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WarGames

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A STRANGE GAME. THE ONLY WINNING MOVE IS NOT TO PLAY.
HOW ABOUT A NICE GAME OF CHESS?

WarGames is a 1983 film about a teenager who unintentionally hacks into a war-simulating computer at NORAD, causing the US to panic over a seemingly impending Soviet nuclear strike.

Directed by John Badham. Written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes.
Is it a game, or is it real?taglines

David Lightman

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  • [to Falken] This is unreal! You don't care about death 'cause you're already dead! I know a lot about you. I know you weren't always like this. What was the last thing you cared about?

General Beringer

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  • Gentlemen, I wouldn't trust this overgrown pile of microchips any further than I can throw it.
  • Goddammit, I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it'd do any good!

Dialogue

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Mr. Liggett: Now there seems to be a lot of confusion on this next question: asexual reproduction. Could someone tell me please who first suggested the idea of reproduction without sex?
David: Ah-heh. [whispers something to a classmate]
[overhearing, Jennifer starts to laugh]
Mr. Liggett: Miss Mack! What is so amusing?
Jennifer: I...
[Jennifer breaks up into laughter again and turns to look at David, who puts on a show of mock innocence]
Mr. Liggett: Alright, Lightman. Maybe you could tell us who first suggested the idea of reproduction without sex.
David: Umm... Your wife?
[the class erupts into laughter]
Mr. Liggett: [pointing to the door] Get out, Lightman. Get out.
Joshua/WOPR: SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?
David: Oh!
Jennifer: I think it missed him.
David: Yeah. Weird isn't it? Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War?
Joshua/WOPR: WOULDN'T YOU PREFER A GOOD GAME OF CHESS?
David: Later. Let's play Global Thermonuclear War.
Joshua/WOPR: FINE.
David: What is the primary goal?
Joshua/WOPR: YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT, PROFESSOR. YOU PROGRAMMED ME.
David: Oh, c'mon. What is the primary goal?
Joshua/WOPR: TO WIN THE GAME.
McKittrick: It all flows into this room and then into what we call the WOPR computer.
Watson: WOPR? What is that?
McKittrick: It's a War Operations Planning Response. This is Mr. Richter. Paul, would you like to tell these gentlemen about the WOPR.
Richter: Well, the WOPR spends all it's time thinking about World War III. Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, it plays an endless series of WarGames using all available information on the state of the world. The WOPR has already fought World War III as a game time and time again. It estimates Soviet responses to our responses to their responses and so on. It estimates damage, counts the dead, and it looks for ways to improve the score.
McKittrick: See that sign up here - up here. "DEFCON." That indicates our current "def"ense "con"dition. It should read "DEFCON 5," which means peace. It's still on 4 because of that little stunt you pulled. Actually, if we hadn't caught it in time, it might have gone to Defcon 1. You know what that means, David?
David: No. What does that mean?
McKittrick: World War III.
David: Hello, are you still playing the game?
Joshua/WOPR: Of course. I should reach Defcon 1 and release my missiles in 28 hours. Would you like to see some projected kill ratios?
David: [reads] 69% of the housing destroyed. 72 million people dead. [pause] Is this a game or is it real?
Joshua/WOPR: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
David: Oh, wow.
Stephen Falken: Now, children, come on over here. I'm going to tell you a bedtime story. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. Once upon a time, there lived a magnificent race of animals that dominated the world through age after age. They ran, they swam, and they fought and they flew, until suddenly, quite recently, they disappeared. Nature just gave up and started again. We weren't even apes then. We were just these smart little rodents hiding in the rocks. And when we go, nature will start again. With the bees, probably. Nature knows when to give up, David.
David: I'm not giving up. If Joshua tricks them into launching an attack, it'll be your fault.
Stephen Falken: My fault? The whole point was to practice nuclear war without destroying ourselves; to get the computer to learn from mistakes we could not afford to make. Except, that I never could get Joshua to learn the most important lesson.
David: What's that?
Stephen Falken: Futility. That there's a time when you should just give up.
Jennifer: What kind of a lesson is that?
Stephen Falken: Did you ever play tic-tac-toe?
Jennifer: Yeah, of course.
Stephen Falken: But you don't anymore.
Jennifer: No.
Stephen Falken: Why?
Jennifer: Because it's a boring game. It's always a tie.
Stephen Falken: Exactly. There's no way to win. The game itself is pointless! But back in the war room, they believe you can win a nuclear war. That there can be "acceptable losses."
Stephen Falken: I've planned ahead. We're just three miles from a primary target. A millisecond of brilliant light and we're vaporized. Much more fortunate than millions who wander sightless through the smoldering aftermath. We'll be spared the horror of survival.
Jennifer: I'm only 17 years old. I'm not ready to die yet.
David: I think I saw one. [runs ahead for a moment and stops] What kind of an asshole lives on an island and he doesn't even have a boat?
Jennifer: Maybe we can swim for it. How far do you think it is?
David: No. It's uh, two, three miles at least. Maybe more.
Jennifer: Well, what do you say? Let's go for it!
David: No.
Jennifer: [starts to remove her shoes] Come on!
David: No! [pause] I can't swim.
Jennifer: You can't swim?
David: No, I can't, okay, Wonder Woman? I can't swim!
Jennifer: Well, what kind of an asshole grows up in Seattle and doesn't even know how to swim?
David: I never got around to it, okay? I always thought there was gonna be plenty of time!
Jennifer: Sorry.
David: I wish I didn't know about any of this! I wish I was like everybody else in the world, and tomorrow it would just be over. There wouldn't be any time to be sorry... about anything. Oh, Jesus! I really wanted to learn how to swim! I swear to God I did.
Stephen Falken: [looking at screens] How far's he gone?
McKittrick: Well, the President’s about ready to order a counter-strike. That's what we're recommending he do.
Stephen Falken: It's a bluff, John, call it off.
McKittrick: No, it's not a bluff. It's real.
Stephen Falken: [raising his voice from stairs] Hello, General Beringer! Stephen Falken!
General Beringer: [standing] Mr. Falken, you picked a hell of a day for a visit!
Stephen Falken: Uh, uh, General, what you see on these screens up here is a fantasy; a computer-enhanced hallucination. Those blips are not real missiles. They're phantoms.
McKittrick: Jack, there's nothing to indicate a simulation at all. Everything is working perfectly!
Stephen Falken: But does it make any sense?
General Beringer: Does what make any sense?
Stephen Falken: [points to the screens] That!
General Beringer: Look, I don't have time for a conversation right now!
Stephen Falken: General, are you prepared to destroy the enemy?
General Beringer: You betcha!
Stephen Falken: Do you think they know that?
General Beringer: I believe we've made that clear enough.
Stephen Falken: Then don't! Tell the President to ride out the attack.
Colonel Conley: Sir, they need a decision.
Stephen Falken: General, do you really believe that the enemy would attack without provocation, using so many missiles, bombers, and subs so that we would have no choice but to totally annihilate them?
Female Airman First Class: [on loudspeaker] One minute and thirty seconds to impact.
Stephen Falken: General, you are listening to a machine! Do the world a favor and don't act like one.
McKittrick: General, the machine has locked us out. It's sending random numbers to the silos.
Pat Healy: Codes. To launch the missiles.
General Beringer: Just unplug the goddamn thing! Jesus Christ!
McKittrick: That won't work, General. It would interpret a shutdown as the destruction of NORAD. The computers in the silos would carry out their last instructions. They'd launch.
General Beringer: Can't we disarm the missiles?
Pat Healy: Over a thousand of them? There's no time. At this rate it will hit the launch codes in... 5.3 minutes.
General Beringer: Mr. McKittrick, after very careful consideration, sir, I've come to the conclusion that your new defense system sucks.
McKittrick: I don't have to take that, you pig-eyed sack of shit.
General Beringer: Oh, I was hoping for something a little better than that from you, sir. A man of your education.
Officer: Sir, it's the President.
[McKittrick looks at Beringer]
McKittrick: What are you going to tell him?
General Beringer: That I'm ordering our bombers back to fail-safe; we might have to go through this thing after all. [talks into the phone] Yes, sir.
Joshua/WOPR: GREETINGS, PROFESSOR FALKEN.
Stephen Falken: Hello, Joshua.
Joshua/WOPR: A STRANGE GAME. THE ONLY WINNING MOVE IS NOT TO PLAY.. ... HOW ABOUT A NICE GAME OF CHESS?

Taglines

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  • Is it a game, or is it real?
  • "Global Thermonuclear War." You may think it's one hell of a game. You couldn't be more right.
  • This is the weekend they didn't play chess...but they should have.
  • To David Lightman, "Global Thermonuclear War" will just be one hell of a game. To everybody else, it will be hell waiting to happen.
  • Where the only winning move is NOT TO PLAY. We shall make world peace so you have a decision to make now.

Cast

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