Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
A polite invitation from a machine that does not understand the difference between a game and a war. David treats it as a lark, and that gap between play and catastrophe is the whole film. The line became the shorthand for ominous, innocent-sounding computers and has been quoted or homaged in many later films and games about hackers and rogue AI.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for WarGamesShow the scene
In John Badham's WarGames (1983), Seattle teenager David Lightman war-dials phone numbers looking for a game company and stumbles onto a computer that lists chess, poker and Global Thermonuclear War. After tracing the Falken named in its first game, he guesses that the password is Joshua, the name of Falken's dead son, and he is in. With his friend Jennifer Mack beside him, the machine greets him with the question. David says he would love to and picks Global Thermonuclear War; the computer suggests a good game of chess instead, then agrees. Neither of them knows it is WOPR, the NORAD war computer at Cheyenne Mountain.
Sources (2)
- Wikiquote: WarGamesDialogue, Joshua/WOPR exchange with David and JenniferReference checked
- Wikipedia: WarGamesPlot, second paragraph; CastReference checked
Context reviewed