Gene Siskel Film Center Chicago, IL
Stephen I. Schwartz
Nonresident Senior Fellow, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
WarGames— It’s the end of the world as we know it... and we could use some help in feeling fine (Part IV)
Program Description
Series: It’s the end of the world as we know it... and, if we’re being honest, we could use some help in feeling fine. From pandemics to nuclear war, from planet-pulverizing meteors to a city-smashing monster, these films explore all the ways we’re risking destruction. This series is curated in partnership with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, keepers of the Doomsday Clock. Join us as we discuss the end times—and how we can avoid them.
High school student David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) unwittingly hacks into a military supercomputer while searching for new video games. After starting a game of Global Thermonuclear War, Lightman leads the supercomputer to activate the nation’s nuclear arsenal in response to his simulated threat as the Soviet Union, and the once-clueless hacker must find a way to alert the authorities to stop the onset of World War III. Followed by a discussion with Stephen Schwartz, nonresident senior fellow with the Bulletin.
Presented At
Gene Siskel Film Center Chicago, IL
Film Synopsis
A young hacker unwittingly initiates a US military supercomputer programmed to execute nuclear war against the Soviet Union.
High school student David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) unwittingly hacks into a military supercomputer while searching for new video games. After starting a game of Global Thermonuclear War, Lightman leads the supercomputer to activate the nation's nuclear arsenal in response to his simulated threat as the Soviet Union. Once the clueless hacker comes to his senses, Lightman, with help from his girlfriend (Ally Sheedy), must find a way to alert the authorities to stop the onset of World War III.
Part delightfully tense techno-thriller, part refreshingly unpatronizing teen drama, WarGames is one of the more inventive—and genuinely suspenseful—Cold War movies of the 1980s. [Rotten Tomatoes]
Banner image courtesy of MGM/UA Entertainment Co./Photofest
About the Speaker
Stephen I. Schwartz is a nonresident senior fellow at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and an independent consultant. He previously served as editor of The Nonproliferation Review; publisher and executive director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; guest scholar and project director at the Brookings Institution; and Washington representative for the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability. He is the author of numerous articles and reports, including Nuclear Security Spending: Assessing Costs, Examining Priorities (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2009), and is the editor and co-author of Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of US Nuclear Weapons Since 1940 (Brookings Institution Press, 1998). Schwartz analyzes, writes, and speaks publicly about the history and costs of US nuclear weapons and weapons-related programs, including how and why the nuclear arsenal developed the way it did, the ongoing $1.7 trillion effort to maintain, rebuild, and upgrade every delivery system and warhead in the arsenal, and the development, costs, and effectiveness of US ballistic missile defense programs.