From Above

I chanced upon this REALLY retro movie starring Matthew Broderick while waiting for lunch savagely (all of us hadn't eaten breakfast, Mama woke up late too) this hot hot hot morning. I was flippin' through channels and stopped at MGM when my sister and I saw a teenage Matthew Broderick in front of an ancient computer.

What kept us from changing the channel was--the fascination? The huge dot matrix computer the black and green monitor, the very clunky keyboard everything. What added to that sense of wonder was our father's recognition. Upon seeing it he said, "Uyyy, ang tagal na niyan ah." meaning he had watched the film too...in the 80's!

After googling the mystery film (dad couldn't remember the title too)

found out it was this:

"WarGames"

(1983)

I wasn't even born yet.

To simplify the plot:

Brodericks' this computer geek/hacker who breaks into this military something--database? by accident. If I understood correctly, he just wanted to "preview" this new computer game being developed by this company...and this "Joshua" computer (developed by this scientist who's supposedly dead) is activated by Broderick as he hacks the company's system. It turns out the software company also develops stuff for the US military...

Joshua is a super AI who can "learn" from mistakes and errors. As soon as Joshua is turned on by Broderick it immediately asks him what game he wants to play. Broderick selects "Thermonuclear War" (it asks what side he wants to play: US or Russia-he chooses Russia)--it turns out that this is a military simulation test for nuclear war...but the thing is, the pentagon thinks "its" real. So Broderick has to alert the authorities before the US fires "real" nuclear warheads--ultimately annihilating Russia.

Ayos naman siya, pwede na rin. blockbuster ito nung lumabas nung 80's, what's the nearest contemporary film similar to it? There's no doubt: "Eagle Eye" hehehe

Reminds me again how the threat of nuclear war was really "real" during the 70's and 80's. Parang katulad ng "Watchmen" diba? To my generation kasi it all seems like a dream. There's a good scene in the movie, when Broderick visits the creator of "Joshua", and asks him to tell the military what's going on. Broderick soon is horrified to know that the scientist is not concerned at all, he even welcomes it--the extinction of the human race. his reasoning? we're just speeding up the process, that's good for evolution (but he soon has a change of heart). He explains that one of the warheads is going to hit near them so it was just going to be a quick death.

*One of my fave scenes in Watchmen (both in the movie and the graphic novel) is Nite Owl's dream of him and Silk Spectre kissing while this nuclear bomb explodes in the horizon...mushroom cloud--vaporization.

I hope to God I never see one in my lifetime.