and accessible 2001: A Space Odyssey for the 80s set, it impacts well and only really suffers from a pointless romantic plot strand involving the sprightly Ally Sheedy (could they not just have been pals?) and the aforementioned dated gadgets. The ending to the film is excellent as the tension builds up nicely and we are left chewing our nails watching a game of Tic-Tac-Toe, sounds simple doesn't it? Not so.

Good honest and intelligent entertainment. 7.5/10
GenerationofSwine 10/10 Jan 13, 2023
Ally Sheedy, whatever happened to her. When I was a little kid, I mean REALLY little she was one of the few stars I could name...and then she disappeared save for a couple memorable appearances in Psych. It's a shame.

Anyway, my fiance is a Millennial and I've been trying to introduce her and her friends to some classic films. This one was a fail. They sat through it, but really only to mock the technology. Mocking things that are old for being old is kind of one of their favorite things.

So, despite that, the film made ripples in congress and the only other film that I recall doing that was JFK. It rewrote laws.

And, it was extremely entertaining in the process, despite the fact that Matthew looked like more of a push-over than a computer geek. Not that it matters, he still played the part of a teen pretty well.
CinemaSerf 7/10 Jun 20, 2025
When the young computer whizz-kid “David” (Matthew Broderick) is showing off to his girlfriend “Jennifer” (Ally Sheedy) about how he can improve her grades and book them on a first class trip to Paris, he inadvertently dials a telephone number that wants to play a game. A game of thermonuclear war! Next day, the news is full of stories about the mobilisation of American defence capabilities and his phone rings again. It’s the computer, it wants to play and he’s just a little terrified. Not so afraid as he is about to get, though, when the FBI turn up and next thing he is in a top secret facility trying to explain to boffin “McKittrick” just how he accidentally tapped into a computer system that now seems to be trying to start WWIII - and nobody knows how to stop it. Can he come up with a solution before the increasingly exasperated “Gen. Beringer” (Barry Corbin) goes to DEFCON 1 and obliterates the globe? It’s a good, solid, sci-fi entertainment this film with Broderick, Sheedy and Corbin on good form, but it also serves as quite a potent reminder that, just as with “The Forbin Project” (1970), the whole idea of automating our defences and letting computers do our thinking for us is fraught with danger. Logic is the ultimate in two-dimensional thinking for a machine. For anything more nuanced, balanced or sophisticated then believe it or not, you need a hormonal teenage boy and some very basic rational thinking.

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