This film is one of the blockbuster films that made a sensation in the United States in 1983. Although the film does not break away from the commercial science fiction thriller model, it does raise a series of serious questions worth pondering for us in addition to entertainment. The film is based on the background of the most popular computer high-tech war command system in the contemporary era. On the one hand, it provides the film with the biggest selling point. On the other hand, it also touches on the hot issues of contemporary world politics. Nuclear war, views on the relationship between high-tech weapons and people. The film has portrayed several characters with typical significance in this respect. At the beginning of the film, soldiers on duty in the silos suddenly received an order to launch a missile. At the moment when the two turned the key at the same time, the officer thought that 20 million people would die unexpectedly, and couldn't help but stop. The soldier took a gun and ordered his boss to execute the order. The diametrically opposite attitudes of these two soldiers clearly show that even in the military, people have different views on the devastating modern nuclear war. This "confusion of thought" hinders the implementation of the US military strategy. The guiding ideology of the US military is to win a nuclear war even if it pays a huge price. To get rid of this "human weakness," the military finally adopted McKicui's suggestion: Fully use computers that execute commands without aliasing to replace humans to control nuclear bombs. This detail on the one hand paved the way for the later development of the plot, on the other hand it also vividly demonstrated a mainstream trend of thought in contemporary American society. McKidui's proposition has universal significance in the American scientific and technological circles, military circles, and political circles. He, a devotee of computer fetishism, believes in the accuracy and correctness of computers and holds them to the supremacy. When Cabo corrected his "computer order" statement as "the president ordered", he immediately countered: "The president also has to listen to the computer's judgment... (the nuclear bomb warning time is short) the president has no time to make a decision." This artistic image still has clear practical significance to this day. Although mankind has entered the 21st century, the Soviet Union no longer exists, only the United States is a superpower, and the cloud of nuclear war has faded. However, the US policy-makers have ignored the peaceful wishes of the people of the world, refused to sign the nuclear test ban treaty, and violated the US-Soviet agreement. With its world-leading computer technology, it vigorously develops strategic defense missile systems in an attempt to dominate the world. The director of the film made a pungent mockery and criticism of this turbid current in American society: don't you advocate "computer omnipotence"? Then let this omnipotent computer come out of nothing and create a nuclear war for you to teach you a lesson. The choreographer's creative approach is also very creative: first lead it to extremes, and then deny it when the crisis breaks out. The editor Kai Zong Mingyi said that WOPR was playing a war game, and that the crisis was also caused by David's game. As a result, David’s impulse to play The software "Joshua" that triggered WOPR took over the highest authority of WOPR. Joshua is designed to win the war according to the military's intentions and has artificial intelligence, so once it is activated, it will steal the final victory at all costs. Mackicui, who is superstitious about computers, thought he could fully control the computer. When he discovered that David had broken in and modified the system, he trusted it without any doubt. Starting from the Cold War mentality, they believed that this was a Soviet conspiracy rather than a game, and even David was regarded by them as a Soviet spy. The stupid paranoia of the American policy-making class still continues sadly. The so-called Lee Wen-ho's espionage case of stealing nuclear secrets for China is a reappearance of this farce in the new situation. So they were controlled by computer games like clowns, sliding towards the edge of war. The timely arrival of Falken and David made them dubiously stop the active counterattack. When the facts proved that this is indeed a game, the director used a ups and downs to push the plot to the climax of the whole show: the promise that only wins. Yajiang cracked the code and fired a nuclear bomb on his own. Since the McKiduis completely handed over the control to the computer, they had no time to stop Joshua's actions in a short time, and they were completely helpless in the face of the crisis (because the program has been partially modified by them, Falken could not control Joshua). Instead, David, the little furry boy they regarded as an enemy, responded eagerly and decided to replace Joshua's old game with a new one. At Faken’s prompt, he entered the Tic Tac Toe game and typed in commands to let Joshua learn the rules of the game by himself. Joshua combined the well grid game with the nuclear war game, and analyzed that both sides suffered heavy losses and there was no final winner. This zero-sum ending also made it abandon the actual launch even though it found out the launch code of the nuclear bomb, and the crisis that was about to destroy the world was finally resolved. In this process, the stupid and ugly faces of American policy makers who are superstitious about computers have been vividly demonstrated. To make them dubiously stop the active counterattack, when the facts proved that this is indeed a game, the director used an upsurge to push the plot to the climax of the whole play: Joshua, who would only win victory, would crack the code and launch a nuclear bomb by himself. . Since the McKiduis completely handed over the control to the computer, they had no time to stop Joshua's actions in a short time, and they were completely helpless in the face of the crisis (because the program has been partially modified by them, Falken could not control Joshua). Instead, David, the little furry boy they regarded as an enemy, responded quickly and decided to replace Joshua's old game with a new one. At Faken’s prompt, he entered the Tic Tac Toe game and typed in commands to let Joshua learn the rules of the game by himself. Joshua combined the well grid game with the nuclear war game, and analyzed that both sides suffered heavy losses and there was no final winner. This zero-sum ending also made it abandon the actual launch even though it found out the launch code of the nuclear bomb, and the crisis that was about to destroy the world was finally resolved. In this process, the stupid and ugly faces of American policy makers who are superstitious about computers have been vividly demonstrated. To make them dubiously stop the active counterattack, when the facts proved that this is indeed a game, the director used an upsurge to push the plot to the climax of the whole play: Joshua, who would only win victory, would crack the code and launch a nuclear bomb by himself. . Since the McKiduis completely handed over the control to the computer, they had no time to stop Joshua's actions in a short time, and they were completely helpless in the face of the crisis (because the program has been partially modified by them, Falken could not control Joshua). Instead, David, the little furry boy they regarded as an enemy, responded eagerly and decided to replace Joshua's old game with a new one. At Faken’s prompt, he typed in the grid game and typed in commands to let Joshua learn the rules of the game by himself. Joshua combined the well grid game with the nuclear war game, and analyzed that both sides suffered heavy losses and there was no final winner. This zero-sum ending also made it abandon the actual launch even though it found out the launch code of the nuclear bomb, and the crisis that was about to destroy the world was finally resolved. In this process, the stupid and ugly faces of American policy makers who are superstitious about computers have been vividly demonstrated.
Corresponding to McGregor in the film is another typical character Faken. As a computer wizard, Falken initially led Joshua’s research and development work, but when he realized the huge destructive power of nuclear war, he was at odds with the military and eventually retired, and went to the other extreme of fatalism, passively. Seek comfort from the Christian eschatological theory and the re-evolution theory of the extinction of dinosaurs. Falken’s thinking is very representative throughout the West.
Contrary to the above two trends of thought is the active anti-nuclear war. They firmly believe that human intellect will eventually triumph. As long as people act, they will be able to stop nuclear war before it destroys mankind. The director of the film holds this view, and the protagonist David (and Jenny) they portray is a typical representative of this trend of thought. David, a new generation who lives with the computer age, is full of beautiful visions for the future. Facing the crisis of nuclear war, he calmly and astutely looked for a solution. He persuaded the passive Faken and strengthened his strength. Finally, when the "computer omnipotent" commentator McKidui was helpless in the face of Joshua who was out of control, he turned the tide and resolved the crisis with clear thinking. In this way, the director expressed his optimism about the future of mankind.
Another feature of this film is that as early as 1983, the film quite predictably showed some unique phenomena in the computer age. At that time, the personal computer was just born and the Internet was in a primitive state. The editor and director stunned the image of David as a hacker and demonstrated in detail how he used a backdoor program to break into the military's top-secret computer system. Hacker is the transliteration of illegal intruders on the Internet, and it does not matter in itself. The reasons and motives for their break-in are also different. In this film, David's motive is purely for the game. After the U.S. bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia in 1999, Chinese hackers (someone called "hongke") attacked the U.S. government's Internet sites with a vigorous character. David has many characteristics of hackers. He is obsessed with computers, he is agile, curious, and sometimes likes to play pranks, and his personality is a little different. He often plays truant from school to play computer games and has poor homework. He used the computer to arbitrarily modify the test scores for himself and his friends. He had no money and wanted to make a public phone call, so he picked up a piece of metal and short-circuited the telephone charging system. In order to escape the confinement room, he cleverly used a tape recorder to crack the door lock code... He has no shame in doing these decent people's disdainful illegal things. However, he has a clear attitude and a firm stand on major issues such as rescuing mankind from the threat of nuclear war. It is he who contributed to the transformation of Faken's thoughts and changed the situation. Finally, he used hacking techniques to stop the launch of the nuclear bomb. He is full of vigor, talent, and righteousness. At the same time, he is mixed with a trace of evil (or naughty). This is one type of hacker: the good one.
The behavior of hackers breaking into the highly classified military command system described in this film is not an artistic exaggeration, but a social phenomenon that will inevitably occur in the information age. In fact, with the rapid development of Internet technology in recent years, countries around the world have reported a large number of examples in this area every year, and most of them are done by teenagers like David. We can even say that the threat of war facing humanity in the future may not be nuclear warfare, but information warfare. An important part of information warfare is hackers' attacks on enemy networks, which will be a new issue to be discussed in the information society. The director of the film was able to discover and interpret this hacking theme in 1983, which is indeed predictable.
Another interesting topic of this film is that the director skillfully raised the similarities and differences between war and games. From the beginning of the film, McKidui referred to WOPR's analysis of the global military strategic situation as playing a game of war. Faken also introduced a large number of games when designing the war command system, training computers to transform these game rules into strategic guiding ideas. This is to point out the connection between the two. On the other hand, the director pointed out through the plot of the film how dangerous it is to confuse the two. In fact, wars (including exercises) and games are highly confrontational, and both aim at winning. They all require the use of considerable skills and strategies to win the final victory. This is their commonality. In this regard, the integration of the two (adopting certain game rules and guiding ideologies in war, or adopting a very stimulating form of war in the game) is complementary to each other and can achieve better results in their respective fields. The most essential feature of a computer is that it is better than calculation and interactivity. Therefore, using a computer to demonstrate war and play games is its strengths, and the effects that can be achieved are unmatched by any other means. On the other hand, war and games are completely different things. War is realistic, with great destructive power and destructiveness. Once it is carried out, its disaster impact will be long-lasting. The game is virtual, which is extremely exciting and entertaining. After the game, there is no loss except for physical and mental pleasure. While computer images are virtual, computer calculations can be used to manipulate physical objects, and virtual reality can be turned into reality through computers (for example, in the film, Joshua wants to implement a war demonstration and actually launch a missile). At the same time, computer software is designed by humans, and certain deviations in program design will cause huge troubles to the computer. For example, Joshua in this film only knows about winning victory and lacks the humanistic feeling of war disasters. Fortunately, the computer has a self-learning function so that the director can turn the real war that is about to break out into a game at the climax of the film. The film thus changes between actual combat and game: true and false, true and false, not only is it difficult to distinguish between true and false in the play, but the audience also falls into the plot trap from time to time, and after the truth is revealed, it is a careful aftertaste. Suddenly realized.
All in all, this film is an entertainment film with the characteristics of the computer age, and in addition to entertainment, it does not forget to take care of the hot issues of the contemporary world. The choreographer's clever handling of these issues makes the film extremely enjoyable. Regardless of its form or content, the film still has a strong practical significance today, nearly 30 years later. This cannot but let us be impressed by the profound insight of the choreographer.
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