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Tron
When brilliant video game maker Flynn hacks the mainframe of his ex-employer, he is beamed inside an astonishing digital world and becomes part of the very game he is designing. In his mission through cyberspace, Flynn matches wits with a maniacal Master Control Program and teams up with Tron, a security measure created to bring balance to the digital environment.
1982 · Directed by Steven Lisberger · 96 min · Science Fiction · Action · Adventure · Screenplay in the scene database · 19 frames
Tagline
Journey now into a startling new dimension where energy lives and breathes. A world inside the computer where man has never been. Never before now.
Plot
Leading software engineer Kevin Flynn, formerly employed by technology corporation ENCOM, now runs a video game arcade, where he hacks into ENCOM's system with a program called CLU, hoping to find proof that he is the true author of ENCOM's best-selling videogame, Space Paranoids. However, ENCOM's Master Control Program (MCP) halts his progress and deletes CLU. Within ENCOM, programmer Alan Bradley and his girlfriend, engineer Lora Baines, discover that the MCP has closed off their access to projects. When Alan confronts the senior executive vice president, Ed Dillinger, he asserts the security measures are an effort to stop the hacking attempts. However, when Dillinger privately questions the MCP through his computerized desk, he realizes the MCP has expanded into a powerful virtual intelligence and has been illegally appropriating personal, business, and government programs to increase its own capabilities. As Dillinger rose to the top of ENCOM by presenting Flynn's games as his own, the MCP blackmails Dillinger by threatening to expose his plagiarism should he not comply with its directives.
Lora deduces that Flynn is the hacker, and she and Alan go to his arcade to warn him. Flynn reveals that he has been trying to locate evidence proving Dillinger's guilt. Together, the three form a plan to break into ENCOM and unlock Alan's "Tron" program, a self-governing security measure designed to protect the system and counter the functions of the MCP. Once inside ENCOM, the three split up, and Flynn comes into direct conflict with the MCP through a laboratory terminal. Before Flynn can get the information he needs, the MCP uses an experimental laser to digitize and upload him into the ENCOM gaming grid. There, computer programs are living entities appearing in the likeness of the human "Users" (programmers) who created them. The space is ruled by the MCP and its second-in-command, Sark (an avatar of Dillinger), who coerce programs to renounce their belief in the Users and force those who resist to compete in deadly games.
Flynn is put into the games and plays well; between matches, he befriends two other captured programs, Ram and Tron. The three escape into the system during a round of Light Cycle (an arcade game Flynn created and is skilled at), but Flynn and Ram become separated from Tron by an MCP pursuit party. While attempting to help a badly injured Ram, Flynn learns that he can manipulate portions of the system by accessing his programmer knowledge. Just before Ram "derezzes" (essentially, being erased), he recognizes Flynn as a User, and encourages him to find Tron and free the system. Using his newfound ability, Flynn rebuilds a broken "Recognizer" craft and disguises himself as one of Sark's soldiers.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Steven Lisberger
- Cinematography: Bruce Logan
- Edited by: Jeff Gourson
- Music: Wendy Carlos
- Production design: Syd Mead, Dean Mitzner
- Produced by: Donald Kushner
Cast
- Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn / Clu
- Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley / Tron
- David Warner as Ed Dillinger / Sark
- Cindy Morgan as Lora / Yori
- Barnard Hughes as Dr. Walter Gibbs / Dumont
- Dan Shor as Ram
- Peter Jurasik as Crom
- Tony Stephano as Peter / Sark's Lieutenant
- Craig Chudy as Warrior #1
- Vince Deadrick Jr. as Warrior #2
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Lisberger/Kushner Productions, Walt Disney Productions
- Budget: $17,000,000
- Box office: $33,002,371
- Themes: hacker, video game, virtual reality, dystopia, simulation, super computer, utopia, computer simulation, simulated reality , cyberspace
On this film
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