Film Forum

U.S., 1983
Directed by John Badham
With Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, Ally Sheedy, John Wood
Approx. 112 min. DCP.

“Teenage computer freak Matthew Broderick taps into the NORAD defense system and triggers a game program that may end in World War III. John Badham, a last-minute replacement on the project, impresses with his Spielberg-inflected direction of the young actors and his efficient management of competing plot levels... the screenplay deftly links the boy’s sexual and moral maturation with a similar development on the part of the computer, thus accomplishing the thematic goal of 'humanizing' technology that all the video-game movies—and video games themselves—have been striving for.” – Dave Kehr

Reviews

“As a premise for a thriller, this is a masterstroke.”
– Roger Ebert

“An exciting, giddily entertaining movie.”
– David Denby, New York Magazine