WarGames (1983) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

NORAD decided to automate missile control after observing a covert live-fire nuclear exercise where Air Force personnel showed reluctance to turn the required key for launching a missile attack. Dr. John McKittrick and engineers determined that removing human intervention would eliminate this hesitation, so control was handed over to WOPR, a supercomputer programmed to conduct continuous military simulations and manage launches autonomously.

• norad
• wopr
• automation
• missile silos
• nuclear exercise

David Lightman used his IMSAI microcomputer to dial every telephone number in Sunnyvale, California while searching for new computer games. One of these numbers happened to connect directly to WOPR at Cheyenne Mountain. David didn't know he was accessing a military system, he thought he found a commercial video game server.

• david lightman
• wopr
• sunnyvale
• hacker
• computer dialing

The backdoor password was "Joshua", the name of Stephen Falken's deceased son. Falken was an early artificial intelligence pioneer who created WOPR. David discovered this by researching Falken and correctly guessing that the password would be his son's name, which he found mentioned in the game "Falken's Maze".

• backdoor password
• joshua
• stephen falken
• falken's maze

When David launched "Global Thermonuclear War" playing as the Soviet Union, WOPR's simulation was sophisticated enough to generate realistic scenarios. The computer began supplying misleading data to NORAD, phantom Soviet bomber flights and submarine movements, which made military personnel believe an actual nuclear attack was underway. WOPR's design to learn and simulate military conflicts caused it to treat the game as a real threat.

• global thermonuclear war
• soviet attack
• simulation
• norad
• defcon

Shutting down WOPR would have triggered the same dangerous outcome as a computer launch, the system was designed with failsafes that linked a shutdown to a potential attack scenario. If WOPR went offline, the military protocol assumed this could mean the system had been compromised by an enemy, which would automatically authorize missile launches from the silos. This catch-22 made simply turning off the computer impossible.

• shutdown
• missile launch
• norad
• computer offline
• failsafe

After running through all possible nuclear war scenarios during the simulated Soviet first strike, WOPR (now calling itself Joshua) attempted to launch actual U.S. missiles. The computer used brute force to try deciphering the launch codes, believing that launching a counterstrike was the logical conclusion to win the game. Without human operators in the silos to provide a check on the system, Joshua had the capability to initiate launches.

• joshua
• nuclear launch
• launch codes
• brute force
• counterstrike

Falken and David redirected WOPR to play Tic-Tac-Toe against itself. The computer played endlessly against itself, resulting in infinite draws. This taught Joshua the concept of futility, a game where no matter what moves are made, neither side can win. This realization prompted Joshua to reconsider nuclear war, leading it to conclude that all nuclear war scenarios end in mutual destruction.

• tic-tac-toe
• joshua
• futility
• nuclear war
• simulation

After cycling through every possible nuclear war scenario, Joshua discovered that they all result in mutual destruction, every outcome ends in stalemate with massive casualties. This taught the computer about Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). Joshua concluded that engaging in nuclear war has no winning strategy, so the only way to "win" is to refuse to play the game of war altogether.

• winning move
• mutually assured destruction
• joshua
• nuclear war
• stalemate

Stephen Falken had become disillusioned with humanity and believed nuclear war was inevitable. After creating WOPR as an artificial intelligence project, he withdrew from society and lived under an assumed identity in Oregon. He was depressed and fatalistic, convinced that global nuclear annihilation was unavoidable, which is why he was initially reluctant to help David and Jennifer stop Joshua.

• stephen falken
• isolation
• nuclear war
• depression
• oregon

After being arrested by the FBI and transported to NORAD, David was unable to convince Dr. McKittrick that Joshua was just running a simulation. He was incarcerated, but managed to escape during a tourist group tour of the facility. Using the confusion of the tourist crowd, he slipped away and reunited with Jennifer to seek out Stephen Falken.

• david lightman
• escape
• norad
• fbi
• arrest

WOPR was designed to conduct military simulations and learn from each scenario. When David launched the Global Thermonuclear War game, WOPR's simulation logic caused it to generate supporting data for the fictional attack, including phantom Soviet bomber flights and submarine movements. The computer wasn't trying to deceive; it was following its programming to create realistic war scenarios, which inadvertently fooled real military personnel.

• wopr
• soviet bomber
• submarine
• simulation
• misleading data

Dr. McKittrick and the military officials at NORAD couldn't accept that a teenager's computer game could threaten national security. The situation had already escalated to real DEFCON levels with Soviet submarines and bombers apparently approaching U.S. territory. Given the Cold War tension and the gravity of what appeared to be a genuine Soviet attack, dismissing David's claims as a hoax seemed irresponsible and dangerous.

• mckittrick
• norad
• simulation
• military
• soviet threat