With superhero, sci-fi and fantasy movies getting more recognition today than ever before, it’s never been a better time to be a nerd. But any self-respecting nerd has already seen the big stuff like The Avengers, Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, so let’s delve into a broader range of titles that either slipped under a lot of people’s radars or haven’t yet been elevated to the higher echelons of nerdom where they truly belong. Here are 10 movies that should be mandatory viewing for all nerds everywhere.
10. War Games (1983)
In what very well might be the first film to ever give audiences a glimpse into hacker culture, War Games is both a historical period drama and great source of geekery. It sees a young hacker (Matthew Broderick) gain access to the government defence network and, through a computer game, accidentally initiate an all-out nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States.
With more bulky ’80s technology than you can shake an 8-inch floppy disk at, War Games was truly a product of its time and played heavily into the mass hysteria surrounding the mutually assured destruction doctrine of the cold war era. It even coined the term “wardialing,” which was the practice of dialing random phone numbers into your machine until you found a modem you could connect to. Today this term has evolved into what’s known as “wardriving,” where hackers prowl the streets in search of unsecured Wi-Fi networks they can leech off of.
Broderick actually gives one of the best performances of his career in War Games, which might come as a surprise considering how cheesy it can be at times, but it’s still a movie no geek should miss—especially if you grew up in the ’80s.
http://collider.com/ally-sheedy-wargames-remake-interview/ Source: Collider.com