Tron is a 1982 American science fiction action adventure film released by Buena Vista Distribution and starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, and Cindy Morgan. It was one of the first major motion picture films to use computer-generated imagery (CGI). While the film received mixed critical reactions upon its release, it became a cult hit, and is lauded as a pioneering work in cinematic visual effects.
Tim Burton worked as an animator for this film.[1]
Plot[]
Kevin Flynn is a software engineer formerly employed by ENCOM, having been fired by Ed Dillinger who stole several video games designed by Flynn to gain a series of promotions. Flynn attempts to obtain evidence of Dillinger's actions, but is prevented by the Master Control Program (MCP), an artificial intelligence that controls the ENCOM mainframe and seeks control over other mainframes too. Dillinger attempts to stop the MCP after it reveals its intentions to hack into and gain control of the Pentagon and Kremlin, but he is blackmailed by the MCP, which threatens to reveal to the media of his plagiarism of Flynn's games, which are hugely successful.
Visited by ENCOM employees Alan Bradley and Lora Baines, who warn him that Dillinger knows about his hacking attempts and has tightened security, Flynn persuades them to admit him into ENCOM's buildings. There, he forges a higher security clearance for Bradley's program "Tron", which would monitor communications between the MCP and the outside world; whereupon the MCP uses an experimental laser to transfer Flynn into the ENCOM mainframe.
In the mainframe, computer programs appear in the likeness of the human "users" who created them, and they wield their main weapon called an "identity disc" thrown at their enemies. Here, the MCP and its second-in-command, Sark seek control over input/output in the system. Programs resistant to their rule are forced to play in video games in which the losers are destroyed. Imprisoned by Sark, Flynn meets Tron and another program named Ram. Together, they escape their prison during a Light Cycle match, outrunning Battle Tanks and Recognizers. During their flight, Ram is mortally wounded and dies, but Flynn gradually discovers that, as a User, he is capable of manipulating the reality of the digital world.
Cast[]
- Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, Clu
- Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley, Tron
- David Warner as Ed Dillinger, Sark, Master Control Program
- Cindy Morgan as Lora Baines, Yori
- Barnard Hughes as Walter Gibbs, Dumont
- Dan Shor as Roy Kleinberg, Ram
- Peter Jurasik as Crom