WAR GAMES (1983) MOVIE REACTION - FIRST TIME WATCHING - STILL RELEVANT!

Welcome to our first time watching War Games (1983).
Wow, this film still packs a punch! Even though it was made over forty years ago, it remains modern and the actual story still feels contemporary. Great thriller with serious message. Written by Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes and Walon Green. Directed by John Badham, starring Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy and John Wood.
Still important. Hacking, the threat of world war and machine learning are extremely topical today and this film addresses it all. Great script, production and performances. Hope you enjoy our reactions, commentary and discussion as we watch it for the first time. It hits well.
#wargames #firsttime #moviereaction #reaction #moviereactionvideos #reactionvideo #worldwar3
This video is for commentary, reactions and criticism only and is not a replacement for watching War Games. Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. All rights belong to their respective owners.

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

We hope you enjoy this Reaction Video. It’s a powerful film. It hit us both, the message is clear and done in a subtle way. Thank you so much for the suggestion. Today, we live in world where war, computer hacking and machine learning are very very contemporary. This film (technology aesthetic aside) and storyline still feels fresh and poignant. It’s still a very important film. We hope you enjoy our reactions.

[@robertcampomizzi7988]

Edit : I was corrected below. 6:42 there was a Russian sub commanfer that averted a true real life launch becauae he wanted confirmation. Luckily he was right. Stanislav Petrov was his name.

[@mylefteye4180]

Have you done Time Bandits yet? Should be right up his street.

[@iKvetch558]

@@robertcampomizzi7988 The guy on the sub during the Cuban Missile Crisis was Vasily Arkhipov...and he was not the commander of the sub, he was technically the commander of the sub's commander...Stanislav Petrov was the Soviet air defense guy that decided not to act on what turned out to be a false alarm of incoming US missiles in 1983.

[@robertcampomizzi7988]

@brudnick39 you're right. I should have kept reading. I thought that I got the name on the first search.

[@TheMikeman1971]

I took my grandmas cigarette money any played in the arcade one day ! Lol . I loved those arcade days !

[@AlanCanon2222]

I'm 55 now, my dad is 90, and because of this film, I bet he still wishes I didn't have a modem.

[@GaryTulacz]

This film had a huge impact on the computer world. It popularized the term "hacker" for computer nerds. But more important is that it resulted in the U.S. government taking the first steps in safeguarding its computer systems from penetration by outside foreign agents hackers, who had been dismissed as not a problem. U.S. President Reagan authorized a whole new system to study and implement computer security safeguards after he saw this movie.

[@minty_Joe]

Sadly, it wasn't until 1986 that computer security was truly taken seriously. Check out a book, "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Clifford Stoll. It's a true story of how the author discovered an intruder on the computers at Lawrence Berkeley Labs. It took a year chasing him down, finding out he was from Hanover, Germany and collecting data to sell to the Soviet KGB. The intruder was also breaking into several places run by the 3 letter agencies and various national defence locations.

[@minty_Joe]

If you get a chance, check out a book, "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Clifford Stoll. It's a true story about how he discovered an intruder while working at Berkeley, and after a year chasing him, found out he was in Germany and selling secrets to the Soviet KGB.

[@machfront]

“The only winning move is not to play.” Amen!!!!

[@TesseRact7228]

Only because "Joshua" was told to use "tic-tac-toe" as the "model" for the game. If the "model" for the game was "chess" there would have been a far different outcome...

[@manofsan]

That was 1983 - this is 40 years later - we're much smarter now! (gulp)

[@minty_Joe]

@@TesseRact7228 lol, chess is for nerds 🤓. 🤣🤣🤣

[@minty_Joe]

@@manofsan "I have seen the enemy and it is us." ~ Pogo (Walt Kelly)

[@TesseRact7228]

@@minty_Joe Tic-Tac-Toe is for nincompoops.

[@domcoke]

I saw this film when I was your son's age at the time. And I'm your age now. It was fascinating for you to watch this, because I have often thought how accurate and cutting edge it was over the years - I remember having my mind blown that computers were able to connect to other computers over the phone line... and within a decade the internet was here. I was pleased to see that what is ostensibly a kids' film - and one from the 80s - still has a punch. I think it's beautiful that you're sharing this experience with your son, and I'm going to think about what films may be good for you to share.

[@pacio49]

Galaga was a next generation improvement on the Space Invaders game type. I personally spent hundreds of dollars one quarter at a time either at the arcade, or more nearby to my house, at a local diner that had just the one Galaga game out in their lobby next to the cigarette vending machine. And we pronounce it GAL-a-gah. Insect based space invaders glow up, one of the queen types would come down and send down rays to try and capture your ship. If you had another life left, you could let the queen capture your ship, and if you later shot the queen who was dragging your old ship behind her, then you got your old ship back, stuck on the side of your current ship. You were 2x as wide but you fired twice the spread of missiles so you could do some major damage with the double combo. And the bonus screens... if you knew the patterns they would fly in, you could shoot every single enemy in the bonus round where they'd just fly by and not fire at you. By the time I turned 15 I could make one quarter last me hours of play on Galaga. Of course, by then we had consoles and first gen PCs like my old Commodore 64. Yeah, old man here now. Anyway if you get the chance to find a redo of the old vintage game, take it. Galaga is hours of fun and frustration. And thank you both for the lovely channel concept. I'm enjoying your reactions. And how great to spend quality time with your child exploring media together, using the opportunity to talk about history and life lessons together, father and son. And by sharing it with us you're also creating a library of memories together for your son to treasure through his life. Score the W, dad.

[@Whateva67]

Man,Galaga was my go to game in the arcade,also loved Tempest. I miss the old days.

[@georgemartin1436]

It was our job to keep quarters in circulation.

[@richardvinsen2385]

My game was Defender. I spent so much time and money playing that game. I loved it so much I bought a vintage arcade unit about 20 years ago. I haven’t played it for a while. I’ll fire it up again after the movie’s over.

[@Whateva67]

@@richardvinsen2385 yeah Defender was my 2nd go to game, dropped many quarters in that one in the early 80s😄

[@jasonregister4895]

Also a movie called cloak and dagger is a good movie

[@_Majoras]

always preferred cloak and dagger

[@handsomestik]

oh yes Cloak and Dagger!!!! great pick

[@phillipridgway8317]

When this film was released hardly anyone knew about hacking. After this film many thousands took it up as a hobby! The US President at the time, after watching this film, asked whether it was actually possible to hack into the defense system, and was told it was theoretically possible by his experts!

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

Wow that’s good to know

[@craigmartin3827]

I saw WAR GAMES at the cinema when I was 13 and I remember having fun yet also feeling unsettled. There were quite a lot of films like this around at the time and some of the were downright terrifying (THREADS, THE DAY AFTER, RED DAWN, TESTAMENT) but Badham’s film stood out because its concept was kind of indirect and quite novel. Two really great films released in the 80s about the ethics of war and are equally as novel as WARS GAMES are nerdy teen comedy REAL GENIUS with Val Kilmer, and a film about a rumoured attack that spreads like wildfire, called MIRACLE MILE with Anthony Edwards. Other films from the 80s I think you’d love watching together as father and son are: FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR and D.A.R.Y.L.

D.A.R.Y.L. would be really, really good.

[@fllthdcrb]

A few things about technical details in this movie: * The device David uses to connect his phone to the computer is a kind of modem called an acoustic coupler. That's fine. People did use those things. Except they were pretty much obsolete even back in 1983, not least because their acoustic nature severely limited their bandwidth. This is not the only '80s movie to feature one; another was _Honey, I Shrunk the Kids_ from 1989 (well, not so much featured as just shown very briefly). I don't know why filmmakers seemed to like them. But of course, it's hardly the only bit of anachronistic tech. * Early microcomputers did indeed have options for speech synthesis, whether in software or hardware. The Imsai 8080 that is featured had at least one hardware module for this, although it didn't sound as good as what you hear in the movie (it's completely monotone and kind of hard to understand). This is all well and good. But that voice ends up taking on the role of the voice of Joshua, and for some reason it starts being heard everywhere that Joshua is communicating, despite the fact it was specifically shown to be part of the equipment attached to David's computer only. So this is a departure from reality. It's obvious why they did it from a filmmaking perspective, but it's still unrealistic. * The practice of dialing a whole bunch of phone numbers in an area in order to find computers to connect to was a real thing, which already existed (however, it wouldn't have been possible with an acoustic coupler, which has the ability neither to dial nor to hang up the line). But after this movie came out, it started to be known as "war dialing". And when Wi-fi became common enough, people started walking or driving through areas while picking up the Wi-fi signals in order to map them out, which is called "war walking" and "war driving". That says a lot about the movie's pop culture influence.

[@minty_Joe]

Turns out, the voice synthesis is John Wood's (Dr. Falken) voice digitized into an Apple II computer. He spoke each word (in backwards order) and then the computer would play it back, which then got recorded to tape.

[@JamesLMason]

I read somewhere that the film producers were denied access to NORAD during filming so they had to make up what the facility looked like. It turned out that they made it far more advanced and futuristic than the reality was.

[@robertcampomizzi7988]

13:51 its a "mo-ped". It's closer to a Vespa than a motorcycle

[@FrancisXLord]

John Badham suggestion: Short Circuit (1986) - also stars Ally Sheedy. I would advise Blue Thunder (1983), Stakeout (1987) and Nick of Time (1995) but your son is a little young for them. Maybe in a few years time.

[@MitchClement-il6iq]

The hard way with James woods michael fox !

[@jtoland2333]

Terminator, Tombstone, The Neverending Story, Roadhouse, Brian's Song, Beverly Hills Cop, A Christmas Story, Meatballs, Turner & Hooch, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Dead Poets Society, Ghostbusters, (ofcourse!), Liar Liar, Back to the Future..... And that's all I have for now.

[@minty_Joe]

RIP Dabney Coleman (Dr. John McKittrick).

[@DB-zp9un]

aw man, I missed that somehow.. Bummer.

[@wheelmanstan]

This is like an 80's version of the 1960's Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe films, two amazing must see films.

[@texaspatriot4215]

Your son is a smart young man, really enjoy your reactions.

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

Thanks mate!

[@cathyf6156]

Two movies I loved as a kid in the 80s were Cloak and Dagger and Space Camp. I highly recommend them. I love your reactions!

[@DavidRomigJr]

I recall others saying that this movie was so accurate and realistic that the government wondered how the writers knew so much, and when the president saw the movie and asked if is possible for someone to break in like this and was told yes it effected change in how things were done.

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

Wow

[@lilsammywasapunkrock]

You have to remember, the Internet as we know it did not exist in the 70's or 80's. It really wasn't until the mid 90's that computers were really affordable enough for the average person to even own. Rather than a world wide connection, you essentially had direct from one computer to another. These computers were often the size of rooms and were only really owned by universities and the military. The hardware itself was so expensive and knowledge on how to operate a computer was so limited, there really wasn't much need for security. This was still mostly true in the early 1990's. A common thing to do in "hacker groups" was to robo dial, as David was doing in the movie, sometimes called war dialing. Most people who could afford a computer had a ton of money, and many had little to no training on how to use them. Often you would have a dedicated line installed specifically for the computer. That way the rest of the house could still use the land line. When I first started out (I was born in 1987 to a pretty technical family), my father had an "internet phone book". It was a list of every website on the Internet that you could access. Pictures were really rare, of any sort, because they took up so much more room then text, and over the slow connections, a moderately sized picture could take an hour or more to load up. My father had a "NASA" CD full of images. It had a ton of the best pictures taken by NASA, and was in a digital format that could be loaded into a computer. For years I had the coolest background images. You could not really "search" things online, the search engine had not been invented yet. It really was a different time to be growing up in.

[@dimonix6988]

Mutual assured destruction. There is no winner.

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

Mutual Assured Destruction = MAD.

[@user-eg6no7vm1u]

Another great hacker film is “Sneakers” from 1992. All-star cast. If you liked War Games, I highly recommend this film.

[@minty_Joe]

Also directed by John Badham, who directed WarGames.

[@Jmiranda70]

Being a young kid growing up in the 80’s these kinds of movies played up the threat of nuclear war especially with the cold war still going on. It put a lot of fear in me that WWIII could happen at any moment back then

[@klarthailerion]

A few suggestions from different genres that were all released around the same time: Real Genius (1985). Another Cold War movie era movie, but maybe a little more light-hearted, co-starring a young Val Kilmer. Less well known than Short Circuit, apparently. The Last Starfighter (1984). Outer space, action, and some more arcade game nostalgia. Clue (1985). A whodunnit murder mystery based on the board game. Made in the 80s but set in the 50s. What a great cast. Very quotable. The Goonies, Ferris, Clue, Real Genius, and The Princes Bride are five great ones that my family still loves to watch. You've already done the first two. You'll want to watch the other three eventually.

[@blackscreenrelaxation9463]

You guys edit these videos so well. So much better than most others.

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

Thank you! They take a while to make

[@GaryHayesYT]

@@GenerationMediaReaction Dying to know how getting the film footage into the reactions so we see you both watching the part at the same time...

[@Andy-ju8bb]

The Neverending Story and Space Camp were two of my favourites when I was around your son’s age.

[@jefferoni1984]

Oh Space Camp would be a fun watch for them!

[@shilohauraable]

This is one of my all time favorite classic movies! I hope they never remake this movie. It's perfect the way it is. ❤

[@MichaelJShaffer]

I loved how it hit you at the end of the film. I'm assuming that had a lot to do with you being a father now. Growing up, I was in 3rd grade when this film came out, and the threat from the USSR and the Cold War was a real thing for us. Watch the TV movie The Day After. Tangentially relevant to this.

[@AlphaLimaXray]

I was a couple years older, when this film came out. Saw it in the theater with my family. Genuine thrills and a very frightening concept. This was during one of the heights of the Cold War, with a terrifying arms race underway. It's sad to see a lot of this fear, aggression and warmongering has returned to our international discourse (mostly on the Russian side). "The Day After," which debuted as a TV movie the same year as WarGames, was shown without commercials on network TV. My parents strenuously forbade my sister and me from watching it, because they were concerned it would really mess with us. I was grateful they did that when I finally saw it on cable as an older teen. A very well done and truly devastating film.

[@Dreamfox-df6bg]

'The Day After', 'When the Wind blows', 'Grave of the Fireflies' and 'Barefoot Gen' are all movies from the same category I know off and probably will never watch.

[@leedaniels1468]

That's exactly what I was going to say when you have kids the thought of nuclear war is terrifying, and yet our leaders keep pushing and pushing us to the brink ..madness.

[@phoenixrising2430]

Dabney Coleman was also in a 1984 film entitled, Cloak & Dagger. He plays two different characters in the movie. However, the main character is played by Henry Thomas. He was probably one of the best child actors at the time.

[@maggieellis2303]

It hit me a bit at the end there, too. I saw this movie shortly after it came out, but I was too young to really understand it as well as I do now. Quite beautiful.

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

It's subtle but powerful

[@adamn7516]

I was about your sons age when I saw this in theater. It was the talk of the school the week it came out. Love to chance for your kid to experience the films I did at his age. Not sure if I mentioned this on another one of your videos but another great film to check is the 1984 movie Cloak and Dagger. The lead character is a kid your sons age who gets caught up in espionage. It's actually a somewhat serious spy movie rather than a kiddy comedy so more than enjoyable for tweens, teens and adults.

[@scottfrenz]

Yes Cloak and Dagger was a cool flick

[@minty_Joe]

The first scene of the movie with the facade over the missile silo base features actors Michael Madsen, John Spenser and Art LaFleur. Art is the guy in glasses and John is the operator who took his hand off the launch key.

[@emotionalideas]

Saw this film at a fairly small Academy screening in Beverly Hills about 2 weeks before it's release. Broderick was there. Great night and great movie.

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

oh wow !

[@isuckatguitar6252]

This was one of the films we liked so much we bought it on VHS. Was really interesting 'cause back then not many people had computers, we didn't have a computer in our household until the 1990's...years after this movie came out. 80's movies just hit differently - a golden age of cinema.

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

Glad you like this. Its interesting how each decade gives a particular flavour of filmmaking. The 70s and 80s have their own feel, definitely

[@niepieisme9830]

The Rocketeer 1991, Larger Than Life 1996, I like both these movies a lot and have not seen them in years. I think you would enjoy watching them.

[@AddSerious]

funny way to look at this movie, Falken programed Joshua to play games. But he programed chess, checkers etc to allow you to play against the computer. But when he made the code for the "War games" he set it up to play itself only. So, when Likeman started the war game the computer ADDED the other players in. It was a flaw in Falkens original programing that caused all the mess, if he had put in a what to do if a person wants to control one side the system would had responded properly and no one would had known he was even in the system at all.

[@timmooney7528]

Instead of an actual digitally generated voice, the voice of Joshua is actually done by the actor playing Dr Falken. They added ring modulation and other effects to make it sound computer generated.

[@wendywoodruff2871]

The two guys in the missile launch - the one who didnt turn the key was on West Wing and LA Law. The other one is a young Michael Madsen before he was so wicked in Reservoir Dogs. Don't know if y'all have watched Red Dawn yet but it would go well with War Games.❤

[@robertcampomizzi7988]

1:23 You should watch " Dr. Strangelove or : How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb". It has a very young James Earl Jones in it.

[@mlee6050]

As son said accidentally fire one, thought you like to hear in a submarine they had option to fire a nuke but all three need to agree, thanks to one refusing it preventing starting a war happening

[@jtoland2333]

I've lived in and around Seattle since 1997, and it's so weird to see how empty thw skyline is in this movie! To really appreciate this movie, you had to have lived during the Cold War era. It was a strange time to grow up because it was optimistic yet the fear of annihilation at any moment was ever present. And though we don't talk about nuclear war much now, the threat has not gone away. So although the technology is outdated, the message isn't.

[@gordonwittmann9823]

I'm sure others have mentioned this, but your emotional reaction to the climax of the film was so touching. The 80s were such a scary time (for nuclear war) and a film like this has such a powerful message wrapped up in a very entertaining thriller. I was so impressed by how hard it hit you. I was a child in the 80s and I often wondered how my parents were not paralyzed by fear constantly. Things are still frightening, but this great little film is a reminder of what's at stake for all of us. Thanks for the fantastic reaction, both of you!

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

It caught us off guard !

[@user-gn2wp8wp2i]

The British actors provide a lot of emotion and suspense in American films. Love the British and the Yanks❤ ….from New Zealand.

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

thank you! I hear people from New Zealand make 'ok' films ! ;-)

[@shag139]

The Manhattan Project is another good Cold War teen movie.

[@schroedingers_kotze]

Great reaction again. “War Games” has aged surprisingly well and the topic is still much more relevant than one would have expected a few years ago. I don't know if the suggestion suits you because the film is German and you would probably have to watch it with subtitles, but the film "23" (1998) takes place around the same time and deals with a similar topic, but in a completely different way (it's about a real German hacker in the 80s against the backdrop of the Cold War).

[@positivelynegative9149]

Nice to see a father & son project. 👍

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

Thanks 👍

[@lorispiro-pioggia4289]

You have to watch back to the future. It’s great. You both will love it

[@josephdoyle9865]

MOVIE RECOMMENDATION: Smokey and the Bandit. Super fun guy movie and something is Gen X kids know by heart.

[@GaryHayesYT]

Would love to see a Gen Z reaction is.

[@ispamforfood]

I bet your son would really like "The Wizard" (1989) with Fred Savage... I have fond memories of watching that movie when I was young. 🙂

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

Also featuring Luke Edwards, one of the great child actors of the era. He went on to star in *Little Big League* (1994), and had an important role in the original movie version of Disney's *Newsies* (1992).

[@carlosspeicywiener7018]

God I miss phone phreaking. My trick was a recording of the coins going into the phone. I would play it into the mouthpiece and it would trick the phone into giving me that credit. There were other methods, like the steel pull tab arcing the circuit or there was even a toy whistle that would fool the phone into giving you free long distance. But my method had a second benefit, at the end of your call, you could get money out of the phone because it would think it owed you the change from your call. The 80s were a very special time.

[@greeneyesinfl9954]

Always love your reviews and your relationship I wish my dad was like that when I was a kid 😊🙏

[@user-ny1ji3vw6y]

Good job, guys! I remember seeing this in the theater 40 years ago, early in my professional career. I don't recall exactly but I suspect it yielded the same conclusion as you drew: no matter what we see, what we hear, what government tells us, common sense tells us nuclear war yields no winners.

[@susannariera]

When I was a teenager I had my "Matthew Broderick's trilogy": War Games, Ferris Bueler and LadyHawke, with Michelle Pfeiffer and John Wood (who played Falken in War Games). Hope you watch this one too!

[@marezesim8119]

not sure what country you are in but USA it is called LadyHawk LOVE that movie

[@susannariera]

@@marezesim8119 I know, I edited the comment...🤔

[@bmatt2626]

Project X?

[@susannariera]

@@bmatt2626 Project X is cool, but LadyHawke...♥️.

[@jamesfalato4305]

As far as I can see, the only "real slip" in the film was that early-on when Matthew Broderick disconnected the phone from the modem-coupler, the communication-line was cutoff and Joshua wouldn't be able to communicate with him as it did... Otherwise, it's a very good job with the storyline...

[@kramermccabe8601]

This movie is my all time favorite

[@chrissinnett9398]

Suggestions, let's see. Flight of the Navigator, which is 80's alien sci-fi. Darby o Gail and the Little People. Mio and the Land of Faraway, which is Fantasy. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which is a Terry Gilliam movie. Short Circuit, which is 80's robots, also with Ally Sheedy and Steve Guttenberg, also Three Men and a Baby. I have a lot more.

[@richardheinz]

"Makes you wonder what safety measures they have now a days". Genius.

[@richardheinz]

Edit: I just realised that watching the rest of this video that you are both geniuses.

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

We just love films and observe (to be honest)

[@jasonregister4895]

That was a moped that they were riding on a cross between a bicycle and a motorcycle. Some did have pedals. Some didn't usually ran about three grand give or take

[@shercahn]

Another Broderick film that is a hidden gem is Ladyhawke. Your son may be mature enough to watch it. It's PG 13 and also stars Michelle Pfieffer and Rutger Hauer. I don't think you've done Labyrinth yet either and that would be a fun one. Weird but fun.

[@user-cs4fg1rm5k]

John Wood was in that one as well. It was part of a slew of Anglo/American fantasy/sci-fi movies in the 80's like Krull and Hawk the Slayer.

[@marezesim8119]

love that you are sharing these films with your son.. so many younger kids have no idea what some of these movies were like added you as a subscriber.. would recommend watching Short Circuit and if you have not seen Wizard of Oz it is still a classic in my book

[@trevalarose8155]

Several close calls during the Cold War. The Hunt For Red October" is also a great Cold War movie.

[@lorispiro-pioggia4289]

Short circuit is great too

[@gilharrison8696]

I don't think it's possible for the younger generation to understand how serious the threat was.

[@hollywhite7449]

LOVE this movie. You and son's intensity following plot and reactions are priceless!!

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

thank you for watching

[@TheAlmaward]

Joshua doesn't have to hack into WOPR; Joshua IS WOPR. It's just a back door name for the same system.

[@jefferoni1984]

This movie really got to me as a kid. I was 9 when it came out and the idea of assured mutual destruction really messed with my head for a minute. Now watching it as a 49 yo adult, it's still very relevant. The cold war may be over but the players are still the same and geopolitically the tensions are still there. The threat from AI still looms. Maybe not as directly as in this film but existentially the problems are already here. Its a great re-watch. Another film with a similar theme that I liked as a kid was "The Manhattan Project" from 1986, starring John Lithgow. It was a flop in theatres but played on cable quite a bit. Very similar premise just on a smaller scale.

[@Lensmaster1]

At this time, computers were viewed as the future of everything. As was stated at the beginning of the movie, many viewed human nature as flawed, but computers could not make errors. This movie was in the beginning of people looking critically at the limitations of computers.

[@dogotek2]

If you have not seen "Ender's Game" you will love it. Filled with Stars early in their careers. Awesome message for kids. "Weird Science" is an oldie but goodie also😊

[@daytoncharitychicken]

If you can find the time, read about the impact this movie had at the time of its release and about changes in laws and both computer and military security concerns, in addition to adding to the impact of The Day After with encouraging world leaders to deescalate nuclear proliferation (its impacts, even just in the discussions and attention it raised is pretty interesting).

[@Itsjandz105]

Very relevant even today!

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

Definitely

[@scaramoochscaramooch]

Something more light hearted watch The Gods must be Crazy very enjoyable movie

[@lhuntley4577]

That is one of the best and most underrated movies of all time. Not too many people have heard of it, but once you see it, you never forget it. It is hilarious!

[@madelinemitchell5102]

Good reaction , I’ve always loved this movie 🎉❤

[@shag139]

Hunt for Red October and Crimson Tide are two very good movies as well.

[@minty_Joe]

The tunnel that is the entrance to NORAD's bunker is the same tunnel used in the movies "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and "Back To The Future: Part 2". The rest of NORAD is built on a sound stage.

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

I guess we will see it when we do Back To The Future 2 then!

[@minty_Joe]

@@GenerationMediaReaction Now that I think of it, near the trails by the giant "Hollywood" sign (up on the hillside), there is a tunnel created and was reserved during the Cold War as an emergency shelter if a nuclear attack was imminent.

[@castlebravo1031]

The scriptwriters went to Cheyenne Mountain to do research for the film. The base commander found out what they were up to and gave them an interview saying he didn't fully trust the machines and would always make sure men were in the loop. This was likely because in 1979 some genius loaded a simulation attack tape into the NORAD computer which was mistaken for the real thing.

[@mattkevlarlarock5469]

i haven't watched this movie in at least 20 years. I thought i was so outdated. But now, it seems impactful. Like maybe a little too real.

[@fredrichardson3932]

"says the guy who looks like Putin" hahahahah!

[@kinagrill]

Hilarious part is the actual launch codes for much of the cold was was just 00000-00000. Not even a joke.

[@jpd9h2i7]

War movie I would recommend is Crimson Tide directed by Tony Scott.

[@Budski73]

There is a sequel to Wargames called Wargames: The Dead Code which was released in 2008

[@shag139]

The crash scene with the jeep was actually an accident but they kept it in the movie since nobody was hurt.

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

oh wow !

[@marezesim8119]

the computer didn't turn evil it just did not understand the real life human consequences of all the bombs.. it needed to learn the value of life and the nerd effect in the 80's was something you really had to experience... computer infancy was a whole other world

[@IDLERACER]

😎👍 Two years after this film, the guy you think looks like Putin (actor James Tolkan) would go on to play an extremely iconic role as the mean school principal in the film "Back To The Future." 😀 It's interesting how Matthew Broderick has gone on to carve himself quite a career in the 21st century doing cartoon voices, including "The Lion King 1½" (2004) "Bee Movie" (2007) and "The Tale Of Despereaux" (2008). One that is especially good, that kind of slipped under the radar at the time it was released is "Wonder Park" (2019).

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

Didn’t he also send Tom Cruise to Top Gun School ?

[@IDLERACER]

@@GenerationMediaReaction I believe so. 😉

[@brandonflorida1092]

I'm not sure what genres you like, but here are a few of my favorite movies of all time: "Frequency," "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" "North by Northwest" "Rio Bravo" "The Time Machine (1960 version)"

[@wbj2000]

A very good film. It projected artificial intelligence at a time when it was just science fiction. Although less than a decade later IBM developed Deep Blue and was able to defeat the world chess champion. Today we have very real AI, that some suggest could threatens human stability. Back when this movie was released, President Regan saw this film and confirmed with his military advisors that computer error could not cause a nuclear war. And of course the use of computer simulations was a very real thing.

[@adamsnavely4193]

You know what’s really frightening? The US Air Force relied on computers from this era, including 8 inch floppies, until 2019. I’m pretty sure they only changed because abuse they couldn’t get the disks anymore.

[@terpcj]

When the movie came out, the US and USSR combined had about 60,000 nuclear warheads compared to today's total for US and Russia at about 11,000. Still a lot, but not nearly as nail-biting as forty years ago (at least, for those of us who grew up throughout the cold war). I was a programmer at the time at a gov't laboratory that was involved in these sorts of high-tech high-stakes issues and more. It was more grounded in reality than most realized (the WOPR was a bit OP, though). On the plus side for me, now is a lot less scary than then. Still sketchy, to be sure, but not nearly as stressful.

[@geoff7393]

Love your reactions i remember watching this whilst growing up but did not think how relevant it would be in our current time and R.I.P Dabney Coleman from this movie. i subscribed love your videos i hope you do many more.

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

Thank you! Hope you like some of our other videos too

[@campagnollo]

To give you an idea of the technological differences, the modem they used, the phone coupler that he placed the handset on, had a speed of 300 bits per second, bits being the quantity of 1's and 0's being transmitted. Today's home internet connection speed averages about 200 megabits per second.

[@dougs7367]

Next you should watch The Hunt For Red October.. excellent film about a Russian nuclear sub. Starring Sean Connery

[@dougs7367]

Oh yeah and it is another 80's film

[@daveking9393]

First time to your channel. Enjoyed spending time watching that movie again with you. I'm looking forward to seeing what else you have out there. Looks like you have a lot of things I enjoy seeing again so I look forward to spending the time with you too. Keep up the great work!

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@shag139]

Space Invaders was one of the first arcade games. Galaga was a bit later on.

[@imaginemyshock8067]

There was a real event of this type. The computers told the military the Soviets had launched and it was only by checking they found that the computers were wrong. War was only averted because someone checked.

[@user-cs4fg1rm5k]

Suprised that no commenters have tied this film to today's A.I. fear. Machines running themselves. On the channel 8 Bit Guy, he recreates and explains some of the hacks done in the film. This was a staple in my computer class in middle school during the mid 80s. Few homes had home computers and internet connections, so no worries. Also, it has been written that before his death, John Lennon was offered the part of Falken.

[@micpar2]

I think you'd like some classic 1950's SF movies. The Thing and The Day the Earth Stood Still both released in (1951). The War of the Worlds (1953), THEM! (1954), Forbidden Planet and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Deadly Mantis (1957) and The Blob (1958).

[@GenerationMediaReaction]

Thank you for the suggestions. Yes the 50s classics are good. We just recorded Explorers 1985 and that film is loaded with references to that era.

[@shilohauraable]

This movie is actually based in an incident that really happened. It hit the news long ago & quite a while after it happened. Until they got it under control they didn't want to scare the public at the height of the Cold War. Some kid hacked into NORAD and accessed the missile silos. There was no game and nothing big happened, but it definitely woke up the military security forces! The kid wasn't arrested, but they used him to show them the "back doors" that made the government system vulnerable to hacking. Sadly, we haven't learned much as the government is still being hacked into now more than ever. That's why AI is so concerning. It could easily take over if they don't watch out.

[@James-wp3jq]

Saw this in the cinema,good film but still not The Spy Who Loved Me !!!

[@jefffisher1045]

Actually this did happen in a way, my nephew hacked into a government computer when he was in high school, the FBI surrounded his house in a matter of minutes, very scary.

[@dipperjc]

The scary thing: the futility of it all only holds up if every side involved cares about winning. Once somebody cares more about everyone else losing than they do about winning themselves, it becomes eerily possible. On a lighter note, if you want a movie from the same time period that can start along the same lines and then transition you out to a more enjoyable time, try Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2.

[@BattleAngelFan99]

We wouldn't even have such problems if people just insisted on living freely themselves. Wars require central governments, and it's only one of thousands of reasons we shouldn't have them any more.

[@heyheymymy4362]

30:04 Putin probably thought:"That kid is a slacker"

[@rockeyrocket1224]

"The Iron Giant".

[@jimsmithneworleans7867]

I knew the phone trick when I was a kid:)