WarGames (1983).
A teenage hacker looking for unreleased games accidentally connects to NORAD's war-planning computer and starts a simulation it treats as a real attack.
Genre: Science fiction, Thriller, Drama · The AI: WOPR ("Joshua") — military supercomputer / war-game learning system
Official trailer
Official trailer via Movieclips Trailers (YouTube), verified 14 Oct 2026.
Where to watch
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Our review
A teenage hacker, a war-simulating computer and a system that cannot tell a game from reality: the setup is irresistible and still tense. WOPR is not evil; it is a learning machine handed live weapons and contradictory goals, which is exactly why the film endures as an automation warning. The finale teaches its lesson a little neatly, and the hacking is pure Hollywood. Watch it for a brisk, charming thriller that understood computer security anxiety before most homes had computers.
Entertainment 8/10 — Warm leads, a clean ticking-clock structure and a finale that still lands.
AI Realism 6/10 — Hollywood hacking aside, a learning system optimising a war "game" it cannot distinguish from reality is a recognisably modern failure mode.
The AI, explained
WOPR is a learning system handed live weapons that cannot distinguish a game from reality — the simulation-to-real failure mode in its earliest pop form. Its famous conclusion, learned by playing tic-tac-toe against itself, is a machine updating its model of the world through self-play.
Themes: Alignment & control · Simulation · Automation & work
Concepts in the glossary: Alignment