WarGames
- Grades: 7 to 11
- Common Sense Media: parents say 11+, kids say 10+
- CS strength: 5 out of 5
- SEL strength: 2 out of 5
- Rotten Tomatoes: 94% critics
What happens
David Lightman is a bright but bored Seattle high school student with a home computer and a modem. While dialing phone numbers looking for new video games, he finds a computer that offers a list of games, including “Global Thermonuclear War.” What he has actually reached is WOPR, a military supercomputer at NORAD that runs war simulations. When David plays, the computer treats the game as real, and the military starts to prepare for a real attack. David, his friend Jennifer, and the scientist who built the system’s learning program have to stop it.
Why we watch it
WarGames is a classic about hackers, passwords, and what happens when people hand big decisions to a computer. It is still very good at explaining ideas that matter now: a computer learns by trying things, a human should be able to stop it, and a harmless prank can turn into something serious fast. It is rated PG, but it was made in 1983 and has frequent swearing and a tense nuclear-war plot. Common Sense Media lists it for ages 11 and up. The worksheet has a computer science focus.
Teacher ideas (before the movie)
About 10 to 15 minutes. The film is about a computer game that turns out to be real, and about a computer that learns. These warm-ups set up both without giving away the ending.
- Tic-tac-toe (3 minutes, pairs): Play two quick games on paper. Ask: Can you always win if you go first? Can you always at least tie? Take answers. Do not explain why. The film uses this idea at the end.
- Hands up (2 minutes): Who has played a video game against the computer and lost? Who has beaten a hard level by trying it many times? Take two volunteers. What did you learn each time?
- 1983 (3 minutes): Ask: how would you connect two computers when there was no home internet, only a phone line and a modem? Take guesses. Explain briefly that people really did dial numbers to find other computers, and the film makes a joke of it.
- Who decides? (3 minutes, vote with hands): Should a computer be allowed to decide who gets a grade? Open the school gate? Launch an alarm in a real emergency? Where do you want a person to make the final decision, and why?
- Password check (2 minutes): Write three guesses on the board that a stranger might try for a famous person’s password (a pet’s name, a birthday). Ask why those are easy. Do not ask anyone for their real passwords.
- Predict from the title (2 minutes): What does WarGames mean? War, or games, or both? Write guesses on the board and check them at the end.
Standards alignment
Answer key and teacher notes
- B How does David end up connecting to a military computer?
- B How does David figure out the password?
- B What goes wrong when David plays "Global Thermonuclear War"?
- B After the FBI takes David to NORAD, what does he do to try to stop the computer?
- B What finally stops the computer from launching real missiles?
Answer key: Part 1 follows the plot as summarized by Wikipedia and Common Sense Media; confirm against the film.
Questions 1 to 3 are plot comprehension. Questions 4 and 5 ask students to follow a reveal. The ending teaches tic-tac-toe: when both sides play perfectly, nobody wins, and the computer applies that idea to nuclear war.
Teaching points by question:
- Passwords: weak because it can be guessed from public information. Strong answers mention length, not using personal facts, and a password manager or multifactor login.
- Permission: the line is crossed once he is connected to a system he does not have permission to use. A good answer says he should have disconnected and told someone as soon as he saw it was not a game.
- People in the Loop: the system was built to remove human hesitation. A human can refuse an order; a computer cannot. Look for answers that say people can use judgment and stop a mistake.
- Learning by Trying: reinforcement learning and trial and error; running many simulated games is cheaper and safer than the real thing.
CASEL focus: “Permission” is Responsible Decision-Making (anticipating the consequences of one’s actions). “People in the Loop” is Responsible Decision-Making (institutional impacts).
Content note: Rated PG, made in 1983, so the PG rating is milder than the current PG-13. Common Sense Media lists it for ages 11 and up. It has frequent swearing and some strong words, intense suspense as missiles nearly launch, a gun held to a man’s head, cigarette smoking, and a couple of teen kisses. The teen hero changes a grade and is not punished until later. Fine for grades 7 to 11, with a heads up about the language.