A Completely Unnecessary Sequel

The original War Games was released in 1983 and was a true commentary on the vast growing world of computers and the danger in which they could create if left to make vital military decisions on their own. That film aims at telling just how easy it could be for anyone, including a gifted high school student, to overtake government computer systems and put them inadvertently at war with a foreign country. It was truly an interesting, yet horrifying, look at the direction our country could have been headed. War Games: The Dead Code has absolutely no message to speak of, nor does it come anywhere close to being anything but a ploy at cashing in on the latest craze of releasing unnecessary sequels.

Plot: Will Farmer (Matt Lanter) is a high school student who made a promise to his mother that his days of computer hacking were mostly over. Though still allowed to access a computer, he’s only put a hold on his hacking routines. Will now spends his time helping his neighbor with computer problems and staying up late playing computer games with his best friend Dennis Nichols (Nicolas Wright). However, after agreeing to fix his neighbors computer and stumbling onto a scheme by the neighbors brother to exchange large sums of money via wire transfers and online banking, Dennis convinces Will to put some of that ‘fake’ money to good use. Annie D’Mateo (Amanda Walsh) has caught Will’s eye and plans to attend a trip with the school’s chess team. If Will can earn $500, he can go on the trip as well. Dennis is able to get Will to ‘wager’ $5,000 from the bank account on a computer game (operated by the evil computer R.I.P.L.E.Y) which simulates real-world war strategies. Will easily breaks through the computer game (called The Dead Code) and eventually wins by asking his mother for help in regards to bio-terror attack possibilities. After beating R.I.P.L.E.Y at the game, she (the computer) believes Will to be a threat and becomes obsessed (to say the least) with hunting him down and bringing the apparent terrorist to justice. Will (and eventually Annie, of course) spend the remaining part of the film trying to escape the computer and put an end to being accused of terrorist activities.

As you can see, the plot is a bit of a stretch. Though elements of the film are very well down, thanks to director Stuart Gillard, the entity as a whole is very lacking of anything remotely intelligent, or fun for that matter. There are even a few surprise cameos by characters thought long-forgotten, with most of them serving as useless attempts to bring a connection between this and the original. The original concept of the first film works so well because the technology was underdeveloped and could have reasonably been taking advantage of by intelligent hackers, even if Brodericks’ character had done so unknowingly. In War Games: The Dead Code, everything is so farfetched that it makes films with serious technology mis-uses (ie, Live Free or Die Hard) look brilliant.

Both Matt Lanter and Annie Walsh are completely useless here. There just isn’t another talent between the two of them to come close to saving this mess of a film. Besides being a pointless film, there are far too many plot holes and horrid dialogue that even an actor of Forrest Whitaker’s caliber wouldn’t have been able to redeem this.

When the main villain in your film is an advanced computer bent on controlling the world, it’s hard for any actor to redeem the film. R.I.P.L.E.Y. ends up being the worst part of the movie, as her intentions and actions are so completely ridiculous. In the original, Joshua simply held computer launch codes which gave him access for launching warheads once establishing that America was under attack. That idea is frightening enough and to expand R.I.P.L.E.Y. into a super computer with no limitations just seems silly. There’s nothing too frightening about a computer that can do everything. It’s just not possible and lacks suspense completely. Not to mention the concept of tracking down terrorism by having it play computer games. Because, you know, the most harden terrorist spend their time playing war scenarios via computer programs. Of course….