WOPR

File:WOPR.jpg

WOPR Computer

WOPR (pronounced "Whopper") is an acronym for War Operation Plan Response, Stephen Falken and John McKittrick's fictional military computer featured in the movie and novel WarGames.

Purpose

WOPR is a form of artificial intelligence, programmed to play numerous strategy and war games, including one called Global Thermonuclear War, the purpose being to enable itself to optimally respond to any possible enemy nuclear attack.

WarGames

In WarGames, David Lightman (Matthew Broderick), a teenage computer hacker unwittingly makes contact with WOPR by dialing random phone numbers (known as Wardialing). Believing he has discovered a backdoor to the mainframe at a computer game development company, he hacks into WOPR, finds a list of games and gives the command to play the Global Thermonuclear War scenario. In the process, WOPR begins running the simulation on the main screen at NORAD, making the staff there think the Soviet Union is readying their missiles for a first strike.

When Lightman realizes what he's done and while being pursued by Government agents, he, his girlfriend (Ally Sheedy), and Falken barely manage to gain access to NORAD headquarters (Cheyenne Mountain) and persuade the military that the data WOPR is presenting is just a simulation. However, the efforts by the military to stand down from DEFCON 1 are misinterpreted by WOPR as an attempted subversion of the defense system and it attempts to proceed with a full-scale nuclear launch on its own. The situation is particularly dire considering that cutting power to the computer is not an option: a sudden power loss would resemble the destruction of NORAD and all U.S. missile silos would automatically launch their weapons.

Lightman and Falken are only able to persuade WOPR to stop when they trick it into playing tic-tac-toe (which Falken had added to the database but not included in the game list) against itself, which almost instantly creates a long string of stalemates. The learned concept of futility in an unwinnable game extends to WOPR running through all the possible scenarios of nuclear war, which all end in stalemates (mutual assured destruction) as well. In the face of this data, WOPR concludes that nuclear war is a pointless exercise and stands down, stating:

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."

A machine similar in appearance to WOPR, making a similar noise, can be found in the 2007 game Call of Duty 4, towards the end of the game in the nuclear missile base. Instead of the initials "W.O.P.R.", it bares "В.О.П.Р." which is very roughly the cyrillic equivalent.

See also

• Mutual assured destruction

External links

• WarGames at IMDb