by Robert Scocchi
| Published
Matthew Broderick is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Ferris Bueller, and rightly so. While in 1986 Ferris Bueller holiday It is a coming-of-age story about a high school-age computer hacker who uses technology to play bullshit and have the best day of his life while evading the dean of students, and Broderick portrays a similar archetype of the character in 1983. War games (airing on Max), a tech thriller that still holds up today.
Ferris before Ferris
war games, Now streaming on Max, Broderick's David Lightman introduces himself after creating his own technology backstory for the first time. During the film's opening scene, it becomes clear that the missile wing controllers work for the United States Air Force They constantly hesitate to launch missile strikes in both simulated and real-life doomsday scenarios. Wary of his men's indecision, John McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) decides it is best to automate the entire process.
Control of NORAD is transferred to a supercomputer known as War Operation Plan Response (WOPR), a cold-hearted machine that would not hesitate to launch a missile strike at any moment. After all, we're in the middle of a massive arms race between the United States and Russia at the end of the Cold War, so this is serious business.
Whoopsie hockey and the threat of World War III
You're probably wondering where Ferris Bueller is connected, but this came to mind shortly after the broadcast War games on TopI promise I won't make things up.
David Lightman, like Ferris in the 1986 film, likes to tinker with computers and logs into his school's database to change his grades, as well as those of his romantic interest Jennifer Mack (Ally Sheedy). Innocently enough, David becomes inspired to step up his hacking game after learning about a video game company called Protovision because he wants to see if he can access any unreleased games currently in development. Things get complicated when David inadvertently hacks into WOPR, and is asked to play what he believes is a game called “Global Thermonuclear War.”
Fortunately, David activates WOPR, informs agents working for NORAD of the hack, and suspects David of involvement in domestic terrorism. If what's shown on WOPR's screen is accurate, David may have prompted the machine to start World War III, and NORAD is bringing him in for questioning. while War games The series on Max begins as a teen comedy-drama, and the stakes rise dramatically as David tries to clear his name and spare the world from nuclear annihilation.
Equal parts action and comedy
War games It plays mostly straight like a tech thriller, but it's not without a sense of humor. Matthew Broderick He straddles the line between a lovable football player who is in over his head and a young tech expert who uses his skills to keep his country safe from an impending nuclear war. As David MacGyver made his way through the military-industrial complex, he did so with a smirk, as if to let the audience know he was serious. War games It may sound like it based on his description of Max, but it's still a very entertaining work of speculative fiction at that.
As of this writing, you can steam War games on Max before searching for your VHS copy Ferris Bueller's Day Off To make a double feature out of it. Whatever you do, don't resort to hacking, otherwise you may discover some launch codes that are best left hidden from the public eye.
