JW Pepper

31st Dec 2016

WarGames (1983)

Corrected entry: At one point the General suggests unplugging the system so the missiles won't go off. McKittrick says the WOPR would interpret that as a shutdown and launch the missiles anyway. But if that were the case then why didn't WOPR launch the missiles when David shut down the game from his home earlier in the film?

Correction: The General and McKittrick don't know the computer is simulating a game and think this is the real thing. The computer won't launch missiles even if they did unplug, even though McKittrick thinks that. That's why it didn't launch anything when David shut off the game either.

lionhead

Exactly right. Joshua knows it's a game at the house. McKittrick thinks the whole thing has been real at the time je makes the comment - which actually raises the question: why didn't McKittrick put 2 and 2 together at that point and realise David was telling the truth about the game? (although in the narrative of the film it is, at that point, irrelevant and would likely be out of step to go there in the story).

JW Pepper

27th Apr 2009

WarGames (1983)

Corrected entry: In the scene at NORAD when officials are trying to figure out what happened with the initial security breach, Paul says to McKittrick that the perpetrator broke in using a backdoor left in by the original programmer (i.e., Falken's password "Joshua"). That meeting also reveals that they took the backdoor out, but that the guy broke in again (note that David did not intentionally break in again - Joshua called David). The error comes when David is left alone in McKittrick's office in a later scene and proceeds to login using "Joshua." That password was gone by then (just as it is at the end when Falken tries to use it).

JW Pepper

Correction: While the original back door was removed, Joshua demonstrated remarkable initiative by contacting David. Joshua would certainly want to reinstall the back door if he wanted to give David access, and might have closed it down again himself later when he did not want to be distracted.

Good explanation and very possible.

JW Pepper

Corrected entry: The group was in the ocean for at least 4-6 hours. Only Amy wore a life jacket. With the exception of a few characters holding onto the dual mooring hooks at the stern for a few minutes, they all were along the side of the boat treading water for the entirety of the many hours in the water. Elite Coast Guard rescue swimmers would be lucky to exhibit such stamina over such an extended period of time.

JW Pepper

Correction: Treading water for 4-6 hours is possible.

Possible for elite water polo players and coast guard rescue teams. For a bunch of party goers off a day trip? No.

JW Pepper

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