WarGames (1983)

◄ WarGames (1983)

Audio/visual unsynchronised

When David begins to play Globalthermonuclear War, you hear the computer voice say the words as they appear on the computer screen, however, when it asks him to list primary targets, the screen also says "by city and/or county" yet the voice cuts out without saying that.
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When David is playing Galaga he is firing with his right hand. He stops firing to look at his watch with his right hand, but the sound effects being played are still the firing noises.
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When David and Jennifer are coming up to David's house for the first time, there is a shot of David's dog, Beau, barking. However, he is just running and his mouth isn't moving.
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When Jennifer tells David to "Hop on" the moped her lips do not move.
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When playing Galaga the second time (when Jennifer asks David to change her grade) the audio of a Galaga sending down its tractor beam is heard, but that is not happening on the screen.
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When the Horizon Air aircraft is landing, its clearly a turboprop aircraft. When the engines are reversing as it lands, the engines are of a jet engine.
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When WOPR reports a Soviet launch detection, Beringer asks McKittrick if this is another simulation. While McKittrick's response is heard, his lips do not move.
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The airplane carrying David that lands in Oregon (right before he's met by Jennifer) is a propeller-driven plane. The sound effect is that of a jet.
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Character error

Near the end of the film, the female corpsman incorrectly says, "General, DBS (sic) is tracking 300 inbound Soviet ICBMs"; as stated earlier in the film, the correct early warning satellite system is DSP, not DBS.
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When David requests the number for Protovision from the operator, he's given a number with a 555 prefix. He also requests other prefixes for the area and is given four more, but when he sets up his autodialer, he only uses the four additional prefixes and neglects to include the 555 prefix in his scans.
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Continuity

The code to launch the missiles is "CPE1704TKS" when displayed on the big screen and on most of the launch consoles, but it is shown as "JPE1704TKS" on one console shown in closeup in the sequence where the WOPR is attempting to determine the launch codes itself.
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When David is communicating with WOPR, the words appear on the screen before he types them.
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When David and Jennifer are on the island trying to find a boat to leave the island, Dr. Falken comes in a helicopter. When they show the ground shots, it is pitch black out, but when they show the helicopter, the sun is either setting or rising in the distance.
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David's "Galaga" high score changed when the game was "over".
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When David is playing Galaga as Jennifer is talking to him, he has three "lives" left. However, after he is killed, the game over screen appears. He should have had two more lives.
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Before David switches the Galaga game over to Howie in the beginning of the movie, there is an obvious jump in their positions.
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When Mr. Lightman opens the front door to let Jennifer in, he has a pipe in his mouth. But in the very next shot when they're both inside, Mr. Lightman is holding the pipe in his left hand.
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Throughout the Infirmary scenes, the guard's gloves disappear and reappear on his hands, most notably when David asks to use the restroom.
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In the first dialog between David and Joshua - when David is typing the line "People sometimes make mistakes." - we see the last word typed correctly. Later we see the whole screen with that same word typed "mistak".
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When David and Jennifer are running to catch the ferry, they are shown running down the boat launch ramp, rather than the ferry dock. In the next scene, they're on the ferry dock and jumping on board.
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When David is asking about the list of games that he printed out earlier, he asks Jim why the list has games such as checkers and backgammon. However when David was printing the list of games, backgammon was not one of the listed games.
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When Joshua begins searching for the launch codes on the big screen at NORAD, Falken approaches the screen alone and sees the countdown has already started. But, when David and Jennifer join up with Falken at the screen, the countdown numbers are not reflected on the three of them. Halfway through the scene, the numbers on the giant screen reflect on them showing that the countdown started twice.
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When Joshua begins running through the war scenarios, the first one shown was "U. S. First Strike" and "U.S.S.R. First Strike" was next. On the screen showing the scenarios it had run, "U.S.S.R. First Strike" was listed first and "U.S. First Strike" came second.
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As Joshua asks David to choose a country to play, you see a two (representing the Soviet Union) already typed in. When they do a close up of the screen, David is typing in the two that was already there.
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When Professor Falken is flying the remote controlled pterodactyl, he lands it is some relatively tall (about knee high) grass. When he walks over to retrieve it, the grass the pterodactyl is sitting on is very thin and low-cut.
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When David and Jennifer are on the ferry, the sky changes from a late afternoon blue sky, to sunset, then back to blue sky after they get off the ferry.
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After the Soviet ICBM salvo is underway, a Soviet sub-launch detection is reported. The camera shows the screen, on which 14 subs (7 in the Pacific, 7 in the Atlantic) had launched their SLBMs simultaneously. In the scene before the impact of the Soviet warheads, however, the screen shows only 7 SLBM launches (5 in the Pacific, 2 in the Atlantic), and based on their distances from the target, they were launched at different times.
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A completely different computer monitor model is used in the shot immediately following David's line "Protovision, I have you now!".
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When David tries some of the numbers his autodialer has found, there are numbers with the 936 prefix listed. His autodialer hadn't dialed any 936-prefix numbers yet as it hadn't even finished dialing all the numbers in the 767 prefix.
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General Beringer orders his staff to 'scramble two F-16s out of Galena.' The aircraft later shown are F-15 Eagles. (This may be due to the script originally calling for F-15s, which were the front-line fighter in Alaska at the time.)
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In the second scene, as the teacher is reviewing the test answers, he reads question number two and question number four. Question number two had just been answered but not confirmed, while Question number three had been omitted or glanced over entirely without any explanation.
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Jennifer is already in the classroom before David arrives without her test while the rest of the class already has their test in front of them. This was obviously done deliberately by the director to show the audience she received an F.
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Near the beginning when McKittrick is discussing replacing the men in the silos with the WOPR, his hair changes several times from being nice and neat to mussed and disheveled.
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At the end of the movie, the camera angle shows Falken's face as you hear him type two words: "Hello Joshua." But when we see the giant screen above the floor at NORAD, only the word "Hello" appears.
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During the scene where an unknown Air Force woman is walking around Joshua and is apparently working on checklist, there is no paper on the clipboard as you can see the reflection from the clipboard.
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Crew or equipment visible

In a scene as the camera passes around the WOPR computer, it stops at a point where you can see a crewmen in a red shirt trying to hide out of sight of the camera behind the computer.
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Errors in geography

The scene in which one of the radar analysts is asked to report activity showing Soviet submarine deployment, he says, "22 Typhoon-class submarines departing Petropavlovsk, turning south bound at Nordkapp." However, the screen displays submarines around a map of the Kola Peninsula in European Russia. Petropavlovsk is located on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Asian Russia. The location shown on the map is accurate, however, as all of the Typhoons were based at Nerpichya Base which is located on the Kola Peninsula.
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Juse before the junior crewman "enables" the missiles a list of geographic coordinates (target locations?) appears on the video feed of the missile in the silo. The coordinates are all for locations in the Pacific Ocean. Since targeting data is preselected, this couldn't be the location of Soviet submarines.
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Factual errors

When receiving and sending text from his home computer, the modem RD and SD lights do not flash. On a 300-1200 baud modem, the flashes would be very visible.
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There are many computer-based oddities (such as NORAD coincidentally using the same voice synthesizer as David, the speed with which the audio-coupler modem is able to make the calls (and even manages to hang up the phone), the speed with which the computer breaks the password by brute force, etc) which passed much of the 1983 audience by, but which seem increasingly fanciful as time passes.
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When WOPR is searching for the launch code, it is shown to be able to lock onto each digit individually. In which case, it would only take 360 tries (one for each letter and digit), to definitely find the entire code.
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They Call the "43rd" Bomb Wing at Loring AFB near the end of the movie, But the 42 Bomb Wing was stationed at Loring. The 43rd was stationed in Guam.
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After David is arrested, the next scene is at NORAD where a tour group is being escorted. The escort asks a woman with a camera around her neck to sit in the command chair. A visitor would not be allowed to bring a camera into NORAD.
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After David hangs up the modem, disconnecting from the WOPR, his screen is shown with the game countdown continuing. Actually, in the 80's when a remote terminal was being used to connect to another computer, screen updates such as this halted when the call was disconnected, the countdown would have "frozen" on David's screen (continuing only on the WOPR).
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During the final sequence when Joshua/WOPR is trying the figure out the launch code, the sequence is shown in real time. When the statement is made "1 minute to impact", it is approximately 1 minute and 40 seconds later when impact finally occurs.
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When it is stated that "22 Typhoon class" submarines are departing. Only 6 Soviet Nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarines of this class were made. ("Typhoon class" were officially called "Project 941) were ever built. In 1983, the number would've been even fewer, as these six were built over an 8 years period (1981 - 1989). All of the Typhoon Class were based at Zapadnaya Litsa (Nerpichya Base) about 45 miles from the Norwegian border.
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In the beginning of the movie when the missile silo crew arrive at the Security Police post to sign in, there is a USAF Security Police Chief Master Sgt that is behind the desk and has them sign in on the roster sheet on the clipboard. A Chief Master Sgt is the highest enlisted rank in the USAF (8 stripes)and not only would a person of this rank not lower himself to perform a task as petty as to sign in personnel onto their post (a function normally handled by an Airman 1st Class, a 2 striper), but he would not even be at the silo, to begin with. The highest ranking supervisor to be there would be a Staff Sgt (4 stripes)
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Miscellaneous

At the beginning of the movie when the computer is counting down at the silo the computer says the countdown sequence off beat several times, especially in the last 10 seconds.
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Incorrectly regarded as goofs

Despite the DVD commentary and popular belief, Defense Conditions (DEFCONs) actually do go from 5 to 1 as the situation worsens. DEFCON 1 represents imminent or ongoing attack on the US by a foreign power, while DEFCON 5 represents normal peacetime operations.
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As the WOPR is obtaining the launch codes, the missiles are shown to have the engines spinning up with the sound of a turbine engine. In the case of a Titan missile, this could be correct, because a Titan has two fuel components: Hydrazine and Nitrogen Tetroxide, which are pumped together by a turbine pump that is in fact powered by small amounts of these propellants. When the turbo-pump is on, it forces large amounts of the fuels together which spontaneously burn. When the pump stops, so does the engine.
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When the relief crew arrives at the silo it appears they are in a snowstorm, as they are wearing heavy winter parkas. In the opening NORAD scene the guards are all in shirts - no jackets. This is unsurprising; US missiles are in many states. It's entirely possible, even likely, for North Dakota's weather to be different from NORAD's in Colorado.
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When David is being arrested by the FBI, he is brought to NORAD. While NORAD is a military installation and not affiliated with the FBI, given that he is immediately brought to McKittrick and the others, clearly McKittrick asked to meet in person the teenager who'd hacked into NORAD.
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In the 1980s it was not permitted for any Department of Defense computer with classified information on it to be connected to external communication equipment. It would therefore be impossible to dial in as shown. However, during a scene, the military technician exclaims that the phone company "screwed them", implying an external contractor allowed the connection against request and policy.
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Plot holes

When David was asked why he had called back, he states that Joshua called him. They should be able to see via the trace that the call had indeed originated from Joshua.
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When David makes the reservation for Paris, he does so using Jennifer's name. Later, McKittrick asks who he is going to Paris with, but if he had found the reservation, he would have already known about Jennifer as well.
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Revealing mistakes

When David is typing in the passwords and fails, the log on screen spells out "Indentification failed" not Identification.
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When the facility is being locked down and the door closes after David/Jennifer/Falken rushed inside, the next segment shows the locking bolts being engaged their sockets, locking the door. There are four distinct sets of bolts shown (moving up, down, left, and right), presumably securing all four sides of the door. Four distinct 'clangs' are heard as the bolts bottom out in their sockets. However in the wide shots, the door only has two independent sets of bolts - one on the left and one on the right, none on the top or bottom.
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