Tron Legacy (2010}

TRON is a 3D high—tech adventure set in a digital world that’s unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn, the tech savvy 27 year old son of Kevin Flynn, looks into his father’s disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 25 years.

Along with Kevin’s loyal confidant, father and son embark on a life and death journey across a visually stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.

CAST / CHARACTERS

Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn / Clu

The former CEO of ENCOM International and creator of the popular arcade game Tron based on his own experiences in ENCOM's virtual reality. He disappeared in 1989 while developing "a digital frontier that will reshape the human condition".

Bridges also portrays CLU (Codified Likeness Utility), via digital makeup and voiceover, while John Reardon portrays CLU physically. CLU is a more advanced incarnation of Flynn's original computer-hacking program, designed as an "exact duplicate of himself" within the Grid.

Garrett Hedlund as Samuel "Sam" Flynn

A primary shareholder of ENCOM International. While investigating his father's disappearance, Sam is transported onto the Grid himself. Hedlund won a "Darwinian casting process" which tested hundreds of actors, being chosen for having the "unique combination of intelligence, wit, humor, look and physicality" that the producers were looking for Flynn's son.

The actor trained hard to do his own stunts, which included jumping over cars and copious wire and harness work. Owen Best plays the seven-year-old Sam Flynn.

Olivia Wilde as Quorra

An "isomorphic algorithm", 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.

She is shown to have a love of human literature, particularly the writings of Jules Verne, and plays Go with Flynn. She comments that her 'aggressive style' is usually foiled by Flynn's patience. Wilde describes Quorra as akin to Joan of Arc.

Her hairstyle was influenced by singer Karen O.] Wilde added that although "Quorra could have just been another slinky, vampy temptress", it was important for her to appeal to both men and women, and that character tried to avoid the typical female lead by having a naiveté and childlike innocence adequate for such an "evolving and learning organism".

Quorra's action scenes led Wilde to work out and train in martial arts.

Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley

An executive consultant for ENCOM International, and close friend of Kevin Flynn. After receiving a cryptic page from the office at the shuttered Flynn's Arcade, he encourages Sam to investigate its origin.

Boxleitner also portrays Tron, a security program originally developed by Bradley to monitor ENCOM's Master Control Program, and later reassigned by Flynn to defend the Grid, in flashback sequences via the same treatment as Bridges' younger self for CLU.

Michael Sheen as Castor/Zuse

A flamboyant program who runs the End of Line Club at the top of a tower in the system. Sheen describes his performance as containing elements of performers such as David Bowie, Joel Grey from Cabaret, and a bit of Frank-N-Furter from The Rocky Horror Show.

James Frain as Jarvis

Clu's right-hand program and chief intelligence officer. Frain had to shave his head, bleach his eyebrows white, and wear make-up. The refraction on Jarvis' helmet led Frain to walk in a "slightly squinty, blind stagger" which the actor felt was helpful to get him into character.

Frain described Jarvis as "a fun, comic character that’s a little off-beat", considering him "more human, in terms of being fallible and absurd" compared to the zanier Castor.

Beau Garrett as Gem

One of four programs known as Sirens. The Sirens operate the Grid's game armory, equipping combatants with the armor needed to compete in the games, while also reporting to Castor.

Steven Lisberger as Shaddix

A bartender in the End of Line Club.

Anis Cheurfa as Rinzler

Rinzler is named after author and Lucasfilm Executive Editor J.W. Rinzler. As Rinzler is ultimately revealed to be a reprogrammed Tron, Bruce Boxleitner voices Rinzler's few lines of dialogue.

Jeffrey Nordling as Richard Mackey

A chairman of ENCOM's board.

Cillian Murphy as Edward Dillinger, Jr.

Head of the software design team for ENCOM and the son of former ENCOM Senior Executive Ed Dillinger (portrayed by David Warner in the original film).

Critical Response

Critical response for the film was mixed. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 51% of commentators gave the film a positive review, based on 226 reviews.

Attaining a mean score of 5.9/10, 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."

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 based on reviews from mainstream critics, Tron: Legacy received a rating average of 49, based on 40 reviews.

The visual effects were cited as the central highlight of the film. In his three star review, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times felt that the environment was aesthetically pleasing, and added that its score displayed an "electronic force" that complemented the visuals.

Rolling Stone columnist Peter Travers echoed these sentiments, concluding that the effects were of an "award-caliber".

Box Office

Leading up to the release, various commercial analysts predicted that Tron: Legacy would gross $40–$50 million during its opening weekend, a figure that Los Angeles Times commentator Ben Fritz wrote would to be "solid but not spectacular".

Although the executives of Walt Disney Pictures hoped to attract a broad audience, the film primarily appealed to men: "Women appear to be more hesitant about the science-fiction sequel", wrote Fritz.

Jay Fernandez of The Hollywood Reporter felt that the disproportionate audience would be problematic for the films long term box office prospects.

Writing for Box Office Mojo, Brandon Gray attributed pre-release hype to “unwarranted blockbuster expectations from fanboys”, given the original Tron was considered a box office failure when it was released, and the film's cult fandom "amounted to a niche".

In North America, the film earned $44,026,211 during the course of its opening weekend. On its opening day, it grossed $17.6 million, including $3.6 million during midnight showings from 2,000 theaters, 29% of which were IMAX screenings, and went on to claim the top spot for the weekend, ahead of Yogi Bear and How Do You Know.

Tron: Legacy grossed roughly $68 million during its first week, and surpassed $100 million on its 12th day in release. In international markets, Tron: Legacy grossed $23 million on its opening weekend, averaging $6,000 per theater.

According to Disney, 65% of foreign grosses originated from five key markets; Japan, Australia, Brazil, United Kingdom, and Spain. The film performed the best in Japan, where it took $4.7M from 350 theaters.

Australia, ($3.4M), the United Kingdom ($3.2M), Brazil ($1.9M), and Spain ($1.9M). By the following week, Tron: Legacy obtained $65.5 million from foreign markets, bringing total grosses to $153.8 million. At the end of its theatrical run, Tron: Legacy had grossed $400,062,763; $172,062,763 in North America, and $228,000,000 in other countries.

Awards

Tron: Legacy received an award for "Best Original Score" from the Austin Film Critics Association. The film was also nominated for "Excellence in Production Design for a Fantasy Film" by the Art Directors Guild, and for "Sound Editing" by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The film made the final shortlist for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, although it did not receive a nomination.

Tron DVD & BLU-RAY (1982)

The surprising truth about Disney's 1982 computer-game fantasy is that it's still visually impressive (though technologically quaint by later high-definition standards) and a lot of fun.

It's about a computer wizard named Flynn (Jeff Bridges) who is digitally broken down into a data stream by a villainous software pirate (David Warner) and reconstituted into the internal, 3-D graphical world of computers.

It is there, in the blazingly colorful, geometrically intense landscapes of cyberspace, that Flynn joins forces with Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) to outmaneuver the Master Control program that holds them captive in the equivalent of a gigantic, infinitely challenging computer game.

Disney's wizards used a variety of cinematic techniques and early-'80s state-of-the-art computer-generated graphics to accomplish their dynamic visual goals, and the result was a milestone in cyberentertainment, catering to technogeeks while providing a dazzling adventure for hackers and nonhackers alike.

Appearing just in time to celebrate the nascent cyberpunk movement in science fiction, Tron received a decidedly mixed reaction when originally released, but has since become a high-tech favorite and a landmark in special effects, with a loyal following of fans.

DVD is a perfect format for the movie's neon-glow color scheme, and the musical score by synthesizer pioneer Wendy Carlos is faithfully preserved on the digitally remastered soundtrack.

Resources: wikipedia.org, imdb.com

Tron Legacy - 2010
Plot and Screenshots

1989: Kevin Flynn, now CEO of ENCOM, tells his seven year-old son, Sam, about his adventures in the Grid, a completely digital world within the Tron computer system that Flynn created. Flynn explains to Sam that, with his counterpart Clu (Jeff Bridges, body performance; John Reardon) - the second of a Codified Likeness Utility modeled after Flynn - and the security program Tron, he discovered something amazing within the Grid; a miracle.

Sam asks what it is but Flynn holds the story for next time before putting Sam to bed and going to work. A series of newspaper articles and television reports follow announcing the mysterious disappearance of Kevin Flynn after that night. Since the passing of Sam's mother several years prior, Flynn's absence leaves him effectively orphaned and puts ENCOM's future in a state of jeopardy. Sam is left to stay with his paternal grandparents, questioning the nature of his father's disappearance.

20 years later, Sam rides his motorcycle through the night streets towards ENCOM tower. He hacks into the building and evades security cameras as he makes his way upstairs. Meanwhile, a board meeting is being held where Richard Mackey presents the new OS-12, a secure operating system. When Alan Bradley inquires about improvements to the system, given the high prices already charged, young Edward Dillinger II that the idea of sharing software for free disappeared with Kevin Flynn.

Sam breaks into the control room and swaps out the OS-12 master file so that when Mackey attempts to run it, all he sees is a repetitive video of Sam's dog Marv (a Boston terrier). Sam smirks as he passes the boardroom, followed closely by a security guard. When Mackey angrily asks where the master file is, Bradley announces that it's on the web.

The security guard, Ernie, chases Sam onto the rooftops where Sam reveals his true identity as the largest shareholder of the company before he leaps off the edge of the building. He parachutes safely to the ground but gets snagged on a traffic light and is soon arrested by police. Sam makes bail and returns home; a shipping container refitted as an apartment and overlooking the city skyline across the river, including ENCOM tower.

Bradley visits Sam, commending him on his latest prank, apparently an annual event that Sam performs on the day of his father's disappearance. Bradley tells Sam that he recently received a page from Flynn's office above his arcade, a number that hasn't been in use for 20 years.

Sam reluctantly follows the tip and heads to the arcade. There he finds a secret doorway behind his father's Tron arcade game which leads him down a passage and into a confined control room. Sam sits at the computer to find that it still works and searches through it for information. However, he unknowingly activates a large laser behind him which emits a digitizing ray, sending him straight into the Grid.

Shocked at the sudden change in environment, Sam stumbles outside the arcade where he is quickly picked up by a Recognizer. The programs on board restrain him and the Recognizer takes off again. Sam comes face to face with other captive programs, including one that nervously chatters and one missing half his face. They are all taken to the edge of the Gaming Grid where they are assigned either for derezzing or games.

Sam watches as the nervous program is assigned to the games but, once free, plunges himself into an in-ground fan, derezzing himself. Sent to the armory, Sam's clothes are removed by Sirens and is fitted with armor and an Identity Disc.

The last Siren, Gem, instructs Sam to survive before he is led out onto the gaming grid for Disc Wars. He is pitted against an opponent whom he manages to defeat before trying to escape the arena.

Sam comes out on the final round to face Rinzler who quickly subdues him. When he sees blood on Sam's armor, Rinzler recognizes him as a user.

Rinzler faces him towards a viewing box above the arena where the watching authority figure asks Sam to identify himself. The figure then summons Sam to see him where he reveals himself as a youthful Kevin Flynn.

Amazed to see his father, Sam asks if they can go home, but his request is denied. His 'father' then reveals himself as Clu and, after seeing nothing of note on Sam's Disc, sends him to the Lightcycle arena.

Clu's right-hand man, Jarvis, entices the crowd before Sam is put on a team of programs while Clu battles them with his own team.

One by one, the racing programs are eliminated while a mysterious figure watches overhead.

Before Sam and Clu can face off, the figure intervenes with a Light Runner and blasts a hole out of the arena, escaping off-Grid into the Outlands where other programs' vehicles cannot follow.

The figure introduces herself as Quorra and takes Sam out to a secluded home situated on a craggy hilltop. Inside, Sam is tearfully reunited with his real father who had been meditating upon Sam's arrival. Quorra shows Sam that Flynn has been teaching her about the real world before they all sit down to dinner. Sam and his father catch up before Flynn answers Sam's biggest question: why he never came home.

Flynn reveals that, as Sam now knows, when he went to work he was really entering the Grid, working with Tron and Clu on creating the 'perfect system'. The 'miracle' that Flynn spoke of before disappearing was the birth of the ISO's; isomorphic algorithms that spontaneously evolved from the Grid without user intervention and with properties that Flynn had never seen before.

Their makeup included bio-digital genetics that Flynn was convinced would change the world. However, Clu saw them as imperfections. Tasked by Flynn to create the perfect system, Clu performed a coup, ambushing Flynn and Tron and taking over the system. Tron was presumably derezzed and Flynn was forced to flee into the Outlands while the ISO's were destroyed, an event known as the Purge.

The portal - the only way out of the Grid - saw the end of its millicycle window (8 hours in the Grid; just 30 seconds in the real world - which means Flynn's absence of 20 years equated to nearly 20,000 years) and closed on Flynn, leaving him trapped. With Sam's arrival, the portal is open again and Sam argues that they have time to escape, but Flynn refuses.

He explains that it's a move that Clu anticipates in hopes of retrieving Flynn's identity disc to use to manipulate the portal. Flynn is also certain that it was Clu who sent the page to Alan. Understanding Sam's frustration, Quorra goes to him in his room and tells him about a program in the city named Zuse who used to help the ISO's during the Purge and may be of some help.

Sam takes Flynn's vintage Lightcycle into the city where he trades it for a cloak. However, he's recognized by the Siren Gem who takes him to Zuse's End of Line Club where a large party is being entertained. There, he meets the eccentric Castor who promises to take Sam to Zuse.

After finding Sam gone, Flynn resolves to head into the city though Quorra assures him that she sent Sam to someone they could trust. Regardless, they head out as Clu's guards locate Flynn's Lightcycle and trace it to the point of origin. Clu prepares a group and flies out to Flynn's home to find it empty.

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TRON MAIN

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