Each wing (150 missiles divided evenly between 15 launch control facilities) [Edit had it wrong lol] had a supreme LCC that could take over in cases like this. Each silo could also be controlled by the looking glass and TACOMO planes. Pretty pointless to get a gun out over not having personally responsible for vaporizing the Minsk telephone factory or whatever.
@@s.hooper5667 And if they both turned your keys at the same time the question that ponder me, To be or not to be? Would those missiles have launched due to a glitch, even although this was supposed to be a simulated drill to see how the men would respond in the silos?
_"Screw procedure, I want someone on the goddamn phone before I kill 20 million people"_ Probably the most logical and well meaning thought in this whole scene right there.
Something somewhat similar actually happened in 1983. A Soviet officer (Stanislav Petrov) received an alert from a Soviet satellite that there was an incoming U.S. missile strike. He disobeyed protocol by disregarded the alert as a false alert. Had he followed procedure, the Soviet Union would have responded with a strike of its own, kicking off a global conflict.
I cannot go one month without watching WarGames. There is so much nostalgic linkage to people, places and times in my life that it's like some sort of temporal nexus.
@@mattgiguere5638 A distinct memory of August 1985 is stopping at 7-11 and grabbing a Double Gulp of Diet Coke. My wife and I had just hiked-in to the site of where our new house would be. The roads were roughed-in with gravel. It was sweltering. We spoke to the builder who was, by coincidence, on-site too. We asked to have two big boulders positioned in what would be the backyard. He gave us a handwritten receipt of our request. My wife, more demurely, picked out 12 oz. iced tea at 7-11. I remember the '80s and I wish I had appreciated them more at the time. It was a busy time at work. My wife and I started boxing-up things for the move when we got home. I set my Double Gulp cup down on my side of the dresser and it left a ring. I still have that dresser and the faint ring is still visible. My wife passed away in June of 2002 and I have since moved but the memory of the day, the '80s, and a number of other memories remain.
Smart move of him to threaten the other guy with a gun. Once he has shot him, all he needs to to is grow a 4 ft long arm to turn both keys simultanously.
The purpose of the firearm was another MAD pack. It ensures that both men in the silo know that if they dont carry out the order, they will die, incentivizing them to follow through with the order
jursamaj Thinking the bigger picture is good, but when you’re thinking you’re going to die regardless, turning a key, or nuclear winter, you’re screwed. Turn the key, maybe military will come to get you... eventually, don’t turn it your coworker shoots you.
I lived through the last few years of the Cold War. Movies like "Threads," showing an infinitely bleaker picture than cosy "The Day After" fare. For some reason, I always get a kick out of this whole sequence. The veteran superior officer having second thoughts at the last second while the rookie who was scared shitless at the start then going through with the entire procedure like a true Kamikaze.
rated just fine....did good at the box office back in the day, Rotten tomatoes gives it 94 %, most older movie watchers know it and like it. Had influence on early discussions about IT and the dangers thereof.
Underrated? You mean one of the most famous and well liked movies of the entire 1980's? The same movie that (along with Sneakers) is still considered as having some of the most realistic depictions of social engineering (hacking) depicted in media? The same movie that helped make Matthew Broderick a star?
@Jonathan Trapp Loved him in The West Wing ... so sorry he has passed ... and it was kinda creepy it being the same thing as his character almost died of ...
the set really looks super realistic and very much alike what a real missile silo control unit would have looked like back then, up to things like the blast door, room layout, the costumes, the buttons and switches, yes even those triangle shaped launch switches are exactly as they were.
This scene always gives me conflicting emotions. I want someone in control who will launch when ordered because deterrents are important, but I also don't want a bunch of innocent people to die.
there's a true story of a Russian officer in the 50's or 60's who was in the same position as these guys. He was informed of an incoming ICBM missile from America. He refused to retaliate and launch his missiles until he got some confirmation which, like in this scene, was not proper protocol. It turns out the Russian equipment used detect incoming missiles was not very good and was fooled by reflections off of clouds. Good thing he questioned orders.
@@travisjohnson6676I think you mixed up two different real incidents where Soviet officers saved the world from nuclear war. One was in 1962, with Vasily Arkhipov, but he was aboard a nuclear-armed submarine off Cuba, not controlling ICBMs. The other was 1983, with Stanislav Petrov at a missile warning station. In the 1962 case, during the American blockade of Cuba, the submarine crew was out of contact with their base and misunderstood what was happening, whereas the 1983 case was a technical failure that produced a false alarm.
Yeah that's one of the only things I didn't like about this film. The voices they used for the missile commander & the fighter pilot were a lil over the top & sounded like radio DJ's.
"Dropkick" is a code name for the SAC Command Center at Offutt AFB. The senior controller at SAC identifies himself by that name when passing test or command messages.
A code-name likely, because in this underground world of missile launching, you are not allowed generally to give out real names - they try to keep things top-secret.
Dropkick was also the name of an early Cold War nuclear war plan, and referred to an all out nuclear strike on the entire Communist world. It's from that war plan that the US President's nuclear briefcase that follows him everywhere became known as the "nuclear football".
I REALLY need to buy this on DVD. I have loved this film since it came out...Some special effects, yes, but a character driven plot enhanced by SFX. Kudos to Eddie Deezen!! Long Live Melvin!!! Thanks for posting!
I've never seen, or heard, Michael Madsen so young. His voice sounds so different from what I've heard from him in the past 25 years I would have sworn that that was Tom Sizemore and not M.M. They look so much alike, it's practically unbelievable.
Each MAF(Missile Alert Facility) is connected to 10 missiles. Multiple MAFs are linked to the same missile field. Launching a missile requires the consent of two MAFs. Even if you don't do it, someone will.
They reference an incident similar to this one in one of the episodes IIRC - I believe Will Bailey is off to defend the crew - which I guess was something of an easter egg.
Real ones aren't disguised as houses. Oncoming crew takes guns directly from offgoing crew. Down below is not all clean and sterile. The blast doors have to be pumped open manually (only the small door is shown here).No video to watch the missiles (which wore only brown primer) 1-2 hours to changeover with the old crew, after which they changed into sweats. Guns were to protect the codes, there were four other crews plus airborne that would get the launch off even if some crews choked.
Saw this as a kid. When I moved to Seattle to attend University of Washington, I enjoyed walking around several places where they shot the library scene and riding to visit the computer geeks. I enjoyed the nostalgia as I studied, and I eventually named the stairs that go up to Suzzallo Library the "Matthew Broderick Stairs."
At first it looked like the young dude was gonna be the one to flinch. I loved this movie. I saw it when it first came out. It really is an excellent film.
+Neville James Martin I didn't realise it was Leo McGary (sp?) either till I had already watched the entire West Wing series, and then watched this clip! Leo would have turned the key haha.
"I want someone to use his fucking brain, and not come out of an uptempo number straight into a goddamn thermonuclear holocaust. It's impossible to make those transitions, man."
Awsome! I must say that was a heck of way to chicken out just before you launch your rockets. Incredible and I loved this part. Thanks again. Cheers! :)
After the light-hearted banter at the beginning this icey-cold feeling creeps up your neck when Michael Madsen repeats "turn your key, Sir". Ever heard of "Able Archer"? The world may have been closer to the edge of destruction due to "war games" in the 80s than we may imagine.
There's great documentary about that - combination of Soviet paranoia and how system work and badly timed exercise ... funny thing is, that largest anti-nuke demonstrations took place after crisis that nobody knew about was over: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4cnrE6OhvZg.html
I used to think this was the coolest scene until actually met people who did missile duty in the silos. He told me this was the most unrealistic thing ever and the training they had and the procedures they used made something like this impossible
Well, they had to establish a justification for replacing the human missile silo crews with an automated, AI-controlled system. If they couldn't do that, then the whole movie can't work. So I don't begrudge them sacrificing realism for this scene.
If there was a winter storm raging outside you didn't enter my grandpa's house. You stand out there and freeze until it's over and don't let that cold air in!
This is the best scene in the whole film. It reminds me of the launch scenes in 'First Strike' which were also used in 'The Day After'. Being British I can relate more to the BBC drama 'Threads', I was 16 when that came out and with many documentaries on the effects of a nuclear war I can still remember the genuine fear of it all. Thank goodness I was born 6 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis! For those too young to remember believe me, the terrorist threats of today are nothing by comparison.
That's the rule of the job. If you don't complete the launch you die. If he gets to the point where he has to shoot him it wouldn't have been a successful launch anyway. The point is that they know going in the other one is a) armed with a weapon, and b) on orders to kill his partner if he breaches protocol. Because of these two facts, people are far less likely to breach protocol.
The truth is, there has never been a protocol like that in the history of missilery. At least not in the United States. Src: www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/16jyia/iama_a_former_nuclear_missile_officer_i_spent/
It seems that in the original story for this scene is this: the one who refused to launch the missile, is the same person who forced his teammate to follow his action, instead of the other way around. (Here, he got a gun. Unlikely, because weapons are usually locked in a locker) However, because it betrayed the 'Holywood Logic' message of 'peaceful people don't plan to kill people or force people'. They swapped it, causing a plot hole of 'if you killed him and he's dead, how will the missile be launched?' thing. Basically, the story got edited, causing a plot hole.
You're all fucking wrong. They simply added the 'threatening with a gun' to add drama. Logic has nothing to do with it. Way I see it: the junior officer became overly emotional and was trying to convince his superior to turn the key. If he wouldn't he was going to shoot him anyway. No missiles launched but at least he killed an enemy of the SAC. I mean, USA. Anyway, followin nuclear Armageddon, it would have been mainly the SAC that survived. Not the USA.
I love all the military guys chiming in on this thread without a shred of awareness of the point of this scene. "Don't worry everyone, that's not really how it works...in the real world we'd all be dead, don't worry."
@Főfasírozó They're supporting the ideal not the reality. Modern soldiers do have an easy ride compared to the old shooting wars of the early 20th or late 19th century.
@Főfasírozó the Top 4 richest countries in Africa have consistently been South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, and Egypt, and this has been true for decades, both before and after the deposition of Gaddafi
+Ken Baker Sadly, the B-2 is already looking at being replaced. Sad for the years of exceptional performance of the aircraft. However, good for for national security, and Boing haha.
I got to witness this in person inside the launch room, Whiteman AFB (Knobnoster MO). It was just like this. They shut down the practice when they were ready to turn the keys.
Also a great scene when near the end we realize WOPR goes for a retaliatory missile launch by itself using a brute-force attack to obtain the launch codes
War Games was a good movie. And this first scene is how I feel whenever I must do something dramatic. Minus nuclear attacks and such, but it's such a good scene!
I must have watch this clips a hundred times and I just now noticed. Michael Madsen holsters the gun on his right side, but draws it with his left hand! xD
Dunno, but I can see how some seasoned left handed person doesn't want the holster to be on left hip to impede normal movements considering the gun is for use in extreme situations only. All he has to do is reach across the body.... get the picture??
And I always loved this movie. But the one flaw was this scene. The crews where always told and trained that simulations could occur at anytime. They could enter a launch code in a simulation that would effectively (due to programs on the computers) act up to a set point and then cycle down. They put they thought in their head that it can always be a simulated attack, to give them hope, so they would go through all the steps and turn the key. Of course they are still human, so things do occur. Back in 2012 or 13 I think, one of the missle wings had a large number of people removed from the ability to launch as many men in those areas had begun to question the orders of superiors (in day to day operations), and you can't have that as it might show up if the codes came down.
Yet that captain, even though he didn't turn his key, still managed to become Chief of Staff to President Bartlett. After the shame of being cashiered from the Air Force, he changed his name to Leo McGarry, became a politician, Chief of Staff to the President, and eventual Democratic nominee for Vice President.
I doubt he was cashiered by the air force, probably reassigned to another (less attractive) job. People who watch this scene figure that these guys are failures, yet the point of the plot is that they're not failures, they're human, and there's no way to change that. That's why they put WOPR relays in every silo.
I'm in the damn industry and I've never watched this gem. My bad. Very bad. This scene gave me chills. I have no idea if Madson pulled the trigger, but I'm gonna find out. Damn. What a scene!!!
just a little ironic that as they enter the elevator he mentions the chant his wife says to her plants to help them grow, is “om mani padme huum”.. which is a buddhist chant for peace, as they enter a nuclear missle facility..
That message voice really does sound like Casey Kasem. He used to do lots of voice work, is that really him? It's not listed in his film credits, but he might be uncredited.
THAT is totally not the case. The PRP program ran on frequent, unannounced "whiz-quizzes". Been there, done them. You flunk, your career, and time in the service, whichever one you were in. was effectively OVER! What followed would be administrative and judicial hell, and if you were an OFFICER, you'd be facing article 32 proceedings, which would be either a Special or General Court Martial.
@@stephenhoward6829 Yep. I was in the Navy in the early eighties when the first piss tests were done. Being on a submarine, and being part of the launch crew for the SLBMs, I pissed in more bottles than I care to remember. We were constantly being tested. And yet there were idiots that still managed to fail their test. Why anyone would do drugs, knowing that they had a good chance of getting caught, is something that I never could understand.
I was an attorney who monitored narcotics offenders in drug treatment programs a few years back, and drug tests were part of the process, There were tons of ways that people used try and get around drug tests - I'm guessing that college and professional athletes pioneered a lot of them. Though we caught a large number, there's no way of knowing how many slipped through.
This is the part that is fused into my brain. Turn your key. TURN YOUR KEY SIR!" And then it breaks into the credit music - this vid actually ended like half a beat too soon. Sigh.
I knew a guy in Air Force ROTC, he said most cadets wanted the Nuclear Weapons (ICBM) Officer slots. I asked, "aren't they worried they are going to kill millions of people?," he said, "they think about that, but having 2 days on and 5 days off (duty) was worth the gamble."
I feel special. I'm watching this clip from an actual launch control center. As a matter of fact, I'm sitting in the same chair Phelps/Madsen would have been in.
