War Games: The Dead Code DVD Review

The film War Games stars Matthew Broderick (Election, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), as David Lightman is a bright but unmotivated high school student who uses his 1970s computer to hack into a supposed video game computer called WOPR (War Operation Plan Response), where he begins playing a thermonuclear war on the side of the then United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR).

What was originally designed to be a system to run wargame simulations, the WOPR has been reassigned to control the United States’ stash of ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles).

War Games: The Dead Code is one part sequel and one part remake of the 1983 film. The Dead Code follows bright but unmotivated high school student Will Farmer (Matt Lanter, The Gossip Girl, The Cutting Edge 3: Chasing the Dream). Will and his friend Dennis happen across a website designed to entice and entrap terrorists by testing both their greed, the website pays out in real money, and their knowledge of thermonuclear and aerosol warfare. Will and Dennis put $5,000 for 5 to 1 odds in a game where Will must successfully kill 100,000 cyber people in a predetermined amount of time. Will’s success alerts a new super computer named R.I.P.L.E.Y. which subsequently alerts Homeland Security.

Will suddenly becomes the subject of a major man hunt as agents chase back and forth across United States and Canadian borders. Eventually Will is approached by a mysterious man who helps him to avoid capture and to employ the not quite so out of date super computer Joshua, the unofficial name given to WOPR, to fight the damaged R.I.P.L.E.Y., ultimately, like the original, teaching the super computer to play a game that it cannot win, in this case Russian roulette.

The primary problem with War Games: The Dead Code is that the film really does not blaze any new ground. Take away the new advancements in graphics and the far superior computers of today and the film is essentially the same as its inspiration/prequel. Both films are about teenaged hackers who mistakenly engage in a game that could lead to global devastation and both films end in the exact same way, in fact both teenage boys also have a female co-star to tag along with them through the adventure. War Games: The Dead Code is not so much a sequel to War Games but it is a remake of the film, only it happens to reference the original in a series of sequences that are arguably important to the outcome of the film. That is not to say that War Games: The Dead Code is not a good or entertaining film, but that it is what it is.

The DVD release of War Games: The Dead Code includes the film, presented in widescreen and featuring a 5.1 stereo surround sound track. The DVD special features include a feature length audio commentary from director Stuart Gillard and actor Matt Lanter as well as a featurette The Making of War Games: The Dead Code. The DVD special features also includes a production stills gallery and a trailers gallery.