The studio had the Galaxian (1979) and Galaga (1981) arcade machines delivered to Matthew Broderick's home. He practiced for two months to prepare for the arcade scene.
The NORAD command center built for the movie cost $1 million, making it the most expensive set ever constructed at the time. The producers were not allowed into the actual NORAD command center, so they had to imagine what it was like. In the DVD commentary, director John Badham notes that the actual NORAD command center isn't nearly as elaborate as the one in the movie, calling the set "NORAD's wet dream of itself."
According to John Badham, the jeep trying to crash through the gate at NORAD and turning over was an actual accident. The jeep was supposed to continue through the gate. They added the scene of the characters running from the jeep and down the tunnel, and used the botched jeep stunt.
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 movie includes the first cinematic reference to a "firewall," a security measure used in computer networking and Internet security.
John Badham: recorded voice on the pocket tape recorder in the infirmary and dubbing John Wood's voice in the helicopter scene.
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