War Games: The Dead Code
| WarGames: The Dead Code | |
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DVD cover
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| Directed by | Stuart Gillard |
| Produced by | Irene Litinsky |
| Screenplay by | Randall Badat |
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| Based on | Characters by Lawrence Lasker Walter Parkes |
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| Music by | John Van Tongeren |
| Cinematography | Bruce Chun |
| Edited by | Robin Russell |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
WarGames: The Dead Code is a 2008 American direct-to-video thriller film and the sequel to the 1983 film WarGames. It was written by Randall Badat and Rob Kerchner and directed by Stuart Gillard. Production began on November 20, 2006 in Montreal, and the film was released on DVD on July 29, 2008. According to MGM's original press release, the film is budgeted as one in a series of direct-to-DVD sequels.
Computer whiz kid Will Farmer's (Matt Lanter) neighbor Massude comes to Will having a problem with his computer. Will takes the computer and hooks his own up to it and discovers that Massude's brother is using his online banking to make huge profits. Since he needs $550 to go on a chess trip, Will steals $500 from Massude's account to gamble on an online gaming site that uses games that are based on terrorist attacks. Will later discovers that his best friend Dennis changes it to $5000. He ends up winning $25,000, with the aid of his mother, who knows about biological agents. Little does he know that the online game he plays is actually part of a sophisticated piece of U.S. government spyware designed to find potential terrorists based on how well they perform and bet on the games. The spyware program is run by a new, advanced artificial intelligence system called RIPLEY (an acronym that is not explained in the film, nor by its makers), which has ultimate control over every American electronic system in order to combat terrorism.
Homeland Security, now believing Farmer to be a terrorist, sets out to apprehend him. During Will's return home one day he finds Massude is being arrested on account of suspected terrorism, and gives Will an envelope full of cash as payment, which he uses to finance his trip. Unknown to him and Homeland Security, RIPLEY is misinterpreting the data and is overreacting to the situation. On his arrival to the airport, he finds that there is an abnormally large number of security guards. He manages to slip away and meets up with his friend Annie.
In the streets, he manages to crack the government network, only to be found by the police, and as Annie pointed out, a man in an overcoat. The cops chase the couple until they get lost in the subway systems. Will manages to find a way out, and they meet the man who was watching them from the doorway, he says that he nearly started World War III, and to meet them at his truck. He is revealed to be Professor Falken, who had helped design RIPLEY. They travel to a small power plant outside a dam (during the trip, Will and Professor talk about the sensitive points of the past of each one, revealed before the trip to the power plant), where the professor shows them a dilapidated computer called WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) from the original WarGames film, which is operating the power grid at only 5% of its potential efficiency. Professor Falken had designed this computer to aid in the planning of a global thermonuclear war if it was needed. Falken re-activates WOPR with his backdoor password "Joshua" (the name of Falken's deceased son as well as the name the professor uses to refer to the AI that is WOPR). Meanwhile, RIPLEY is led to believe that Philadelphia has been hit by a bioterrorist attack and decides to halt the spread of the bioweapon by hijacking a Predator drone with missiles and a nuclear warhead on board and use it to destroy the city.
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