''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
action
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
-
adventure film
An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, an ...
written and directed by
Steven Lisberger
Steven M. Lisberger (born April 24, 1951) is an American film director, producer and writer famous for directing ''Tron'' in 1982.
Early life and education
Lisberger was born in 1951 in New York City and grew up in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Of h ...
from a story by Lisberger and
Bonnie MacBird
Bonnie MacBird is an American writer, actress and producer of screen, stage and prose. She is the original writer of the science fiction film ''Tron''.
MacBird is a native of San Francisco, California and graduated from Stanford University w ...
. The film stars
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.
Bridges comes from a prominent a ...
as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer and
video game developer
A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...
who is transported inside the software world of a mainframe computer where he interacts with programs in his attempt to escape; it also stars
Bruce Boxleitner
Bruce William Boxleitner (born May 12, 1950) is an American actor and science fiction and suspense writer. He is known for his leading roles in the television series '' How the West Was Won'', '' Bring 'Em Back Alive'', ''Scarecrow and Mrs. King ...
,
David Warner David or Dave Warner may refer to:
Sports
* Dave Warner (strongman) (born 1969), Northern Ireland strongman competitor
* David Bruce Warner (born 1970), South African alpine skier
* David Warner (cricketer) (born 1986), Australian cricketer
Oth ...
,
Cindy Morgan
Cindy Morgan (born Cynthia Ann Cichorski; September 29, 1954) is an American actress known for her appearances as Lora/Yori in ''Tron'' and Lacey Underall in ''Caddyshack''.
Life and career
Morgan was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Polish and ...
, and
Barnard Hughes
Bernard Aloysius Kiernan Hughes (July 16, 1915 – July 11, 2006), known professionally as Barnard Hughes, was an American actor of television, theater and film. Hughes became famous for a variety of roles; his most notable roles came after mid ...
. ''Tron'', along with ''
The Last Starfighter
''The Last Starfighter'' is a 1984 American space opera film directed by Nick Castle. The film tells the story of Alex Rogan (Lance Guest), a teenager recruited by an alien defense force to fight in an interstellar war. It also features Robert ...
'', has the distinction of being one of cinema's earliest films to use extensive
computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images may ...
(CGI).
The inspiration for ''Tron'' dates back to 1976, when Lisberger became intrigued with
video games
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
after seeing ''
Pong
''Pong'' is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released in 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcor ...
''. He and producer
Donald Kushner
Donald Kushner (born March 2, 1945) is an American producer who has worked with animation, live-action, and theater productions.
Biography
Kushner was born March 2, 1945, to Ann Gardner. He has two sisters.
Kushner attended high school in Prov ...
set up an animation studio to develop ''Tron'' with the intention of making it an animated film. To promote the studio itself, Lisberger and his team created a 30-second animation featuring the first appearance of the title character. Eventually, Lisberger decided to include live-action elements with both backlit and
computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refe ...
for the actual feature-length film. Various studios had rejected the storyboards for the film before
Walt Disney Productions
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
agreed to finance and distribute ''Tron''. There,
backlit animation was finally combined with the computer animation and live action.
''Tron'' was released on July 9, 1982. The film was a moderate success at the box office, and received positive reviews from critics, who praised its groundbreaking visuals and acting but criticized its storyline as being incoherent. ''Tron'' received nominations for
Best Costume Design and
Best Sound
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow List of film awards, film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awa ...
at the
55th Academy Awards
The 55th Academy Awards were presented April 11, 1983, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Liza Minnelli, Dudley Moore, Richard Pryor, and Walter Matthau. Louis Gossett Jr. became the first Africa ...
, but was not nominated in the
Best Visual Effects category. ''Tron'' spawned multiple video games (including an arcade
tie-in
A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original prope ...
released shortly after the film), and as it became a
cult film
A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage ...
, a
multimedia franchise
A media franchise, also known as a multimedia franchise, is a collection of related media in which several derivative works have been produced from an original creative work of fiction, such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or ...
including comic books. A
sequel
A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...
titled ''
Tron: Legacy'', directed by
Joseph Kosinski
Joseph Kosinski is an American film director best known for his computer graphics and computer-generated imagery (CGI) work, and for his work in action films. He made his big-screen directorial debut with the 2010 science fiction film '' Tron: ...
, was released in 2010, with Bridges and Boxleitner reprising their roles and Lisberger acting as producer, which itself was followed by the animated series ''
Tron: Uprising'', set between the two films.
Plot
Kevin Flynn is a leading
software engineer
Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development.
A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term ''p ...
, formerly employed by the computer corporation ENCOM, who now runs a
video game arcade
An amusement arcade (often referred to as a video arcade, amusements or simply arcade) is a venue where people play arcade games, including arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers (such as ...
and attempts to
hack
Hack may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Games
* ''Hack'' (Unix video game), a 1984 roguelike video game
* ''.hack'' (video game series), a series of video games by the multimedia franchise ''.hack''
Music
* ''Hack'' (album), a 199 ...
into ENCOM's
mainframe
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...
system. However, ENCOM's
Master Control Program
The MCP (Master Control Program) is the operating system of the Burroughs small, medium and large systems, including the Unisys Clearpath/MCP systems.
MCP was originally written in 1961 in ESPOL (Executive Systems Problem Oriented Language). In ...
(MCP) halts his progress. 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, Dillinger claims that the security measures are an effort to stop outside hacking attempts. However, when Dillinger privately questions the MCP through his computerized desk, he realizes the MCP has expanded into a powerful
virtual intelligence
Virtual intelligence (VI) is the term given to artificial intelligence that exists within a virtual world. Many virtual worlds have options for persistent avatars that provide information, training, role playing, and social interactions.
The imme ...
and has become power-hungry, illegally appropriating personal, business, and government programs to increase its own capabilities. Dillinger rose to the top of ENCOM by stealing video games Flynn had created, presenting them to the company as his own. The MCP blackmails Dillinger with information about his plagiarizing Flynn's games if he does 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 plagiarism, which launched Dillinger's rise in the company. 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, communicating with his terminal. Before Flynn can get the information he needs to reveal Dillinger's acts, the MCP uses an experimental
laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...
to digitize and upload Flynn into the ENCOM mainframe cyberspace, where programs are living entities appearing in the likeness of the human "Users" (programmers) who created them.
Flynn learns that the MCP and its second-in-command, Sark, rule and coerce programs to renounce their belief in the Users. The MCP forces programs that resist to play in deadly
games
A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...
and begins putting Flynn in duels. Flynn meets other captured programs, Ram and Tron, between matches. Partnered, the three escape into the mainframe during a
light cycle match (an
arcade game
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...
Flynn wrote the program for and is skilled at), but Flynn and Ram become separated from Tron by an MCP pursuit party. While attempting to help Ram, who was wounded in the pursuit, Flynn learns that he can manipulate portions of the mainframe by accessing his programmer knowledge. Ram recognizes Flynn as a User and encourages him to find Tron and free the system before "derezzing" (dying). Using his new ability, Flynn partially rebuilds a Recognizer vehicle (a construct taken from another one of Flynn's games) and later disguises himself as one of Sark's soldiers.
Tron enlists help from Yori, a sympathetic program, and at an I/O tower receives information from Alan necessary to destroy the MCP. Flynn rejoins them, and the three board a hijacked solar sailer to reach the MCP's core. However, Sark's command ship destroys the sailer, capturing Flynn and Yori and presumably killing Tron. Sark leaves the command ship and orders its deresolution, but Flynn keeps it intact by again manipulating the mainframe, while Sark reaches the MCP's core on a shuttle carrying captured programs. While the MCP attempts to absorb captive programs, Tron, who turns out to have survived, confronts Sark and critically injures him, prompting the MCP to give him all its functions. Realizing that his ability to manipulate the mainframe might give Tron an opening, Flynn leaps into the beam of the MCP, distracting it. Seeing the break in the MCP's shield, Tron attacks through the gap and destroys the MCP and Sark, ending the MCP's control over the mainframe and allowing the captured programs to communicate with users again.
Flynn reappears in the real world, rematerialized at his terminal. Tron's victory in the mainframe has released all lockouts on computer access, and a nearby printer produces the evidence that Dillinger had plagiarized Flynn's creations. The next morning, Dillinger enters his office to find the MCP deactivated and the proof of his theft publicized, but is nevertheless glad that the MCP is destroyed. Subsequently, Dillinger is terminated while Flynn is promoted to CEO of ENCOM, and is happily greeted by Alan and Lora as their new boss.
Cast
*
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.
Bridges comes from a prominent a ...
as
Kevin Flynn, a former programmer and
video game developer
A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...
at ENCOM and
video arcade
An amusement arcade (often referred to as a video arcade, amusements or simply arcade) is a venue where people play arcade games, including arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers (such as c ...
proprietor who is beamed into the ENCOM mainframe via a digitizing laser by the Master Control Program
** Bridges also portrays
Clu (Codified Likeness Utility), a hacking program developed by Flynn to find evidence of Dillinger's theft in the mainframe.
*
Bruce Boxleitner
Bruce William Boxleitner (born May 12, 1950) is an American actor and science fiction and suspense writer. He is known for his leading roles in the television series '' How the West Was Won'', '' Bring 'Em Back Alive'', ''Scarecrow and Mrs. King ...
as
Alan Bradley, Flynn's work partner and fellow programmer at ENCOM
** Boxleitner also portrays
Tron
''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action-adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer a ...
, a security program developed by Bradley to self-monitor communications between the MCP and the real world.
*
David Warner David or Dave Warner may refer to:
Sports
* Dave Warner (strongman) (born 1969), Northern Ireland strongman competitor
* David Bruce Warner (born 1970), South African alpine skier
* David Warner (cricketer) (born 1986), Australian cricketer
Oth ...
as
Ed Dillinger, the Senior Executive Vice President of ENCOM and former coworker of Flynn's who used the MCP to steal Flynn's work and pass it off as his own, earning himself a series of undeserved promotions
** Warner also portrays
Sark
Sark (french: link=no, Sercq, ; Sercquiais: or ) is a part of the Channel Islands in the southwestern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France. It is a royal fief, which forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of l ...
, a command program developed by Dillinger to serve as the MCP's second-in-command.
** Warner also provides the uncredited voice of the
Master Control Program (MCP), a rogue
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
(originally a
chess program
In computer chess, a chess engine is a computer program that analyzes chess or chess variant positions, and generates a move or list of moves that it regards as strongest.
A chess engine is usually a back end with a command-line interface wit ...
created by Dr. Gibbs and "improved" by Dillinger) which monitors and controls ENCOM's mainframe.
*
Cindy Morgan
Cindy Morgan (born Cynthia Ann Cichorski; September 29, 1954) is an American actress known for her appearances as Lora/Yori in ''Tron'' and Lacey Underall in ''Caddyshack''.
Life and career
Morgan was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Polish and ...
as
Dr. Lora Baines, Bradley's co-worker and girlfriend, as well as assistant to Dr. Gibbs on the digitization experiment.
** Morgan also portrays
Yori, an input/output program developed by Dr. Baines and an ally of Tron.
*
Barnard Hughes
Bernard Aloysius Kiernan Hughes (July 16, 1915 – July 11, 2006), known professionally as Barnard Hughes, was an American actor of television, theater and film. Hughes became famous for a variety of roles; his most notable roles came after mid ...
as
Dr. Walter Gibbs, a co-founder of ENCOM running the company's science division, who creates the SHV 20905 digitizing laser with Dr. Baines's assistance.
** Hughes also portrays
Dumont, a "guardian" program developed by Dr. Gibbs to protect input/output junctions in the mainframe.
** Hughes also provides the uncredited voice of the Master Control Program's original incarnation.
*
Dan Shor
Daniel Shor (born November 16, 1956) is an American actor, director, writer, and acting teacher with a career spanning over 40 years. His most recognized roles include Enoch Emery in John Huston's ''Wise Blood'' (1979), Ram in ''Tron'' (1982), a ...
as
Roy Kleinberg, an ENCOM employee
** Shor also portrays
Ram
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* Ra ...
, an actuarial program possibly developed by Kleinberg to sort out connections between ENCOM and an unnamed insurance company, who is a close ally of Tron and Flynn.
*
Peter Jurasik
Peter Jurasik ( ; born April 25, 1950) is an American actor known for his television roles as Londo Mollari in the 1990s science fiction series ''Babylon 5'' and Sid the Snitch on the 1980s series ''Hill Street Blues'' and its short-lived spino ...
as
Crom, a compound interest program matched against Flynn on the Game Grid
* Tony Stephano as Peter, Ed Dillinger's assistant.
** Stephano also portrays Sark's Lieutenant.
Production
Origins
The inspiration for ''Tron'' occurred in 1976 when Steven Lisberger, then an animator of drawings with his own studio, looked at a sample reel from a computer firm called
MAGI
Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin ''magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius th ...
and saw ''
Pong
''Pong'' is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released in 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcor ...
'' for the first time.
He was immediately fascinated by video games and wanted to do a film incorporating them. According to Lisberger, "I realized that there were these techniques that would be very suitable for bringing video games and computer visuals to the screen. And that was the moment that the whole concept flashed across my mind".
The film's concept of entering a parallel game world was also inspired by the classic tale ''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
''.
Lisberger had already created an early version of the character 'Tron' for a 30 second long animation which was used to promote both Lisberger Studios and a series of various rock radio stations. This backlit
cel animation
Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation.
Proce ...
depicted Tron as a character who glowed yellow; the same shade that Lisberger had originally intended for all the heroic characters developed for the feature-length ''Tron''. This was later changed to blue for the finished film (see
Pre-production
Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the content starts ...
below). The prototype Tron was bearded and resembled the
Cylon Centurions from the 1978 TV series ''
Battlestar Galactica
''Battlestar Galactica'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series), original television series in 1978, and was followed by a short-run sequel se ...
''. Also, Tron was armed with two "exploding discs", as Lisberger described them on the 2-Disc DVD edition (
see Rinzler).
Lisberger elaborates: "Everybody was doing backlit animation in the 70s, you know. It was that disco look. And we thought, what if we had this character that was a neon line, and that was our Tron warrior – Tron for electronic. And what happened was, I saw ''Pong'', and I said, well, that's the arena for him. And at the same time I was interested in the early phases of computer generated animation, which I got into at MIT in Boston, and when I got into that I met a bunch of programmers who were into all that. And they really inspired me, by how much they believed in this new realm."
He was frustrated by the clique-like nature of computers and video games and wanted to create a film that would open this world up to everyone. Lisberger and his business partner
Donald Kushner
Donald Kushner (born March 2, 1945) is an American producer who has worked with animation, live-action, and theater productions.
Biography
Kushner was born March 2, 1945, to Ann Gardner. He has two sisters.
Kushner attended high school in Prov ...
moved to the West Coast in 1977 and set up an animation studio to develop ''Tron''.
They borrowed against the anticipated profits of their 90-minute animated television special ''
Animalympics
''Animalympics'' is a 1980 animated television film directed by Steven Lisberger and produced by Lisberger Studios for the NBC network. Originally commissioned as two separate specials, it spoofs the Summer and Winter Olympic Games and features ...
'' to develop storyboards for ''Tron'' with the notion of making an animated film.
But after ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' mentioned the project briefly during its early phase, it caught the attention of computer scientist
Alan Kay
Alan Curtis Kay (born May 17, 1940) published by the Association for Computing Machinery 2012 is an American computer scientist best known for his pioneering work on object-oriented programming and windowing graphical user interface (GUI) d ...
. He contacted Lisberger and convinced him to use him as an adviser on the movie, then persuaded him to use real CGI instead of just hand-animation.
Bonnie MacBird
Bonnie MacBird is an American writer, actress and producer of screen, stage and prose. She is the original writer of the science fiction film ''Tron''.
MacBird is a native of San Francisco, California and graduated from Stanford University w ...
wrote the first drafts of Tron with extensive input from Lisberger,
basing the original personality of Alan on Alan Kay.
He gave her and Lisberger the same
tour of Xerox PARC that famously inspired the Apple Macintosh,
and their many conversations (and a class she took with
Donald Knuth
Donald Ervin Knuth ( ; born January 10, 1938) is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is the 1974 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, informally considered the Nobel Prize of computer sc ...
at Stanford
) inspired her to include many computer science references.
As a result of working together, Kay and MacBird became close and later married.
She also created Tron as a character (rather than a visual demo) and Flynn.
Originally, MacBird envisioned Flynn more comedically, suggesting the then 30-year-old
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...
for the role.
Besides many story changes after the script went to Disney, including giving it "a more serious tone with quasi religious overtones",
and removing most of the scientific elements,
none of her dialogue remains in the final film,
and there was a "rather bitter credits dispute."
The film was eventually conceived as an animated film bracketed with live-action sequences.
The rest involved a combination of computer-generated visuals and back-lit animation. Lisberger planned to finance the movie independently by approaching several computer companies but had little success. However, one company,
Information International Inc.
Information International, Inc., commonly referred to as Triple-I or III, was an early computer technology company.
Background
The company was founded by Edward Fredkin in 1962 in Maynard, Massachusetts. It then moved (serially) to Santa Monic ...
, was receptive.
He met with Richard Taylor, a representative, and they began talking about using live-action photography with back-lit animation in such a way that it could be integrated with computer graphics. At this point, there was a script and the film was entirely
storyboard
A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, i ...
ed, with some computer animation tests completed.
He had spent approximately $300,000 developing ''Tron'' and had also secured $4–5 million in private backing before reaching a standstill. Lisberger and Kushner took their storyboards and samples of computer-generated films to
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...
,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
, and
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
– all of which turned them down.
In 1980, they decided to take the idea to
Walt Disney Productions
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
, which was interested in producing more daring productions at the time.
Tom Wilhite, Disney's vice president for creative development, watched Lisberger's test footage and convinced
Ron Miller to give the movie a chance. However, Disney executives were uncertain about giving $10–12 million to a first-time producer and director using techniques which, in most cases, had never been attempted. The studio agreed to finance a test reel which involved a
flying disc
A frisbee (pronounced ), also called a flying disc or simply a disc, is a gliding toy or sporting item that is generally made of injection-molded plastic and roughly in diameter with a pronounced lip. It is used recreationally and competitive ...
champion throwing a rough prototype of the discs used in the film.
It was a chance to mix live-action footage with back-lit animation and computer-generated visuals. It impressed the executives at Disney and they agreed to back the film. MacBird and Lisberger's script was subsequently re-written and re-storyboarded with the studio's input.
At the time, Disney rarely hired outsiders to make films for them, and Kushner found that he and his group were given a chilly reception because they "tackled the nerve center –
the animation department. They saw us as the germ from outside. We tried to enlist several Disney animators, but none came. Disney is a closed group."
As a result, they hired
Wang Film Productions
Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd. (also known as Hong Guang Animation (宏廣) and Cuckoos' Nest Studio) is one of the oldest and most prolific Taiwanese-American animation studios since 1978. The company, based in Xindian, Taipei and Los Angeles, ...
for the animation.
Production
Because of the many special effects, Disney decided in 1981 to film ''Tron'' completely in 65-mm
Super Panavision (except for the computer-generated layers, which were shot in
VistaVision
VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm motion picture film format which was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954.
Paramount never used anamorphic processes such as 2.55: 1, CinemaScope but refi ...
and both
anamorphic 35mm and
Super 35
Super 35 (originally known as Superscope 235) is a motion picture film format that uses exactly the same film stock as standard 35 mm film, but puts a larger image frame on that stock by using the space normally reserved for the optical anal ...
which were used for some scenes in the "real" world and subsequently "blown up" to 65 mm). Three designers were brought in to create the look of the computer world.
French comic book artist
Jean Giraud
Jean Henri Gaston Giraud (; 8 May 1938 – 10 March 2012) was a French artist, cartoonist, and writer who worked in the Bandes dessinées, Franco-Belgian ''bandes dessinées'' (BD) tradition. Giraud garnered worldwide acclaim under the pseu ...
(also known as Moebius) was the main set and costume designer for the film. Most of the vehicle designs (including Sark's aircraft carrier, the light cycles, the tank, and the solar sailer) were created by industrial designer
Syd Mead
Sydney Jay Mead (July 18, 1933 – December 30, 2019) was an American industrial designer and neo-futurist concept artist, widely known for his designs for science-fiction films such as ''Blade Runner'', '' Aliens'' and ''Tron''. Mead has bee ...
.
Peter Lloyd, a high-tech commercial artist, designed the environments.
Nevertheless, these jobs often overlapped, leaving Giraud working on the solar sailer and Mead designing terrain, sets and the film's logo. The original 'Program' character design was inspired by Lisberger Studios' logo of a glowing bodybuilder hurling two
discs.
To create the computer animation sequences of ''Tron'', Disney turned to the four leading computer graphics firms of the day:
Information International, Inc.
Information International, Inc., commonly referred to as Triple-I or III, was an early computer technology company.
Background
The company was founded by Edward Fredkin in 1962 in Maynard, Massachusetts. It then moved (serially) to Santa Monic ...
of
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...
, who owned the
Super Foonly F-1 (the fastest
PDP-10
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)'s PDP-10, later marketed as the DECsystem-10, is a mainframe computer family manufactured beginning in 1966 and discontinued in 1983. 1970s models and beyond were marketed under the DECsystem-10 name, especi ...
ever made and the only one of its kind);
MAGI
Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin ''magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius th ...
of
Elmsford, New York
Elmsford is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. Roughly one mile square, the village is fully contained within the borders of the town of Greenburgh. As of the 2010 census, the ...
;
Robert Abel and Associates
Robert Abel and Associates (RA&A) was an American pioneering production company specializing in television commercials made with computer graphics. Robert Abel's company, RA&A was especially known for their art direction and won many Clio Awards. ...
of California; and
Digital Effects
Digital Effects Inc. was an early and innovative computer animation studio at 321 West 44th street in New York City. It was the first computer graphics house in New York City when it opened in 1978, and operated until 1986. It was founded by Ju ...
of New York City.
Bill Kovacs
Bill Kovacs (25 October 1949 – 30 May 2006) was a pioneer of commercial computer animation technology.
Early career
Kovacs received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Carnegie Mellon University in 1971. He worked for Skidmore, Owings and ...
worked on the film while working for Robert Abel before going on to found
Wavefront Technologies
Wavefront Technologies was a computer graphics company that developed and sold animation software used in Hollywood motion pictures and other industries. It was founded in 1984, in Santa Barbara, California, by Bill Kovacs, Larry Barels, Mark Syl ...
. The work was not a collaboration, resulting in very different styles used by the firms.
''Tron'' was one of the first films to make extensive use of any form of
computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refe ...
, and it is celebrated as a milestone in the industry though only fifteen to twenty minutes of such animation were used,
[Interview with ]Harrison Ellenshaw
Harrison Ellenshaw (born Peter Samuel Ellenshaw, July 20, 1945, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) is an American matte painting, matte painter, following his British father Peter Ellenshaw. He started his career at Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney St ...
, supplemental material on ''Tron'' DVD mostly scenes that show digital "terrain" or patterns, or include vehicles such as light-cycles, tanks and ships. Because the technology to combine computer animation and live action did not exist at the time, these sequences were interspersed with the filmed characters. One of the computers used had only 2 MB of memory and no more than 330 MB of storage. This put a limit on detail of background; and at a certain distance, they had a procedure of mixing in black to fade things out, a process called "depth cueing". The film's Computer Effects Supervisor Richard Taylor told them "When in doubt, black it out!", which became their motto. Originally the film was meant to use white backgrounds like in
THX 1138
''THX 1138'' is a 1971 American social science fiction film co-written and directed by George Lucas in his directorial debut. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola and co-written by Walter Murch, the film stars Robert Duvall and Donald Pleasence, wit ...
inside the Grid, but it would require such huge amounts of lights that it was decided to use black backgrounds instead.
The computers at the time could not do animation, so the frames had to be produced one by one. In some of the more complex sequences, like the Solar Sailer moving through metal canyons, each frame could take up to six hours to produce. There was no way to digitally
print them on film, either; rather, a motion picture camera was placed in front of a computer screen to capture each individual frame.
Most of the scenes, backgrounds, and visual effects in the film were created using more traditional techniques and a unique process known as "backlit animation".
In this process, live-action scenes inside the computer world were filmed in
black-and-white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
on an entirely black set, placed in an enlarger for blow-ups and transferred to
large format
Large format refers to any imaging format of or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the or size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120- and 220-roll film), and much larger than the frame o ...
Kodalith high-contrast film. These negatives were then used to make Kodalith sheets with a reverse (positive) image. Clear cels were laid over each sheet and all portions of the figure except the areas that were exposed for the later camera passes were manually blacked out. Next the Kodalith sheets and cel overlays were placed over a light box while a VistaVision camera mounted above it made separate passes and different color filters. A typical shot normally required 12 passes, but some sequences, like the interior of the electronic tank, could need as many as 50 passes. About 300 matte paintings were made for the film, each photographed onto a large piece of
Ektachrome
Ektachrome is a brand name owned by Kodak for a range of transparency, still, and motion picture films previously available in many formats, including 35 mm and sheet sizes to 11 × 14 inch size. Ektachrome has a distinctive look that ...
film before colors were added by gelatin filters in a similar procedure as in the Kodaliths. The mattes,
rotoscopic and CGI were then combined and composed together to give them a "technological" appearance.
With multiple layers of high-contrast, large format positives and negatives, this process required truckloads of
sheet film
Sheet film is large format and medium format photographic film supplied on individual sheets of acetate or polyester film base rather than rolls. Sheet film was initially supplied as an alternative to glass plates. The most popular size measures ...
and a workload even greater than that of a conventional cel-animated feature. The Kodalith was specially produced as large sheets by Kodak for the film and came in numbered boxes so that each batch of the film could be used in order of manufacture for a consistent image. However, this was not understood by the filmmakers and, as a result, glowing outlines and circuit traces occasionally flicker as the film speed varied between batches. After the reason was discovered, this was no longer a problem as the batches were used in order and "zinger" sounds were used during the flickering parts to represent the computer world malfunctioning as Lisberger described it. Lisberger later had these flickers and sounds digitally corrected for the 2011 restored Blu-ray release as they were not included in his original vision of the film. Due to its difficulty and cost, this process of back-lit animation was not repeated for another feature film.
Sound design and creation for the film was assigned to Frank Serafine, who was responsible for the sound design on ''
Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' in 1979.
At one point in the film, a small entity called "Bit" advises Flynn with only the words "yes" and "no" created by a
Votrax
Votrax International, Inc. (originally the Vocal division of Federal Screw Works), or just Votrax, was a speech synthesis company located in the Detroit, Michigan area from 1971 to 1996. It began as a division of Federal Screw Works from 1971 to 19 ...
speech synthesizer.
''
BYTE
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
'' wrote: "Although this film is very much the personal expression of Steven Lisberger's vision, nevertheless
thas certainly been a group effort".
More than 569 people were involved in the post-production work, including 200 inkers and hand-painters, 85 of them from Taiwan's
Cuckoo's Nest Studio
Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd. (also known as Hong Guang Animation (宏廣) and Cuckoos' Nest Studio) is one of the oldest and most prolific Taiwanese-American animation studios since 1978. The company, based in Xindian, Taipei and Los Angeles, ...
. Unusually for an English-language production, in the end credits the Taiwanese personnel were listed with their names written in
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
.
This film features parts of the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...
; the multi-storey ENCOM laser bay was the target area for the
SHIVA
Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...
solid-state multi-beamed laser. Also, the stairway that Alan, Lora, and Flynn use to reach Alan's office is the stairway in Building 451 near the entrance to the main machine room. The cubicle scenes were shot in another room of the lab. At the time, ''Tron'' was the only film to have scenes filmed inside this lab.
The original script called for "good" programs to be colored yellow and "evil" programs (those loyal to Sark and the MCP) to be colored blue. Partway into production, this coloring scheme was changed to blue for good and red for evil, but some scenes were produced using the original coloring scheme: Clu, who drives a tank, has yellow circuit lines, and all of Sark's tank commanders are blue (but appear green in some presentations). Also, the light-cycle sequence shows the heroes driving yellow (Flynn), orange (Tron), and red (Ram) cycles, while Sark's troops drive blue cycles; similarly, Clu's tank is red, while tanks driven by crews loyal to Sark are blue.
Because of all the personal information about citizens which exist inside computer networks, such as social security number and driver's license, the idea was that each real world person has a digital counterpart inside the Grid based on information about them, which is why it was decided to use some of the same actors in both worlds.
Budgeting the production was difficult by reason of breaking new ground in response to additional challenges, including an impending
Directors Guild of America
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merge ...
strike and a fixed release date.
Disney predicted at least $400 million in domestic sales of merchandise, including an arcade game by
Bally Midway
Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (series), Rampage'' ...
and three
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...
Intellivision
The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel, Mattel Electronics in 1979. The name is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Development began in 1977, the same year as the launch of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. I ...
home video games.
The producers also added
Easter eggs
Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tra ...
: during the scene where Tron and Ram escape from the
Light Cycle arena into the system,
Pac-Man
originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
can be seen behind Sark (with the corresponding sounds from the ''Pac-Man'' arcade game being heard in the background), while a "
Hidden Mickey
A Hidden Mickey is a representation of Mickey Mouse that has been inserted subtly into the design of a ride, attraction, or other location in a Disney theme park, Disney properties, animated film, feature-length movie, TV series, or other Disney ...
" outline (located at time 01:12:29 on the re-release Blu-ray) can be seen below the solar sailer during the protagonists' journey. The film set also included the arcade games ''
Space Invaders
is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and set ...
'' (1978), ''
Asteroids
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
'' (1979) and ''
Pac-Man
originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'' (1980).
''Tron'' was originally meant to be released during the Christmas season of 1982, but when chairman of the Disney board
Card Walker
Esmond Cardon Walker (January 9, 1916 – November 28, 2005), commonly known as E. Cardon Walker or Card Walker, was an American businessman who served as a top executive at Walt Disney Productions during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. He was born in ...
found out the release date of
Don Bluth
Donald Virgil Bluth (; born September 13, 1937) is an American film director, animator, production designer, and animation instructor, best known for his animated films, including ''The Secret of NIMH'' (1982), ''An American Tail'' (1986), ''Th ...
's film ''
The Secret of NIMH
''The Secret of NIMH'' is a 1982 American animated fantasy adventure film directed by Don Bluth in his directorial debut and based on Robert C. O'Brien's 1971 children's novel, '' Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH''. The film features the voices ...
'' was in early July, he rushed it into a summer release to be able to compete with Bluth, and it ended up competing with films like ''
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (or simply ''E.T.'') is a 1982 American science fiction film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. It tells the story of Elliott, a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, d ...
'', ''
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'', ''
Blade Runner
''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick' ...
'' and ''
Poltergeist
In ghostlore, a poltergeist ( or ; German for "rumbling ghost" or "noisy spirit") is a type of ghost or spirit that is responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed. Most claims or fictional descr ...
''.
Music
The soundtrack for ''Tron'' was written by pioneer electronic musician
Wendy Carlos
Wendy Carlos (born Walter Carlos, November 14, 1939) is an American musician and composer best known for her electronic music and film scores. Born and raised in Rhode Island, Carlos studied physics and music at Brown University before moving ...
, who is best known for her album ''
Switched-On Bach
''Switched-On Bach'' is the debut album by American composer Wendy Carlos, originally released under her birth name Walter Carlos in October 1968 by Columbia Records. Produced by Carlos and Rachel Elkind, the album is a collection of pieces by J ...
'' and for the soundtracks to many films, including the
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
-directed films ''
A Clockwork Orange
''A Clockwork Orange'' may refer to:
* ''A Clockwork Orange'' (novel), a 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess
** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (film), a 1971 film directed by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel
*** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (soundtrack), the film ...
'' and ''
The Shining''. The music, which was the first collaboration between Carlos and her partner Annemarie Franklin,
featured a mix of an analog
Moog synthesizer
The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...
and
Crumar
Crumar was an Italian manufacturer of electronic musical instruments. It was established by Mario Crucianelli in the late 1960s, and manufactured synthesizers and keyboards during the '70s and '80s. Its name is a portmanteau of "Crucia ...
's GDS digital synthesizer (complex
additive
Additive may refer to:
Mathematics
* Additive function, a function in number theory
* Additive map, a function that preserves the addition operation
* Additive set-functionn see Sigma additivity
* Additive category, a preadditive category with f ...
and
phase modulation
Phase modulation (PM) is a modulation pattern for conditioning communication signals for transmission. It encodes a message signal as variations in the instantaneous phase of a carrier wave. Phase modulation is one of the two principal forms ...
synthesis
Synthesis or synthesize may refer to:
Science Chemistry and biochemistry
*Chemical synthesis, the execution of chemical reactions to form a more complex molecule from chemical precursors
** Organic synthesis, the chemical synthesis of organ ...
), along with non-electronic pieces performed by the
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...
(hired at the insistence of Disney, which was concerned that Carlos might not be able to complete her score on time). Two additional musical tracks ("1990's Theme" and "Only Solutions") were provided by the American band
Journey
Journey or journeying may refer to:
* Travel, the movement of people between distant geographical locations
** Day's journey, a measurement of distance
** Road trip, a long-distance journey on the road
Animals
* Journey (horse), a thoroughbred ra ...
after British band
Supertramp
Supertramp were an English rock band that formed in London in 1969. Marked by the individual songwriting of founders Roger Hodgson (vocals, keyboards, and guitars) and Rick Davies (vocals and keyboards), they are distinguished for blending pro ...
pulled out of the project. An album featuring dialogue, music and sound effects from the film was also released on LP by Disneyland Records in 1982.
Reception and legacy
Box office
''Tron'' was released on July 9, 1982, in 1,091 theaters in the United States and Canada grossing
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
$4 million on its opening weekend. It went on to gross $33 million in the United States and Canada
and $17 million overseas, for a worldwide gross of approximately $50 million,
[ which was Disney's highest-grossing live action film for 5 years.]
In addition, the film had $70 million in wholesale merchandise sales.[
Despite the gross and merchandise sales, it was seen as a financial disappointment, and the studio wrote off some of its $17 million budget.
]
Critical response
The film was well received by critics. Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the ''Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' gave the film four out of four stars and described it as "a dazzling movie from Disney in which computers have been used to make themselves romantic and glamorous. Here's a technological sound-and-light show that is sensational and brainy, stylish and fun". However, near the end of his review, he noted (in a positive tone), "This is an almost wholly technological movie. Although it's populated by actors who are engaging (Bridges, Cindy Morgan) or sinister (Warner), it's not really a movie about human nature. Like ''Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' or ''The Empire Strikes Back
''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic film, epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based o ...
'' but much more so, this movie is a machine to dazzle and delight us". Ebert closed his first annual Overlooked Film Festival with a showing of ''Tron''. Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his d ...
of the ''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' also awarded four out of four stars, calling it "a trip, and a terrifically entertaining one at that...It's a dazzler that opens up our minds to our new tools, all in a traditional film narrative." Each gave the film two thumbs up. ''Tron'' was also featured in Siskel and Ebert's video pick of the week in 1993.
InfoWorld's Deborah Wise was impressed, writing that "it's hard to believe the characters acted out the scenes on a darkened soundstage... We see characters throwing illuminated Frisbee
A frisbee (pronounced ), also called a flying disc or simply a disc, is a gliding toy or sporting item that is generally made of injection-molded plastic and roughly in diameter with a pronounced lip. It is used recreationally and competitive ...
s, driving 'lightcycles' on a video-game grid, playing a dangerous version of jai alai
Jai alai (: ) is a sport involving bouncing a ball off a walled-in space by accelerating it to high speeds with a hand-held wicker ''cesta''. It is a variation of Basque pelota. The term ''jai alai'', coined by Serafin Baroja in 1875, is also oft ...
and zapping numerous fluorescent tanks in arcade-game-type mazes. It's exciting, it's fun, and it's just what video-game fans and anyone with a spirit of adventure will love—despite plot weaknesses."
On the other hand, ''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' disliked the film and said in its review, "''Tron'' is loaded with visual delights but falls way short of the mark in story and viewer involvement. Screenwriter-director Steven Lisberger has adequately marshalled a huge force of technicians to deliver the dazzle, but even kids (and specifically computer game geeks) will have a difficult time getting hooked on the situations". In her review for ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', Janet Maslin
Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...
criticized the film's visual effects: "They're loud, bright and empty, and they're all this movie has to offer". The ''Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
s Gary Arnold wrote, "Fascinating as they are as discrete sequences, the computer-animated episodes don't build dramatically. They remain a miscellaneous form of abstract spectacle". In his review for ''The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'', Jay Scott
Jeffrey Scott Beaven (October 4, 1949 – July 30, 1993), known professionally by his pen name Jay Scott, was a Canadian film critic."Critic Jay Scott, 43 among world's best". ''Toronto Star'', July 31, 1993.
Early life
Scott was born in Lincol ...
wrote, "It's got momentum and it's got marvels, but it's without heart; it's a visionary technological achievement without vision".
Colin Greenland
Colin Greenland (born 17 May 1954 in Dover, Kent, England) is a British science fiction writer, whose first story won the second prize in a 1982 Faber & Faber competition. His best-known novel is ''Take Back Plenty'' (1990), winner of both majo ...
reviewed the home video release of ''Tron'' for ''Imagine
Imagine may refer to:
* Imagination
Music Albums
* ''Imagine'' (Armin van Buuren album), 2008
* ''Imagine'' (Eva Cassidy album), 2002
* ''Imagine'' (Janice Vidal album), 2012
* ''Imagine'' (John Lennon album), 1971
** ''Imagine: John Lennon' ...
'' magazine, and stated that "three plucky young programmers descend into the micro-world to battle the Master Control Program with a sacred frisbee. Loses much of its excitement on the little screen."
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds a 72% rating based on the reviews of 67 critics, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's consensus states: "Though perhaps not as strong dramatically as it is technologically, TRON is an original and visually stunning piece of science fiction that represents a landmark work in the history of computer animation." Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
gave the film a score of 58 based on 13 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
In the year it was released, the Motion Picture Academy refused to nominate ''Tron'' for a special-effects award because, as director Steven Lisberger puts it, "The Academy thought we cheated by using computers". The film did, however, earn Oscar nominations in the categories of Best Costume Design and Best Sound
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow List of film awards, film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awa ...
(Michael Minkler
Michael Minkler (born 14 May 1952) is a motion picture sound re-recording mixer. He has received Academy Awards for his work on ''Dreamgirls'', ''Chicago'' and '' Black Hawk Down''. His varied career has also included films like ''Inglourious Bast ...
, Bob Minkler
Robert Alan Minkler (August 31, 1937 – October 11, 2015) was an American audio engineering, sound engineer. He won an Academy Awards, Oscar for Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound and was nominated for another in the same categ ...
, Lee Minkler
Lee Minkler was an American sound engineer. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Sound for the film ''Tron''. His name was featured in the Oscars In Memoriam 2018.
Selected filmography
* ''Tron
''Tron'' (stylized as ...
, and James LaRue).
Cultural effect
In 1997, Ken Perlin
Kenneth H. Perlin is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at New York University, founding director of the Media Research Lab at NYU, director of the Future Reality Lab at NYU, and the Director of the Games for Learning Institute. He ...
of the Mathematical Applications Group, Inc.
Mathematical Applications Group, Inc. (a.k.a. MAGi or MAGi/SynthaVision) was an early computing, computer technology company founded in 1966 by Dr. Philip Mittelman and located in Elmsford, New York, where it was evaluating nuclear radiation exposu ...
won an Academy Award for Technical Achievement
The Technical Achievement Award is one of three Scientific and Technical Awards given from time to time by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (The other two awards are the Scientific and Engineering Award and the Academy Award of Me ...
for his invention of Perlin noise
Perlin noise is a type of gradient noise developed by Ken Perlin.
History
Ken Perlin developed Perlin noise in 1983 as a result of his frustration with the "machine-like" look of computer-generated imagery (CGI) at the time. He formally descr ...
for ''Tron''.
The film, considered groundbreaking, has inspired several individuals in numerous ways. John Lasseter
John Alan Lasseter (; born January 12, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, voice actor, and the head of animation at Skydance Animation. He was previously the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, ...
, head of Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californi ...
and Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
's animation group, described how the film helped him see the potential of computer-generated imagery in the production of animated films, stating "without ''Tron'', there would be no ''Toy Story
''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American computer-animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter (in his feature directorial debut), produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the '' Toy Story ...
''."
The two members of the French house music
House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...
group Daft Punk
Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history, they achieved popularity in the late 1990s as p ...
, who scored the sequel
A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...
, have held a joint, lifelong fascination with the film. Also, in Gorillaz
Gorillaz are an English virtual band formed in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, from London. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: 2-D (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, ...
' music video for the song "Feel Good Inc
Feel may refer to:
*Feeling
Music Bands
*Feel (New York band), a dance and R&B band
*Feel (Polish band), a pop rock band
Songs
* "Feel" (Kendrick Lamar song), 2017
* "Feel", by Phora, 2018
*"Feel", by Mahmut Orhan, 2016
* "Feel" (Kumi Koda song), ...
.", Russel, the fictional drummer of the band, can be seen wearing an Encom hat.
''Tron'' developed into a cult film
A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage ...
and was ranked as 13th in a 2010 list of the top 20 cult films published by ''The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
''.
The film heavily inspired the music video for Danish pop/dance
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
group Infernal's 2006 hit single "From Paris to Berlin
"From Paris to Berlin" is a song by Danish dance-pop group Infernal. It was released in 2004 as the third single from their third studio album, '' From Paris to Berlin''.
It is known as their signature song as this was the first that charted i ...
". The music video for Australian rock band Regurgitator
Regurgitator are an Australian rock band from Brisbane, Queensland, formed in late 1993 by Quan Yeomans on lead vocals, guitar and keyboards; Ben Ely on bass guitar, keyboards and vocals; and Martin Lee on drums. Their debut studio album, ''Tu ...
's 1997 song "Everyday Formula
"Everyday Formula" is a song by Australian rock band Regurgitator. The song was released in October 1997 as the lead single from the band's second studio album ''Unit''. The single peaked at number 41 in Australia and it also ranked at number ...
" was also heavily inspired by the film and recreates several scenes.
In 2008, the American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
Leade ...
nominated this film for its Top 10 Science Fiction Films list.
Books
A novelization of ''Tron'' was released in 1982, written by American science fiction novelist Brian Daley
Brian Charles Daley (December 22, 1947 – February 11, 1996) was an American science fiction novelist. He also adapted for radio the ''Star Wars'' radio dramas and wrote all of its episodes.
Biography
Daley was born in Englewood, New Jersey ...
. It included eight pages of color photographs from the movie. In the same year, Disney Senior Staff Publicist Michael Bonifer authored a book entitled ''The Art of Tron'' which covered aspects of the pre-production and post-production aspects of ''Tron''. A nonfiction book about the making of the original film, ''The Making of Tron: How Tron Changed Visual Effects and Disney Forever'', was written by William Kallay and published in 2011.
Television
''Tron'' made its television debut as part of the Disney Channel
Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...
's first day of programming, on April 18, 1983, at 7:00PM (ET).
Home media
''Tron'' was originally released on VHS, Betamax
Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, ...
, LaserDisc
The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...
, and CED Videodisc
The Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) is an analog video disc playback system developed by RCA, in which video and audio could be played back on a TV set using a special stylus and high-density groove system similar to phonograph records.
Fir ...
in 1983. As with most video releases from the 1980s, the film was cropped to the 4:3 pan and scan
Pan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown in fullscreen proportions of a standard-definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus ...
format. The film saw multiple re-releases throughout the 1990s, most notably an "Archive Collection" LaserDisc box set, which featured the first release of the film in its original widescreen 2.20:1 format. By 1993, ''Tron'' had grossed in video rentals
A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game discs and other media content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms ...
.
''Tron'' saw its first DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
release on December 12, 2000. This bare-bones release utilized the same non-anamorphic video transfer used in the Archive Collection LaserDisc set, and it did not include any of the LD's special features. On January 15, 2002, the film received a 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition release in the forms of a VHS and a special 2-Disc DVD set. This set featured a new THX
THX Ltd. is an American company that develops the eponymous high fidelity audio/visual reproduction standards for movie theaters, screening rooms, home theaters, computer speakers, gaming consoles, car audio systems, and video games. Founded ...
mastered anamorphic video transfer and included all of the special features from the LD Archive Collection release, plus an all-new 90 minute "Making of Tron" documentary.
To tie in with the home video release of ''Tron: Legacy'', the movie was finally re-released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc., doing business as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, is the home entertainment distribution arm of The Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, an ...
on Special Edition DVD and for the first time on Blu-ray Disc
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...
on April 5, 2011, with the subtitle "The Original Classic" to distinguish it from its sequel. ''Tron'' was also featured in a 5-Disc Blu-ray Combo with the 3D copy of ''Tron: Legacy''. The film was re-released on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK on June 27, 2011.
Sequels
''Tron: Uprising'' (TV series)
Tron: Uprising takes place during the time period between the story lines of the two movies ''Tron'' (1982) and '' Tron: Legacy'' (2010). In the series, young program Beck becomes the leader of a revolution inside the computer world of the Grid, tasked with the mission of freeing his home and friends from the reign of Clu and his henchman, Gen. Tesler. To prepare for the challenge, Beck is trained by Tron – the greatest warrior The Grid has ever known – who mentors Beck as he grows beyond his youthful nature into a courageous and powerful leader. Destined to become the system's new protector, Beck adopts Tron's persona to battle the forces of evil.
''Tron: Legacy''
On January 12, 2005, Disney announced it had hired screenwriters Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal to write a sequel to ''Tron''. In 2008, director Joseph Kosinski
Joseph Kosinski is an American film director best known for his computer graphics and computer-generated imagery (CGI) work, and for his work in action films. He made his big-screen directorial debut with the 2010 science fiction film '' Tron: ...
negotiated to develop and direct ''TRON'', described as "the next chapter" of the 1982 film and based on a preliminary teaser trailer shown at that year's San Diego Comic-Con
San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...
, with Lisberger co-producing. Filming began in Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, British Columbia in April 2009. During the 2009 Comic-Con, the title of the sequel was revealed to be changed to '' Tron: Legacy''. The second trailer (also with the ''Tron: Legacy'' logo) was released in 3D with ''Alice In Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
''. A third trailer premiered at Comic-Con 2010 on July 22. At Disney's D23 Expo on September 10–13, 2009, they also debuted teaser trailers for ''Tron: Legacy'' as well as having a light cycle and other props from the film there. The film was released on December 17, 2010, with Daft Punk
Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history, they achieved popularity in the late 1990s as p ...
composing the score.
Further reading
*
See also
* ''Tron'' (franchise)
* Tron (hacker)
Boris Floricic, better known by his pseudonym Tron (8 June 1972 – 17 October 1998), was a German hacker and phreaker whose death in unclear circumstances has led to various conspiracy theories. He is also known for his Diplom thesis pr ...
* Demoscene
The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visual ...
* Isekai
is a Japanese genre of speculative fiction—both portal fantasy and science fiction are included. It includes novels, light novels, films, manga, anime and video games that revolve around a person or people who are transported to and have to ...
* Golden age of arcade video games
The golden age of arcade video games was the period of rapid growth, technological development and cultural influence of arcade video games, from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The period began with the release of ''Space Invaders'' in 1978, ...
* ''Automan
''Automan'' is an American superhero television series produced by Glen A. Larson. It aired for 12 episodes (although 13 were made) on ABC between 1983 and 1984. It consciously emulates the stylistic trappings of the Walt Disney Pictures live-ac ...
'' - Early eighties TV series inspired by the film.
* ''Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad
''Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad'' (or, in short, ''SSSS'') is an American television series. It was produced by Tsuburaya Productions, Ultracom Inc. and DIC Productions, L.P., with distribution by All American Television, and ran for a duration ...
''
* ''Digimon Adventure
, known as ''Digimon: Digital Monsters'' in English-speaking territories, is a 1999 Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation in cooperation with WiZ, Bandai and Fuji Television. It is the first anime series in the ''D ...
''
* ''Code Lyoko
''Code Lyoko'' () is a French animated series, animated television series created by Thomas Romain and Tania Palumbo and produced by Antefilms Production (season 1) and MoonScoop Group (seasons 2-4) for France 3 and Canal J, with the participatio ...
''
* ''Zixx
''Zixx'' (full title is ''Zixx: Level One'' for season one, ''Zixx: Level Two'' for season two, and ''Zixx: Level Three'' for season three) is a Canadian television series that aired on YTV. This series was developed by Savi Media and The Nigh ...
''
* ''ReBoot
In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...
''
* '' ReBoot: The Guardian Code''
References
External links
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{{Steven Lisberger
1982 films
1982 in computing
1980s science fiction action films
1980s science fiction adventure films
American films with live action and animation
American chase films
American science fiction action films
American science fiction adventure films
Cyberpunk films
Films scored by Wendy Carlos
Films about artificial intelligence
Films about computer hacking
Films about computing
Films about video games
Films about virtual reality
Films adapted into comics
Films adapted into television shows
Films directed by Steven Lisberger
Films produced by Ron W. Miller
Films set in 1982
Films shot in Los Angeles
Religion in science fiction
Rotoscoped films
Tron films
Walt Disney Pictures films
1982 directorial debut films
Films produced by Donald Kushner
1980s English-language films
1980s American films