Movie Review - Wargames: The Dead Code

OK, forget everything you know from the original. None of the original cast are involved in this "sequal" and it's only loosely (emphasis on the word loosely!) based on the ideas of the original 80's hit cult movie which is still popular today. This is set in the modern day as we're seeing a base in Afghanistan get destroyed by a UAV right at the start.

And that's exactly where the movie jumps the shark. UAV's aren't armed. Yes, they theoretically could be but as far as I'm aware it's never been tried for real. We get to see the computer that has masterminded this operation and it's called R.I.P.L.E.Y (you're never told what that stands for either), so forget any ideas about seeing Joshua/WOPR from the original movie for the time being.

Everyone says this one just went straight to DVD so that kind of speaks volumes about MGM's confidence in it's ability to get bums on seats. We are introduced to our "hacker" Will Farmer (no evidence of his hacking ability ever really manifests, he's good at chemistry & electronics which doesn't make him a computer hacker) & what I assume will prove to be his love interest, Annie & Will's 1st attempt at hacking is not only a complete failure (as he's busted while doing it) his IP address is also logged and Annie guessed who he was. We also meet Will's mom who works for a chemical company and is clearly a chemist of some kind.

Wills taking money from his neighbours bank account (Mr Massude) isn't a hack (he clearly says he helped him set up the account and knew the password already), we then get 1 nod back to the original movie where they decide against playing Global Thermonuclear War & they choose to play The Dead Code of the film's title. The trace the RIPLEY office are running is NOT on Will but on Massude's pc so all the evidence they were gathering was useless against Will.

Exactly why RIPLEY shut Will's machine down isn't explained (he's only playing an online game?) & also why it felt the need to have to shut down all the electricity in the entire block he lived in as well. Why a counter terrorism agency would see this as a viable target is extremely questionable also the machine RIPLEY would have "infected" with its track bug wasn't Will's anyway, it belonged to Massude. As for RIPLEY activating his mobile phone? I think not, it wasn't connected to the pc and the message wouldn't play unless he actually answered the phone so there's more bad "hacking" science there too.

The RIPLEY agents arrive at Massude's home the next day and take him away (they didn't think to check if the pc was actually in his house when they arrested him?) and Will is given a envelope from Massude by his mother which turns out to contain a lot of money (enough to make Will say "Holy S**t!").

Will searching for the licence plate of the car that took Massude can't be classed as a "hack" as you never see him break into the DMV computer. Now then, as for Will's friend Dennis being able to get off a plane, go back into an airport to "go look for" Will. I highly doubt it in this age of high Airport security, a passenger has to have a pretty good reason to be allowed off a plane once they've boarded.

Likewise the RIPLEY agents who grab Dennis in the airport as he's looking for Will have no authority to arrest or detain him, he committed no offence & neither has Will. Will's mother had not "been stealing chemicals & Bio agents" either, these people clearly don't have their facts straight. And even if she did they had no right to arrest or detain Dennis. Patriot Act or not.

Will's claims to have hacked various databases to see who took Mr Massude are utter s**t, we saw no such evidence of ANY of those alleged "hacks". I also don't know why Will was worried about being arrested for any possible crime in Canada is its a totally different country with different laws to the US.

Once we cut back to RIPLEY its clear the computer has gone rogue and all the action its taken against Will, his mother and Dennis was very unsanctioned by any Government agency. The phone phreak we see Will do is the 1st demonstration of any hacking skill in the movie, we also then get a proper hack into RIPLEY which just seemed far too easy for such a powerful system.

Clearly the "guy" who ran into Annie at the airport & was also watching them in the street was nothing to do with RIPLEY as their agents were the ones in the black car who ran into the coffee house Will piggy backed off. I did wonder why no bystanders were calling the Canadian Police after seeing 2 cars chasing pedestrians on the street & the hugely laughable notion that RIPLEY could track a cellphone whilst it was underground was really ridiculous as was the idea that a computer can read lips.

We get another reference to the original movie when they mention Stephen Falken as the designer of the system RIPLEY replaced, the Joshua Project. I also don't understand why Will & Annie thought they'd have to speak French in Montreal, its a bilingual place. We also discover that the "guy" who ran into Annie is Falken (not played by the original actor sadly) and that he faked his own death.

Falken reveals he knew Will's father and the truth behind both his father's career & death which helps tie up a few loose ends in the plot. RIPLEY also tries & fails to kill one of the agents who is doubting her mission & abilities. We also get to see the original WOPR prop from Wargames as "what's going to help" them beat RIPLEY and it looks a lot smaller than it did in the 80's, but at least they kept the same synth voice used back then for the "Greetings Professor Falken" line.

It's annoying that Falken & WOPR are destroyed so quickly after being hardly used at all (and that the same explosion doesn't kill Will, Annie & the Russian). It's also very annoying & unlikely that after being caught they'd allow Will to keep his laptop. They do try and explain that away but I was already crying "Bulls**t!" at that point. It's also unlikely they'd create a completely self-contained computer system that has the ability to nuke or drop chemical weapons on the country it operates out of.

The whole "Decontamination" plot & idea are just bloody awful & totally unbelievable. Those kinds of orders would have to go through the President or Joint Chiefs Of Staff. So yet another laughable & unbelievable idea.

The IP hacks against RIPLEY aren't done by Will, he just contacts one of his friends who suggests & then implements the idea. It's excessively laughable that Will would get a login just from increasing RIPLEY's operating temperature. Having Joshua as a backdoor into RIPLEY (especially after it had been blown to bits) is an incredible cop-out and screams of a very desperate writer who had no ideas left and wanted to get this movie over and done with.

There is an awful goof where RIPLEY is playing Dead Code and we see a countdown (saying 17 minutes) then RIPLEY says "Decontamination in 30 minutes", how c**p is that when they can't even keep up with their own timer? RIPLEY's attack mission against Philadelphia is halted (far too easily in my opinion) and it decides to attack Joshua in its internal circuits and reroutes the missile aimed a Philly to Washington where RIPLEY is stationed. The idea of the Nuclear exchange to make RIPLEY realise what she's doing won't work (surely she'd already know if she had Joshua inside her as he'd already learnt this lesson in the original movie?) is yet another nod back to the original movie.

Except it's nowhere near as exciting as the original ending, none of the cool explosion noises & effects, none of the suspenseful music over the top of it. It just didn't have that same "edge of the seat" effect as the original did and still does every time I see that segment. Their utter cop-out at having RIPLEY repeat Joshua's exact same words form the end of the original movie just goes to show how many original ideas they were unable to come up with. And Joshua's attempt at "humour" after a near death situation like that just wasn't funny at all.

If you want to point fingers for bad & stolen ideas the men to blame are Randall Badat & Rob Kerchner.
This is an awful movie and is best avoided as it tarnishes the good name of the original and best WarGames.