SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?

Today in 1983, “WarGames” premiered. In 2008, screenwriter Lawrence Lasker recounted to “Wired” how he arranged a special screening for President Ronald Reagan, who was a family friend, at Camp David the following evening. https://wired.com/2008/07/ff-wargames/

At a White House meeting the next week to discuss the MX ICBM with his national security advisers and 16 members of Congress, Reagan eagerly recapped the plot, as former Washington Post correspondent Lou Cannon described in his 1991 book, “Ronald Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime.”

In his 2016 book “Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War,”
@fmkaplan
revisited this episode, adding that when Reagan finished, he asked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Vessey, “Could something like this really happen?”

Surprisingly, “WarGames” was not inspired by the major nuclear false alarms at NORAD on Nov. 9, 1979, and at NORAD and SAC on Jun. 3 and 6, 1980. It originally concerned a dying Hawking-like scientist and his relationship with a smart, rebellious teenager.

wired.com
WarGames: A Look Back at the Film That Turned Geeks and Phreaks Into Stars