5
minute read
WarGames (1983)
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
IMDB: 7.1 / 10
A young man finds a back door into a military central computer, possibly starting World War III.
OUR TAKE: WarGames portrays something common in the hacker world: gaining access to highly secure systems.
In this Cold War thriller, a teenaged hacker (Matthew Broderick) gains access to the US's military supercomputer used to predict and execute missions against the Soviet Union.
He thinks it is a computer game but both governments are outraged. They blame each other and desperately try to address the security.
The film, made in 1983, captures the essence of hacking and the complexities of artificial intelligence, well before its time.
REALISM RATING: 4/5
What’s the SPYSCAPE realism rating?
After discussing a film’s authenticity with professionals we give it a rating from 1 to 5 based on how accurately it represents real characters, scenarios, tools, and techniques from the world of intelligence.
