Global Thermonuclear War
Wouldn’t you prefer a nice game of chess?
They say money can’t buy happiness. They are wrong. Money bought me the 25th Anniversary Edition of WarGames today and it made me very happy. I also bought Real Genius since it showed up on my recommended list and I love Val Kilmer and it was only $6.99, but that’s neither here nor there. What’s important is in a few short days I will be able to watch Matthew Broderick hack into his school’s computer and change his and Ally Sheedy‘s grades just like I always wished I could. If only I had a rotary phone…
WarGames is, without a doubt, one of my favorite 80’s movies. Broderick’s character David Lightman was basically supposed to be a giant computer geek but was ridiculously cool in my opinion. Little did I know, three years later he would redefine cool completely with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
David, inadvertently hacking into NORAD’s new supercomputer WOPR (a.k.a. Joshua) and almost causing World War 3, seemed completely plausible at the time. In fact, it caused quite a bit of mental stress on young Jill thinking her oldest brother might do the same with his Commodor 64. Coincidentally, WOPR was recently ranked #4 on ToplessRobot’s “7 Biggest Asshole Computers In Science Fiction” list.
At any rate, I just found out about the anniversary edition today and was in complete shock and awe to find out a sequel had recently been made. WarGames: The Dead Code was released direct-to-DVD last week. It features Matt Lanter (who voices Anakin Skywalker in The Clone Wars) as computer genius Will Farmer who engages a new supercomputer named R.I.P.L.E.Y. in an online, you guessed it, terrorist attack simulation. Of course Homeland Security comes knocking and yadda yadda yadda, you’ve got just about the same movie.
Sadly, since I hadn’t hear about the DVD release I also didn’t hear about the 25th anniversary event that was held at select theaters July 24th to support the sequel. It would have been fantastic to see it on the big-screen. Though, with my luck it probably wasn’t playing anywhere near me anyway. I guess I forgot, the only winning move is not to play.
digg_url = ‘https://thenerdybird.com/2008/08/global-thermonuclear-war.html’;
Absolutely!
If you ever find yourself coming to Chicago, Jill, please let me know. I can take you there.
OH. MY. GOD.
That is so awesome! I would totally do a photo shoot on the front steps or something.
Speaking of Ferris, in a college audio class we had to recreate a scene from any movie we wanted (just with the sounds not visuals) and I forced our group to do Ferris Bueller. We did the scene where the kids call him at home and he uses the keyboard to make all those coughing noises up until the girl in the hallway runs into his sister and she finds out whats up. It was so much fun! I did all the girl voices in the scene except one (which a guy did, haha).
While we’re on the subject of Matthew Broderick movies…..
Ferris Buehler was filmed at my high school. And I was actually going there when filming occurred. A lot of John Hughes’ films were filmed at my high school. The fictional Shermer, IL is an amalgamation of a lot of towns near Chicago, IL. Wilmette, Glenview, Northbrook, Winnetka and many others have all been captured for eternity on celluloid.
Kent, this is God.
They had this huge display on wheels at the SDCC promoting the War Game movies. Driving around and around the city. Completly forgot until you mentioned it.
Stop playing with yourself!
I love the popcorn scene!
Go ahead, which line? There’s a few possibilities running around in my head now so I have to know.
Real Genius!! One of THE greatest movies ever made. Wargames is great too, but Real Genius is just awesome. Can’t microwave some popcorn without thinking of that movie.
There’s a line I like to quote sometimes when I’m joking around with friends of mine, but I don’t think I’ll mention it here. ;)
Ahh, I knew it was from the sequel. But yeah, the original is fun.
That creepy clown was from the disappointing sequel F/X 2. It was a dark and literal remake of the first and not as fun. Avoid it and the cheap TV series version from the late 90’s at all cost and stick with the original.
Hex, how funny. I usually don’t find many people who’ve seen Real Genius or even heard of it for that matter.
Geekboy, hahaha, I know exactly what you mean! I just got even faster internet at home and I still get inpatient. But man I loved it when he just layed his actual phone on the modem to make it work, I always thought that was so cool.
Superduperman, I remember watching F/X back in the day on the old WPIX (now the CW). I don’t remember if it was from the original or the sequel but my worst memory of that movie is the creepy clown dummy. Great movie though!
Wow! 80’s flashback when movies were REAL movies (no CGI crap and remakes)and music were REAL music (definitely no rap or emo crap)!
Wargames is probably one of the best high tech suspenser of that decade. Superbly written and directed. Keeps you right to the edge of your seat until the final moment. A classic that’s hard not to like.
Another thriller from that era you might like (a personal favorite of mine) is F/X starring the Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy.It’s enthralling suspenser about a Hollywood horror make-up/special effects whiz who is approached by government agents to use his talents to stage a faked murder who ends up being accuse of the real thing and then the fun really begins. It has a great script, performances from the leads as well as the late Jerry Orbach and some terrific NYC locations and a niffy ending soundtrack.
Best of all, did I mention… no rap or CGI! Highly recommended!
http://www.imdb.com/Title?0089118
Love Wargames. I happened to catch it on cable not that long ago, and I actually got nostalgic about dial-up modems. Frustrating as they were, they still brought these wonderful things to your computer … but made you WAIT for them. You really had to decide what was important and what wasn’t. Nowadays, the closest I come to that kind of pleasant suspense is deciding whether it’s worth it to download a torrent that isn’t seeded well enough. “What do you mean it’s going to take 3 hours! I want it now!”
Also, I’m guessing this movie is what’s made me so obsessed with Sid Meier’s Civilization for so many years now.
I rented Real Genius a while back wanting to revisit one of my all-time fave movies, only to realize while viewing it that this one movie was the source of like 99% of the inside jokes I share with my school friends.
Wargames is a box of awesome too. Happy viewing!