Plot
In 1989, Kevin Flynn (
Jeff Bridges), an innovative
software engineer and the
CEO of ENCOM International, tells his eight-year-old son Sam (
Owen Best) about a new "digital frontier" he has created called The Grid, a virtual domain existing inside the ENCOM mainframe. Kevin tells Sam of the two programs helping him, Tron and Clu. Tron keeps The Grid secure, while Clu is tasked with creating the perfect system.
Twenty years later, Sam (
Garrett Hedlund), haunted by Flynn's mysterious disappearance, investigates a
page that originated from a supposedly disconnected number at Flynn's long-shuttered arcade. Exploring the arcade, Sam discovers a concealed door leading to a computer laboratory in the basement. Attempting to discover what his father was doing by calling up the command logs and reissuing the last command entered Sam activates a digitizing laser which transports him to The Grid.
Sam is captured and taken to the game arena where he receives combat armor and an identity storage battle disc from four Sirens, including Gem (
Beau Garrett). When Sam attempts to escape he is pitted against Rinzler, a master of the games, who discovers that Sam is not a program, but a User. Sam is taken to Clu, who Sam initially believes is his father. Clu brings Sam into a
Light Cycle match with several other programs, and Sam is nearly killed before Quorra (
Olivia Wilde) rescues him, taking him to a distant hideout in the Off-Grid Outlands. There, he is reunited with his father Kevin. It is revealed that during The Grid's development the so-called "
isomorphic algorithms" (ISOs) manifested out with the potential to unlock mysteries in almost every field of science, religion and medicine. Clu saw the ISOs as imperfect beings and following his programming, betrayed both Kevin and Tron and seized control over The Grid. He then systematically eliminated all ISOs. It is further revealed that the portal to the real world, which takes massive amounts of energy to sustain, cannot be open indefinitely and ultimately closes: it can only be opened from the outside.
Quorra reveals that Kevin can choose to "re-integrate" with Clu at any time, but that the process would destroy them both. Seeing how determined Sam is to go back, Quorra tells him about a program called Zuse who she believes may be able to provide safe passage out of The Grid. Using Flynn’s Light Cycle to travel back onto The Grid, Sam changes identities before the vehicle is detained. While searching for Zuse, Sam encounters Gem, who tells Sam she can lead him to the person he needs to find.
At the End of Line Club, the club owner Castor (
Michael Sheen) is revealed to be Zuse, but turns against Sam. Kevin and Quorra arrive to rescue Sam, and Quorra is severely injured when her arm is derezzed. They escape but Kevin's disc is seized by Castor. Kevin, Sam and Quorra are nearly killed when the elevator they are on plummets from the End of Line club. Kevin uses his system creator powers to bring all to a gentle stop. Castor bargains with Clu to be given administration over the city for Kevin’s disc, but Clu takes the disc and destroys the club, derezzing Castor and Gem. Stowing away on a Solar Sailer transport ship, Kevin heals Quorra, now revealed to be the last surviving ISO, bringing her back online. As the ship approaches the portal, Sam and Quorra have a conversation in which Quorra expresses her desire to witness the real world, particularly the sun.
All ultimately arrive at a station within a massive warship. Trying to avoid detection, they encounter Rinzler. Giving her identity disc to Kevin, Quorra attempts to sacrifice herself as a distraction so that Sam and Kevin may safely reach the portal, but she is instead taken captive by Rinzler. Watching Quorra's capture, Kevin sees Rinzler and immediately recognizes him as Tron, reprogrammed to serve Clu. Clu reveals his plans to use Kevin's disc as a means of sending himself and his army into the real world in order to "perfect" it. While Kevin commandeers a flyer, Sam saves Quorra and retakes Kevin's disc.
They head for the portal, pursued by Clu, his guards and the reprogrammed Tron using Light Jets. Between Quorra's evasive flying and Sam manning a rear turret, they manage to shoot down most of their opponents, leaving only Clu and Rinzler. As their flyer takes damage, Rinzler makes eye contact with Kevin. Rinzler suddenly remembers his original identity as Tron and purposely collides with Clu's Light-Jet. As Clu and Tron fall towards the digital Sea of Simulation, Clu manages to steal Tron's spare Light Jet and continues his pursuit, while Tron sinks into the sea, his red markings fading out to be replaced with his original white.
As Sam, Kevin and Quorra reach the portal, they see their way blocked by Clu. Clu seizes the identity disc from Kevin and is horrified to discover it is actually that of Quorra. Kevin uses his powers as a User and creator to hold Clu back, and ultimately sacrifices himself by re-integrating with Clu. The two merge and explode as Sam and Quorra transport through the portal back to the real world. While in the basement of Flynn's arcade Sam saves a backup of The Grid on a flashdrive, shuts the server down and meets Alan Bradley (
Bruce Boxleitner) upstairs. Sam tells Bradley he will start working at ENCOM on Monday, and as the
controlling interest shareholder of ENCOM, he will name Bradley chairman of the board. Sam and Quorra leave on Sam's motorcycle and Quorra sees her first sunrise.
[7]Cast
- Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, the former CEO of ENCOM International and creator of the popular arcade game Tron, which was based on his own experiences in ENCOM's virtual environment. He disappeared in 1989 while developing "a digital frontier that will reshape the human condition."[8] Bridges also portrays Clu, a more advanced incarnation of Flynn's original hacking program of the same name. Flynn designed this version of Clu to act as an "exact duplicate of himself" within The Grid.[9]
- Garrett Hedlund as Sam Flynn, the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn and majority owner of ENCOM. While investigating his father's disappearance, Sam is transported onto The Grid himself.
- Olivia Wilde as Quorra, the last ISO, adept warrior and confidante of Kevin Flynn in The Grid. Flynn refers to her as his "apprentice," and has imparted volumes of information to her regarding the world outside of The Grid, which she longs to experience for herself.
- Michael Sheen as Castor/Zuse, a vivacious and renowned program in The Grid who runs the End of Line Club at the top of a tower in the system.[10]
- James Frain as Jarvis, Clu's right-hand program and chief intelligence officer.[11]
- Daft Punk as two MP3 programs[12] at Castor's End of Line Club, referred to in the end credits as "masked DJs".
- Beau Garrett as Gem, one of four programs known as Sirens. The Sirens operate The Grid game armory, equipping combatants with the armor needed to compete in the games.[13]
- Yaya DaCosta, Serinda Swan, and Elizabeth Mathis as the other three Sirens.
- Cillian Murphy appears in an uncredited role as Edward Dillinger Jr. He is the son of former ENCOM Senior Executive Ed Dillinger (portrayed by David Warner), who was one of the three primary antagonists in the original film.
- Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley, an executive consultant for ENCOM International[14] and close friend of Kevin Flynn.[8] After receiving a cryptic page from the office at Flynn's old arcade, he encourages Sam to investigate its origin. Boxleitner also portrays Tron, a security program developed by Bradley after which Flynn's arcade game is named.
Stunt actor Anis Cheurfa portrays the masked warrior Rinzler. It is revealed that Rinzler is in fact
Tron, the title hero of the original movie.
[15]The original character of Yori does not appear in the sequel; nor does her user, Dr. Lora Baines, even though the film refers to Alan Bradley being married to Lora. According to online media
Sci Fi Wire: "Fans have been lobbying for actress
Cindy Morgan to be in the movie." There are active campaigns online, such as "Yori Lives" on Facebook, which is independent of Morgan herself. "All I know is what I'm seeing online," Morgan said. "I am so thrilled and touched and excited about the fan reaction and about people talking about the first one and how it relates to the second one. I can't tell you how warm a feeling I get from that. It just means so much." No one from
Tron: Legacy had contacted Morgan, and she did not directly speak with anyone from the Joseph Kosinski-directed sequel.
[16] As Dr. Lora Baines, Cindy Morgan had appeared with Bruce Boxleitner (as Alan Bradley) at the Encom Press Conference in San Francisco, April 2, 2010.
Production
Development
In the late 1990s, there was speculation that Disney would make a sequel film, due to the original film's cult following. On July 29, 1999, ZDnet News reported that a
Tron sequel or remake was being considered by
Pixar.
[17] Throughout the next several years, many false rumors that a
Tron sequel was in production or being developed were reported by various news websites.
On January 13, 2005,
Variety reported that Disney had hired
Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal to write a sequel to
Tron.
Original sequel logo, from the test footage premiered at Comic-Con 2008.
At the 2008
San Diego Comic-Con, a preliminary
teaser trailer (labeled as
TR2N and directed by Joseph Kosinski) was shown as a surprise to convention guests. It depicted a yellow Program engaged in a light cycle battle with a blue Program, and it prominently featured Jeff Bridges reprising his role as an aged Kevin Flynn (from the first film). At the end of the trailer, the yellow Program showed his face, which appeared identical to Flynn's earlier program Clu (resembling the younger Flynn in
Tron).
While the trailer did not confirm that a
Tron sequel was in
production, it showed that
Disney was serious about a sequel. In an interview with
Sci-Fi Wire, Bridges revealed that the test footage was not likely to appear in the finished movie.
[18]On July 23, 2009, Disney revealed the current title at their Comic-Con 3D panel. Jeff Bridges explains that the title is in reference to the story's theme: "It's basically a story about a son's search for his father." They also showed a trailer similar to the one shown at Comic-Con 2008, with updated visuals. At the time, the film just wrapped production and they had a year of post production ahead of them. Because none of the footage from inside the computer world was finished, they premiered concept images from the production. Art included the recognizer, which has been updated from the original film. Concept photos were also shown of Disc Wars, which has also been revised from the original film into a 16-game tournament. The arena is set-up so that the game court organically changes, and all 16 games are going on at the same time. The boards also combine in real time until the last two Disc warriors are connected.
[citation needed]Light cycles make a return,
[19][20] with new designs by
Daniel Simon.
[21] According to the press conference at Comic-Con 2009, a new vehicle appears called a "Light Runner," a two-seat version of the light cycle. It is said to be very fast, and has the unique ability to go off The Grid on its own power. We also get a glimpse at Kevin Flynn's own cycle, a "Second Generation Light Cycle" designed in 1989 by Flynn and "rumor has it it's still the fastest thing on The Grid." It incorporates some of the look of both films.
[22] The movie also features theatrical
7.1 surround sound.
Light cycle model on display at Fan Expo 2009 Disney booth
A life-size model of the light cycle was put on display at a booth at Fan Expo 2009 in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada from August 28–30, 2009, along with a special presentation of material from the production. The conceptual art shown at Comic-Con was shown in the session, along with some test film of the martial artists who play a more athletic style of Disc Wars. A segment from the movie showed Flynn's son entering the now-decrepit arcade, playing a
Tron stand-up arcade video game, noticing a passage in the wall behind the
Tron game and entering it, the passage closing behind him. Flynn's son makes the visit to the arcade after Alan Bradley receives a page from the disconnected phone number of the arcade. The footage was used later as part of the trailer released on March 5, 2010.
Filming
Filming began in
Vancouver, British Columbia in April 2009.
[23] Stage shooting for the film took place at the Canadian Motion Picture Park studio in south
Burnaby. Most of the film was filmed in
3D, as was the
teaser. The film's beginning portions were shot in 2D.
[24] 40 minutes of the film were shot in IMAX.
[25] Digital Domain was contracted to work on the visual effects.
[26]In April 2009, pictures were leaked onto the Internet showing actors in blue skintight suits. The design of the suits is reminiscent of the outfits worn by the actors in the original film.
[27] Director Kosinski also revealed that the faces of the younger Flynn, as well as Clu 2.0, were created entirely in CG.
[28]Music
Electronic music duo
Daft Punk composed the
film score.
[29] At the time of the 2009 Comic-Con, it was revealed they composed 24 tracks for the film.
[30] When Kosinski was asked why he decided to have Daft Punk do the film score, he replied, "How could you not at least go to those guys?"
[31] Kosinski referred to the score as being a mixture of orchestral and electronic elements.
[32] Olivia Wilde stated that the duo may be involved with future promotional events.
[30] A teaser trailer features Daft Punk and their track "Derezzed" from the soundtrack.
[33] The film score features an 85-piece orchestra, recorded at AIR Lyndhurst Studios in London.
[34] A
soundtrack album of the film was released on December 6, 2010. A deluxe edition of the album was also released that includes a poster of Daft Punk from the film.
[35] The songs "
Separate Ways" by
Journey and "
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by
Eurythmics are also featured in the film.
[30] Daft Punk's score was arranged and orchestrated by
Joseph Trapanese.
[36] Jason Bentley served as the film's music supervisor.
[37][edit] Sound effects
Crowd effects for the gaming arena were recorded at the 2010
San Diego Comic-Con International. During one of the Tron: Legacy panels, the crowd was given instruction via a large video screen while techs from
Skywalker Sound recorded the performance. The audience performed chants and stomping effects similar to what is heard in modern sports arenas.
[38]Marketing
On July 21, 2009, several movie-related websites posted they had received via mail a pair of "Flynn's Arcade"
tokens along with a
flash drive. Its content was an animated GIF that showed
CSS code lines. Four of them were put together and part of the code was cracked, revealing the URL to Flynnlives.com,
[39] a fictitious site maintained by activists who believe Kevin Flynn is alive, even though he's been missing since 1989. Clicking on a tiny spider in the lower section of the main page led to a countdown clock that hit zero on July 23, 2009, 9:30 pm
PDT. Within the Terms of Use Section, an address was found. It lies in San Diego, California, USA near the city's convention center where the Comic Con 2009 took place and some footage and information on the sequel was released. Flynn's Arcade was re-opened at that location, with several Space Paranoids arcade machines and a variety of '80s video games. A full-size light cycle from the new movie was on display.
[40]A ninth viral site, homeoftron.com, was found. It portrays some of the history of Flynn's Arcade as well as a fan
memoir section.
[41] On December 19, 2009 a new poster was revealed, along with the second still from the movie.
[42] Banners promoting the film paved the way to the 2010 Comic-Con convention center, making this a record third appearance for the film at the annual event.
[43] On October 19, 2010, a new banner was revealed, combining segments from the original Tron poster in it. In the poster, Sam reaches out for his disk in the air, with Quorra by his side in the world of Tron.
Disney also partnered with
Coke Zero to promote
Tron: Legacy. Said promotion included promotional in-store standees, as well as
Tron: Legacy logos and character art on Coke Zero cans, bottles, and 2-liters, as well as pre-movie advertisements at movie theater chains, and extensive promotional material on the official Coke Zero website.
[citation needed] Theme parks and attractions
At the
Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, one
monorail train was decorated with special artwork depicting lightcycles with trailing beams of light, along with the film's logo. This
Tron themed monorail, which was renamed the "Tronorail," was unveiled in March 2010.
[44]On October 29, 2010, the nighttime show
World of Color at
Disney California Adventure began soft-openings after its second show of a
Tron: Legacy themed encore using a Daft Punk music piece titled "The Game Has Changed" from the movie soundtrack, using new effects and projections on Paradise Pier attractions. The encore officially premiered on November 1, 2010.
[46]On December 12, 2010 The show
Extreme Makeover Home Edition as part of a house rebuild constructed a Tron Legacy themed bedroom for one of the occupants young boys. The black painted room not only consisted of life sized Tron city graphics but glowing blue line graphics on the walls, floor and furniture, a desk with glowing red lit Recognizers for the legs and a Tron suit inspired desk chair, a Lightcycle shaped chair with blue lighting accents, projection mural system that projects Tron imagery on a glass wall partition, laptop computer, flatscreen Television, several Tron Legacy action figures, a daybed in black and shimering dark blue and blue overhead lit panels.
[47]Disney was involved with the Ice Hotel in
Jukkasjärvi through association with designers Ian Douglas-Jones at I-N-D-J and Ben Rousseau to create "The Legacy of the River", a high-tech suite inspired by "Tron: Legacy". The suite uses electroluminescent wire to capture the art style of the film. It consists of over 60 square meters of 100mm thick ice equating to approximately six tons. 160 linear meters of electroluminescent wire were routed out, sandwiched and then glued with powdered snow and water to create complex geometric forms. The Ice Hotel is expected to get 60,000 visitors for the season which lasts December 2010 through April 2011.
[citation needed]On November 19, 2010, the TRON Legacy Pop Up Shop opened at Royal-T Cafe and Art Space in Culver City, California. The shop featured many of the collaborative products created as tie ins with the movie from brands such as Oakley, Hurley and Adidas. The space was decorated in theme and the adjacent cafe had a tie in menu with TRON inspired dishes. The shop will remain open until December 23, 2010.
[citation needed]Video games
A tie-in video game, entitled
Tron: Evolution, was released on December 7, 2010.
[48] The story sits between the original
Tron film and
Tron: Legacy. Teaser trailers were released in November 2009, while a longer trailer was shown during the
Spike Video Game Awards on December 12, 2009. IGN reviewed the Playstation 3 version of the game but gave it only a "passable" 6 out of 10.
[49]There was also a game for the iOS devices (iPhone, iPod, and iPad )called LightBike 1 and 2 and there was another game for the iOS devices (iPhone, iPod, and iPad) for the movie.
[50]Disney commissioned N-Space to develop a series of multiplayer games based on Tron Legacy for the
Wii console.
[51] Propaganda Games developed a single player adventure game for the Playstation 3 and X-Box 360.
[51]Custom Tron branded gaming controllers have been released for XBox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii. IGN reviewed the controllers giving them a "great" score of 8.5 out of 10.
[52]Graphic novel
A tie-in 128-page graphic novel
Tron: Betrayal was released by Disney Press on November 16, 2010.
[53] It includes an 11 page retelling of Tron story in addition to a story fitting between the original film and
Tron: Legacy.
Screenings and release
On October 28, 2010, a 23-minute preview of the movie was screened on many
IMAX theaters all over the world. The tickets for this event were sold out within an hour on October 8. Stand-by tickets for the event were also sold shortly before the presentation started. Original merchandise from the movie was also available for sale.
Some of the clips included in the presentation were seen in many of the film's trailers, but in complete form. That same day, a clip was released via the internet and the
iTunes Store where Quorra apparently saved Sam in her lightrunner. Later, more scenes such as Sam encountering his father in the
Tron world, and Sam geared up by the Sirens, were released. On November 20, a new clip was released where Sam and Alan Bradley met at Sam's apartment talking about his father, Kevin Flynn.
Announced through the official
Tron Facebook page, the red carpet premiere of the film was broadcast live via the internet.
[54] Tron Legacy was released in theaters on December 17, 2010, in the United States and United Kingdom. The film was originally set to be released in the UK on December 26, 2010, but was brought forward due to high demand. According to the latest trailer, the film will be presented in
IMAX 3D and
Disney Digital 3D. The film will also be released with
D-BOX motion code in
select theaters and released in 50
Iosono-enhanced cinemas, creating "3D sound".
[55]On December 13, 2010, in select cities all over the United States, a free screening of the entire film in 3D was available to individuals on a first come, first serve basis. Free "Flynn Lives" pins were handed out to the attendees. The announcement of the free screenings was made on the official Flynn Lives
Facebook page.
[citation needed] Reception
Critical response
Tron: Legacy has received mixed reviews from film critics.
Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 49% based on 192 reviews, with an average score of 5.8/10,
[56] The film has received a 31% rating based on 36 reviews when narrowed down to top critics, with an average of 5.6/10.
[56] The site's consensus stated, "
Tron: Legacy boasts dazzling visuals, but its human characters and story get lost amidst its state-of-the-art production design."
Metacritic, which assigns a
weighted average score in the 0-100 range based on reviews from mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 49 for the film, based on reviews from 40 critics.
[57] Roger Ebert gave a positive aim at
Tron: Legacy with 3 out of 4 stars, stating that "both [
Tron] films, made so many years apart, can fairly lay claim to being state of the art."
[58] Other reviews of the film's 3D technical merits have given the film positive responses including Cinemalogue's Rubin Safaya. As reported by Josh Tyler of Cinema Blend, Rubin, who gets a headache when attempting to watch any 3D movie admits that Tron: Legacy was better for him than most. He says, “I got a pretty intense headache with Avatar, I can tell you that, for the first 1/3rd of the film. Tron wasn't nearly that bad.”
[59]Box-office performance
Based on predictions by box-office analysts,
Tron Legacy was expected to take in $48.5 million at the box office on its opening weekend.
[60] It grossed $17.5 million domestically on the first day, reaching $44 million by the end of the weekend, making it #1 on the box office during its opening weekend, above
Yogi Bear and
How Do You Know. In total, the film has grossed $67,026,211 worldwide thus far.
[3]
