Why did WOPR switch sides?
In War Games, Matt Lightman takes the sides of the USSR in Global Thermonuclear War. That means the WOPR ("War Operation Planned Response" computer) took the side of the USA. However, in NORAD control the WOPR was sending missle launch signals from the USSR.
My theory was WOPR, who was trying to win the game and did not know the difference between game or reality* was trying to provoke the actual USA into launching its real missiles to win the game. Did I understand the movie correctly
*In the movie Matt Lightman ask
Is this a game or is it real?
WOPR responds
What is the difference?
Best Answer
WOPR was trying to provoke the actual USA into launching its real missiles to win the game.
The WOPR system was trying to win the war by faking an attack. Then, the USA would attack first and win, with "acceptable losses". From the wiki:
The computer stages a massive Soviet first strike with hundreds of missiles, submarines, and bombers. Believing the attack to be genuine, NORAD prepares to retaliate. [...] WOPR tries to launch the missiles itself, however, using a brute-force attack to obtain the launch code.
After this, WOPR learns (by playing tic-tac-toe against itself) that attacking first won't actually grant a victory.
WOPR obtains the missile code, but before launching, it cycles through all the nuclear war scenarios it has devised, finding they, too, all result in stalemates. Having discovered the concept of mutual assured destruction ("WINNER: NONE"), the computer tells Falken that it has concluded that nuclear war is "a strange game" in which "the only winning move is not to play."
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What does WOPR stand for in WarGames?
Little does he know, the "computer company" he's infiltrated is actually a military installation running a missile-command supercomputer called the WOPR (War Operation Plan Response), and the game \u2014 Global Thermonuclear War \u2014 is real. Naturally, only David can stop it from setting off World War III.What side did David choose when playing Global Thermonuclear War?
David chooses the side of the Soviet Union and orders both Las Vegas and Seattle to be primary targets for nuclear strikes.What does the computer say in WarGames?
Control is given to a NORAD supercomputer known as the WOPR (War Operation Plan Response, pronounced "whopper"), programmed to continuously run war simulations and learn over time.Is the movie War Games realistic?
I would still argue that, even to this day, War Games had the most accurate representation of real hacking than any other hacker movie. It didn't have all of this ridiculous 3-D virtual reality and other nonsense. In the real world, hackers used command prompts that had no visualization tools.Why did Italy switch sides in WW2?
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Answer 2
That means the WOPR took the side of the USA.
No.
I dispute that WOPR "took sides". It only had control of the USA's missiles so sides wasn't an option...it had to use the USA's arsenal/systems because that was what was available to it. This is where the tension in the movie comes from.
Lightman had to take the opposing side, the USSR, because that was the target of the USA's attack.
He had no choice in the matter nor did WOPR.
WOPR, who was trying to win the game and did not know the difference between game or reality
Essentially, yes
It didn't really care (not that it could, it's a machine)...it was just a game and the object of the game was to win...until it became evident that the only way to "win" was NOT to play at all.
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