In honor of the anniversary of the dropping of the atom bombs and the movie, Oppenheimer, this week’s Video Fridays is a series of Behind-the-Scenes documentary on the movie, WarGames. 

It was the early 1980s, I caught an afternoon showing of the movie, mostly empty theater except for a couple kids probably dropped off by their folks to get them out of the house. I was staying in L.A. for some phone company training and needed a break from training. I didn’t know what to expect, it was a cute teen adventure with computers and Cold War stuff. The scene towards the end when they’re in the control room and the huge screen was flashing showing all of the bombs going off across the country with airmen and officers on the phone of the places set to be hit first… my heart was in my throat not knowing if it was still the simulation or real. They did a great job with the incomplete resolution, when the light show turned out to be part of the simulation but the machine was still trying to make it happen. But the thing that really got to me was that during and after the whole are they going to die or not, the kids in the theater never stopped goofing around. I know, it’s just a movie, but if any of this were to happen….? That line, “I always thought that I’d have time to learn (how) to swim!” kills me. 

Have a great weekend everyone and do the things that you’ve been meaning to do, but never quite get around to because of the daily grind. Xo