John Badham's 1983 film WarGames brought a somewhat lighter touch to the series of World War III genre of movies coming out then, yet made a simple and elegant point about the futility of nuclear war. In WarGames, David Lightman (Matthew Broderick), a flippant high school student who's failing his classes, is a natural expert at hacking into computer systems. Mistakenly believing he's stumbled upon a new computer game in development, he inadvertently contacts a mysterious US military computer system, where he engages the supercomputer in a war game that brings the world to the brink of a true World War III. Arthur B. Rubinstein's WarGames score is thematically complex, showcasing the composer's skill for rapid-fire rhythmic material, idiosyncratic melodies, and sophisticated orchestration. The NORAD scenes and the specter of nuclear war get a mixture of militaristic effects from pounding, ominous percussion, but also feature an energetic main title march, as well as a haunting chordal motive for brass that calls to mind both Bernard Herrmann and Phillip Glass. Rubinstein juxtaposes the large, brassy military score with an uncanny, playful approach to the electronic scoring prevalent at the time for the early scenes as we witness Lightman's care-free budding hacker career, building motifs that eventually translate into the orchestral score. His mysterious, elegant theme for Joshua/WOPR computer forms the basis for most of the score's driving action music, particularly for the spectacular climatic moments. Rubinstein also wrote three tunes that were developed into songs for the score, one of which was turned into an instrumental version featuring solo harmonica beautifully plays out over the end title. An LP issued at the time of the film featured 37 minutes of highlights from the score, heavily mixed with dialog. This release features the complete score, adding another 30 minutes of music, re-mixed from the original multi-track elements -- and completely dialog free!