Falken’s Cabin from "WarGames"

So I realize I am like one of maybe ten holdouts left in the world, but I still have an AOL account.  I know, I know – 1995 called, it wants its email address back.  I think I’m finally ready to give it up, though, because the search function straight. up. SUCKS.  Formerly, it was great – I could type in a key word I knew had been written in a particular correspondence and up would pop the exact email I was looking for.  I used to utilize it regularly when writing my posts.  I can’t always remember the exact process behind every location search (how I came to start looking for a place, how I figured out a certain detail, etc.), so in the past I would look back through old emails sent to various sources (like Mike, from MovieShotsLA, or Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog) to refresh my memory.  And AOL always came through!  Now that is no longer the case.  Upon waking up last Sunday, the Grim Cheaper announced that he wanted to go to Big Bear Lake for a couple of days to play in the snow.  So we literally tossed a few items of clothing into a bag and headed right up the mountain.  It was such a last minute trip that I didn’t even remember to bring my good camera – or my stalking notebook.  It wasn’t until we checked into our hotel that I remembered WarGames had been filmed in the area.  Early last year, Owen and I tracked down the cabin where Falken (John Wood) lived in the 1983 movie, but unfortunately I did not have my notes on hand to check the address.  Countless emails had gone back and forth between us during our search, though, so I promptly logged into AOL and started looking for those messages.  I never found a one!  By hour two of the fruitless hunt, I was ready to throw the GC’s laptop right out the window.  Fortunately, Owen had his notes handy and texted me the location so that I could stalk the place while I was in town.  Big thanks to you, buddy, for saving the day!

Falken’s cabin was only featured briefly towards the end of WarGames, in the scene in which teenage hacker David (Matthew Broderick) and his friend Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) met with the reclusive scientist to ask for help in stopping a dangerous computer simulation that David unwittingly started.

I got the itch to track down the cabin last March while writing my Top 10 Totally Awesome 80s Movie Locations in Los Angeles article for Discover L.A., in which I wrote about the Hancock Park residence that stood in for David'”‘”‘s home in the flick.  In WarGames, Falken is said to live on an island in Oregon, but it has long been common knowledge amongst stalkers that the scenes involving his wood-shingled house were lensed at Big Bear Lake, a mountain town located about one hundred miles east of L.A.  Outside of that, though, information on the locale was pretty scant.  I decided to do some digging and stumbled upon this 2005 message board thread in which a commenter named “jb4lcm” stated that the cabin could be found in the Pleasure Point neighborhood.  So I started searching the area via aerial views and eventually came across a spot that I was 99% certain was the right place.  Upon further scouring, I dug up this image titled “WarGames Cabin Big Bear,” as well as this one, this one and this one, which showed different angles of the home.  In comparing them to the aerial view, I became 100% certain I had found the right spot.

When I switched to Google Street View, though, the imagery of that area showed an empty plot of land – and my stomach sank.  Could it be that the WarGames cabin had been torn down?  Oh, say it ain’t so!  I started digging further and found a message board from 2009 in which commenter “Around the Lake” stated that he had heard there were plans to demolish the home, which had originally been built in 1924, in order to make way for a new, massive 17,000-square-foot residence.  As you can see in the aerial view below, there is a large house situated next door to the WarGames cabin.  According to Zillow, that residence was built in 2009 and boasts 6 bedrooms, 6 baths and 5,107 square feet of living space.  Not quite 17,000 square feet, but I believe it is the place that Around the Lake was referring to.

The timing of the tear down strikes me as odd.  Per Historic Aerials, the WarGames cabin was not demolished until 2010, after the 2009 property had been completed.  Yet, according to eppraisal.com, the cabin and its land were last sold in April 2007, well before the larger house was built.   The two residences also do not appear to be situated on the same plot, so why the cabin had to be razed is unclear.  My best guess is that the owners of the 2009 property purchased two adjoining plots of land and originally planned on keeping the cabin intact, but when construction on the new house was completed, it was decided that the cabin sat too close to it, so they eventually tore it down.  That is just wild speculation on my part, though.

The 2009 house is pictured below.  You can also check out some interior photographs of it on Zillow.   The dwelling is inarguably pretty, but if you ask me, I’d take the WarGames cabin over it any day. That property was just simply the quintessential mountain cabin.  As Owen said to me recently, “It was like something out of central casting.”  It is a shame it is gone.

According to eppraisal.com, when it stood, the WarGames cabin boasted 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1,992 square feet of living space, and a 1.63-acre plot of land.  Today, all that remains is a tree-dotted expanse of terrain.

Oh, how I wish I could have seen it in person!

The WarGames cabin also boasted a large garage situated next to the road, which is still visible on Google Street View if you toggle back to the imagery from November 2007.

Street View imagery of that same spot circa April 2014 is pictured below.

And here’s a matching photo that I took of that same area last week.  Again, what a shame!

Unfortunately, the Google Street View imagery from November 2007 does not provide very good views of the actual cabin.

According to the WarGames DVD commentary with director John Badham and screenwriters Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes, no filming took place inside of the Big Bear cabin.  The interior of Falken’s home was a set built at M-G-M Studios (now Sony Pictures Studios) – one that utilized props and set pieces from the television series Little House on the Prairie.

UPDATE – Fellow stalker David, of The Location Scout website, recently alerted me to several other movies in which Falken’s cabin made an appearance.  In the 1998 comedy The Opposite of Sex, it masked as the Canadian lodge where Dede Truitt (Christina Ricci) hid out with Matt Mateo (Ivan Sergei) and Jason Bock (Johnny Galecki).

I believe the real life interior of the cabin was also used in The Opposite of Sex, but that is just a guess, so don’t quote me on that.

In the 1999 movie Rites of Passage, it portrayed the cabin belonging to the Farraday family.  Please pardon the craptastic screen grabs, but I could not find the movie available for streaming anywhere online and had to make captures from a preview on YouTube.

The lodge was also featured prominently in the movie American Weapon, which, per this Big Bear Grizzly article, was filmed in 2009, but, for whatever reason, was not released until 2014.  Now having seen all of the filming that took place at the home, I am even more shocked that it was torn down!  If nothing else, the dwelling was a great income property and it is surprising that its owners wouldn’t have left it standing for that reason alone.  As I said above, what a shame!

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Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for not only helping me to find this location, but for coming to my rescue by texting me the address while I was in Big Bear!  And a big THANK YOU to fellow stalker David, of The Location Scout website, for informing me of the home’s many other onscreen appearances.    

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Falken’s cabin from WarGames was formerly located at 39224 Waterview Drive in Big Bear Lake, just southwest of the home at 39248 Waterview Drive.  It has since been torn down and the site is currently vacant land.

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