Picture it. A movie comes out during your childhood. You don’t watch it because you are not interested in it, which is unusual because you are into everything. Not every movie is for you, and that is OK. At some point, you become a film critic. Decades, almost a lifetime, have passed. It is randomly your turn to cover major movies opening on October 10, 2025. So now, you finally must see “Tron” (1982) and realize that it spawned a film sequel and series. It is a mutual worst-case scenario because if I made “Tron,” I would not want me to review it either since I opted out when it was considered cool and cutting edge. OK, here we go: the review for the first of three movies in the “Tron” franchise.
Master Control Program (David Warner), “MCP,” a computer program with no limits, has become sentient and surpassed its programmers. MCP is snatching up other computer programs and using them to make itself stronger. These programs fight in an arena driving vehicles that look like wite out dry correction tape, and they carry around a frisbee that contains everything that they are because reasons! From the real world, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is the only one able to successfully enter the program in search of information proving that he invented everything. With the help of fellow programmers, Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) and his girlfriend, Smurfette, I mean Lora Baines (Cindy Baines), who also want access to finish their work, Kevin gets access to MCP. MCP dematerializes him then uploads him into the program, which proves to be a big mistake. If this movie was your cup of tea as a kid, I’m not trying to yuck your yum, but as a person older than the movie, “Tron” was absolute torture to sit through.
Intellectually I understand that for video game lovers, imagining yourself teleported into a game and actually playing the game in person is the epitome of awesome. I was never into video games. I also intellectually understand that combining computer generated graphics with live action was revolutionary. The storyline is a bit prophetic considering contemporary fears of human beings unable to control AI, and AI surpassing us. It also could be seen as one of many movies that influenced “The Matrix” franchise, especially considering its religious themes, which are not inherent to a story about being in a program if “A Minecraft Movie” (2025) is any indication.
“Tron” is actually a provocative concept. Computer programs, which appear like people, fall into two camps. The secular camp, which includes the mightiest program Sark (also Warner) believes that MCP is the most powerful and obey it, but do not believe in users. Computer programs like Ram (Dan Shor), Crom (Peter Jurasik) and Tron (also Boxleitner) believe in users even if they cannot see or hear them. Tron insists that he can talk to this higher power. It seems like a rookie mistake to then put a user into the game since he proves that users exist, and there is something bigger than MCP. His existence threatens the totalitarian fabric of MCP’s society, who kind of resembles Big Brother, or I watched “Tron” too soon after watching “Orwell: 2+2=5” (2025). Because most kidnapped computer programs were originally nerds who only worked in business, Sark and MCP seem indomitable whereas Kevin invented the video games that the virtual world resembles. Unsurprisingly, Kevin, a user, does not have the same physical limitations as computer programs. The computer programs are made in the god’s, I mean the users’ image, which is why most of the cast plays multiple roles.
Shout out to Bridges and Boxleitner for actually playing their computer program alter egos completely differently from their real-world role. When Flynn tries to enter MCP as a computer program, Clu (also Bridges), Bridges plays him as stiff and more mechanical. Alan is a bit of a nerd, and Tron is more like the conventional square jawed, no fear hero. Warner is minimally different in three roles, but he has the advantage since each role visually appears different on screen. MCP resembles the great and powerful Oz. As Sark, he could slip into Darth Vader’s ranks, and no one would notice. Warner did end up providing the voice in a “Star Wars” video game. Warner also played Ed Dillinger, the man who stole Flynn’s work to ascend ENCOM, the corporation that they worked for before dismissing Flynn. He is the only Brit in a team of Americans, and in this case, foreign equals sinister. No disrespect intended to Morgan, but it felt like they included her to have a woman in the cast, and for some reason, Hollywood loves a love triangle. She used to date Kevin but is now with Alan. She still seems attracted to both. To be fair, no woman equals a bromance then things could get downright queer without a woman cutting the tension. In this case, Flynn and Alan never seem in danger of leveraging their united front against MCP into a romance, but better safe than sorry in those days.
In the end, “Tron” pulls punches and deflects any accusations of blasphemy when Flynn explains to the computer programs that he is just like them, and he does not have a grand plan. While the implication may anger people, no one can accuse the movie of making a human being into god. On the other hand, it is a point in favor of agnosticism and atheism. Would any kid get that? As a fundamentalist kid, yes, I would have, but most kids are not watching Tron for the theology. It is just another movie about beating up the big bad’s tyranny and letting everyone have power, which is symbolized as water. Did you know that water in the Bible is a symbol of God, thus baptism, and the water of life? I’ll stop.
All the Biblical references in the world could never make me love “Tron.” When “Xena: The Warrior Princess” had characters fight in their mind and wince in pain when they were not touching each other, I called it voguing (derogatory when not a part of a ball), and I registered the mostly unintelligible visual language the same way. I do not care that a real-life city in a grid resembles a circuit board, I just found the whole affair boring. The prose dumping dialogue explaining what I just saw was necessary because what I saw was so unclear, and I was not invested. It was so tedious to think that a computer program that should have no physical limitations only seemed to have more limits than people. I miss my 1s and 0s.
If I had planned better, I could have seen “Tron: Uprising,” an animated televisions series, before watching “Tron: Legacy” (2010) and “Tron: Ares” (2025). I am totally not invested in this world, which is a pale imitation of ours. I’m begrudgingly committed to see this project through, but being a completist has its disadvantages.
