“I kept dreaming of a world I thought I’d never see. And then, one day…I got in.” — Kevin Flynn, from Tron: Legacy
Greetings, programs.
For many people, Tron is a 1980s science fiction flop that tried to cash in on the current video game craze, while utilizing ground-breaking computer animation. But for those of us who have long appreciated this film and its sequels/spinoffs, Tron is something much more. It is nostalgia for coin-fed arcade glory; it is the naïve optimism much of us growing up in the 80s had regarding technology; it is a neon-lit mirror realm where sentient programs question (calculate?) the meaning of their existence. It is the ultimate modern fantasy, where a world created for entertainment evolves into a reality of its own.
Tron is a positive look at the future — particularly one filled with artificial intelligence.
Steven Lisberger, the writer/director of the 1982 film, stated that he was interested in the potential of the coming digital age, and he hoped artists would get a foothold there first, rather than corporations. That such a freedom of information, expression, and diversity would grant us a better future. This philosophy is the core of the movie, illustrated in Flynn’s struggle against the Master Control Program, or MCP.
