Directed by: John Badham
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, Ally Sheedy
Audio problem: When Falcon types at the end of the movie, he says "hello Joshua" as he types. Only "Hello." shows up, but you can hear him type more than six characters.
Factual error: When it appears that Alaska is under attack, Gen. Beringer orders 2 F-16s scrambled. The planes we see are F-15s.
Stephen Falken: The whole point was to find a way to practise nuclear war without destroying ourselves. To get the computers to learn from mistakes we couldn't afford to make. Except, I never could get Joshua to learn the most important lesson.
David Lightman: What's that?
Stephen Falken: Futility. That there's a time when you should just give up.
Jennifer: What kind of a lesson is that?
Stephen Falken: Did you ever play tic-tac-toe?
Jennifer: Yeah, of course.
Stephen Falken: But you don't anymore.
Jennifer: No.
Stephen Falken: Why?
Jennifer: Because it's a boring game. It's always a tie.
Stephen Falken: Exactly. There's no way to win. The game itself is pointless! But back at the war room, they believe you can win a nuclear war. That there can be "acceptable losses."
Trivia: Broderick changes school information from his home computer just as he does in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Both mothers were also real estate agents.
Question: Since David told McKittrick that he thought he was only playing a game and at the time didn't know that he hacked into WOPR, McKittrick tells him that they're still on Defcon 4. Why would it still be on Defcon 4 instead of it going back to Defcon 5 after David confessed everything?
Answer: McKittrick doesn't believe David. He thinks he's covering for accomplices...most likely Russian spies.
Answer: The assistant to McKitrict explains that US is waiting to go back on DEFCON once the Russians do so.