@RustyShackleworth said:

At this point there must have been some considerable doubt in Col. Grady's mind if he was doing the right thing or not. He already heard from someone who sounded like the President ordering him to turn around. Now he's hearing his wife's voice pleading to him to stop.

One thing they should have done is have the wife mention things, personal details that only she and Col. Grady would have known between each other to convince him to stop. Does anyone else feel the same way?

I have always felt the same way on this issue. Surely hearing from his wife should have been enough for him to rethink what he was doing.

I started this topic on IMBD before they shut the boards down. A poster there responded and basically disagreed me, pointing out that Grady was specifically trained not accept changes in orders from anyone, even if that person sounded just like the president, his wife or anyone. mainly because there was the possibility that the Soviets had managed to get hold of details of his personal life and could have someone impersonate his wife. Or even have agents kidnap her and force her to try to convince him to stop his mission. I think that was the posters point, if I remember correctly.

Which sets up the idea of cold, hard, machine logic instead of fallible humans in the movie "War Games." But even a computer can see that modern nuclear war has no winners...only losers. How about a game of Chess, instead?;)