War Games: Movie Analysis

War games is a movie about a high school boy named David and how his deceiving and hacking nearly started a war. He can hack into computers and is great with machines. For David, hacking into his school’s computers to change his grades is a walk in the park. But sometimes doing bad can lead to worse. David simply tried to hack into an army base to play a game. The game he chose was Global Thermonuclear War. Hacking into this military game caused an unfortunate turn of events. Not until after he had started playing did David realize he might have started World War III.

When David hacks into something, he is basically saying he is someone that he is not. As he began to play that game, it addressed him as professor Falken. Later

on during the movie they kids learn that professor Falken was the creator of the games. He was the only one who could stop World War III cause he knew how to game worked. But this is where the moral issues come in. Once David and his friend the professor and ask him for help he simply did nothing. Professor Falken believed that mankind would destroy itself anyway so it wasn’t his problem. The Professor had gone through much grief in his life. His son and wife were gone and he had nothing left except his dinosaur hobby. So in his eyes, if the world was destroyed he wouldn’t have that pain anymore therefore it was right to let ‘’Joshua’’, which was the computers name, destroy the planet.
A lot of people might say having reliance on a computer in dangerous and ill advised. The WOPR is a computer/machine that spends all of its time thinking about World War III. It was already fought World War III as a game. The WOPR estimates the soviet responses and missile launches. Most everybody on the base was on board with the idea that a machine was looking after the people of the country. So the moral question is: Why were some people in the movie confident in Joshua/WOPR and why were some people against it? Some of the officials believed that if all of their decision were made by this machine it would make it easier on them and that was their reason for believing it was right. But the General thought it was a ridiculous idea to put all their trust in a computer. Turns out he was right not to trust it.
Throughout the whole movie, David had a problem with breaking in and out of things including computers and locked door.

This clearly shows that his morals on that sort of thing are probably not the best. For example, in the beginning of this movie he hacks into his school’s computer to change his grades. Same thing for his friend Jennifer. She came over to his house after and eventually changed her grades also. At first she was totally opposed to it. At that moment she believed that deceiving and lying was wrong. But once she thought it about it more she changed her mind. Jennifer went back to David and asked him to change them. The bible says in James 4:17, ‘’ So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin’’ Jennifer and David knew it was wrong to hack into the computers to cheat, but taking the easy way out seems right. In their minds doing this will make it easier on them so what they are doing is justified. But in many other people’s minds taking the easy way out is bad because you aren’t learning what you should and college and adult life will be difficult. It’s ok to make things easier now and then, but when it all comes down to it we need to put in some hard to become more responsible. Even though sometimes we may fail we can learn from our

mistakes.
In trying to play a game, David nearly tried to play a game by using his skills to hack and break into things. Unfortunately, he almost started World War III. This movie is full of different people’s morals and beliefs. It is also full of many valuable lessons. When you sin, it eventually catches up to you whether you want it to or not. Unfortunately for David, it nearly ended the world. That is one of the biggest lessons in the movie.