WarGames is a
1983 drama-
thriller film written by
Lawrence Lasker and
Walter F. Parkes and directed by
John Badham. The film starred
Matthew Broderick in his second major film role, and featured
Ally Sheedy,
Dabney Coleman,
John Wood, and
Barry Corbin.
The film follows David Lightman (Broderick), a young
hacker who unwittingly hacks into
WOPR, a United States military
supercomputer programmed to predict possible outcomes of
nuclear war. Lightman gets WOPR to run a nuclear war simulation, originally believing it to be a computer game. The simulation causes a national nuclear missile scare and nearly starts
World War III.