"This guy's a straight up hacker for real." What you need to understand is that THIS is the movie that made us fear hackers. Before this movie, society had no concept of the term.
I was 11 when I saw this, so I just thought Matthew's character was brilliant and amazing. (But you're so right - 'hacker' wasn't a popular term yet.) Now, as a website designer, I fear hackers, lol. Back then, though, I think what I feared more was that a computer could so easily be manipulated to this extreme, and that anyone who thinks having such weapons or wants to kill anyone else is insane.
This movie also possibly has the most accurate representation of hacking from Hollywood - they consulted people with actual skills, and things like tricking the pay phone or using the Walkman to record the door entry code were all real life “hacks”.
This is also the movie that gave us the term "wardialing." The technique of using a computer to cycle through all phone numbers in an area code looking for other MODEMs existed before the movie. But it was usually called terms like "demon dialing." Wardialing was a part of a new wave of subculture. (It also informs the naming of techniques like "Wardriving", etc.).
Although Wargames is a fictional story, there was an actual incident that occurred in the Soviet Union the same year that the movie came out which mirrors the events in the film. In September of 1983, Stanislav Petrov, lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces, was the duty officer at the command center for the Soviet satellite-based nuclear early warning system when the system erroneously reported that an ICBM had been launched by the United States. When the blip on the screen suddenly vanished and was followed by a report of four more ICBMs headed towards Russia, Petrov suspected that the system was malfunctioning because it was new, and in his view, not entirely trustworthy. There was also no corresponding warning from ground-based Soviet radar. Petrov also knew that an American first strike against the Soviet Union would involve hundreds of missiles fired simultaneously, not just a single missile, followed by four more. It was later determined that the malfunction was caused by a rare alignment of sunlight reflecting off of high altitude clouds above North Dakota and the orbits of the Soviet satellites, which the computer misinterpreted as incoming missiles. Had Petrov followed orders and reported the information the computer gave him to his superiors, the Soviet Union might have ordered a nuclear strike against the United States, which would have been followed by a retaliatory nuclear strike by the United States. By listening to his instincts and not the computer, Stanislav Petrov saved the world.
i remember that well. the news was talking about how much computers were the problem. that's why we had operators in charge of the silos until the early 90's.
"The man who saved the world". I think he passed just a few years ago, with his only reward being that he knew what he prevented...which was enough for him...
Been forever since I've seen this movie, and I immediately thought of Petrov in the opening scene this time. There had to have been some inspiration from that event on the opening scene.
STOKED you reacted to this. As a kid of the 80’s this was required viewing and easily one of the top 5 Cold War films. The last 20 minutes at NORAD is just heart stopping and brilliant. A friend of mine just showed it to her kids to help them understand what’s happening right now.
A decade later, the screenwriters of _Wargames_ would write the *perfect* movie: 1992's _Sneakers_ Among the best films of the 1990s. Everybody loves _Sneakers._ One for the list.
What you have to realize is that kids in the late 70's and most of the 80's lived knowing that there was a possibly senile president of the US, and a grumpy warhawk in the Soviet Union. (The guys before Gorbachev.) *We lived in fear.* Constantly knowing that we were just one diplomatic mishap, one accidental button push from an old man away from everyone dying. This is why so many post-apocalyptic stories were popular in that time period, and stories like this. Edit: Anyway, this is why this movie was a straight up horror movie for a lot of us, albeit one with a happy ending. Also, all the hacking on-screen is pretty much accurate.
The grumpy guys in the Kremlin were Breznyew, Andropov, and Chernyenkov. (Sorry for my poor transcription of Russian names into English). All of them really were old, grumpy guys in their late 70's and 80's that were puppets controlled by people in the KGB. The same people that trained Putin, who later became the head of department of the follow-up organization of the KGB. Yes, THAT Putin. So yes, the history of the 80's is still affecting us today, directly. Never forget that: history has to be known to prevent a repeat.
@@RustyDust101 Hey, the OP was calling out both sides. Yet you're just villainizing one side as if you watch too much news propaganda and Disney. Don't believe every false flag bombing made to look like Russia did it, and don't forget what Americans did to Iraq and numerous other countries. It's not all black and white, good verses evil. It's actually way more complicated.
I'm old; I remember Khrushchev. He was pretty grumpy too. But not too long ago I saw the HBO miniseries "Chernobyl". Which included Gorbachev. And my opinion of him went up quite a bit: He may have been the dictator of a superpower, but he actually listened to experts. My understanding is that, although very old, he is still alive. And yes, we did live in fear.
I have a friend who grew up in the 70s, and while she was at a beach FULL of people one summer, they saw an ICBM launch in the distance. It was the 70s, no one had any idea what was going, for all they knew wwiii had just started. A PACKED beach in Santa Barbara in the middle of summer fell COMPLETELY quiet as everyone just stood and stared. I can't even imagine man.
Ridiculous premise, thoroughly implausible. Bad movie. Seriously. Who would be so stupid to think an invasion would work by parachuting into a little one horse town in Colorado???
"hell I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it would do any good" Also James there was a film just like this with Jon Lithgow that came out two years later called Manhattan project. It is really good too.
Matthew Broderick had a string of good movies after this, including Lady Hawke (with Rutger Hauer (Bladerunner) and Michelle Pfeiffer) -- an oft overlooked fantasy gem, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a massive 80's hit, as well as the also oft overlooked civil war flick Glory about the first black combat unit in the Civil War, with a fantastic early performance by a young Denzel Washington and (not quite as young) Morgan Freeman. Ally Sheedy, his girlfriend in this movie, went on to star in The Breakfast Club, by John Hughes, one of the best of the teen coming-of-age type movies.
Ladyhawke is one of the best fantasy films of the decade. And - if we could someday get a rerelease with a proper soundtrack (Sorry Alan Parsons Project, that was awful), I'd be so here for it.
@@carm3d Project X made me feel bad. Cried a lot the one single time I watched it. Couldn't bring myself to watch it again and it's been 30ish years since then.
I was 14 when this hit theaters, already headed for a lifetime in computer science. I am happy that it's aged well, like Dr Strangelove before it. I showed it to the 14 year old child of my girlfriend about five years ago, and he was all over it. I asked him if the dated technology of the film was a distraction to enjoying the film, and he immediately rose to its defense, saying, "Oh, no, it's a classic!" Then he went back to his basement to try and get scammers to call each other some more. The techno-rom-com thriller Sneakers (1992) is the other movie to see by two of the creative team behind this movie. It's worth pointing out, to anyone who nitpicks the technical points of David's hacking skills in the film and says, "It didn't work like that," yeah, exactly. The studio had no intention of being sued by every other parent in America for turning their children into bona fide cyber cruminals. Anyway, love me some WarGames. It was made with dead earnest seriousness about a life-and-death topic, and they turned in a quality picture. It was a pretty big hit at the time, not Ghostbusters sized, but it was well regarded at its release.
There’s another movie I’d recommend that’s somewhat similar. The Manhattan Project (1986). It’s got John Lithgow in it. Been a long time since I saw it but I remember it being good.
There's also a really good two-season show called "Manhattan" that aired on WGN, don't know if it streaming though. it had a really good cast and story.
Saw this in the theatre as a young adult back in 1983. The fear of WWIII was always present as was the fear of computers (automation) taking jobs. This movie really hit home. The audience gave it a huge ovation at the end.
19:00 as an 80s kid growing up within sight of a primary target I can remember my dad having this exact conversation with me. He basically said "don't worry about things you have no control over, there will be a flash of light, it'll all be over and you'd be better off than the others who are further away from the blast".
My dad told me the same thing. Born in 1980, lived between the industrial cities of Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and Bradford. Dad told me they'd just drop one really big one on top of us and it'd be over in an instant. The number of anxiety dreams I had... x
Glad you enjoyed this James. And I know a lot of younger people "miss" the 80s and wish they could have been a part of them (and believe me when I say I wish you could have too), but it wasn't all roses. All the fun and fashion and advancements were against the backdrop of "hey at any moment, the USA and the USSR could nuke the entire world into oblivion". Not cool, especially for a tween and teenager. I still remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard that the Berlin Wall fell, it was such a huge mental relief to see the Cold War end. Stay safe my friend.
Agreed. Rather than having to engage Russian tanks from the front in West Germany, my generation partied like the world was ending instead. That sort of release is what made the 90s so much fun.
I was in my early 20s when the Berlin Wall fell. I remember watching it on the news for two days straight while people just partied on top of the wall around the clock. It was so unimaginable. With everything happening now, bits and pieces of that time are coming back to me randomly. Just yesterday I was thinking about how weird it was back then to get used to a country just called “Germany” instead of the separate East Germany and West Germany I’d known my whole life. It got me looking at a map. For younger folks trying to make sense of what’s going on in Ukraine, pull up a map of the former Soviet Union in the 80s. It paints a pretty frightening picture of Putin’s “good old days.”
Interesting side note -- the computer he was using predates the Apple II... it's called the IMSAI 8080. It, along with the Altair 8800 are considered the first 'home computers'. These computers were very primitive by today's standards... they didn't have a keyboard or even a video screen -- you would have to connect a 'dumb terminal' to the computer to get any of that functionality. The interesting part about this, though, is that there is a real resurgence of these computers thanks to the whole retro-computer thing going on now. So much so that there are kits you can get that will re-build these computers using modern hardware. Well... at least, I find this interesting:) Also, that program he had that dialed all the numbers in a given exchange and recorded when computers answered was a real thing -- when I was in high school a... um... friend... had this running on his Commodore 64:)
You owe it to yourself to watch "Threads", the 1984 BBC TV Movie. The most frightening movie ever made and one which everyone needs to see to understand what humanity can do to itself.
_Threads_ makes _Come And See_ look like _Mary Poppins._ Truly, the most soul-scarring, terrifying, & depressing film I've ever seen. But, of course, that's it's point.
I only saw Threads once, when it was first broadcast in the US, and it has been burned in my brain ever since. You’re damn right-it’s the most frightening film ever made. People who tell me that The Day After was the best WWIII film are soooooo wrong.
To quote Long John Silver, "them that die'll be the lucky ones". Though if we play the translate and translate back game, Nikolai Chukovsky's (the Russian Dr Seuss) translation of Treasure Island to Russian and back to English, it can come out as "those of you who will still be alive will envy the dead", which sounds a bit more ominous.
Agreed. If James really wants to delve into the horrors of nuclear war, then this is the definitive movie to watch. It will scar you. It is horrific, especially in the aftermath. Just unrelenting. Makes The Day After seem tame, even milquetoast in comparison. If you want to understand why people so dread nuclear war, watch Threads.
Fun fact. They had issues getting the sync right on filming the wopr display, since the only options for power was 60 Hz and 50 Hz, and the cameras are 24fps. Someone, possibly the assistant director or someone with decent electronics skills manipulated the circuitry with a graphite pencil to adjust the connectivity until they got it to sync in 24fps.
Saw this when it came out. Here were two extreme moments that got big reactions from the audience. The first was when they thought the missiles were real then found out that they weren’t. One of the junior USAF officers broke down and cried at his counsel. More than a few in the audience were crying with them. The second was when the kid started trying to get the computer to play tic-tac-toe. At the height of this tense moment, with the fate of humanity in the balance, one of the techs leans over his shoulder and says “put X in the center square.” The whole theater cracked up laughing at that.
This came out when I was in high school, a time when we did fear nuclear annihilation. Also a time when computers were just becoming to be widely used in schools and homes. It was the first time I remember seeing the hacker culture.
The theme of hope (Dinosaurs vs humans) that you discuss. Professor Falken was a pessimistic fatalist. That scene is a real downer, yes, but Falken's outlook was the result of losing his son. When Matthew Brodderick's character says, "If the real Joshua was alive, what would you do?" And that hope for humanity comes back to hm. This is so amazing, because there's a story of redemption for Falken, brought about by a simple teenage boy. It was so fun watching you watch and react to this mind-blowing movie from my childhood.
One of the guys in the beginning is John Spencer, who played the Chief of Staff on The West Wing. He was also in Cop Land, which is a movie you should definitely check out. Amazing cast. Probably Sylvester Stallone's best performance.
The term "wardialer" was invented because this movie. The tool of calling every phone number to look for an active modem didn't actually exist before this movie. After Wargames came out, the hacker/phreaker communities wondered why no one thought of this before and they developed a bunch of different tools to accomplish this. This later on spawned other tools and techniques like "wardriving" which is the act of scanning for wireless access points. It's interesting when Hollywood actually influences real life like that.
Quibble. "Demon dialing" as a technique existed before Wargames. But it was this flick that gave it the name "wardialing" and firmly cemented the idea in so many impressionable minds in front of a home microcomputer with an autodial MODEM (and access to a "wardial" app from their local warez BBS). Spot on with wardriving. And warchalking. And so on.
Thanks for that bit of History. I was actually not aware of that. And I'm an old school 2600 dude that used to have my own rainbow box and lineman's handset along with all the other fun things that come along with those hobbies...
Matthew Broderick, who played the lead, also had another major 80s hit that's worth a watch is "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" it's a comedy classic with loads of forth wall breaking.
I love that you loved this film. It has been one of my favorites since it first hit the theaters. Thanks again for pointing out production details like camera angles and such, as my brain totally misses those things while I watch a film... I just get lost in the experience as a whole... but I really enjoy understanding the choices that were made to bring a film to life, and you are very good at explaining them.
1983 was the year we thought WWIII was actually going to take place. The Soviets had shot down a Korean Airlines 747 that had wandered into their airspace, and President Reagan had called the Soviet Union an "evil empire" further escalating tensions. "The Day After" (tv movie about WWIII) had aired showing the horrors of nuclear war. I was 13 years old and thought I'd never see my 14th birthday. I... Never believed that I'd have to consider the possibility happening again in my lifetime.
An all time favorite movie! I'm 51, and I can't believe how all the tech on this movie now fits in your hand, as opposed to needing a room. Falken's comment about the horror of survival is not unfounded. A terrifying movie called THREADS shows you just how terrible surviving may be
It's a game...or is it? Nominated for 3 Oscars: Best Cinematography Best Sound Mixing Best Original Screenplay This is the the story of what would happen if a teenager accidentally hacked into NORAD and that he would unintentionally cause WWIII
Love this movie. BTW, check out the video "How Telephone Phreaking Worked" by The 8-Bit Guy, if anyone's curious about an insight into what Broderick's character is doing in the film to try and locate the "company" making those "games". It's pretty interesting how landlines used to work. I guess it also explains how he's able to escape the room he's hold up in by using the tape recorder to record the password and play back the tones.
I have no mouth and I must scream is a really good book and I didn't even think about the paralles with the computer and AM. But I totally see where you are coming from. Thanks for bringing it up again. Gonna ready again soon because of you.
There were other low budget kids/young adult sci-fi 80s movies that I enjoyed more (D.A.R.Y.L, Flight of the navigator, My science project, Explorers, The last starfighter etc.). But this one probably taught me the most and stuck with me. And its message is sadly as urgent now as it was then. Also, Ally Sheedy was SOOO cute! 😍😆👍
If you liked this Matthew Broderick movie, please react to Glory. I think it's Matthew's best performance, plus you get Denzel's oscar-winning performance as well as a valuable historical portrayal of the 54th Massachusetts infantry regiment!
It's hard to imagine the impact the movie had at the time, on some people at least. If you think the situation is tense now, in '83 it was USSR. Europe was cut in half by the Iron Curtain. Berlin was cut in half by the Wall. I was 12, and my parents just bought me my first computer. 8 bits, 3.75 MHz CPU and 48 kB of RAM. That's .000046 GB in case you wonder. Those modems where 300 bit/s, that's .00000027 Gbit/s. They could also run at 1200/75. Yes we had asymmetrical bandwidth even then. It wasn't for everybody tho, depending on where you lived, using the telephone could simply cost too much. I wasn't lucky. It's also hard to imagine how little knowledge of computers there was back then. 99.9% of the adults had no idea in the slightest. Neither did 95% of the kids. The movie was also incredibly accurate for the time. Ok, a few hollywood licences were taken, probably at NORAD they didn't have an external line hooked up directly to the central computer, there wasn't a backdoor, and its password wasn't Joshua. But, the hacking process was on point. Scanning for modems, check. Social engineering, check. Brilliant teenager doing the hacking, check. War Games was very influential. The underage hacker was born there. It made less and less sense as the years passed, but the trope stayed. It was simply to cool. So many films wound't exist w/o War Games. Keanu may know kung-fu, but Matthew invented it.
Bro! I got so stoked when I saw you doing Wargames and even more so when you said you knew nothing about it. I'm a 90's kid, so this movie was old news by the time I was born but my dad insisted on it when I was young. It shaped me and my outlook on a great many things. One of my all-time personal favorites. "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play." Freaking iconic and it sums up nuclear (as well as biological and chemical) use in warfare so beautifully and succinctly. Glad you enjoyed it as much as I do. Watch it again to soak it up. Then with a sharp eye, you'll see it's referred to often in music, movies, and TV. Love the work. Keep it up. 💯
Dude, can’t begin to tell you how much I love your channel. I’m an old guy, can’t believe you chose this film and so glad you did. Forgot what a classic it is. Again, best part of your channel (next to the greatest vibe on RUclips ever) is your reactions are such a great mix. Thanks so much brethren, keep doing you. Much love and respect ✊🏼
I think we're too jaded rn about too many things. I think you'd end up with the weapon/tech version of Don't Look Up's modern disaster movie. Uh Spoilers for DLU, I guess... Heavy commentary on social media and how crappy we all are, with an overall fail ending instead of a more hopeful one.
If they could do it right that would be amazing but I have a feeling they would probably mess it up like they messed up the majority of the remakes that are being made right now.
In the same vein, you should watch Fail Safe from 1964 starring Henry Fonda. Another nuclear war era what-if movie. It's honestly just amazing and brilliant.
I saw this as a kid at the drive-in as a double feature with a movie called Blue Thunder. Both movies were directed by John Badham. Check it out if you get a chance , it’s a really cool movie with Roy Schieder and Malcolm McDowell.👍
One thing that a lot of these 80's nostalgia movies, tv shows miss, is the threat of nuclear war. Threads and The Day After, When The Wind Blows are a few suggestions to check out.
Great choice, James! Fun fact: THIS movie is why I didn't get "online" until 1985. I saw it in theaters (I was 16) , and talked my grandmother (who raised me) into watching it on HBO when it first hit the movie channels.... For context, she had bought me my first computer in 1983 (a Commodore 64), the following year, she got me a disk drive (5 1/4" floppy) and a printer, so that I could use it to do school work. I had been asking for a modem (it was all landlines back then) but she had no idea what it would be used for. Then I showed her this movie, and she honestly thought I would do the whole "hack into the school's computer and change my grades" thing. She also thought I might get in serious trouble with the thing by accidentally doing something like what David did in this movie. It took me well over a year before I finally got my first modem (which is short for MOdulator/DEModulator). Get this: My first modem transferred data across a standard landline (like in this movie) at 300 Bytes Per Second. Think about that for a second.... nearly 40 years later, and we are transferring data across dedicated fiber optic lines at a speed millions of times faster than that. Also, Malvin aka "Mister POTATO HEAD!" (the character), the actor who plays him is a friend of mine. His real name is Eddie Deezen. He's a great guy, and aside from the 80s movies he was in, he has done a lot of voiceover work in animated films. A few movies he has been in are well worth checking out, especially Midnight Madness. He had a starring role in that one, of course, playing a "nerdy" character. Believe it or not, he was considered "TOO nerdy" to be in the movie Revenge of the Nerds. Another movie I highly recommend is "Real Genius", which stars William Atherton and Val Kilmer. 7:47 - Uh, yeah.... about that. This was made during the Reagan years, when the "Cold War" felt like it was going to go "hot" at any minute. Kinda like now, really, but at the time, growing up, we were acutely aware that the missiles could be on their way for next to no reason at any moment.
I also got a Commodore 64 when I was 12 ( and later an Amiga 500) Beautiful little home computers. I couldn't get a modem, because I didn't have the words to describe what it was and what it could do. I only got the Commodore 64 because the man in the shop told my mother that it was a "Toy for kids". I knew better, we had already started coding at school and I watched the science programme "Tomorrow's World" on the BBC. The future was here but with no modem I had no link up. Good Times.
Thank you for your reaction. War Games is brilliant film. They actually hired a real hacker to explain various methods of hacking and used them for the movie so everything Mathew Broderick's character does is an accurate depiction of hacking in 1983. Another fun fact about this movie is that apparently NATO's display setup was very different at the time of release and they watched the movie and were like Holy Crap this display setup is way more efficient and actually changed their military base to fit the design of the movie.
I loved this film. If you want to see this same premise played out a little differently, check out "Colossus: The Forbin Project.", an earlier film which like this, and 2001 portrays the dangers of AI, which is perhaps one of most utilized science fiction themes.
Just saw your comment after posting a recommend for The Forbin Project. But going to leave it posted because its a film that really is one of the films that helped to establish the troupe dealing with the fear of AI computers.
Ah I also just posted about James reacting to The Forbin Project, one of my favorite movies when I was growing up in the early 80s. I hope with so many comments about the movie, he might take notice :)
Even many years later, professional seminars on IT security referenced this film. There is still a technique called 'wardriving' (previously war-dialing) whose name derives from the modem-dialing technique depicted here. It is why you must have a good password on your wi-fi devices. The social engineering research about Falken that he used to get the password is still a valid technique.
I always like new technology is dangerous and scary movies like this and Tron. Or in the early 90s The Net with Sandra Bullock. In the opening scene she orders a pizza online and it was portrayed as such a ridiculous thing. Of course it was back in the day but it is still funny and entertaining.
Everyone should watch Coleman’s tv series Buffalo Bill, where he played an unrepentant asshole as a lead character and made it work. The episode where Bill gets into a fracas with the NAACP and has a dream set to Ray Charles’ “Hit the Road, Jack” is one of the funniest things I have ever seen on tv!
One of my all time favorites. Saw this at 15 yr old, at local theater, $ 2.75, and was blown away. It was aimed at young adults with Alley Sheedy and Broderick both 17 at filming, but it was so much more.
"Hacking" was pretty easy at the time. Lots of security through obscurity, where you're basically just betting on people not knowing what number to call to protect your servers from unwanted visitors, and really crappy passwords. Hell, the whole field of digital forensics and the security upgrades it would bring about wasn't really even invented until Cliff Stoll in 1986, 3 years after this movie came out. Cliff Stoll, by the way, real interesting guy. PhD Astronomer, mathematician, middle school science teacher, only manufacturer of klein bottles, worked with Robert Moog (Moog Modular), etc., who got stuck managing the computers for Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, noticed someone breaking in to their systems, and tracked them down.
You should check out a similar movie that came out 13 years before Wargames, it's called Colossus: The Forbin Project. It was made at a time when computers took up entire buildings.
If you liked this, then you will absolutely adore The Net with Sandra Bullock. Again, especially for what’s been happening over the last couple of years. It’s powerful! 💙💙💙
This movie inspired me to get into computers. Especially the exploratory security aspect of computer security which is also known by different name that starts with an h and I don't want to get censored for mentioning. They had to get clearance from the CIA and DARPA and NORAD to release this movie by the way.
Finally someone watches this masterpiece!! And it's still relevant, AF specially these days!! Loved your "metalgear-ing" quote hahaha Here's another recommendation from the 80s: Young Sherlock Holmes. A great adventure produced by Spielberg and the first film to include a fully-bodied CG character (and with a great, almost souls-y design actually lol) If only for that, its worth a watch!
Young Sherlock Holmes scared the crap out of me, simply because I have a vivid imagination and can put myself in a scenario. Facing the prospect of getting burned alive is one of my greatest fears.
As the Summer approaches, there are what I consider all-time classics you should check out. 1) The Sandlot 2) Heavy Weights. Please do yourself the pleasure.
The Sheldon Cooper like character at the electronics lab at 8:45 is actually called Sheldon in the film Zapped. In my head space he is 100% the inspiration for the Big Bang Theory character.
@68K zNone the less jingoistic as it is, it is an interesting window into a time a lot of us gen x people grew up with. worth his time to react to. imo
Marvel's WHAT IF tomorrow! Finished Chernobyl & Hawkeye on the patreon! Click here for early access: www.patreon.com/jamesvscinema Have a great day everyone!
A good companion piece to this is the movie "Amazing Grace and Chuck" starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Gregory Peck, and William Peterson, a "feel good movie"
There's this beautiful movie called I origins, it's probably not worth reacting to because I don't think it would get many views but as a movie lover you should 100% check it out It's beautiful, tragic, complex and just a movie thats completely overlooked
I was 13 when I saw this in the theater and I remember being blown away by this movie. One of my favorite movies from the early 80s. Glad to see you enjoyed it bro.
There's also a movie called fail safe where the nuclear armed planes were at the call back position. One of the planes radio shorted out so they carried out the mission. Our president was on the phone with the Russian president telling him we will blow up New York if the bomb drops on Moscow
Peace love and positive vibes fam ! I have always loved this movie 🍿! James please review the cinematography work in the original “blade-runner” from 1982 - or the cinematography work in “The Revenant” I would love to get your opinions on the cinematography in the movies alone ! Thanks for you’re reviews ! You’re awesome dude ! - Peace and positive vibes fam !
IIRC, the story was inspired by a book called _Failsafe_ from the '50s or '60s - the same book that inspired _Dr. Strangelove_ and others. (Incidentally, the General's line about "after careful consideration, sir, I've come to the conclusion that your new defense system sucks" has become a classic quote among my family.)
There was also a 1962 movie called Failsafe with Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau. Almost the exact same plotline as Dr Strangelove, but a straight drama.
It was rare enough that people with IT skills weren't portrayed as stereotypical "Hollywood geek", I really appreciate this about this movie. And the ending is so good. I feel we don't get enough movies like that nowadays.
Your last bit had me reflecting on that conversation in Men In Black. You need to follow this with Colossus: The Forbin Project. Hint: it's about computers and defense.
I was about 14/15 when this made it to cable and watched it a million times. Watched it with my kids when they were young teens as well. It is quite brilliant especially for the time it was made.
I can not overstate the impact this film had on me as a kid. It's at least partially responsible for the fact that I'm now a software engineer. Other films from this era I remember are, Short Circuit 1 and 2, Tron, Flight of the Navigator, Space Camp, the first two Terminator films and Robocop.
When Matthew Broderick had his computer dial numbers until it found computer connections...that was a real thing. I used to do the same with my Commodore 64 while I was school in '84. And to avoid long distance phone charges, I did something that was called 'phone phreaking' which is what Broderick was referroing to when he said "there's ways around that" to Ally Sheedy. I appreciate your good, clean reactions. Thanks!
I'm old enough that I remember when War Games came out. So happy you've seen it now. And yes... it's nice that everyone does not die at the end of this film. Now... if only we can prevent WWIII from happening now for real. (Yikes) PS Have you ever seen "Colossus: The Forbin Project"? It was made in 1970 and has a similar "man vs computer" theme... but even more serious in its own way. Here's the trailer: ruclips.net/video/kyOEwiQhzMI/видео.html
"This guy's a straight up hacker for real."
What you need to understand is that THIS is the movie that made us fear hackers. Before this movie, society had no concept of the term.
I was 11 when I saw this, so I just thought Matthew's character was brilliant and amazing. (But you're so right - 'hacker' wasn't a popular term yet.) Now, as a website designer, I fear hackers, lol. Back then, though, I think what I feared more was that a computer could so easily be manipulated to this extreme, and that anyone who thinks having such weapons or wants to kill anyone else is insane.
With this thought in mind, perhaps he should react to the movie, "Hackers."
This movie also possibly has the most accurate representation of hacking from Hollywood - they consulted people with actual skills, and things like tricking the pay phone or using the Walkman to record the door entry code were all real life “hacks”.
This is also the movie that gave us the term "wardialing." The technique of using a computer to cycle through all phone numbers in an area code looking for other MODEMs existed before the movie. But it was usually called terms like "demon dialing." Wardialing was a part of a new wave of subculture.
(It also informs the naming of techniques like "Wardriving", etc.).
The movie “Hacker” with Angelina Jolie really introduced the concept to a wider audience. I’d put it in the must see category for the genre.
Although Wargames is a fictional story, there was an actual incident that occurred in the Soviet Union the same year that the movie came out which mirrors the events in the film. In September of 1983, Stanislav Petrov, lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces, was the duty officer at the command center for the Soviet satellite-based nuclear early warning system when the system erroneously reported that an ICBM had been launched by the United States.
When the blip on the screen suddenly vanished and was followed by a report of four more ICBMs headed towards Russia, Petrov suspected that the system was malfunctioning because it was new, and in his view, not entirely trustworthy. There was also no corresponding warning from ground-based Soviet radar. Petrov also knew that an American first strike against the Soviet Union would involve hundreds of missiles fired simultaneously, not just a single missile, followed by four more. It was later determined that the malfunction was caused by a rare alignment of sunlight reflecting off of high altitude clouds above North Dakota and the orbits of the Soviet satellites, which the computer misinterpreted as incoming missiles.
Had Petrov followed orders and reported the information the computer gave him to his superiors, the Soviet Union might have ordered a nuclear strike against the United States, which would have been followed by a retaliatory nuclear strike by the United States. By listening to his instincts and not the computer, Stanislav Petrov saved the world.
Crazy how people are so negative on humanity and governments, and they will never know that every day, you're possibly a centimeter from annihilation
i remember that well. the news was talking about how much computers were the problem. that's why we had operators in charge of the silos until the early 90's.
"The man who saved the world". I think he passed just a few years ago, with his only reward being that he knew what he prevented...which was enough for him...
they made a movie about that did they not I remember hearing about it from an advert for it
Been forever since I've seen this movie, and I immediately thought of Petrov in the opening scene this time. There had to have been some inspiration from that event on the opening scene.
STOKED you reacted to this. As a kid of the 80’s this was required viewing and easily one of the top 5 Cold War films. The last 20 minutes at NORAD is just heart stopping and brilliant. A friend of mine just showed it to her kids to help them understand what’s happening right now.
A kid of the 80's means you were born in the 70's but old enough to understand what was going on in the 80's. Just fyi
@@WheresWaldo05 I was born in the 70’s
Having actually been inside Cheyenne Mountain I can tell you the Hollywood version of NORAD is MUCH cooler than reality.
@@marennicholson5444 Good. Cause most people think they are a 80's kid if they were born in it. Not grew up in it.
Also, Miracle Mile
A decade later, the screenwriters of _Wargames_ would write the *perfect* movie: 1992's _Sneakers_
Among the best films of the 1990s. Everybody loves _Sneakers._ One for the list.
oh damn yeah Sneakers is fantastic too
I prefer WarGames to Sneakers, but yeah it's a good movie too.
Oh! I had no idea it was from the same writers, but it totally makes sense. I love Sneakers.
Sneakers!!! So good. The cast is just absolutely ridiculous with talent. Storyline is still relevant today.
I recommended Sneakers to him a while back! I hope he watches it soon. I freaking LOVE that movie.
What you have to realize is that kids in the late 70's and most of the 80's lived knowing that there was a possibly senile president of the US, and a grumpy warhawk in the Soviet Union. (The guys before Gorbachev.) *We lived in fear.* Constantly knowing that we were just one diplomatic mishap, one accidental button push from an old man away from everyone dying. This is why so many post-apocalyptic stories were popular in that time period, and stories like this.
Edit: Anyway, this is why this movie was a straight up horror movie for a lot of us, albeit one with a happy ending. Also, all the hacking on-screen is pretty much accurate.
The grumpy guys in the Kremlin were Breznyew, Andropov, and Chernyenkov. (Sorry for my poor transcription of Russian names into English). All of them really were old, grumpy guys in their late 70's and 80's that were puppets controlled by people in the KGB. The same people that trained Putin, who later became the head of department of the follow-up organization of the KGB. Yes, THAT Putin. So yes, the history of the 80's is still affecting us today, directly.
Never forget that: history has to be known to prevent a repeat.
@@RustyDust101 Hey, the OP was calling out both sides. Yet you're just villainizing one side as if you watch too much news propaganda and Disney. Don't believe every false flag bombing made to look like Russia did it, and don't forget what Americans did to Iraq and numerous other countries. It's not all black and white, good verses evil. It's actually way more complicated.
I'm old; I remember Khrushchev. He was pretty grumpy too. But not too long ago I saw the HBO miniseries "Chernobyl". Which included Gorbachev. And my opinion of him went up quite a bit: He may have been the dictator of a superpower, but he actually listened to experts. My understanding is that, although very old, he is still alive.
And yes, we did live in fear.
I have a friend who grew up in the 70s, and while she was at a beach FULL of people one summer, they saw an ICBM launch in the distance. It was the 70s, no one had any idea what was going, for all they knew wwiii had just started. A PACKED beach in Santa Barbara in the middle of summer fell COMPLETELY quiet as everyone just stood and stared. I can't even imagine man.
You definitely need to watch red dawn (1984) now
Stress the 1984. If you try to watch the remake it will ruin films for you forever.
Yessir, the original with Patrick Swayze 👍
WOLVERINES
@@pleasehelp2446 WOLVERINES!
Ridiculous premise, thoroughly implausible. Bad movie. Seriously. Who would be so stupid to think an invasion would work by parachuting into a little one horse town in Colorado???
Side note : The girl starring beside Mathew Broderick also plays the 'basketcase' in The Breakfast Club.
😃
@Gerald H Ooh, I'll have to check it out. I think her name is Allison Sheedy 🤔
I like Sean Penn too though.
I saw this in a full theater. When wopr said "The only winning move is not to play. The entire theater. Got up. And. Cheered.
"hell I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it would do any good" Also James there was a film just like this with Jon Lithgow that came out two years later called Manhattan project. It is really good too.
Word! Noted! And that line was great coming from his character haha
That is one of my favorite lines in all moviedom.
I was just thinking about that film the other day! A young Cynthia Nixon is in it, too.
Line was improvised by the actor. The director told him to come up with something because he felt the scene needed something there. He was right.
"Mr. Micitrick, I've come to the conclusion that your new computer system sucks!"
Matthew Broderick had a string of good movies after this, including Lady Hawke (with Rutger Hauer (Bladerunner) and Michelle Pfeiffer) -- an oft overlooked fantasy gem, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a massive 80's hit, as well as the also oft overlooked civil war flick Glory about the first black combat unit in the Civil War, with a fantastic early performance by a young Denzel Washington and (not quite as young) Morgan Freeman. Ally Sheedy, his girlfriend in this movie, went on to star in The Breakfast Club, by John Hughes, one of the best of the teen coming-of-age type movies.
Biloxi Blues was another good movie of Matthew Broderick's
Ladyhawke is one of the best fantasy films of the decade. And - if we could someday get a rerelease with a proper soundtrack (Sorry Alan Parsons Project, that was awful), I'd be so here for it.
Project X
@@carm3d Project X made me feel bad. Cried a lot the one single time I watched it. Couldn't bring myself to watch it again and it's been 30ish years since then.
He wash involved in a car crash which injured him and Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing) and left two people dead which put a break on his career.
I was 14 when this hit theaters, already headed for a lifetime in computer science.
I am happy that it's aged well, like Dr Strangelove before it. I showed it to the 14 year old child of my girlfriend about five years ago, and he was all over it. I asked him if the dated technology of the film was a distraction to enjoying the film, and he immediately rose to its defense, saying, "Oh, no, it's a classic!" Then he went back to his basement to try and get scammers to call each other some more.
The techno-rom-com thriller Sneakers (1992) is the other movie to see by two of the creative team behind this movie.
It's worth pointing out, to anyone who nitpicks the technical points of David's hacking skills in the film and says, "It didn't work like that," yeah, exactly. The studio had no intention of being sued by every other parent in America for turning their children into bona fide cyber cruminals.
Anyway, love me some WarGames. It was made with dead earnest seriousness about a life-and-death topic, and they turned in a quality picture. It was a pretty big hit at the time, not Ghostbusters sized, but it was well regarded at its release.
There’s another movie I’d recommend that’s somewhat similar. The Manhattan Project (1986). It’s got John Lithgow in it. Been a long time since I saw it but I remember it being good.
There's also a really good two-season show called "Manhattan" that aired on WGN, don't know if it streaming though. it had a really good cast and story.
The Manhattan Project is so underrated.
It still holds up. Like Wargames and Sneakers it is a pretty accurate representation of the hacker ethos.
@@WrathOfTheGoth Except for the soundtrack, this is a great movie still
Recently rewatched that. Still great.
Saw this in the theatre as a young adult back in 1983. The fear of WWIII was always present as was the fear of computers (automation) taking jobs. This movie really hit home. The audience gave it a huge ovation at the end.
19:00 as an 80s kid growing up within sight of a primary target I can remember my dad having this exact conversation with me. He basically said "don't worry about things you have no control over, there will be a flash of light, it'll all be over and you'd be better off than the others who are further away from the blast".
My dad told me the same thing. Born in 1980, lived between the industrial cities of Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and Bradford. Dad told me they'd just drop one really big one on top of us and it'd be over in an instant. The number of anxiety dreams I had... x
Glad you enjoyed this James. And I know a lot of younger people "miss" the 80s and wish they could have been a part of them (and believe me when I say I wish you could have too), but it wasn't all roses. All the fun and fashion and advancements were against the backdrop of "hey at any moment, the USA and the USSR could nuke the entire world into oblivion". Not cool, especially for a tween and teenager. I still remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard that the Berlin Wall fell, it was such a huge mental relief to see the Cold War end. Stay safe my friend.
Agreed. Rather than having to engage Russian tanks from the front in West Germany, my generation partied like the world was ending instead. That sort of release is what made the 90s so much fun.
@@gibbletronic5139 I suppose Vlad got nostalgic fir the olden days & had to go fuckin’ things up.
I was in my early 20s when the Berlin Wall fell. I remember watching it on the news for two days straight while people just partied on top of the wall around the clock. It was so unimaginable. With everything happening now, bits and pieces of that time are coming back to me randomly. Just yesterday I was thinking about how weird it was back then to get used to a country just called “Germany” instead of the separate East Germany and West Germany I’d known my whole life.
It got me looking at a map. For younger folks trying to make sense of what’s going on in Ukraine, pull up a map of the former Soviet Union in the 80s. It paints a pretty frightening picture of Putin’s “good old days.”
I was born in '73 so very much grew up in the '80s but never really had that fear of USSR, I have no memories of such worrying.
By the 1980 far of the bomb was almost over.
Interesting side note -- the computer he was using predates the Apple II... it's called the IMSAI 8080. It, along with the Altair 8800 are considered the first 'home computers'. These computers were very primitive by today's standards... they didn't have a keyboard or even a video screen -- you would have to connect a 'dumb terminal' to the computer to get any of that functionality.
The interesting part about this, though, is that there is a real resurgence of these computers thanks to the whole retro-computer thing going on now. So much so that there are kits you can get that will re-build these computers using modern hardware.
Well... at least, I find this interesting:)
Also, that program he had that dialed all the numbers in a given exchange and recorded when computers answered was a real thing -- when I was in high school a... um... friend... had this running on his Commodore 64:)
My first computer was a Tandy TRS-80.
You owe it to yourself to watch "Threads", the 1984 BBC TV Movie.
The most frightening movie ever made and one which everyone needs to see to understand what humanity can do to itself.
_Threads_ makes _Come And See_ look like _Mary Poppins._ Truly, the most soul-scarring, terrifying, & depressing film I've ever seen. But, of course, that's it's point.
I only saw Threads once, when it was first broadcast in the US, and it has been burned in my brain ever since. You’re damn right-it’s the most frightening film ever made. People who tell me that The Day After was the best WWIII film are soooooo wrong.
To quote Long John Silver, "them that die'll be the lucky ones". Though if we play the translate and translate back game, Nikolai Chukovsky's (the Russian Dr Seuss) translation of Treasure Island to Russian and back to English, it can come out as "those of you who will still be alive will envy the dead", which sounds a bit more ominous.
Agreed. If James really wants to delve into the horrors of nuclear war, then this is the definitive movie to watch. It will scar you. It is horrific, especially in the aftermath. Just unrelenting. Makes The Day After seem tame, even milquetoast in comparison. If you want to understand why people so dread nuclear war, watch Threads.
"When The Wind Blows" is another one along the same lines, made bleak and disturbing because it's animated in the style of "The Snowman"
As a child of the Reagan-era Cold War, this movie was one of my childhood favorites!
Fun fact. They had issues getting the sync right on filming the wopr display, since the only options for power was 60 Hz and 50 Hz, and the cameras are 24fps. Someone, possibly the assistant director or someone with decent electronics skills manipulated the circuitry with a graphite pencil to adjust the connectivity until they got it to sync in 24fps.
Saw this when it came out. Here were two extreme moments that got big reactions from the audience. The first was when they thought the missiles were real then found out that they weren’t. One of the junior USAF officers broke down and cried at his counsel. More than a few in the audience were crying with them. The second was when the kid started trying to get the computer to play tic-tac-toe. At the height of this tense moment, with the fate of humanity in the balance, one of the techs leans over his shoulder and says “put X in the center square.” The whole theater cracked up laughing at that.
This came out when I was in high school, a time when we did fear nuclear annihilation. Also a time when computers were just becoming to be widely used in schools and homes. It was the first time I remember seeing the hacker culture.
The theme of hope (Dinosaurs vs humans) that you discuss. Professor Falken was a pessimistic fatalist. That scene is a real downer, yes, but Falken's outlook was the result of losing his son. When Matthew Brodderick's character says, "If the real Joshua was alive, what would you do?" And that hope for humanity comes back to hm. This is so amazing, because there's a story of redemption for Falken, brought about by a simple teenage boy. It was so fun watching you watch and react to this mind-blowing movie from my childhood.
One of the guys in the beginning is John Spencer, who played the Chief of Staff on The West Wing. He was also in Cop Land, which is a movie you should definitely check out. Amazing cast. Probably Sylvester Stallone's best performance.
The other was the very great Micheal Madsen from "Reservoir Dogs", "Kill Bill vol 2" and "The Hateful 8".
And Barry Corbin (the General) from Northern Exposure ;-)
This and "when the wind blows" we're mandatory in my school.
The term "wardialer" was invented because this movie. The tool of calling every phone number to look for an active modem didn't actually exist before this movie. After Wargames came out, the hacker/phreaker communities wondered why no one thought of this before and they developed a bunch of different tools to accomplish this. This later on spawned other tools and techniques like "wardriving" which is the act of scanning for wireless access points.
It's interesting when Hollywood actually influences real life like that.
Quibble. "Demon dialing" as a technique existed before Wargames. But it was this flick that gave it the name "wardialing" and firmly cemented the idea in so many impressionable minds in front of a home microcomputer with an autodial MODEM (and access to a "wardial" app from their local warez BBS).
Spot on with wardriving. And warchalking. And so on.
Thanks for that bit of History. I was actually not aware of that. And I'm an old school 2600 dude that used to have my own rainbow box and lineman's handset along with all the other fun things that come along with those hobbies...
Matthew Broderick, who played the lead, also had another major 80s hit that's worth a watch is "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" it's a comedy classic with loads of forth wall breaking.
I love that you loved this film. It has been one of my favorites since it first hit the theaters. Thanks again for pointing out production details like camera angles and such, as my brain totally misses those things while I watch a film... I just get lost in the experience as a whole... but I really enjoy understanding the choices that were made to bring a film to life, and you are very good at explaining them.
Happy to hear that! Get inspired watching things like this.
1983 was the year we thought WWIII was actually going to take place. The Soviets had shot down a Korean Airlines 747 that had wandered into their airspace, and President Reagan had called the Soviet Union an "evil empire" further escalating tensions. "The Day After" (tv movie about WWIII) had aired showing the horrors of nuclear war. I was 13 years old and thought I'd never see my 14th birthday.
I... Never believed that I'd have to consider the possibility happening again in my lifetime.
An all time favorite movie! I'm 51, and I can't believe how all the tech on this movie now fits in your hand, as opposed to needing a room. Falken's comment about the horror of survival is not unfounded. A terrifying movie called THREADS shows you just how terrible surviving may be
"Would you like to play a game?" was iconic in social consciousness at the time.
It's a game...or is it?
Nominated for 3 Oscars:
Best Cinematography
Best Sound Mixing
Best Original Screenplay
This is the the story of what would happen if a teenager accidentally hacked into NORAD and that he would unintentionally cause WWIII
Not too far off of a possibility now.
Scary times man im not watching the news anymore
Another interesting SCI-FI film dealing with the early years of the Cold War is "Colossus: The Forbin Project" released 1970. Please check it out.
its a shame not many talk about it
Good movie.
Love this movie. BTW, check out the video "How Telephone Phreaking Worked" by The 8-Bit Guy, if anyone's curious about an insight into what Broderick's character is doing in the film to try and locate the "company" making those "games". It's pretty interesting how landlines used to work. I guess it also explains how he's able to escape the room he's hold up in by using the tape recorder to record the password and play back the tones.
I have no mouth and I must scream is a really good book and I didn't even think about the paralles with the computer and AM. But I totally see where you are coming from. Thanks for bringing it up again. Gonna ready again soon because of you.
Anytime my man. Enjoy the mind trip!
There were other low budget kids/young adult sci-fi 80s movies that I enjoyed more (D.A.R.Y.L, Flight of the navigator, My science project, Explorers, The last starfighter etc.). But this one probably taught me the most and stuck with me. And its message is sadly as urgent now as it was then.
Also, Ally Sheedy was SOOO cute!
😍😆👍
I became a big fan of Ally Sheedy because of this movie!
If you liked this Matthew Broderick movie, please react to Glory. I think it's Matthew's best performance, plus you get Denzel's oscar-winning performance as well as a valuable historical portrayal of the 54th Massachusetts infantry regiment!
It's hard to imagine the impact the movie had at the time, on some people at least.
If you think the situation is tense now, in '83 it was USSR. Europe was cut in half by the Iron Curtain. Berlin was cut in half by the Wall.
I was 12, and my parents just bought me my first computer. 8 bits, 3.75 MHz CPU and 48 kB of RAM. That's .000046 GB in case you wonder. Those modems where 300 bit/s, that's .00000027 Gbit/s. They could also run at 1200/75. Yes we had asymmetrical bandwidth even then. It wasn't for everybody tho, depending on where you lived, using the telephone could simply cost too much. I wasn't lucky.
It's also hard to imagine how little knowledge of computers there was back then. 99.9% of the adults had no idea in the slightest. Neither did 95% of the kids.
The movie was also incredibly accurate for the time. Ok, a few hollywood licences were taken, probably at NORAD they didn't have an external line hooked up directly to the central computer, there wasn't a backdoor, and its password wasn't Joshua. But, the hacking process was on point. Scanning for modems, check. Social engineering, check. Brilliant teenager doing the hacking, check.
War Games was very influential. The underage hacker was born there. It made less and less sense as the years passed, but the trope stayed. It was simply to cool.
So many films wound't exist w/o War Games. Keanu may know kung-fu, but Matthew invented it.
That was a young Michael Masden. ''Turn your key Sir. (louder) TURN YOUR KEY SIR''... .. . Reservoir Dogs - Kill Bill and so much more... .. .
And the other guy is John Spencer, from LA Law, Cop Land, The West Wing....
@@lizd2943 Good shout :)
John Spencer and Michael Madsen were so good in their little missile silo part.
This scene felt different after watching Reservoir Dogs. 😎
Bro! I got so stoked when I saw you doing Wargames and even more so when you said you knew nothing about it. I'm a 90's kid, so this movie was old news by the time I was born but my dad insisted on it when I was young. It shaped me and my outlook on a great many things. One of my all-time personal favorites. "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play." Freaking iconic and it sums up nuclear (as well as biological and chemical) use in warfare so beautifully and succinctly. Glad you enjoyed it as much as I do. Watch it again to soak it up. Then with a sharp eye, you'll see it's referred to often in music, movies, and TV. Love the work. Keep it up. 💯
I was 12 when this came out. The reality of this happening was a real and terrifying thought at the time.
This one and "The Day After" were the defining movies of the cold war era.
Dude, can’t begin to tell you how much I love your channel. I’m an old guy, can’t believe you chose this film and so glad you did. Forgot what a classic it is. Again, best part of your channel (next to the greatest vibe on RUclips ever) is your reactions are such a great mix. Thanks so much brethren, keep doing you. Much love and respect ✊🏼
Respect g!! 🙏🏽
Came out when I was 10 and my school was still conducting bomb drills. We understood the "horror of survival" at a very young age.
Want more? Fail Safe (1964). Directed by Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men)
I would love to see this movie remade depicting present day technology.
Hahaha honestly it’d probably be something with the internet/social media
there is a sequel, that basiclly uses the same plot, but set in the 2000s
@Jesus Ramirez Romo Yes but I meant something meant to be good, not that straight-to-video B-movie. Thanks though.
I think we're too jaded rn about too many things. I think you'd end up with the weapon/tech version of Don't Look Up's modern disaster movie.
Uh Spoilers for DLU, I guess...
Heavy commentary on social media and how crappy we all are, with an overall fail ending instead of a more hopeful one.
If they could do it right that would be amazing but I have a feeling they would probably mess it up like they messed up the majority of the remakes that are being made right now.
In the same vein, you should watch Fail Safe from 1964 starring Henry Fonda. Another nuclear war era what-if movie. It's honestly just amazing and brilliant.
I saw this as a kid at the drive-in as a double feature with a movie called Blue Thunder. Both movies were directed by John Badham. Check it out if you get a chance , it’s a really cool movie with Roy Schieder and Malcolm McDowell.👍
Blue Thunder brings up some interesting thoughts on the “possibility” of people in power using everyday folks as pawns as well.
“Catch you later.” 👉
Also saw this in the cinema as a kid. Damn we grew up with great movies!
@@rustybarrel516 That and arming the police with heavier weaponry.
....and Daniel Stern as JAFO.
@@rustybarrel516 "do you know he checks his sanity with a stop watch??" ... "What do you check yours with, a dipstick?"
One thing that a lot of these 80's nostalgia movies, tv shows miss, is the threat of nuclear war. Threads and The Day After, When The Wind Blows are a few suggestions to check out.
Great choice, James! Fun fact: THIS movie is why I didn't get "online" until 1985. I saw it in theaters (I was 16) , and talked my grandmother (who raised me) into watching it on HBO when it first hit the movie channels....
For context, she had bought me my first computer in 1983 (a Commodore 64), the following year, she got me a disk drive (5 1/4" floppy) and a printer, so that I could use it to do school work. I had been asking for a modem (it was all landlines back then) but she had no idea what it would be used for. Then I showed her this movie, and she honestly thought I would do the whole "hack into the school's computer and change my grades" thing. She also thought I might get in serious trouble with the thing by accidentally doing something like what David did in this movie. It took me well over a year before I finally got my first modem (which is short for MOdulator/DEModulator). Get this: My first modem transferred data across a standard landline (like in this movie) at 300 Bytes Per Second. Think about that for a second.... nearly 40 years later, and we are transferring data across dedicated fiber optic lines at a speed millions of times faster than that.
Also, Malvin aka "Mister POTATO HEAD!" (the character), the actor who plays him is a friend of mine. His real name is Eddie Deezen. He's a great guy, and aside from the 80s movies he was in, he has done a lot of voiceover work in animated films.
A few movies he has been in are well worth checking out, especially Midnight Madness. He had a starring role in that one, of course, playing a "nerdy" character. Believe it or not, he was considered "TOO nerdy" to be in the movie Revenge of the Nerds.
Another movie I highly recommend is "Real Genius", which stars William Atherton and Val Kilmer.
7:47 - Uh, yeah.... about that. This was made during the Reagan years, when the "Cold War" felt like it was going to go "hot" at any minute. Kinda like now, really, but at the time, growing up, we were acutely aware that the missiles could be on their way for next to no reason at any moment.
I watched it in the theatre with my parents. Walking out my Mum said "You're not getting a modem".
I also got a Commodore 64 when I was 12 ( and later an Amiga 500) Beautiful little home computers. I couldn't get a modem, because I didn't have the words to describe what it was and what it could do. I only got the Commodore 64 because the man in the shop told my mother that it was a "Toy for kids". I knew better, we had already started coding at school and I watched the science programme "Tomorrow's World" on the BBC. The future was here but with no modem I had no link up. Good Times.
Today (3/21, the day this video was posted) is Matthew Broderick (David Lightman)’s 60th Birthday. Happy Birthday!
Thank you for your reaction. War Games is brilliant film. They actually hired a real hacker to explain various methods of hacking and used them for the movie so everything Mathew Broderick's character does is an accurate depiction of hacking in 1983. Another fun fact about this movie is that apparently NATO's display setup was very different at the time of release and they watched the movie and were like Holy Crap this display setup is way more efficient and actually changed their military base to fit the design of the movie.
“Collossus the Forbin Project” 1971 is a good follow up
I loved this film. If you want to see this same premise played out a little differently, check out "Colossus: The Forbin Project.", an earlier film which like this, and 2001 portrays the dangers of AI, which is perhaps one of most utilized science fiction themes.
Seconded. _Colossus: The Forbin Project_ is a '70s Sci-Fi masterpiece - and serves well as a _Terminator_ / _Matrix_ prequel.
Just saw your comment after posting a recommend for The Forbin Project. But going to leave it posted because its a film that really is one of the films that helped to establish the troupe dealing with the fear of AI computers.
"There is another system"
Ah I also just posted about James reacting to The Forbin Project, one of my favorite movies when I was growing up in the early 80s. I hope with so many comments about the movie, he might take notice :)
Yes please
Even many years later, professional seminars on IT security referenced this film. There is still a technique called 'wardriving' (previously war-dialing) whose name derives from the modem-dialing technique depicted here. It is why you must have a good password on your wi-fi devices. The social engineering research about Falken that he used to get the password is still a valid technique.
Apparently, Captain America saw this before you did.
Another early Matthew Broderick movie that was an instant classic was Project X.
I always like new technology is dangerous and scary movies like this and Tron. Or in the early 90s The Net with Sandra Bullock. In the opening scene she orders a pizza online and it was portrayed as such a ridiculous thing. Of course it was back in the day but it is still funny and entertaining.
Now we need the Trifecta of War Games, Sneakers, and Hackers.
Need to see "9 to 5"!!! Dabney Coleman is a fantastic comedic actor!!! That 1 was a huge classic in '80??? HABD🙏 ✌ ❤ 🚬
Everyone should watch Coleman’s tv series Buffalo Bill, where he played an unrepentant asshole as a lead character and made it work. The episode where Bill gets into a fracas with the NAACP and has a dream set to Ray Charles’ “Hit the Road, Jack” is one of the funniest things I have ever seen on tv!
@@kathyastrom1315 Wow! Never even heard of that. Sounds interesting. ✌❤
One of my all time favorites. Saw this at 15 yr old, at local theater, $ 2.75, and was blown away.
It was aimed at young adults with Alley Sheedy and Broderick both 17 at filming, but it was so much more.
"Hacking" was pretty easy at the time. Lots of security through obscurity, where you're basically just betting on people not knowing what number to call to protect your servers from unwanted visitors, and really crappy passwords. Hell, the whole field of digital forensics and the security upgrades it would bring about wasn't really even invented until Cliff Stoll in 1986, 3 years after this movie came out. Cliff Stoll, by the way, real interesting guy. PhD Astronomer, mathematician, middle school science teacher, only manufacturer of klein bottles, worked with Robert Moog (Moog Modular), etc., who got stuck managing the computers for Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, noticed someone breaking in to their systems, and tracked them down.
The Cuckoo’s Egg by Stoll is one of my favorite nonfiction computer books.
@@kathyastrom1315 There is also a RUclips video of that. Must watch.
I believe I still have a copy of Stoll's Cuckoo's Egg on my shelves.
Another favorite of mine, also I highly recommend “Colossus: The Forbin Project” (1970) It’s one of James Cameron’s favorites, and mine.
Fantastic cold war era film! Honestly, as a kid I wanted to try playing this game, or the chemical warfare option lol
LMFAO. YOU GOT THAT 😂
Likewise. And I did! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames_(video_game)
There is the RTS "DEFCON" which takes a lot of inspiration from Wargames
You should check out a similar movie that came out 13 years before Wargames, it's called Colossus: The Forbin Project. It was made at a time when computers took up entire buildings.
This was my hacker movie growing up - my oldest brother had a C64 with a cassette tape drive, you know, cutting edge...
lmfao, the latest tech
Rich kids. Sheesh. LOL I couldn't even get my parents to invest in "Pong".
If you liked this, then you will absolutely adore The Net with Sandra Bullock. Again, especially for what’s been happening over the last couple of years. It’s powerful! 💙💙💙
This movie inspired me to get into computers. Especially the exploratory security aspect of computer security which is also known by different name that starts with an h and I don't want to get censored for mentioning. They had to get clearance from the CIA and DARPA and NORAD to release this movie by the way.
Bro... "Crimson Tide" is a must must
Finally someone watches this masterpiece!! And it's still relevant, AF specially these days!! Loved your "metalgear-ing" quote hahaha
Here's another recommendation from the 80s: Young Sherlock Holmes.
A great adventure produced by Spielberg and the first film to include a fully-bodied CG character (and with a great, almost souls-y design actually lol) If only for that, its worth a watch!
Young Sherlock Holmes scared the crap out of me, simply because I have a vivid imagination and can put myself in a scenario. Facing the prospect of getting burned alive is one of my greatest fears.
As the Summer approaches, there are what I consider all-time classics you should check out. 1) The Sandlot 2) Heavy Weights. Please do yourself the pleasure.
Pterodactyls plagued many picnics in the early 80s
And early crustaceans
The Sheldon Cooper like character at the electronics lab at 8:45 is actually called Sheldon in the film Zapped.
In my head space he is 100% the inspiration for the Big Bang Theory character.
You should watch Red Dawn, the original one from the 80's. Given the current threat of nuclear war, it is an interesting piece.
@68K zNone the less jingoistic as it is, it is an interesting window into a time a lot of us gen x people grew up with. worth his time to react to. imo
Of all the movie reactors you are the best at finding the more obscure, but oh so good ones.
Marvel's WHAT IF tomorrow!
Finished Chernobyl & Hawkeye on the patreon! Click here for early access: www.patreon.com/jamesvscinema
Have a great day everyone!
Watch " Testament " from 1983
A good companion piece to this is the movie "Amazing Grace and Chuck" starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Gregory Peck, and William Peterson, a "feel good movie"
There's this beautiful movie called I origins, it's probably not worth reacting to because I don't think it would get many views but as a movie lover you should 100% check it out
It's beautiful, tragic, complex and just a movie thats completely overlooked
This movie was free with ads on RUclips up until a few months ago.
Bastards.
Still think you should try "Pump Up the Volume" 1990.
I was 13 when I saw this in the theater and I remember being blown away by this movie. One of my favorite movies from the early 80s. Glad to see you enjoyed it bro.
Love this movie. Feel like it was ahead of its time.
Waaaaay ahead.
Quick recommendation for the sci-fi classic. Silent Running. Available to rent on RUclips. Comes from that 2001 era of great practical effects work.
For another great 80s sci fi movie, you gotta check out the original Tron. SO good.
There's also a movie called fail safe where the nuclear armed planes were at the call back position. One of the planes radio shorted out so they carried out the mission. Our president was on the phone with the Russian president telling him we will blow up New York if the bomb drops on Moscow
Peace love and positive vibes fam !
I have always loved this movie 🍿!
James please review the cinematography work in the original “blade-runner” from 1982 - or the cinematography work in “The Revenant”
I would love to get your opinions on the cinematography in the movies alone ! Thanks for you’re reviews ! You’re awesome dude !
- Peace and positive vibes fam !
I’ll do a video similar to The Batman in those because I agree, I have lots to say about both those films!
@@JamesVSCinema that would be so awesome bro ! I can’t wait for you to review those
I saw this back when it came out, will always be one of my favorite movies of all time. Timeless really.
IIRC, the story was inspired by a book called _Failsafe_ from the '50s or '60s - the same book that inspired _Dr. Strangelove_ and others.
(Incidentally, the General's line about "after careful consideration, sir, I've come to the conclusion that your new defense system sucks" has become a classic quote among my family.)
There was also a 1962 movie called Failsafe with Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau. Almost the exact same plotline as Dr Strangelove, but a straight drama.
@@melg1621 They remade it in the '90s as a live TV movie starring George Clooney
You should add 'When the Wind Blows' an animated film by Raymond Briggs the guy who did The Snowman.
Gotta watch The Last Starfighter
Yes, please! Such a wonderful, overlooked film.
It was rare enough that people with IT skills weren't portrayed as stereotypical "Hollywood geek", I really appreciate this about this movie. And the ending is so good. I feel we don't get enough movies like that nowadays.
Nice man, haven't seen much of Matthew Broderick lately.
Glad to have this one be of surprise then!
Project X would be a great one to react to as well.
Your last bit had me reflecting on that conversation in Men In Black.
You need to follow this with Colossus: The Forbin Project. Hint: it's about computers and defense.
''threads'' 1984
I was about 14/15 when this made it to cable and watched it a million times. Watched it with my kids when they were young teens as well. It is quite brilliant especially for the time it was made.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A GAME?!?!
I can not overstate the impact this film had on me as a kid. It's at least partially responsible for the fact that I'm now a software engineer.
Other films from this era I remember are, Short Circuit 1 and 2, Tron, Flight of the Navigator, Space Camp, the first two Terminator films and Robocop.
Great pick. So glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks homie!
When Matthew Broderick had his computer dial numbers until it found computer connections...that was a real thing. I used to do the same with my Commodore 64 while I was school in '84. And to avoid long distance phone charges, I did something that was called 'phone phreaking' which is what Broderick was referroing to when he said "there's ways around that" to Ally Sheedy. I appreciate your good, clean reactions. Thanks!
"I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" is one of Harlan Ellison's most hardcore stories, a real nightmare.
Dabney Coleman always plays a great foil for main characters - the smarmy boss in 9 to 5, the prospective son in law in On Golden Pond, and this.
Another interesting film with some similar topics
"Colossus: The Forbin Project" (1970)
Another cold war classic if you're interested is Fail Safe (1964).
I'm old enough that I remember when War Games came out. So happy you've seen it now. And yes... it's nice that everyone does not die at the end of this film. Now... if only we can prevent WWIII from happening now for real. (Yikes) PS Have you ever seen "Colossus: The Forbin Project"? It was made in 1970 and has a similar "man vs computer" theme... but even more serious in its own way. Here's the trailer: ruclips.net/video/kyOEwiQhzMI/видео.html
"Colossus: The Forbin Project" - second this recommendation.