Tron remains an iconic piece of 1980s cinema and a landmark moment in the history of special effects and computer animation, but I'm hesitant to say it's a very good movie. At best it is a fun yet disposable adventure film with a distinctive aesthetic and enough memorable moments to make you overlook how flat and formulaic the plot and characters are.
Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a former programmer and video game developer for ENCOM, tries to hack into the company mainframe to find evidence that current Executive V.P. Ed Dillinger (David Warner) stole the games he was developing and passed them off as his own. Flynn's efforts are thwarted by the Master Control Program, the power hungry artificial intelligence that now runs ENCOM's systems. With the help of his friends Alan and Lora (Bruce Boxleitner and Cindy Morgan), Flynn sneaks into one of the labs at ENCOM to access the company mainframe, but is attacked by the MCP using an experimental laser that sends him into the digital world.
This film is first and foremost a technological showcase. The filmmakers saw how quickly computer animation was advancing and managed to convince Disney to invest a lot of money so they could show it off. They also wanted to tap into the then booming video arcade scene of the early 80s, a cultural snapshot that feels even more dated than the computer graphics or the goofy costumes the actors are wearing. These days arcade games are a niche interest, something for collectors with deep pockets or restaurants and bars looking for a nostalgic gimmick to attract punters. But back then they were pulling in $8 billion a year before the entire video game industry suffered a near catastrophic crash just two years after this film came out. If ENCOM had been a real company it might've gone the way of Atari. Hey, if the whole video game thing didn't work out for them they can always fall back on that literal working transporter they built and treat like it was no big deal. Makes you wonder what they hell Nintendo has tucked away in its R&D department. A hyperdrive? A working Gundam?
Tron is pretty much a sci-fi twist on classic portal fantasy, a subgenre wherein someone from our world finds themselves in a strange and fantastical world via some kind of magical portal. They then have to make their way across this new world by completing various tasks, often resulting in the overthrow of a cruel tyrant, in order to return home or become the world's new ruler. Admittedly, it isn't the first to mix genres like this. Edgar Rice Burroughs did this decades earlier with his Barsoom series and Flash Gordon later traded portals for rockets, but both are still deeply rooted in old school adventure fantasy, having more in common with Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age than the digital frontier of Tron.
Even with all the outdated computer graphics, the world of Tron is a very distinct one and has undoubtedly shaped how many now visualize cyberspace. There isn't another film that looks like Tron and likely never will be. Even the sequels and spin-offs don't look like Tron. They're sleeker and more polished which has only made them more bland and generic, even with computer graphics that are prehistoric by today's standards. The visuals of this movie are more pleasant to look at than a de-aged Jeff Bridges or a completely real Jared Leto. That's why the original Tron has managed to endure despite the plot and characters being by the numbers; it takes the viewer into a very new world that is fun and exciting to hang out in.
Also, Lightcycles are freaking cool.
One interesting thing this movie does is to not make Flynn the heroic liberator. He's the protagonist and our primary POV character, but he isn't the actual hero. Tron is the real hero here. This is his struggle, his world that he is trying to save, Flynn is just the guy helping him. Too bad very little is done to explore this angle since this movie really wasn't all that interested in character arcs. There's a lot of travelling in this movie, but no one really goes on a journey. This feels right for the programs, they were created with specific functions and just follow their code. However, Flynn isn't a program, he's capable of learning and changing. At the start of the movie he's the kind of immature brat who would be insufferable if he didn't have that trademark Jeff Bridges charm. By the end of the movie he's still the kind of immature brat who would be insufferable if he didn't have that trademark Jeff Bridges charm, only now he'll probably never look at a hard drive the same way again.
Another fascinating area that is left unexplored is how programs view and worship Users, as in us, as gods, which we effectively are. We created them and their world and they are subject to our whims. They see us as all powerful beings, and Flynn does little to dispel that notion with all the miracles he can perform, including raising the dead. The MCP is essentially a Lucifer figure, a once trusted servant now waging a war on heaven, looking to overthrow and supplant the gods themselves as the supreme being of this world. And he's only a Pentagon away from going full Skynet. But this is meant to be a Disney adventure for all the family so it doesn't really delve into such philosophical territory.
Notes and Quotes
--One of the many little ways the film is dated is how Dillinger's password for the Master Control Program is just "master". Didn't have to use numbers or special characters or anything.
--David Warner pulls triple duty playing Dillinger, Sark and voicing the MCP. This means he spends most of the movie literally talking to himself. The original version of the MCP, seen briefly when it is defeated, was portrayed by Barnard Hughes who also played Walter Gibbs and Dumont.
--Wonder if any parents had to answer any awkward questions from their kids about that computer brothel Flynn passes.
--The filmmakers cited Alice in Wonderland as an influence, but there's clearly some The Wizard of Oz in the film's DNA with how all the real world characters resemble their digital counterparts.
--Was disqualified from receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects because using computer generated effects was seen as cheating.
--One thing that all Tron movies have in common is memorable soundtracks.
--Peter Jurasik has a small role as Crom, the program Flynn first battles in the games. He would later star in Babylon 5 along with Bruce Boxleitner, although their characters do not meet here.
--Pac Man has a "blink and you'll miss it" cameo.
Master Control Program: "You're getting brutal, Sark. Brutal and needlessly sadistic."
Sark: "Thank you, Master Control."
Alan: "Some programs will be thinking soon."
Walter: "Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop."
Master Control Program: "You've enjoyed all the power you've been given, haven't you? I wonder how you'd take to working in a pocket calculator."
Tron is an innovative and pedestrian film in almost equal measure that probably peaks way too early with the Lightcycle sequence, still the most exciting and iconic part of the entire movie. ⭐⭐⭐
Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011 More Mark Greig
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