WarGames Quotes

Context

This line is spoken by the WOPR supercomputer, a.k.a. "Joshua," voiced by John Wood, in the film WarGames, directed by John Badham (1983).

During the Cold War, you didn't play video games—video games played you.

When young computer hacker David Lightman accesses the War Operation Plan Response (or WOPR) computer, the computer asks him, "Shall we play a game?" But the computer doesn't mean Halo 5. The "game" it fires up starts a real-life nuclear war.

In that game, there are no extra lives to use.

Where you've heard it

You hear this from your friends who speak only in 80s movie catchphrases, or when someone wants to play an exciting new video game that will end in (virtual) world destruction.

Additional Notable References:

• Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) quotes the film in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
• 80s-based sitcom The Goldbergs has an episode titled "Shall We Play a Game?"

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Saying this in regards to launching a nuclear missile would be about an 8 on the scale, but when said with regular games that don't involve mass destruction, it is not pretentious.