Trivia

The studio had a Galaga and a Galaxian machine delivered to Matthew Broderick's home, where he practiced for two months to prepare for the arcade scene.

When David comes home the day after the NORAD computer break-in, the newscaster on the television is talking about a prophylactic recycling center.

NORAD HQ set was built in the Cascades, the "Oregon" airport was really Boeing Field, "Goose Island" is really Anderson Island in the southern part of Puget Sound (all in Washington). The last ferry off the island really is at 6:30, and you really are stuck there if you miss it.

The original director was Martin Brest, and several of the scenes he shot are still in the movie.

The delegation from the city of Birmingham, Alabama, visiting NORAD is a tribute to director John Badham's hometown.

Joshua, Stephen Falken's deceased son (and subsequent name for the AI machine), is the same as that of the computerized mobile mechanical arm in Demon Seed.

As in Matthew Broderick's movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, both mothers are real estate agents.

In the beginning sequence, there is a sign next to the door to the missile launch room that reads, "Anyone urinating in this area will be discharged".

The writers' main inspiration for the character of Professor Stephen Falken was Cambridge Professor Stephen Hawking. Hawking was originally approached to appear in the movie, but he declined because he didn't want the producers exploiting his disability.

The part of Prof. Falken was originally written with the idea of John Lennon playing the part.

The computer in David's room is actually an IMSAI 8080. The person who supplied the computer for the film tells how Matthew Broderick saved a shooting day by figuring out a programming sequence for the keyboard on his own after instructions were lost.

WOPR goes through more than 150 possible scenarios in Global Thermonuclear War, including Zaire Alliance, Gabon Surprise, and English Thrust

The WOPR, as seen in the movie, was made of wood and painted with a metal-finish paint. As the crew filmed the displays of the WOPR, Special Effects Supervisor Michael L. Fink sat inside and entered information into an Apple II computer that drove the countdown display.

The tunnel and exterior used for the entrance into NORAD (Griffith Park) is the same tunnel used in the climax of "Back to the Future Part II" as well as the tunnel to enter and exit Toontown in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".

Martin Brest was fired as director a short while into production due to creative differences. He has stated that he took NORAD'S control center layout and did a scaled down version of it for "Beverly Hills Cop"'s police control center.

Graphics on the large NORAD war room screens were rendered in advance by an HP 9845C desktop computer running BASIC. In 1982 the 9845C was comprised of a base with built-in keyboard and a 14" color monitor that mounted on top. Cost of a 9845C was about $90,000 (inflation-adjusted) and the entire "desktop" computer weighed about 100 pounds. The computer's resolution was not good enough to project on a large screen or to be filmed from directly, so a high-resolution monochromatic display was connected. The images were filmed from the display, one frame at a time, one color at a time, using filters for red, green, and blue. The process took about 1 minute per frame of film.

The computer display showing "Game Time Elapsed" and "Game Time Remaining" is framed in a bezel with stenciled labels reading "GST", "TEP", "SIM", and "TTG". These are standard acronyms used with electronic, and other, test equipment. Respectively, they stand for Ground System Test, Test Evaluation Plan, Scientific Instrumentation Module, and Time To Go.

Matthew Broderick would work with John Wood and Dabney Coleman again. Wood in Ladyhawke. And Coleman in Inspector Gadget.

This is an non-exhaustive list of the possible war scenarios run by Joshua in Global Thermonuclear War: U.S. First Strike, USSR First Strike, NATO/Warsaw Pact, Far East Strategy, US USSR Escalation, Middle East War, USSR China Attack, India Pakistan War, Mediterranean War, HongKong Variant, SEATO Decapitating, Cuban Provocation, Atlantic Heavy, Cuban Paramilitary, Nicaraguan Preemptive, Pacific Territorial, Burmese Theaterwide, Turkish Decoy, Angentina Escalation (possible misspelling of "Argentina Escalation"), Iceland Maximum, Arabian Theaterwide, U.S. Subversion, Australian Maneuver, Sudan Surprise, NATO Territorial, Zaire Alliance, Iceland Incident, English Escalation, Middle East Heavy, Mexican Takeover, Chad Alert (repeated twice), Saudi Maneuver, African Territorial, Ethiopian Escalation, Turkish Heavy, NATO Incursion, U.S. Defense, Cambodian Heavy, Pact Medium, Arctic Minimal, Mexican Domestic, Taiwan Theaterwide, Pacific Maneuver, Portugal Revolution, Albanian Decoy, Palistinian Local (possible misspelling of "Palestinian Local"), Moroccan Minimal, Czech Option, French Alliance, Arabian Clandestine, Gabon Rebellion, Northern Maximum, SEATO Takeover, Hawaiian Escalation, Iranian Maneuver, NATO Containment, Swiss Incident, Cuban Minimal, Iceland Escalation, Vietnamese Retaliatio (possible truncated name for "Vietnamese Retaliation"), Syrian Provocation, Libyan Local, Gabon Takeover, Romanian War, Middle East Offensive, Denmark Massive, Chile Confrontation, S.African Subversion, USSR Alert, Nicaraguan Thrust, Greenland Domestic, Iceland Heavy, Kenya Option, Pacific Defense, Uganda Maximum, Thai Subversion, Romanian Strike, Pakistan Sovereignty, Afghan Misdirection, Thai Variation, Northern Territorial, Polish Paramilitary, S.African Offensive, Panama Misdirection, Scandinavian Domestic, Jordan Preemptive, English Trust, Burmese Maneuver, Spain Counter, Arabian Offensive, Chad Interdiction, Taiwan Misdirection, Bangladesh Theaterwid (possible truncated name for "Bangladesh Theaterwide"), Ethiopian Local, Italian Takeover, Vietnamese Incident, English Preemptive, Denmark Alternate, Thai Confrontation, Taiwan Surprise, Brazilian Strike, Venezuela Sudden, Maylasian Alert (possible misspelling of "Malaysian Alert"), Isreal Discretionary (possible misspelling of "Israel Discretionary"), Libyan Action, Palistinian Tactical (possible misspelling of "Palestinian Tactical"), NATO Alternate, Cypress Maneuver, Egypt Misdirection, Bangladesh Thrust, Kenya Defense, Bangladesh Containmen (possible truncated name for "Bangladesh Containment"), Vietnamese Strike, Albanian Containment, Gabon Surprise, Iraq Sovereignty, Vietnamese Sudden, Lebanon Interdiction, Taiwan Domestic, Algerian Sovereignty, Arabian Strike, Atlantic Sudden, Mongolian Thrust, Polish Decoy, Alaskan Discretionary, Canadian Thrust, Arabian Light, S.African Domestic, Tunisian Incident, Maylasian Maneuver (possible misspelling of "Malaysian Maneuver"), Jamaica Decoy, Maylasian Minimal (possible misspelling of "Malaysian Minimal"), Russian Sovereignty, Chad Option, Bangladesh War, Burmese Containment, Asian Theaterwide, Bulgarian Clandestine, Greenland Incursion, Egypt Surgical, Czech Heavy, Taiwan Confrontation, Greenland Maximum, Uganda Offensive and Caspian Defense.

Barry Corbin ad-libbed most of his lines.

The film was part of a 1980s cycle of films about atomic bombs and nuclear warfare which had started in 1979 with The China Syndrome. The films included Silkwood, Testament, Threads, WarGames, The Day After, The Atomic Cafe, The Manhattan Project, Whoops Apocalypse, Special Bulletin, Ground Zero, Barefoot Gen (Barefoot Gen), Rules of Engagement, When the Wind Blows, Letters from a Dead Man (Pisma myortvogo cheloveka), Memoirs of a Survivor and The Chain Reaction.

When David makes a joke directed at his teacher about asexual reproduction the laughter heard afterwards is considered to be the rest of the kids in the classroom. But John Badham (director) said that some of the crew didn't know the punch line and laughed out loud during the scene. That laughter was left in the sound track, and if you listen closely you will hear what is clearly adults laughing out loud, rather than classroom sniggering.

The movie is featured as a central plot device in the book "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline. The protagonist must re-enact the movie playing the part of David, line by line, movement by movement in order to unlock a door.

The red white and blue helicopter in the first external NORAD scene is a classic Bell 206 JetRanger.

The main NORAD Command Center is located at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The underground facility portrayed in the film is the Alternate Command Center, which is located in a nuclear bunker deep within the nearby Cheyenne Mountain.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, NORAD's responsibility was expanded to include the interior airspace of North America.

In General Beringer's "You're full of shit" scene, he takes an object from a red and white package and places it in his mouth. This is Red Man chewing tobacco.

'Matthew Broderick''s character hacks into his high school's computer to change his grade. His character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off does the same.