Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9063 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-07-24
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, Full Screen, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, German
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Dutch
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 108 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Cute but silly, this 1983 cautionary fantasy stars Matthew Broderick as a teenage computer genius who hacks into the Pentagon's defence system and sets World War III into motion. All the fun is in the film's set-up, as Broderick befriends Ally Sheedy and starts the international crisis by pretending while online to be the Soviet Union. After that, it's not hard to predict what's going to happen: government agents swoop in, but the story ends up in the "hands" of machines talking to one another. Thus we're stuck with flashing lights, etc. John Badham (Saturday Night Fever) directs in strict potboiler mode. Children still like this movie, though. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

Special Features
4:3 Full Frame
1.85 Wide Screen
French\German\Italian\Spanish
English\German
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English\Dolby Digital Mono French German Italian Spanish
Dolby Digital 5.1
Dolby Digital Mono
Director And Writers Commentary
Original Theatrical Trailer
Trivia
Production Notes
Danish\Dutch\English\French\German\Italian\Norwegian\Portuguese\Spanish\Swedish

Synopsis
In director John Badham's WARGAMES, Matthew Broderick stars as David Lightman, a young hacker who accidentally logs on to the Department of Defense's network. Thinking that he's found a cool new computer game manufacturer, David plays checkers, chess, and other more intriguing games like Global Thermonuclear War. Realizing that their system has been tampered with, military operatives arrest him. However, the computer continues to play the game of thermonuclear warfare without David and generates the very real threat of World War III. In an attempt to prevent global disaster, David and his girlfriend, Jennifer (Ally Sheedy), search desperately for the scientist who designed the system before the goverment computer initates a full-scale nuclear war.
A landmark of 1980s cinema, WARGAMES was keenly tuned into its time. Computers remained a relative mystery in the early 1980s, as they were used primarily by large corporations and government agencies, but not by many individuals at home. The general public had already been warned of the danger of computer takeover in 1968 with 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and this paranoia grew as computers became more popular. The threat of communist takeover and nuclear war loomed large in the collective consciousness, before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the cold war. Video games had become highly popular, however, and for a generation of Pac-Man and Space Invaders players WARGAMES combined the country's deepest fears with its biggest fantasies. Badham's suspenseful film brings those fears to light in an exciting, fast-paced film with a great cast (Broderick, Sheedy, John Wood, Barry Corbin, Dabney Coleman) and excellent special effects.

Customer Reviews

Classic
This movie is a classic, a must own for all the "computer people". It's the Nostradamus of computer movies. It talks about hacking at a time where the internet was science fiction and the average computer was half as powerfull as a Game Boy. It has some old school phreaking (tampering phone lines) in there as well but all information is just of historical value. All the things that you see in the movie is a common thing of todays computers, like speech, but when you watch this film have in mind that it was produced in 1983! It's also the movie that inspired programmers to write War Dialers (well known type of software among todays crackers used to find phone lines connected to computers). If you are not interested in classics and historical values but you want some computer action try something like "Hackers", "SWORDFISH" and "Antitrust". But if you are interested in classics also check "Tron".

Dated but still worth watching.
When this movie was released it was very up to date with the technology it featured. In this day of laptop computers and internet access to mobile phones it certainly looks dated but put that aside and you are still left with a really good movie with a plot idea that still works today.
The story revolves around an underachieving, bored teenager (played by a very young Matthew Broderick) whose main interest in life is his computer. From his bedroom he can alter his school grades, reserve flights, download software, all by hacking into other computers. While searching for new games from a software company he comes across a set of titles he assumes are games and decides, with his girlfriend, to play Global Thermonuclear War. Unfortunatly it isn't a software company he has hacked into but a military system and he is playing against NORAD's computer. When the realisation hits that the NORAD computer, when it's turn comes round, will launch atomic missiles for real the race is on the stop the game.
This is still a gripping film that can still raise the tension levels even after several viewings. Great stuff.

Wicked
This is one of those films that many of us grew up with in our youth - you know what i mean, it falls into the same category as The Goonies, BMX Bandits and the Indiana Jones and Star Wars trilogies. This was the first film that brought Matthew Broderick to the fore in a relatively simple role. A young computer nerd accidently hacks into the mainframe defence computer in charge of the Defending the USA - nearly beginning World War three. The story may be simple but in many ways like all great films that is what makes it effective. I unreservedly love this film and the scene where Matthew Brodericks dad uses bread to spread butter onto his corn on the cob is a priceless moment in cinema - if you would like a nice Sunday afternoon film then this is the film for you! Hope you enjoy.