WarGamesMovies like WarGames
- Key Features:
- Hacker, Unexpected consequences, Artificial Intelligence, Nuclear war, Cold War, Government conspiracy, High stakes, Technological thriller, Coming-of-age, Ethical dilemma, Preventing disaster, Hacking, Existential threat
- Tone:
- serious, suspense-driven
- Target Audience:
- Tech enthusiasts, Suspense fans, Cold War era buffs, Fans of intelligent thrillers
- Emotional Arc:
- Curiosity → Panic → Resolution
WarGames

High school student David Lightman has a talent for hacking. But while trying to hack into a computer system to play unreleased video games, he unwittingly taps into the Department of Defense's war computer and initiates a confrontation of global proportions. Together with his friend and a wizardly computer genius, David must race against time to outwit his opponent and prevent a nuclear Armageddon.
WarGames
Computer hacker Will Farmer engages a government super-computer named Ripley in an online terrorist-attack simulation game. Little does Farmer know that Ripley has been designed to appeal to potential terrorists, and certain software glitches have in turn made him become paranoid.

Along with his new friends, a teenager who was arrested by the US Secret Service and banned from using a computer for writing a computer virus discovers a plot by a nefarious hacker, but they must use their computer skills to find the evidence while being pursued by the Secret Service and the evil computer genius behind the virus.

A gifted high school student steals plutonium from the secret nuclear weapons facility in his home town in order to construct his own nuclear bomb, win a national science fair, and expose the government's secrets.

Alex, an immigrant from Ukraine comes to Canada and becomes involved with an online criminal organization called Darkweb. What starts off as a way to help his parents financially, soon becomes a personal vendetta against the entire banking system, when his mother is fired from her job at the bank

Deeply ensconced in a top-secret military program, three pilots struggle to bring an artificial intelligence program under control ... before it initiates the next world war.

Will Radford is a top analyst for Homeland Security who tracks potential threats through a mass surveillance program, until one day an attack by an unknown entity leads him to question whether the government is hiding something from him... and from the rest of the world.

In the near future, a drone pilot is sent into a deadly militarized zone and must work with an android officer to locate a doomsday device.

Six young computer hackers sent to work on a derelict space freighter, are forced to match wits with a vengeful artificial intelligence that would kill to be human.

Ben Campbell is a young, highly intelligent student at M.I.T. who strives to succeed. Wanting a scholarship to transfer to Harvard School of Medicine to become a doctor, Ben learns that he cannot afford the $300,000 tuition as he comes from a poor, working-class background. But one evening, Ben is introduced by his unorthodox math professor to a small but secretive club of five students, Jill, Choi, Kianna, and Fisher, who are being trained by Professor Rosa to count cards at blackjack.

13-year-old Benjamin discovers that his mother didn’t die in an accident as he was led to believe. The trail leads to high-ranking officials in the Danish Secret Service. "Trust no one!", he is told.

After an anonymous hacker begins leaking the private data of thousands living in a small American town, the townspeople spiral into madness, with four high school seniors at the center of the maelstrom.

When shadowy U.S. intelligence agents blackmail a reformed computer hacker and his eccentric team of security experts into stealing a code-breaking 'black box' from a Soviet-funded genius, they uncover a bigger conspiracy. Now, he and his 'sneakers' must save themselves and the world economy by retrieving the box from their blackmailers.

Kevin Mitnick is quite possibly the best hacker in the world. Hunting for more and more information, seeking more and more cyber-trophies every day, he constantly looks for bigger challenges. When he breaks into the computer of a security expert and an ex-hacker, he finds one - and much more than that...

A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.

Already deep into a second Cold War, Britain’s Ministry of Defense seeks a game-changing weapon. Programmer Vincent McCarthy unwittingly provides an answer in The Machine, a super-strong human cyborg. When a programming bug causes the prototype to decimate his lab, McCarthy takes his obsessive efforts underground, far away from inquisitive eyes.

Calvin Joyner, a mild-mannered accountant whose high school glory days are long behind him, reconnects with an awkward pal from high school through Facebook. After meeting up, Calvin’s mundane life takes an unexpectedly thrilling turn when he's thrust into the world of international espionage.

Caleb, a coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl.

CIA Agent Bill Pope is on a mission to track down a shadowy hacker named 'The Dutchman'. When he gets mysteriously killed, an experimental procedure transfers his memories into a dangerous ex-convict. When he wakes up Pope's memories, his mission is to eliminate The Dutchman before the hacker launches ICBMs and starts World War III.

Rogue agent Gabriel Shear is determined to get his mitts on $9 billion stashed in a secret Drug Enforcement Administration account. He wants the cash to fight terrorism, but lacks the computer skills necessary to hack into the government mainframe. Enter Stanley Jobson, a n'er-do-well encryption expert who can log into anything.

When teenage geniuses Mitch Taylor and Chris Knight, working on an advanced laser project, learn that the military wants to use it as a weapon, they decide to thwart the plan.

At the University of Chicago, a research team that includes brilliant student machinist Eddie Kasalivich experiences a breakthrough: a stable form of fusion that may lead to a waste-free energy source. However, a private company wants to exploit the technology, so Kasalivich and physicist Dr. Lily Sinclair are framed for murder, and the fusion device is stolen. On the run from the FBI, they must recover the technology and exonerate themselves.

The government gets wind of a plot to destroy America involving a trio of nuclear weapons for which the whereabouts are unknown. It's up to a seasoned interrogator and an FBI agent to find out exactly where the nukes are.

When a train carrying atomic warheads mysteriously crashes in the former Soviet Union, a nuclear specialist discovers the accident is really part of a plot to cover up the theft of the weapons. Assigned to help her recover the missing bombs is a crack Special Forces Colonel.

Industrious high school senior Vee Delmonico has had it with living life on the sidelines. When pressured by friends to join the popular online game Nerve, Vee decides to sign up for just one dare in what seems like harmless fun. But as she finds herself caught up in the thrill of the adrenaline-fueled competition partnered with a mysterious stranger, the game begins to take a sinister turn with increasingly dangerous acts, leading her into a high stakes finale that will determine her entire future.

Jerry Shaw and Rachel Holloman are two strangers whose lives are suddenly thrown into turmoil by a mysterious woman they have never met. Threatening their lives and family, the unseen caller uses everyday technology to control their actions and push them into increasing danger. As events escalate, Jerry and Rachel become the country's most-wanted fugitives and must figure out what is happening to them.

After a stunning victory at a cyber sport tournament, the winning gamers are awarded CDs with a brand new game. After playing this game, each of them is affected with some force, turning their gaming abilities into real ones. They each become the best fighters, shooters and racers in real life. However, this does not go unnoticed. Through blackmail, cheating and bribes, authorities offer the gamers a "job". But as soon as the lies are revealed it becomes clear that they are not heroes saving their country but nothing more than paid assassins. Moreover, the producer of the game is keeping many more of the same CDs, so many more "heroes" like themselves could also be produced. Now the gamers have to find the CDs and either destroy them or create an army of gamers and rule over all. The team becomes divided into two, each pitted against the other

Benjamin, a young German computer whiz, is invited to join a subversive hacker group that wants to be noticed on the world's stage.

Harris, a CIA interrogator at an Agency black site, finds himself the target of a rendition operation after being scapegoated for an interrogation gone horribly wrong. As the team tasked to bring Harris in begins to question their orders -- and each other --Olsen, a senior intelligence officer, and his subordinate, Visser, raise the stakes. Now, it's up to Harris and some newfound allies to uncover the truth and turn the tables.

Captain Glass of the USS Arkansas discovers that a coup d'état is taking place in Russia, so he and his crew join an elite group working on the ground to prevent a war.

Unconscious soldiers are dropped into a testing site only to discover their memories have been wiped and that once docile machines are the new intelligence.

When CIA Analyst Jack Ryan interferes with an IRA assassination, a renegade faction targets Jack and his family as revenge.

The U.S. has handed over control of its nuclear defense system to the Colossus supercomputer designed by scientist Dr. Charles Forbin. It soon becomes clear, that the now-sentient Colossus is far more intelligent than its creator realized—with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller and his team of Army inspectors are dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert. Rocketing from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up that threatens to invert the purpose of their mission.

Mike Regan is a successful, self-made man who has it all: a gorgeous wife, a beautiful teenage daughter and a sleek, state-of-the-art “smart home”. But he soon finds himself in a deadly, high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse when his I.T. consultant, Ed, starts using his skills to stalk Mike’s daughter and endanger his family, his business, and his life. In a world where there is no privacy, and personal secrets can go viral by the click of a mouse, Mike needs to rely on his old connections to defeat a new kind of nemesis.

Chaos consumes a small town when a chemical facility explodes releasing a deadly toxin. Moments after the leak, the town's residents show signs of mutation, causing the military to quarantine the area leaving any survivors helpless and trapped inside. The story follows Jim, a young man isolated within the red zone, as he eludes flesh eating zombies in an attempt to win back his freedom.

Genius hacker Connor discovers Cicada 3301, an online treasure hunt that could be a recruiting tool for a secret society. Soon Conner, art-expert friend Avi, and secretive librarian Gwen are dashing from graffiti sites to ancient libraries to uncover real-world clues. But they must outrun aggressive NSA agents, also hot on the trail of Cicada, who want the glory for themselves.

A computer programmer's dream job at a hot Portland-based firm turns nightmarish when he discovers his boss has a secret and ruthless means of dispatching anti-trust problems.

What happens when a machine makes life-or-death decisions? This documentary explores the dangers of artificial intelligence in military application.

On the day of his retirement, a veteran CIA agent learns that his former protégé has been arrested in China, is sentenced to die the next morning in Beijing, and that the CIA is considering letting that happen to avoid an international scandal.

When Elias van Dorne, CEO of the world's largest robotics company, introduces his most powerful invention, Kronos-a super-computer designed to end all wars-it determines that humans are the biggest threat and launches a worldwide attack on mankind. A small band of survivors must form an unlikely alliance to survive the greatest artificial intelligence threat man will ever know.

A dangerous CIA renegade resurfaces after a decade on the run. When the safe house he's remanded to is attacked by mercenaries, a rookie operative escapes with him. Now, the unlikely allies must stay alive long enough to uncover who wants them dead.

When a group of elite online gamers each receive a mysterious invitation to trial a state-of-the-art virtual reality video game, it’s a dream come true and impossible to resist. Arriving at the test site, the group step into hi-tech gear and prepare for a revolutionary, next-level gaming experience that brings modern warfare to life with frightening realism. At first it’s a unique and exhilarating experience. But what starts out like a dream encounter with cutting edge technology quickly takes a turn for the sinister. Once the group are attacked by enemy combatants, they soon realize this is no game after all. Make a mistake here and you pay with your life. Now these masters of the shoot ‘em up will have to fight for survival within a game gone bad, but this time it’s for real.

"All men are not created equal. It is the purpose of the Government to make them so." This is the premise of the Showtime film adaption of Kurt Vonnegut's futuristic short story Harrison Bergeron. The film centers around a young man (Harrison) who is smarter than his peers, and is not affected by the usual "Handicapping" which is used to train all Americans so everyone is of equal intelligence.

When a congressional aide is killed, a Washington, D.C. journalist starts investigating the case involving the Representative, his old college friend.

When a plane carrying a pair of top secret military robots crashes on a deserted Pacific island, a team of Navy seals must find them and turn them off as soon as possible for the longer they are activated, the smarter they become.

Nicholas Hathaway, a furloughed convict, and his American and Chinese partners hunt a high-level cybercrime network from Chicago to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Jakarta. As Hathaway closes in, the stakes become personal as he discovers that the attack on a Chinese nuclear power plant was just the beginning.

While testing the latest first person shooter from global game developer, Sentinel, video game champion Max Troy discovers the events happening within the game are being reflected in the real world. He soon determines that the game's protagonist is real-life Orson Creed, an ex-Sentinel employee who is being remotely controlled by the corporation for reasons unknown. As virtual and real worlds collide, Max and Creed must join forces to unravel the conspiracy before the game's sinister events escalate and overwhelm the city.

In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.

Mack is a former soldier who, after the war, moved to a town with a nuclear power plant, where nearly everybody works. Life is peaceful for him there, until a gang of mercenaries led by Ron storm the reactor and take everybody hostage, including a group of children on a school trip. Now Mack is in a race against the clock and must use his military training to defeat Ron before he puts the reactor into meltdown. Along the way he discovers Ron’s motive, which unravels a greater secret Mack’s town is hiding.

An ordinary guy suddenly finds himself forced to fight a gladiator-like battle for a dark website that streams the violence for viewers. In order to survive and rescue his kidnapped ex-girlfriend, he must battle Nix, a heavily armed and much more experienced fighter.

Tracy Flick is running unopposed for this year’s high school student election. But Jim McAllister has a different plan. Partly to establish a more democratic election, and partly to satisfy some deep personal anger toward Tracy, Jim talks football player Paul Metzler to run for president as well.

When strangers Jim, Eva, Emily and Mo meet William online in his new 'Chelsea Teens!' chatroom, they're completely seduced by his fast-talking, charismatic character. But beneath the surface lies a much darker truth. William is a dangerous loner, channeling all his energies into cyberspace. He's become an analyser, a calculating manipulator who finds it almost impossible to interact normally with others in the real world, instead turning his hand to manipulating people online.

6 mercenaries are hired by CIA to abduct an heir to a republic and take out an arms dealer in Moscow. They get a followup mission in Chernobyl. Treason awaits them.

When straight arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer Samir Horn.

Frikke, a 14-year-old boy, discovers a sinister computer game that uses real children from his neighbourhood as players. In a race against time Frikke must find the evil creator of this horrible game.

A young man learns that his parents had been used in an atomic-weapons experiment shortly before his birth, and that the results have had some unexpected effects on him.

Spring break turns into a summer war when the evil Diaboromon wreaks havoc on the internet, and Tai and Matt must achieve a new Digivolution to defeat him! Will Tai and the Digidestined save the world, and will Sora ever forgive Tai for giving her a hair clip?

A team of special agents discovers a revolutionary new computer program to bait and trap online predators. After teaming up with the program's troubled developer, they soon find that the AI is rapidly advancing beyond its original purpose.

A simple man is turned into a genius through the application of computer science.

A CIA agent is interned for failing to kill an international terrorist. Escaping from his island exile, he teams up with a flamboyant arms dealer and sets out to find the terrorist and rescue the agent's family. Together they're a two-man arsenal... with enough voltage to rock the free world.

What happens when you ask the most powerful computer program, run by the most powerful computers, to follow, listen and predict human behavior? The program learns, becomes sentient and begins to behave like a human. When a master computer program, Echelon, takes over America's entire online system, our country is threatened to be brought to its knees. Hacking into DARPA, Echelon gains the ability to manipulate the weather, create earthquakes, and cause a level of destruction unlike anything the country could ever imagine. But how do you stop a computer program when it has control over any and every defense you have?

Because of a technical defect an American bomber team mistakenly orders the destruction of Moscow. The President of the United States has but little time to prevent an atomic catastrophe from occurring.

Two corrupt cops in New Mexico set out to blackmail and frame every criminal unfortunate enough to cross their path. Things take a sinister turn, however, when they try to intimidate someone who is more dangerous than they are. Or is he?

Notorious hacker Drew Reynolds is captured by the CIA and given a proposition - work for them or spend the rest of his life in prison. Agreeing on the condition that he can form his own team, he puts together a group of "throwaways" - the people deemed expendable and seemingly the worst in the organization.

In the mid-1980s, the U.S. is poised on the brink of nuclear war. This shadow looms over the residents of a small town in Kansas as they continue their daily lives. Dr. Russell Oakes maintains his busy schedule at the hospital, Denise Dahlberg prepares for her upcoming wedding, and Stephen Klein is deep in his graduate studies. When the unthinkable happens and the bombs come down, the town's residents are thrust into the horrors of nuclear winter.

State-of-the-art security system creator Jack Stanfield has cemented his reputation as a man who's thought of everything. But when a criminal finds a way into his personal life, everything Jack holds dear is suddenly at stake.

Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

A stranger stumbles into the desert town of Absolution with no memory of his past and a futuristic shackle around his wrist. With the help of mysterious beauty Ella and the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde, he finds himself leading an unlikely posse of cowboys, outlaws, and Apache warriors against a common enemy from beyond this world in an epic showdown for survival.

In the year 2029, the barriers of our world have been broken down by the net and by cybernetics, but this brings new vulnerability to humans in the form of brain-hacking. When a highly-wanted hacker known as 'The Puppetmaster' begins involving them in politics, Section 9, a group of cybernetically enhanced cops, are called in to investigate and stop the Puppetmaster.

A highly sophisticated Program called Ares is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind's first encounter with A.I. beings.

Until now, Zak Gibbs' greatest challenge has been to find a way to buy a car. But when he discovers an odd wristwatch amidst his father's various inventions and slips it on -- something very strange happens. The world around him seems to come to a stop, everything and everybody frozen in time. Zak quickly learns how to manipulate the device and he and his quick-witted and beautiful new friend, Francesca, start to have some real fun.

14-year-old basketball phenom Terron Forte has to navigate the under-the-table world of amateur athletics when he is recruited to an elite NCAA prep school.

Two leading computer scientists work toward their goal of Technological Singularity, as a radical anti-technology organization fights to prevent them from creating a world where computers can transcend the abilities of the human brain.

An edgy action thriller set in Las Vegas during a terrorist attack. A genius computer loner takes control of the city and the attack as he fights with his fits of overwhelming depression and obsessions with love and death.

Data—arguably the world’s most valuable asset—is being weaponized to wage cultural and political wars. The dark world of data exploitation is uncovered through the unpredictable, personal journeys of players on different sides of the explosive Cambridge Analytica/Facebook data story.

Four friends search for the answers to a series of deadly text messages killing students at their high school.

After the FBI receives a threat that endangers the entire city, an interrogator and an I.T. specialist are plunged into a series of mind games with a criminal mastermind, desperately racing against time to uncover the villain's true agenda as they fight to protect thousands of lives.

When a new airplane that's equipped with a new computer that can fly the plane on its own, is about to have its first flight. But the son of the owner decides to upload more software, he doesn't bother to check if there are any viruses with it. And he also invites some potential investors to try it. So the plane appears to be working well but suddenly it veers off course and it can't be shut down. When the military learns of this and fears what if something happens if it's over a populated area; decides to shoot it down along with everyone on board. The man who built the computer whose wife is among the passengers thinks if he can get on board he might be able to shut it down and regain control of the plane. So the military using a new plane gets him on board. But what he didn't know is that both pilots are incapacitated so there's no one who can fly the plane.

FBI agent Jack Crawford is out for revenge when his partner is killed and all clues point to the mysterious assassin Rogue. But when Rogue turns up years later to take care of some unfinished business, he triggers a violent clash of rival gangs. Will the truth come out before it's too late? And when the dust settles, who will remain standing?

A teenager with no memory of his past finds himself among a group of boys living in a walled enclosure surrounded by a massive, ever-changing maze. As he struggles to adapt to their rules and society, he begins to uncover clues that may lead to escape and the truth behind their confinement.

Duncan is a genius straight A student, Blade is juvenile delinquent. But because of a mix up with their school records, everyone thinks each is the other one. Now, Duncan kind of likes the attention from being thought of as a real bad dude, if only the school bully would stop trying to rough him up. And Blade definitely likes being thought of as important instead of as trouble.

David Lord finds himself forced into the savage world of a modern gladiatorial arena, where men fight to the death for the entertainment of the online masses.

When Chechen rebels take over a Russian nuclear reactor, it’s up to a special ops marksman to rescue the hostages and prevent nuclear catastrophe.

A nuclear warhead launched by Soviet insurgents protesting the waning Cold War destroys the Ukrainian city of Donetsk. The destruction sets off a race between American and Soviet politicians to prevent a nuclear holocaust. While the U.S. president feverishly works to keep the military and political machine from going into overdrive, various subordinates panic. When the president is believed to be killed in a helicopter crash, zealous advisers take over.

A game of paintball turns deadly when three unhinged and deranged ex-soldiers play a twisted mind game of catch and release with their unsuspecting victims. This quickly leads to a bloody man hunt where everyone is a target and no one is safe.

In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.

A young man receives an emergency phone call on his cell phone from an older woman. She claims to have been kidnapped – and the kidnappers have targeted her husband and child next.

Terrorist Jaffad Ben Zayidi steals four nuclear bombs from a sunken American submarine and hides them in four major cities throughout the world. The charges can be activated by an 11-digit code. Zayidi dies and his accomplice, nicknamed "The Executioner," is about to blow up the bombs. The Executioner is chased by FSB, whose agent Marie has previously infiltrated Zayidi's team.

A group of officers based in a labyrinthine top-secret prison must fight for their lives against Hatchet, a brilliant and infamous high-value detainee. When he escapes, his mysterious and deadly agenda has far reaching and dire consequences.

After 30 years of searching, Harry has finally met the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately, before they even have a chance to go on their first date, Harry intercepts some chilling news: WWIII has begun and nuclear missiles will destroy Los Angeles in less than an hour!

A computer hacker's goal to discover the reason for human existence continually finds his work interrupted thanks to the Management; this time, they send a teenager and lusty love interest to distract him.

Light Yagami finds the "Death Note," a notebook with the power to kill, and decides to create a Utopia by killing the world's criminals, and soon the world's greatest detective, "L," is hired to find the mysterious murderer. An all out battle between the two greatest minds on earth begins and the winner will control the world.

All grown up in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor must lead the resistance of humans against the increasingly dominating militaristic robots. But when Marcus Wright appears, his existence confuses the mission as Connor tries to determine whether Wright has come from the future or the past -- and whether he's friend or foe.

A student's chances of getting into a good college hang in the balance when inappropriate photos of her are posted on the Internet.

Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens at a notorious inner-city high school. After having a terrible first day, she decides she must throw decorum to the wind. When Johnson returns to the classroom, she does so armed with a no-nonsense attitude informed by her military training and a fearless determination to better the lives of her students -- no matter what the cost.

Eric O'Neill, a low-level surveillance expert with the FBI, believes he is accomplishing his dream of becoming a full-fledged agent, with his unexpected promotion and assignment to clerk for Robert Hanssen, a renowned senior agent with 25 years in the FBI. However, he soon learns the reason for his promotion is to gain Hanssen's trust and find proof that he is a traitor to the country. Determined to draw the suspected double-agent out of deep cover, O'Neill finds himself in a lethal game of spy vs. spy, where nothing is as it seems.

Mysterious cell phone messages promise a young American engineer untold wealth - then make him the target of a deadly international plot. Dangerous security operatives chase the engineer across the globe, while a powerful government official pursues a mysterious agenda that threatens the stability of the entire world.

Jonathan Cold returns, this time he goes Undercover to stop a group of Terrorists before they bomb Los Angeles.

