TRON: Legacy

This article is written from a Real World perspective.

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Tron: Legacy is the sequel to the film Tron. Joseph Kosinski makes his feature film directorial debut with Tron: Legacy, while the previous film director, Steven Lisberger, returns as a producer. Jeff Bridges reprises his roles as Kevin Flynn and Clu, and Bruce Boxleitner reprises his roles as Alan Bradley and Tron, while Garrett Hedlund portrays Flynn's 27 year-old son, Sam. The other cast members include Olivia Wilde, Beau Garrett and Michael Sheen. Writers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis (who both worked on the hit television show, "Lost") wrote the screenplay. Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem Christo of the French electronic band Daft Punk composed the film's score. It is rated PG in America for "sequences of sci-fi action violence and brief mild language." The film's plot involves Kevin's son Sam investigating his father's disappearance where he finds himself digitized into Cyberspace. Upon arrival, he encounters Clu, a despot digital doppelganger of Sam's father, who will stop at nothing to prevent Sam or his father escaping from Cyberspace.

Working Titles

For almost a year, the sequel had many working titles, some official and others were accidental mispellings. The project was first known as TR2N, then just TRON. Other people started calling the movie Tron 2.0, which would have caused confusion between the movie and the 2003 video game of the same name. Other news sources said that the title was TRZ, and TRN however the latter turned out to be the code name for the movie during production.

Plot

The film opens with a flashback to 1989 as Kevin Flynn - now CEO of ENCOM - tells his son Sam a story about his adventures in the Grid and about how he, Tron and Clu discovered something amazing and miraculous. Sam asks about it, but is told to wait for next time as Kevin leaves for work. It then cuts to a montage of events and news reports about Kevin's disappearance, which has not only jeopardized ENCOM's future, but orphaned Sam.

In the present day, the now-adult Sam breaks into the ENCOM Tower and steals Encom's new software, releasing it online, as part of his annual prank on the company. After being chased to the top of the tower by a security guard, Sam reveals himself and attempts to freefall off the tower only for his parachute to snag on a traffic light, and he is arrested shortly after freeing himself.

Sam eventually returns to his apartment and is met by Alan Bradley, who tells him about a page he received from his Dad's office in the arcade. Reluctantly following the tip, Sam locates a hidden doorway behind the arcade's Tron game which leads him to a secret workshop. He begins searching through his father's computer and unknowingly activates a digitizing ray which transports into the digital world. As the confused young man takes his leave and steps out onto the Grid, he is spotted by a Recognizer, and the programs within assign him to the Games.

He is taken down to the Armoury Sirens, to be clad in armour and given an Identity Disk. Upon arriving in the Disk Wars Arena he narrowly survives, only to face Rinzler in the final round, who recognizes Sam as a User after seeing him bleed. Clu, who has been watching the events, has Sam brought to his Command Ship. As the two talk, Sam believes he is speaking to his father. However, Clu denies this and has him sent to the Lightcycle arena while a mysterious figure watches them.

Sam is teamed with several other programs in the ensuing race against Clu and his followers, but ends up as the sole survivor of his group. He is saved from deresolution by the stranger who - while driving away in a Light Runner - introduces herself as Quorra. She takes him to Kevin who explains that he was working with Tron and Clu to make the Grid into a "perfect" system. However, a brand new type of program manifested itself within the Grid. These "isomorphic algorithms" - or ISOs - were the miracle Kevin spoke of before his disappearance, and he felt they represented revolutionary potential to "change the human condition". Clu, however, saw the ISOs as an imperfection within the system and felt betrayed when Flynn chose to embrace the ISOs. Clu betrayed his friends in order to take control of the system and purge it of all ISOs. Tron fought for Flynn and was never seen again. Flynn remained isolated in the Grid when the portal back home closed.

Later, Sam argues with his dad as he believes they can still make their way to the portal - which will remain open for eight Grid-world hours - and return home, but Kevin objects, citing that this is exactly what Clu would want: a prime opportunity to steal Kevin's Identity Disk, a "master key" that could let any program cross through the portal.

Sam figures that if he could at least make it to the portal, he and Alan could shut down Clu from the outside. Quorra sympathizes and sends Sam to find a program named Zuse, who may be able to help Sam. His mind made up, Sam takes off in Kevin's Lightcycle. Later in the night, Kevin finds Sam missing and resolves to come out of hiding to go after his son. Sam abandons Kevin's Lightcycle in the city, where Clu's Black Guard are able to trace its point of origin to Kevin's hideout in the Outlands. However, Clu finds the refuge abandoned, having just missed Flynn.

As Sam explores the city he crosses paths with the Siren known as Gem, who offers to take him where he needs to go. At the End of Line Club, Gem calls on club-owner Castor who reveals himself to be Zuse. Zuse, a self-interested program, betrays Sam to Clu, whose sentries arrive to apprehend him. Quorra and Kevin arrive in time to intervene: Quorra's arm is derezzed in the ensuing brawl and Kevin's disk is stolen as the trio escape. Later, Clu double-crosses Castor, destroying the End of Line club.

Kevin and Sam argue over their next course-of-action, deciding to take a Solar Sailer to the portal. As he repairs her arm, Kevin reveals Quorra as the sole surviving ISO. Afterwards, Sam and Kevin bond with each other while Quorra's system reboots.

The trio eventually find the Rectifying Room, discovering Clu is forcibly repurposing programs in order to form his own army, which he would then take to the Real World in order to "perfect" it. As they try to find their way out, Kevin recognizes Rinzler as his old friend, Tron, who was also repurposed by Clu. Quorra then passes her disk to the Flynns and runs off to distract Rinzler. Meanwhile, Clu has Kevin's disk, revealing his grand plan to the army of repurposed programs. Rinzler then presents him with Quorra, who then insults him. Upon recognizing her as an ISO, Clu dismisses her, mentioning he has something special in mind for her.

After the Flynns contemplate their next move, Kevin seeks transport for their escape while Sam makes his way to Clu's Command Ship for Quorra and Kevin's disk. After a failed attempt to quiz Clu's henchman Jarvis on Quorra's whereabouts, Rinzler returns to the Command Ship with Quorra and engages Sam once again. Sam emerges victorious, disarming Rinzler and leaving him hanging over a ledge. Sam and Quorra use a parachute-like device to make their escape, meeting up with Kevin on the flight deck. Clu returns to his Command Ship to find the disk gone and derezzes Jarvis for letting them escape. Clu, Rinzler and his Black Guard then give chase in their Light Jets.

Sam and Quorra manage to blast all the Black Guard out of the sky, leaving Rinzler and Clu in pursuit. When forced to shoot down Sam, Rinzler begins to regain his memories as Tron and abandons the chase, leaving the frustrated Clu to shoot them down. Tron intervenes, shouting his iconic battecry ("I Fight for the Users!"), knocking Clu out of the sky. In free-fall, Tron readies a second Light Jet, but Clu takes it from him and goes after the Flynns. Tron is left unconscious and sinking into the Sea of Simulation, where his circuitry regains its blue coloration.

As the trio head toward the portal, Kevin asks Quorra to do something for him. Clu awaits them as they reach their destination and confronts Kevin, insisting he was simply following the directive programmed into him, that it was Kevin who betrayed his promise to make a perfect world together. Kevin accepts the accusation, apologizing for setting Clu on such an impossible task. Clu attacks Kevin and Sam retaliates, but Kevin sends Quorra to get Sam to the portal. The bridge to the portal breaks off, separating the group whilst Clu goes for Kevin's disk. But he is shocked to find that it is instead Quorra's disk. Outraged, Clu jumps the gap after Sam and Quorra, just as they activate the portal. But just before Clu can reach the portal, Kevin reintegrates him, destroying them both in a brilliant and massive explosion.

Back in the real world, Sam copies the Grid from Kevin's old computer onto a small microchip he wears around his neck. Alan Bradley arrives after receiving another page, and Sam tells him he will take over ENCOM, and that Alan was right about everything. Quorra waits for him outside of the arcade and asks what's next. Sam's reply, "I guess we're supposed to change the world." Sam then takes her to see the sunrise.

Cast

• Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn/Clu 2
• Garrett Hedlund as Sam Flynn
• Olivia Wilde as Quorra
• Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley/Tron
• Beau Garrett as Gem
• Serinda Swan as a Siren
• Yaya DaCosta as a Siren
• Anis Cheurfa as Rinzler
• James Frain as Jarvis
• Michael Sheen as Castor
• Brandon Jay McLaren as Sobel
• Amy Esterle as Jordan Canas
• Cillian Murphy (uncredited) as Edward Dillinger Jr, Ed Dillinger's son
• Elizabeth Mathis as a Siren
• Tony Besson as Pete Redken
• Owen Best as Young Sam Flynn
• Michael Teigen as Green Light Cycle Rider

Music

Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, better known as the Parisian electronic band Daft Punk, scored the film. Bangalter and de Homem-Christo have composed 24 tracks of score for the film, and their track "Derezzed" has been featured in a promotional music video. The score was performed by a 100-piece orchestra, who recorded the tracks at AIR Lyndhurst Studios in London, UK. Daft Punk's soundtrack for the film, featuring the score, was released on 7 December 2010. Journey's 1983 single "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" and Eurythmic's 1983 single "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) are also featured in the film.

Development and pre-production

Rumors

In the late 1990s, there were speculation that Disney would make a sequel film, due to the original film's big cult following. On July 29, 1999 ZDnet news that a Tron sequel or remake was being considered by Pixar. Through out 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, confirming speculation that a sequel was in the works.

Proof-of-concept Trailer

On July 24, 2008 at the Comic-Con convention in San Diego, California, Disney showed a surprise trailer for the sequel, which was called TR2N.

The footage began with an update of the lightcycle duel from the original film, pitting a blue program against a yellow one with the two racing through a futuristic landscape. While in pursuit, the blue program manages to evade the mysterious yellow program. However, the yellow program took a shortcut and drove in front of the blue racer, making him crash into the yellow driver's Light Ribbon. The blue program flew off his cycle and into the air before landing on the road and almost falling into an abyss, where the road stopped. Meanwhile, the duel is being observed from a high, cliff-side structure by a human figure wearing regular clothing – an older, bearded Kevin Flynn played again by Jeff Bridges. The yellow program pulls his lightcycle over and climbs off, grabbing his Identity disk which now appears as a glowing ring. As the unknown yellow rider approaches the blue program, the defeated racer yells out to his opponent, "You won, okay? It's just a game!" The yellow racer, turns on his helmet light revealing himself to be Clu, Flynn's old hacker program who was derezzed by the MCP in 1982. Clu's replies to the program, "Not anymore...", and throws his disk at the blue program, killing him. The footage ended with a '2' appearing in the traditional Tron font and the title, TR2N, emerging around it, then fading away to leave the number.

Joseph Kosinski directed the promo and is currently directing the film. Kosinski previously directed commercials for Gears of War, Halo 3, Apple Computers and others, and was noted for his skill at blending photo-realistic CGI with real actors and scenery. Lost writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz are slated to write the film.

Originally, the test trailer did not prove that a Tron sequel was in production, but it showed that Disney was serious about a sequel. Some speculated that the trailer was not only to see how the public will react to the trailer, but to show the executives at Disney what a Tron sequel will look like. Producer Sean Bailey later said in an interview that if the trailer did not have a good reaction, the movie would have never been made.

The same trailer was shown again at Comic-Con in July 2009 but noticed that the films title had changed from TR2N to Tron: Legacy.

Greenlighted

On September 24, 2008, Disney showcased its upcoming films in a day-long presentation for Disney partners and the media at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, CA. One of the many films showcased was TR2N, in which the same trailer from Comic-Con was shown to the crowd. According to AICN:

“

They showed the TRON 2 trailer (and everyone went nuts), the same that was shown at Comic Con and [Walt Disney Studios chairman] Dick [Cook] said, 'it was for sure a go'.

”

Viral Marketing

On July 21, 2009, several movie-related websites posted they had received via mail a pair of "Flynn's Arcade" golden coins along with a flash drive. Its content was an animated gif image that showed css code lines. Four of them were put together and part of the code was cracked, revealing the url to Flynnlives.com, a fictional 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 leads to a countdown clock that hits zero on Thursday, July 22, 9:30pm. Within the Terms of Use Section, an address was found. It lies at San Diego, CA, nearby the city's convention center, where the Comic Con 2009 is taking place and some footage/info on the sequel is expected to be seen. Many suspect the Arcade has been re-opened at that location.

A second viral site, homeoftron.com, has been found. It portrays some of the history of Flynn's Arcade as well as a fan memoir section.

Posters

Teaser Poster

Concept Artwork Gallery

Screenshot Gallery