High-school computer geek David Lightman and his girlfriend Jennifer hack into a military computer, thinking it’s a game company. The challenge the computer to play “global thermonuclear war,” not realizing that the computer is the main defense for NORAD. When the military sees what is happening, they go on full alert and prepare to retaliate for Russia’s missile strikes. David is caught, but escapes. He tracks down Dr. Falken, who created the computer with the ability to learn and think. They all rush to NORAD and convince the military it’s only a game. But the computer refuses to shut down and starts to launch the U.S. missiles. David gets the computer playing tic-tac-toe to show it that there’s no way to win. The computer learns and realizes there’s no way to win nuclear war either, and shuts down.

I remember it as being pretty exciting, but it is so dated now that It just didn’t thrill. Add to that the fact that the library’s VHS was mangled and wouldn’t show about 20 minutes of the movie so I listened to the sound track and watched static. Also, the idea of a computer that can’t be over-ridden is pretty far-fetched.