It frustrates me as to just how little Disney care about the Tron franchise. From a financial standpoint I can’t understand why there hasn’t been a third film, as both the original and its sequel were successful at the box office; but the general lack of enthusiasm that Disney show for the franchise is disappointing as multiple projects have been put forward by creative minds over the years and the house of mouse just shuts it down. Yet Disney insist that Tron is alive and well, and we should expect to see a third film in the near future…whether that ever happens remains to be seen but I thought I’d take the opportunity to take a look back at the original film, just in time for its fortieth anniversary, and share my thoughts on what was at the time the most advanced special effects driven film ever made.
Videogame developer and former software developer for computer corporation ENCOM, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), has been trying to hack into the company’s mainframe, The Grid, to retrieve a file that could incriminate the current Vice President of ENCOM, Ed Dillinger (David Warner). His attempts however lead to some of his former co-workers, Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) and Lora Baines (Cindy Morgan), being temporarily suspended on the computer network. Alan was working on a program called Tron, a program that would run independently of ENCOM’s Master Control Program and would be capable of monitoring what was happening on the network as he believes the Master Control Program has too much power and not stable enough to be trusted.
Dillinger learns that it is the Master Control Program that has revoked access for Alan and Lora, as well as multiple other staff members, as it has grown powerful enough to be a fully-fledged A.I that can think and act of its own accord.
Kevin, Alan, and Lora break into ENCOM to recover Tron and use it to locate the file Kevin seeks; however, in doing so Kevin is digitized by the Master Control Program and becomes a part of The Grid. Kevin makes it his mission to find Tron (also played by Boxleitner) and shut down the Master Control Program (voiced by David Warner) once and for all.
Videogame developer and former software developer for computer corporation ENCOM, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), has been trying to hack into the company’s mainframe, The Grid, to retrieve a file that could incriminate the current Vice President of ENCOM, Ed Dillinger (David Warner). His attempts however lead to some of his former co-workers, Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) and Lora Baines (Cindy Morgan), being temporarily suspended on the computer network. Alan was working on a program called Tron, a program that would run independently of ENCOM’s Master Control Program and would be capable of monitoring what was happening on the network as he believes the Master Control Program has too much power and not stable enough to be trusted.
Dillinger learns that it is the Master Control Program that has revoked access for Alan and Lora, as well as multiple other staff members, as it has grown powerful enough to be a fully-fledged A.I that can think and act of its own accord.
Kevin, Alan, and Lora break into ENCOM to recover Tron and use it to locate the file Kevin seeks; however, in doing so Kevin is digitized by the Master Control Program and becomes a part of The Grid. Kevin makes it his mission to find Tron (also played by Boxleitner) and shut down the Master Control Program (voiced by David Warner) once and for all.
It’s no secret that the plot to the original Tron isn’t the most accessible, and to someone without some reasonably extensive tech knowhow it can be downright nonsensical. I only watched Tron for the first time around five years ago and even as someone who works in tech and knows my way around some reasonably complex computer systems found it difficult to make heads or tails of what was happening at times.
I was surprised that Disney allowed their family film to be so swamped with such complex technical jargon, especially considering Tron was released in the early eighties and most people had never even used a computer at that point.
But despite its frankly absurd complexities, Tron’s story can be enjoyable once you understand the dialogue. For the eighties it was a completely unique idea, something that would definitely be replicated and expanded upon in the years following, with films like The Matrix in the late nineties owing an awful lot to Tron’s premise.
Thankfully the story is made considerably more bearable by the great performances from Bridges and Boxleitner in particular.
But what you really watch Tron for is the incredible visual effects and magnificent score. It may be a little absurd looking at Tron today and saying the visual effects are incredible, but for 1982 they were far beyond anything the industry had seen before by using a mix of live action, backlit animation, and early computer animation. We’re so used to seeing CGI in modern films that looking into the process of how director Steven Lisberger created these sequences is frankly astounding. Because computers in the late seventies and early eighties didn’t have proper graphical processing power needed to create what we know today as CGI, the sequences such as the famous ‘Light Cycle’ scenes were created frame by frame and could have no live-action elements involved with them. So how did they make the sets look the way they did when actors were needed in the frame? This was achieved with a combination of practical effects, complex colour grading, and backlit animation added to the film print in post-production.
Whilst Tron certainly looks dated now, it’s impossible not to appreciate just how much work went into making the film look the way it does. Even today Lisberger’s vision is impressive to say the least, with few modern films having the same creative approach to visual design.
Wendy Carlos’ excellent synth heavy score is a masterpiece as well and goes a long way in selling the reality of this virtual world.
Whilst to the modern audience member Tron will certainly look quaint and extremely dated, without it we would never have got Steven Spielberg making CGI dinosaurs, and without that then we wouldn’t have CGI as it exists today. Tron is the precursor to all modern digital special effects and thanks to the unique art style they remain visually engaging to this day.
Tron certainly isn’t for everyone, but I feel like it’s something worthwhile seeking out if you haven’t seen it before, and even if you’re not massively into technology. Whilst the jargon can be intimidating, the great performances and excellent special effects will definitely put a smile on your face.
I was surprised that Disney allowed their family film to be so swamped with such complex technical jargon, especially considering Tron was released in the early eighties and most people had never even used a computer at that point.
But despite its frankly absurd complexities, Tron’s story can be enjoyable once you understand the dialogue. For the eighties it was a completely unique idea, something that would definitely be replicated and expanded upon in the years following, with films like The Matrix in the late nineties owing an awful lot to Tron’s premise.
Thankfully the story is made considerably more bearable by the great performances from Bridges and Boxleitner in particular.
But what you really watch Tron for is the incredible visual effects and magnificent score. It may be a little absurd looking at Tron today and saying the visual effects are incredible, but for 1982 they were far beyond anything the industry had seen before by using a mix of live action, backlit animation, and early computer animation. We’re so used to seeing CGI in modern films that looking into the process of how director Steven Lisberger created these sequences is frankly astounding. Because computers in the late seventies and early eighties didn’t have proper graphical processing power needed to create what we know today as CGI, the sequences such as the famous ‘Light Cycle’ scenes were created frame by frame and could have no live-action elements involved with them. So how did they make the sets look the way they did when actors were needed in the frame? This was achieved with a combination of practical effects, complex colour grading, and backlit animation added to the film print in post-production.
Whilst Tron certainly looks dated now, it’s impossible not to appreciate just how much work went into making the film look the way it does. Even today Lisberger’s vision is impressive to say the least, with few modern films having the same creative approach to visual design.
Wendy Carlos’ excellent synth heavy score is a masterpiece as well and goes a long way in selling the reality of this virtual world.
Whilst to the modern audience member Tron will certainly look quaint and extremely dated, without it we would never have got Steven Spielberg making CGI dinosaurs, and without that then we wouldn’t have CGI as it exists today. Tron is the precursor to all modern digital special effects and thanks to the unique art style they remain visually engaging to this day.
Tron certainly isn’t for everyone, but I feel like it’s something worthwhile seeking out if you haven’t seen it before, and even if you’re not massively into technology. Whilst the jargon can be intimidating, the great performances and excellent special effects will definitely put a smile on your face.