The Missile Combat Crew on a desolate U.S. Air Force base are given orders to launch their missiles at the Soviet Union. The Missile Combat Crew Commander (portrayed by John Spencer), insists on calling out for verification while the Deputy (Michael Madsen) holds a gun to coerce him to follow orders. In the end, it appears that the MCCC fails to turn his launch key, meaning that the ten ICBMs under his command do not launch.
It is shortly revealed that the orders were part of a larger psychological test, designed to see how many U.S. Missile Combat Crew teams really would "turn the key" when given a launch order. Twenty-two percent of Missile Combat Crew teams failed to launch during the exercise.
At NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain headquarters, computer expert John McKittrick points out that a twenty-two percent is an unacceptably-high failure rate. McKittrick argues that a computer called WOPR[1] should be put into control of the silos, taking the men out of the loop. Over General Beringer's objections, the congressmen return to Washington and recommend the change-over. Congress approves, and the change is implemented; the launch terminals are converted, and electronic communications are established between each silo and NORAD headquarters in Colorado Springs.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dialogue between David and WOPR Response at NORAD to Soviet missile launches Meanwhile, David Lightman (Broderick), a hacker, and resorting to cheating when his games obsession leads to poor marks in school, is excited by some new computer games, and doesn't want to wait for them to show up on store shelves. Equipped with a 1970s vintage IMSAI microcomputer and modem (connected to the telephone by an acoustic coupler, and with a host of other software not common among such early home computer users), he uses his smarts. He contacts Directory Assistance for the company's phone number, asks what other prefixes cover that location (there are five or six), and tells his computer to start dialing all 50,000 or 60,000 numbers in that area code, looking for modem tones, a practice known as war dialing. He intends to "fix" the call records so they don't show up on dad's phone bill.
When his class-mate Jennifer Mack comes by the house with him, David checks out the half-dozen modem numbers he's found so far. One's a bank, another's a travel agency, and he books a trip to Paris for Jennifer and himself, though it's unusable since it isn't paid for. He tries another number and it keeps hanging up on him when he tries to get a login prompt. David takes it to a computer nerd friend of his for advice, learning about "backdoors". He also investigates a Professor Stephen W. Falken (creator of the software in WOPR), and finds out more about him, including a deceased son named Joshua. David tries again, with Jennifer present, and this time the password "Joshua" gives him access into the unknown computer.
David, under the impression that he has hacked into a gaming software manufacturer's computer database and unaware of the machine's real purpose, discovers what he believes to be a simulation video game called "Global Thermonuclear War" and begins to "play", taking the side of the Soviet Union. Unbeknownst to him, WOPR sets in motion preparations for a real attack against the Soviet Union. At NORAD HQ, everyone leaps into action at a warning of incoming Soviet missiles. David and his girlfriend are having loads of fun aiming missiles at American cities, but when David's mother calls him downstairs, he shuts down his computer, and WOPR stops the simulation.
Later that day, David and Jennifer are shocked when the television news reports a brief alert at NORAD. He also finds that the computer, as the personality of "Joshua", is trying to phone back to connect with his computer. He's arrested coming out of a 7-Eleven, taken to NORAD and questioned. McKittrick asks David who he's going to Paris with (referencing the unused plane tickets). McKittrick begins to think David is an unwitting intruder, but then his secretary sees David using McKittrick's computer to talk to WOPR, as Joshua, and learning of an "alternate" site in Oregon. David is taken and put into confinement in a room in the medical area.
David finds a doctor's dictation device, jump connects it to the door controls, then fakes the guard by saying he needs to go to the bathroom, and records the DTMF-type sounds that unlock the door, and then admits he doesn't need to go. The guard closes the door again. David plays back the tape and unlocks the door, then sneaks out while the guard's attention is on a woman in the room, leaving the door jammed so it can't be opened with the code sequence. David crawls through air ducts while the FBI arrives and the guard can't open the door. David escapes NORAD in a tour group, then hitches a ride on a truck.
After getting some distance away, he calls Jennifer to buy him a plane ticket, and she joins him to fly to Oregon where they look for Professor Falken. Falken tries to persuade them that a nuclear holocaust is now inevitable, and says they can spend the night since they missed the last ferry, but David and Jennifer leave the house. Unknown to them, they've finally convinced Falken to help them, and he flies a helicopter which they think are the authorities trying to catch them; in fact Falken is merely offering them a ride. They hurry to Colorado and are riding a jeep in a frantic race as the facility closes up in preparation for war. They arrive just in time to take part in efforts to convince Joshua not to finish the Global Thermonuclear War game. Upon their arrival, Berringer has sent US Air Force bombers to the fail-safe line to proceed to Soviet targets should Joshua be successful in launching the US ICBM's.
Falken and David try to get into WOPR, but they're locked out each time they try to tell it to stop the game. They get in again and try to play tic-tac-toe, but it's slow with one player against the computer. They restart with zero players, and Joshua quickly learns the futility of that even as it's trying to unlock the launch codes. Joshua succeeds in deciphering the launch codes, and starts running simulations for a successful attack:
US first strike. Winner: none. Soviet first strike. Winner: none. China first strike. Winner: none. China-US versus Soviet. Winner: none. China-Soviet versus US. Winner: none. India (Soviet ally) vs Pakistan (US ally). Winner: none. Israel vs an Arab state. Winner: none. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of such scenarios are run, involving some of the smallest pairs of belligerent possibilities. Each one ends the same way - the major powers go to the aid of their small allies, and the two superpowers attack each other. Each one ends with no winner. The simulations run faster and faster. In the end, it appears that they have managed to teach WOPR/Joshua about the futility of war by getting it to play first those endless drawn games of tic-tac-toe against itself, then the simulations cycle through all the nuclear war strategies that WOPR has devised. WOPR/Joshua then learns that "the only winning move is not to play."
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