War Games: The Dead Code, ai gone berzerk, artificial intelligence, hackers, unnecessary sequels...

Psycho A.I. Nukes Philly -- And We're Still Bored

Things you will have to forget in order to enjoy War Games: The Dead Code: The fact that it's supposed to be a direct-to-DVD sequel to War Games, the decent 1980s hacker-almost-starts-WWIII epic. The fact that even Homeland Security might be aware that "online gamers" and "terrorists" are probably mutually exclusive groups. And the fact that MGM tried to sue the rightful owner of WarGames.com in preparation for this release. Click through for the awful details.

I'm sort of a sucker for "AI gone berzerk" stories, and "War on Terror goes too far" stories, so I ought to be the natural audience for War Games: The Dead Code. But even my undiscriminating tastes can't quite go there.

Here's the story: The government wants to fight terror, so it creates a new A.I. called Ripley. She's a sexy girl, with a sultry voice (although interestingly, an early synopsis on IMDB refers to Ripley as "he.") And when she's not hunting down Al Qaeda's funding networks, she's playing "high-stakes games in the darker reaches of the Internet" with teenage boys. But then when one hacker d00d decides to play the "Dead Code" game, she somehow turns it into reality and starts planning to nuke Philadelphia. Only the hacker d00d can stop it, because Homeland Security has absolutely no failsafe or method of controlling the AI they created.

Meanwhile, I can't find any information on MGM's lawsuit over ownership of wargames.com. They sued a guy who had owned the domain since 1998 and was using it for his own personal gaming site. Whois says the guy still owns the domain. But both that site, and the guy's personal site, appear to be down, which is a bad sign. [Slashfilm]

12:00 PM on Wed Apr 2 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
1,717 views
18 comments

Comments

B at 12:12 PM on 04/02/08
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Wow, it makes hacking into Iron Mountain with a 2400 baud modem by guessing the password seem realistic by comparison.
Garrison Dean, King... at 12:20 PM on 04/02/08
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Connectedness Index: 140

Jesus, would it have been too hard to just see what happened Broderick's character. Bill Gates? Steve Jobs type? He gets brought back in by the government to have his enormous corporation do something for the government that goes haywire and hijacked by corrupt politicians looking to spy on Americans and he has to pull it back.

Or he is a burn out, peaked at 16, lives at home still hacking, eschewing the world and in anger starts a worm that slowly destroys the internet and works its way to the defense system and the new breed has to stop it.

This sounds like bullshit.
DeepFriar at 12:30 PM on 04/02/08
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and starts planning to nuke Philadelphia
As one of my fellow Deadspinners would say - serves you right for booing Santa Claus
ggodo at 12:36 PM on 04/02/08
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@Garrison Dean: Either of those would be mega epic, cartoon wopper wannabe=bad.
se7a7n7 at 12:40 PM on 04/02/08
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I'm sure I'm not the only one who after seeing War Games tried to unscrew the receiver of a payphone so that I could touch a soda pull tab between it and the lock on the phone. The movie show Matty B doing that to get a free phone call.

However, you can't unscrew the receive and even if you could, there's no way it would actually work. Good luck even finding a pay phone these days.

Maybe it's a job for Mythbusters?
Rus at 12:42 PM on 04/02/08
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Because if they really wanted a 25-years-later sequel to War Games to be taken seriously, anime was seriously the way to go.
Jeff-Minor at 12:43 PM on 04/02/08
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Is there any logic used at all? Do the people in charge of this Game AI/defence system have experiece with computers beyond the 80's? This should go straight to the Sci-fi chanel.
BullfightsOnAcid at 12:46 PM on 04/02/08
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Joshua called me...and told me this movie sucks.
Charlie Jane Anders at 12:47 PM on 04/02/08
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Connectedness Index: 235

@Jeff-Minor: I'm guessing, based on the trailer, that this movie is logic-free. But it's a hacker movie, so that's par for the course.
CMG at 12:48 PM on 04/02/08
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@DeepFriar: hey now, we threw snowballs at Santa.
goldfarb at 12:48 PM on 04/02/08
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@Garrison Dean: nice...two better ideas in seconds...
and how about for the first idea - he becomes like the guy in the first movie, Dr. Falken...
B at 12:48 PM on 04/02/08
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@Rus McLaughlin: You realize it's live action, right? The cartoon is the AI's Avatar, but the movie it self is played by real people. Not that it makes the movie any better.
B at 12:49 PM on 04/02/08
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@CMG (humpity hump day!): I thought you threw snowballs at Jimmy Johnson? For which I salute you.
Garrison Dean, King... at 01:50 PM on 04/02/08
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Connectedness Index: 140

@se7a7n7: Back in high school, before cell phones (ugh I'm gettin old) we never paid for pay phones. Allyou had to do was take a paperclip and stick one end in the center of the bottom reciever and then touch it to the metal on the booth... boom, free call. If you look now that center dot is always covered up.

@goldfarb: yup pterodactyl and all.
se7a7n7 at 03:05 PM on 04/02/08
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@Garrison Dean: Wow!!! I thought that had to be BS.

I'll try to remember that if I ever travel back in time.
IrvingWashingtonIrving at 04:20 PM on 04/02/08
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It seems the only winning move is not to watch. I'll probably see this anyway.
Since85 at 05:28 PM on 04/02/08
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Just ask her to play Tic-Tac-Toe. Worked for Brodericks.

Also, Laura Harris passed up the Dead Like Me DVD movie for this? Oy.
Tei at 11:37 AM on 04/04/08
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So, we hare walking backward?
the old movie has more hacking than this.