Tron (film)

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For other uses, see Tron

Tron is a 1982 Walt Disney Productions science fiction movie starring Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn (and his counterpart inside the electronic world, Clu), Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley (and Tron), Cindy Morgan as Lora Baines (and Yori) and Dan Shor as Ram. David Warner plays the villain, Ed Dillinger (and Sark), as well as providing the voice of the 'Master Control Program'. It was directed by Steven Lisberger. Being one of the first films from a major studio to use computer graphics extensively (developed by MAGI, Information International Inc. (Triple-I), and two others), Tron has a distinctive visual style.

Plot summary

Kevin Flynn is a young and gifted programmer who once worked for the software mega-corporation ENCOM. Flynn created several video games on the ENCOM mainframe while working after hours with the aim of eventually creating his own games company, but before he was ready his work was stolen by another programmer, Ed Dillinger. Dillinger locked Flynn out of the system and went on to present the games to the executives as his own work, thus earning himself a series of promotions. Meanwhile, Flynn quit the company and was reduced to running a video game arcade, which ironically featured several of the games he created.

Several years later, Dillinger is now a senior executive of ENCOM, and the company is run mainly by the Master Control Program, an artificial intelligence that he created. The MCP, as it's called, catches one of Flynn's computer programs, Clu, attempting to hack into the mainframe and find sensitive information. It successfully destroys Clu and summons Dillinger to discuss the matter. Dillinger authorizes the MCP to shut down access to all personnel who had the same level of access as Flynn. This locks out a current ENCOM employee and a friend of Flynn, Alan Bradley.

Alan goes to speak with Dillinger about being locked out of the system, and in the process, Alan reveals that he is working on a security program named Tron, which he would use to monitor communications between ENCOM and outside systems. He states that it would not be a part of the Master Control Program, but rather that it would serve as a watchdog for the MCP. Dillinger dismisses him quickly, only to be confronted by the MCP about Alan's project. The MCP claims that it can run things "900 times better than any human." When Dillinger senses his control of the MCP slipping, it essentially blackmails him into keeping quiet and complying with its wishes.

Meanwhile, Alan goes to speak with Lora, a laser lab technician and Flynn's former girlfriend. The two set off to Flynn's apartment to warn him that Dillinger knows about his hacking. After being convinced that Flynn is looking for evidence that he was cheated by Dillinger, Lora and Alan offer to sneak him into ENCOM's laser lab, where he can forge an access code for a different security group. This would allow him to find the information he is looking for, and would also allow Alan to finish his work and get Tron online.

Flynn settles down at Lora's lab terminal, which has a high-power laser used for her digitization experiments pointed right at it. As he tries to gain access to the system, he confronts the MCP. While he "chats" with the MCP, it takes control of the laser and suddenly digitizes Flynn into the digital world inside the computer. Within the system, programs are represented as characters who resemble their creators.

Flynn materializes in the digital world and is taken to a holding pit, where a financial program, Ram, tells Flynn that he is a "guest" of the Master Control Program, and that he is going to be made to play games. Flynn seems excited about this at first, saying "I play games better than anybody."

Shortly afterward, Flynn and a number of other Programs are taken to meet Sark (who is Dillinger's counterpart in the digital world). Sark tells each of the Programs that they can either join the MCP willingly, or they will be forced to compete in gladiator-style games that will result in their eventual elimination. Each Program receives an identity disc, which both stores their actions and experiences, and also doubles as a powerful weapon. On their way back to the holding pen, Flynn sees Tron fighting a number of other Programs, and Ram tells him that Tron fights for the Users.

Before he can return to the holding pit, Flynn is taken to such a game, which plays similarly to Jai Alai. He is forced to face Crom, another Program. After several volleys, Crom struggles to keep from falling off of his platform. Sark terminates the game, causing Crom to fall to his death, but he spares Flynn, recalling the MCP's admonition: "I want him in the games until he dies playing."

Flynn returns to a holding pit where Ram and Tron are waiting for him. Flynn immediately mistakes Tron for Alan, and Tron reveals that Alan is his User. Before they can talk much more, the three are taken to the Light Cycle arena, where they must attempt to guide their opponents into their trails. They team up and manage to force one of their enemies into the side of the arena, opening a large crack that they all escape through.

Having escaped into the system, Sark launches security forces (which consist of Tank and Recognizer programs) to try to find them. The three locate an I/O tower that Tron needs to access in order to communicate with Alan, but on the way, Ram's Light Cycle is destroyed by a Tank and Tron is separated from the group. Flynn takes the injured Ram to a pile of junk, which turns out to be a damaged Recognizer. He activates it and sets off in search of the I/O tower, but on the way, Ram dies and "de-rezzes".

Meanwhile, Tron breaks into a simulation chamber where a Solar Sailer is being constructed. There, he finds Yori, a program written by Lora. He and Yori make their way to the I/O Tower and confront Dumont, the keeper of the tower. He grants Tron access to the port, and Tron receives the critical instructions he needs from Alan in order to destroy the Master Control Program. They then make their way back to the Solar Sailer, narrowly escaping Sark's forces, and set off to find the MCP. Along the way, Flynn rejoins them, having disguised himself as one of Sark's troops. He explains to Tron and Yori that he is actually a User.

Sark eventually captures Flynn and Yori, ramming the Solar Sailer with his ship. Sark then disembarks and begins de-rezzing the ship. As Yori and the ship fade around him, Flynn manages to keep her alive and the ship intact. Yori believes Tron to be dead, but in reality, Tron has escaped on Sark's shuttle, which lands nearby the MCP's core. Here, a number of captured programs are locked against a wall to face the MCP, which appears as a giant red face on a huge spinning cylinder. The MCP senses Tron's presence and sends Sark out to battle him, and then the MCP begins to tell the Programs of their impending fate, to be assimilated into the MCP.

Sark and Tron battle it out on the mesa, and at one point Tron gains the upper hand, damaging Sark and destroying his disc. The MCP then boosts Sark's power, causing him to grow many times Tron's size. Tron then attacks the MCP directly, attempting to break through the shield protecting its core. As the battle continues, Yori guides the remains of Sark's ship toward the core, where Flynn jumps inside. This distracts the MCP long enough for Tron to throw his disc through a gap in the shield, destroying the MCP in a dramatic explosion.

The digital world comes alive after the MCP's defeat. I/O towers light up all over the landscape, and the Programs rejoice in the fact that their world has become a free system. They ponder Flynn's fate, but Flynn is sent back to the real world, the laser re-materializing him at the terminal. A nearby printer begins printing the evidence that Flynn's programs were "annexed" by Dillinger.

Dillinger arrives at the office the next morning to discover a message on his computer's screen showing the evidence of his wrongdoing. The movie closes with a brief scene where Alan and Lora greet Flynn at the helicopter pad on top of the ENCOM building. Flynn is now the chief executive of the company.

Technical

Tron was one of the first movies to use long computer-generated sequences. About thirty minutes of computer-generated animation (blended with the filmed characters) were used. Though the movie has been criticized for poor acting and incoherence of plot, the movie is celebrated as a milestone of computer animation.

To be able to create the film, Disney turned to Triple I, who owned the Super Foonly F-1, the fastest PDP-10 ever made (and the only one of its kind), as well as MAGI, Robert Abel and Associates, and Digital Effects.

Renowned French comic book artist, Jean Giraud (a.k.a. Moebius), was the main set and costume designer for the movie, while most vehicles were created by industrial designer Syd Mead, of Blade Runner fame. Bill Kovacs worked on this movie whilst working for Robert Abel and Associates before going on to found Wavefront Technologies.

The film, however, contains less computer-generated imagery than is generally supposed. Many of the effects that look like computer graphics were created using traditional optical effects. In a technique known as "backlit animation," the live-action scenes inside the computer world were filmed in black-and-white on an entirely black set, printed on large-format high-contrast film, then colorized with traditional photographic and rotoscopic techniques to give them a "technological" feel. The process was immensely labor-intensive, and would never be repeated for another feature film; with multiple layers of high-contrast large-format positives and negatives, it required truckloads of sheet film, and a workload greater than even that of a conventional cel-animated feature. In addition, the varying quality and age of the film layers caused different brightness levels for the backlit effects from frame to frame, explaining why the glowing outlines and circuit races tended to flicker in the original film.

"In the year it was released," says director Lisberger, "the Motion Picture Academy refused to nominate Tron for special effects because they said we 'cheated' when we used computers which, in the light of what happened, is just mind-boggling."

Trivia

• TRON is a BASIC command, short for "trace on". However, Steven Lisberger has made it clear in interview after interview that he got the name from "Electronic", and didn't even know about the command until some time later.

• Actors Bruce Boxleitner (Alan Bradley/Tron) and Peter Jurasik (Crom) would later team up again in the TV series Babylon 5. While their Tron characters never met, on B5 they had many scenes together (Boxleitner as John Sheridan, and Jurasik as Londo Mollari).

• In the computer world, all programs wear uniforms with colored circuit lines on them. The original concept was to have the 'evil' programs (those loyal to Sark and the MCP) with blue circuit lines, and good programs would have yellow. At some point this was changed to blue for good programs and red for evil ones. Some of the original coloring remains, mostly in tank programs (Clu, who drives a tank, has yellow circuit lines on his uniform, and all of Sark's tank commanders have blue; however, in some versions of the movie, the tank commanders appear green). The original coloring is also apparent in the light cycle sequence, where the heroes drive yellow, orange, and red cycles, and Sark's troops use blue ones.

• The name Clu is likely derivative of the CLU programming language.

• A hidden Mickey makes an appearance in the movie. During the solar sailer sequence about 70 minutes into the movie (right after Flynn tells Tron that Ram "didn't make it"), Mickey's head is plainly visible on the plain over which they are flying.[link]

• Just after the escape from the Light Cycle arena, as Sark is shown at a map-screen angrily ordering the game-tanks sent out, a Pac-Man can be glimpsed on the map (which resembles a maze). But the Pac-Man can only be clearly seen when Tron is screened in a movie theater, and just barely on widescreen/letterboxed video and TV-broadcasts. It cannot be seen at all on fullscreen video and broadcasts.

• In a scene of the movie, the words "Gort Klaatu barada nikto" appear posted on a sign hanging in the hero's cubicle. This is a reference to the 1951 Cold-War-era science fiction film The Day The Earth Stood Still, in which the phrase "Gort, Klaatu barada nikto" was used to stop Gort, the robot in the film, from destroying the world.

• The PC game Deus Ex uses the password "reindeerflotilla" for a computer logon, as was used by Kevin Flynn when forging a Group Six access in the laser bay just before being digitized.

• The program 'Tron' is what we would now refer to as an Intrusion prevention system.

Comic Book

88 MPH solicited a mini-series titled: Tron 2.0: Derezzed. This comic was cancelled before any issues were released.

In 2005, Slave Labor Graphics announced it's comic, . The first issue was released in April of 2006. The comic book is set 6 months after the events of Tron 2.0, when the video game programmer Jet Bradley returns to the computer world against his will. The comic book is written by Landry Walker and Eric Jones, with art by Louie De Martinis. The comic opens with this detailed synopsis:[link]

PREVIOUSLY:

In the early 1970s a small engineering company called ENCOM introduced a revolutionary type of software designed to direct and streamline the transfer of data between networked machines. Ed Dillinger, the lead programmer on this project, realized the enormous potential of his teams creation and secretly encoded a secondary function to be activated upon installation: to copy the sub-routines of other programs and absorb their functions. This alteration allowed Dillinger to appropriate research and claim it as his own, and he rose quickly through ENCOM’s corporate ranks

This was the beginning of the Master Control Program.

In 1981 a young game designer and former ENCOM employee named Kevin Flynn - a victim of Dillinger’s - broke into the engineering department at ENCOM in an attempt to retrieve evidence of Dillinger’s piracy. To stop him, The MCP activated a prototype laser designed to break a physical object down to its molecular level, and recreate it as a digital simulation.

Flynn was struck by the laser and transformed into pure information - digitized into the world of the computer.

Imprisoned on the video game grid as a gladiator, Flynn was forced to fight to the death. With the help of a security program named TRON he escaped and was able to help defeat the MCP and return to the real world with the evidence he sought. Dillinger was indicted, and Flynn took over as ENCOM’s new CEO.

But soon Flynn grew empty and distant. Eventually he abandoned ENCOM and disappeared into seclusion. Two friends of his, a computer programmer named Alan Bradley and his wife Lora worked to reproduce the digitization process, but without the guidance of the MCP, success remained elusive. Their efforts were further hindered when an accident involving the digitizing laser claimed Lora Bradley’s life.

Years later, Alan and Lora’s son Jet Bradley became the lead game designer for ENCOM. But Lora’s untimely death had put a wall between the troubled Jet Bradley and his father.

Alan pushed the research of the digitization laser forward and he built a new governing program called Ma3a to help refine the process. Word of these advancements reached the ears of corporate spies, and both Alan Bradley and ENCOM itself became targets of rival corporation FCON. Unwilling to cooperate, Alan Bradley was kidnapped at a critical stage in his research. In response to his absence, Ma3a called upon a confused and unwilling Jet Bradley to find the TRON legacy code and repair the damaged computer system from within.

Jet was digitized into the computer world, hurled from one nightmarish scenario to another in an effort to survive and save his father. He was aided by a sophisticated gaming program called Mercury as he fought corrupted programs from a malevolent virus and struggled against FCON’s digital agents, the Datawraiths.

Ultimately Jet escaped the digital world, but his experience has left him emotionally troubled. After these events, Alan took steps to ensure that no one can utilize the digitization system without direct external voice authorization from either himself or his son. But for Jet, these fail safes came too late. He quit ENCOM and, like Kevin Flynn, became removed from his former life, turning his back on technology forever...

Legacy

The light-cycle race

Although the film was initially unsuccessful, it has remained a cult favorite mainly due to its innovative use of computer graphics and its computer and video-game plot line. Tron's light-cycle race is one of the movie's best-remembered action sequences.

On January 13, 2005, Walt Disney Pictures announced a new Tron movie (possibly a remake), with more emphasis on the Internet. However, it seems unlikely that this feature will materialize.

Disneyland featured the Tron SuperSpeed Tunnel in its PeopleMover attraction from 1982 until its closure in 1995. During this time, the attraction was officially titled PeopleMover Thru The World of Tron.

Tron was parodied in the Family Guy episode "One If By Clam, Two If By Sea." In the South Park episodes "Jewbilee" and "Super Best Friends", Moses is depicted as the MCP. Tron was mentioned in The Simpsons in Treehouse of Horror VI. Tron is also heavily parodied in an episode of Dexter's Laboratory, where the MCP is replaced with a game cartridge called Master Computer.

Tron inspired the music videos for the songs "Everyday Formula" by the band Regurgitator (which recreated the Jai-Alai sequence), "12:51" by The Strokes, "Take on Me" by A1 and "From Paris to Berlin" by Infernal, which uses vehicles from the light cycle race.

A light cycle race was used in a short animated promo for the television network Teletoon, with the light cycles being replaced by the Teletoon logo.

Video games

Because games play an important role in the film, it is not surprising that a number of Tron-inspired video games have been made over the years:

• In 1982, Midway Games released the Tron arcade game, which consisted of four mini-games based on sequences in the movie. This game earned more than the film's initial release. In 1983, Midway released Discs of Tron, a sequel that focused on disc combat.
• Mattel Electronics released three separate Tron games (unrelated to the arcade game) for the Intellivision game console in 1982: Tron Deadly Discs, Tron Maze-A-Tron, and Tron Solar Sailer. Deadly Discs was later ported to the Atari 2600 (along with an original Tron game for that platform, Adventures of Tron), and a version also appeared for the short-lived Aquarius home computer. A special joystick resembling the Tron arcade game joystick was also created as a free giveaway in a special pack that included both Atari 2600 Tron video games.
• Tron 2.0, a computer game sequel, was released on August 26, 2003. In this first person shooter game, the player takes the part of Alan Bradley's son Jet, who is pulled into the computer world to fight a computer virus. Versions of this game were released for Windows, Macintosh, and Xbox, the XBox version is known as Tron 2.0 Killer App and features new multiplayer modes.
• In the Game Boy Advance version of Tron 2.0 Killer App, Tron and a character from the computer and XBox versions of the game, a Light Cycle program named Mercury, fight their way through the ENCOM computer to stop a virus called The Corruptor. The game includes light cycle, battle tank, and recognizer battle modes, several security-related minigames, and the arcade games Tron and Discs of Tron. While the game is minimally connected to the PC game, one of the 100 unlockable chips shows a picture of Jet Bradley.
• A world for the Disney/Square Enix video game Kingdom Hearts II is based in the world of Tron and called "Space Paranoids" after one of Flynn's games in the movie. The character of Tron is a world-exclusive partner in battle and light cycles (which strongly deviate from the movie light cycles, gameplay-wise; for one, they do not produce walls of light) are featured as well. None of the human characters in the movie appear or are referenced in the game due to the fact that the world is in fact set inside original Kingdom Hearts character Ansem's computers in Hollow Bastion (although Tron states that the system is actually a copy of the original system created by ENCOM, and Tron still has the appearance of Alan, his original User, which would suggest the existence of a separate Tron world.). It is also the most important Disney-based world in the game plot-wise, being directly tied in to Hollow Bastion's story (one of the game's many worlds that deviate from the main game plot). Tetsuya Nomura (the director of the Kingdom Hearts series) stated in an interview that Tron was the first Disney movie that was suggested to be used in the game. He got his inspiration after seeing a game designer working on Tron 2.0 Killer App on a computer during a visit to Disney in the United States. Bruce Boxleitner reprises his role as Tron in the English version, while Sark and MCP are voiced by veteran voice actor Corey Burton.
• There are also a couple of unofficial light cycle games, the most notable being Armagetron Advanced and GLTron.

Music

The background music for Tron was written by pioneer electronic musician Wendy Carlos, who is best-known for her album Switched-On Bach and for the soundtracks to many films, including A Clockwork Orange and The Shining. The music featured a mix of state-of-the-art analog Moog synthesizer, GDS digital synthesizer (complex additive and phase modulation synthesis), the London Symphony Orchestra, and the large pipe organ in the Royal Albert Hall, London. Two additional musical tracks were provided by the band Journey.

See also

• The film [The Making of Tron] contains a wealth of technical, artistic, background, unpublished and trivial material, as well as some sketched designs for Tron 2.
• [Tron's World] gives a very detailed description on how Tron was conceived.

External links

• [}}}] at Rotten Tomatoes
• [Tron-Sector]
• [Tron 2.0 News - Provides up-to-date news about the Tron 2.0 gaming community and TRON in general]
• [Tom's Hardware Guide: Tron's World]
• [Article about the CGI in Tron]
• [A fan's TRON Costume]
• ["Tron Guy"]: Jay Maynard's Tron-inspired costume
• [Tron info]

 

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