Essay on 1983 Movie WarGames

John Badham directed the film WarGames (1983). Written by Walter F Parkes and Lawrence Lasker, the movie dwells on the story involving a high school hacker by the name David Lightman (Matthew Broderick), who happens to tap into the Pentagons top security computer known as WOPR. The film deals with some computer related issues such as hacking which is the danger of glitches in essential systems. This essay thus dwells on how hacking depicts itself in the movie Wargames linking it to our contemporary society.

In 1983 when the movie was written, the notion that computer whiz kids existed who could hack into systems of government computers was relatively startling and new. Back then, computer geeks had even to make use of a telephone modem to facilitate connection to another computer. Acted with great vigour as Matthew Broderick, the Seattle teenage student David Lightman says that he doesnt believe that any system is completely secure. The act of hacking into the system of a school and altering exam marks is one issue. Davids trouble stars when he succeeds by chance to tap into WOPR, the War Operations Plan Response supercomputer that controls Americas nuclear arsenal. From the film, the saying shall we play a game? has been more burdened with risk since when WOPR the talking computer did call Joshua; it tests him to some games such as poker, thermonuclear war, checkers, and chess. David does not recognise that performing World War Three is the actual thing.

WarGames movie was done at a time when the Cold War was still on the rise. John Badhams cautions of technological take-overs occur at a period the world faced real tension more so on global nuclear war whereby David plays the game like The Soviet Union. As state panic breaks out as noted in the film, David Lightman together with his school friend Jennifer who act as Ally Sheedy are held up in a fraught race against time to trace Dr Falken (John Wood) since he is the one who designed Joshua.

After thirty-five years since its inception, the movie still holds up very well. All the technology that was depicted is horribly dated now, for instance, reflecting on the size of floppies that David used. In spite of that, Wargames film has turned out to be a peculiarly good snapshot encompassing both the bunker mentality of Cold War as well as computer introduction into civilian life. I believe that the movie is one of the thriving morality tales on the horror of nuclear war. Indeed, it is not classified as a political movie as it were for many of the time. Neither does it render anyone to be the bad or good guys. The brilliance of the films longevity indicates that it prudently sticks to its lesson of winning the game. At times, one has to opt not to take part in the game at all.

Wargames depiction of teenagers hacking into systems of learning institutions to alter grades and accessing military mainframes shows that the film instigated an unusual obsession in the mainstream press regarding the might of computers. Often, there has been serious questioning of whether parents ought to allow their kids to gain access to the outside world through their computers at home. Different suggestions have emerged on magazine articles that computer modems need to be kept intact like firearms to keep them away from teens. There is no need for one to access a remote system illegally through hacking. For instance, if one requires accessing his or her bank account, a teller is just but a short drive away. Bill gates once asserted that a person only needs to have not more than six hundred and forty kilobytes as memory in an individual computer.

In 1983, such news was trendy and reflecting back I think that the corporate media unsuspectingly showcased the moral of Wargames. Being an unfounded apprehension, the press did play on it embedding into popular conscience. Hacking cannot be categorised as a sense of right. Breaking into an unauthorised system ruins the smooth running of the organisation. Through hacking, vital and confidential information is leaked to third parties and in the process part of the data is lost. Hackers break into systems with an ill motive of selfish gains to either steal from the network or paralyse it completely.

Hacking is of concern today as technology continues to be used by many in accomplishing day to day activities. Machinery has replaced human power in most sectors. Where a large number of people could be required to perform some duties in several days, machines have come in handy to do the same job with ease using the shortest time possible as compared to human beings. Wargames movie indeed did spark the first public debate over the worries between privacy and security on the internet. Also, it saw the power struggle between the Congress and the N.S.A discussion that persists today. Hacking acts should be discouraged by all means to affirm safety and privacy of information in computer systems.