The Grid.
A digital frontier.
I tried to picture clusters of information
as they moved through the computer.
What did they look like?
Ships? Motorcycles?
Were the circuits like freeways?
I kept dreaming of a world I thought I'd never see.
And then, one day...
- You got in. - That's right, man. I got in.
And the world was more beautiful than I ever dreamed
and also more dangerous than I ever imagined.
Hop in bed, now, kiddo. Come on.
- Now, I met a brave warrior. - Tron.
Bom-ba-bom-bom bom!
Tron!
- He fights for the users. - He sure does.
Oh, man, he showed me things that no one had ever imagined.
There were these disk battles fought in spectacular arenas.
Cycles that raced on ribbons of light.
It was so radical.
And together... - You built the Grid.
- We built a new grid for programs and users.
Now, I couldn't be in there all the time,
so I created a program in my own image that could think.
Like you, and me.
And I called him CLU.
- Codified Likeness Utility. - That's right.
And CLU, Tron and I, we built the system,
where all information was free and open.
Beautiful.
And then, one day,
something happened.
Something extraordinary.
A miracle.
What was it?
That'll have to wait till next time.
I gotta get to work.
I wanna go with you, Dad.
Yeah, well, one day you will.
I promise.
- To the Grid? - Good night, Sam.
Hey, what do you say tomorrow you and I hit the arcade?
You can have a crack at the old man's high score.
First game's on me.
Can we play doubles? On the same team?
We're always on the same team.
Good evening. Our lead story.
ENCOM CEO and video game icon Kevin Flynn has disappeared.
He was best known for designing Tron and Space Paranoids,
the two bestselling video games in history.
Flynn took ownership of ENCOM in 1982
as the company skyrocketed to the top of the tech industry.
But things changed in 1985 with the untimely death of Flynn's wife,
the mother of his young son, Sam.
Recently, ENCOM board members
have been troubled by reports
of Flynn's erratic, even obsessive, behavior.
With Flynn missing, the company is now in chaos.
This afternoon, ENCOM's board
moved to seize control from Flynn's partner, Alan Bradley,
vowing to return the company to profitability.
Loyal to the end, Bradley maintains his belief that Flynn is not missing
and is instead pursuing his dream of
"a digital frontier to reshape the human condition."
In there is a new world.
In there is our future.
In there is our destiny.
Even Flynn's most ardent supporters
are now acknowledging a difficult truth.
Kevin Flynn may have simply run away.
And while Flynn's loyalists hope for his imminent return,
there is perhaps no one who wishes it to happen more than young Sam Flynn,
now in the care of his grandparents, and heir to an empire in turmoil.
He's coming. He promised.
- Sam, you have to eat. - Let go of me!
Sam?
What will become of Flynn's legacy and the future of ENCOM
will most likely depend
on what becomes of this now orphaned little boy.
Sam! Come back!
All cycle units, stand by.
All units, stand by.
Now that is a big door.
Welcome, everybody.
Please settle. I know it's late, so I'll skip the pleasantries
and hand things over to our chairman, Richard Mackey.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Claire.
Tonight I am pleased to announce
that ENCOM's last fiscal year was our most profitable ever.
Yes.
At midnight the 1 2th version of our flagship operating system
will hit the shelves around the world.
I'm sure it comes as no surprise whom we have to thank.
The head of our software design team,
a man whose father's own notable history with ENCOM
helped make this company what it is today.
Edward Dillinger. Well done.
Well done.
And this year, simultaneous to the release of ENCOM OS-12,
we will be making our debut on Tokyo's Nikkei Index.
ENCOM's stock will now trade around the world 24/7.
- Whoo! - Huh? Oh, yes.
- Excuse me. - Yes, Alan?
Given the prices
that we charge to students and schools,
what sort of improvements have been made in Flynn...
I mean, ENCOM OS-12?
This year we put a "12" on the box.
OS-12 is the most secure operating system ever released.
The idea of sharing our software or giving it away for free
disappeared with Kevin Flynn.
I know you're here.
Let's make this easy.
Come on, come on.
Freeze!
Okay.
If there are no more questions,
I would like you to meet our next blockbuster.
ENCOM OS-12.
Whoa.
Still a few bugs.
What's that? What is that?
Just bear with us one sec.
Make this go away now.
Stop what you're doing. Stop. Stop for one second.
...where ENCOM's chairman, Richard Mackey, will be launching...
- We go live in 30 seconds. - He's on the roof!
- Anyone know where the master file is? - I do.
It's on the Web.
We've got to stop this.
I've got to ring that opening bell.
- Make this stop now. - It's locked.
Just shut it down. Shut it down! Now!
Relax, Mackey. Relax.
It's under control.
Relax? Our most valuable
and most secure operating system is out there for free!
How am I supposed to explain that?
I don't know. Say it was all part of the plan.
A little gift from ENCOM.
Apparently, ENCOM Technology is having some technical difficulties.
Why don't we give them a chance to sort things out?
Hey, Dad.
How you doing?
- Where you gonna run to now? - Hey, you don't wanna do that.
Didn't anyone tell you? Stealing is wrong.
You can't steal what was designed to be free.
- Now I got you. - Your boss is okay with this.
The hell he is.
Your boss works for the CEO
and the CEO works for the shareholders.
Do you know who the biggest shareholder is?
I don't know. Some kid.
You're Mr. Flynn?
Why?
This is your father's company.
- Not anymore. - What? Hey. Hey, kid.
No!
Yeah.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
You kidding me?
- That's him! Get the team down here! - There he is! Get him!
What the...
Hey! No free ride!
- Whoa! - No free taxi!
You pay!
- Whoa, whoa, whoa! - No free ride!
Hold it right there. Freeze!
Okay, boys. You got me.
Hey.
- Hey, Karl. - Hey, how you doing?
Enjoy it, Marv. You earned it.
Why are you in my apartment, Alan?
You don't answer your phone.
- How you been, Sam? - Oh, you know,
when I was 12, I appreciated the surrogate-father thing. But come on.
I got it all under control now.
Oh. Clearly!
You want to help me with my homework?
Like old times? Have a catch?
You know, you got a pretty nice view here.
Heard you did a triple axel off of her a few hours ago.
- Rough landing, huh? - Could have been worse.
I also thought your message to the board
was very clever.
Did you like that? That was Marv's idea.
Alan, are we really going to do this again?
Do I really look like I'm ready to run a Fortune 500 company?
No.
And truthfully, the company is pretty happy with where you are, too.
I bet.
That way they can keep doing whatever they want.
You know, I guess what I find curious is the crazy charities,
the annual prank on the company.
You have an interesting way of being disinterested, Sam.
Why are you here, Alan?
I was paged last night.
Oh, man, still rocking the pager?
Good for you.
Yeah, your dad once told me I had to sleep with it, and I still do.
Page came from your dad's office at the arcade.
- So? - So?
That number's been disconnected for 20 years.
Sam, two nights before he disappeared, he came to my house.
"I've cracked it," he kept saying.
He was talking about genetic algorithms, quantum teleportation.
He said he was about to change everything. Science, medicine, religion.
He wouldn't have left that, Sam.
He wouldn't have left you.
Oh, Alan. You're the only one who still believes that.
He's either dead or chilling in Costa Rica.
Probably both.
Look, I'm sorry.
I'm tired, and I smell like jail.
Let's just reconvene in another couple of years, huh? What do you say?
Here.
These are the keys to the arcade.
I haven't gone over there yet. I thought you should be the one.
Alan, you're acting like I'm gonna find him sitting there working.
Just, "Hey, kiddo. Lost track of time."
Wouldn't that be something?
- What?
You son of a gun.
Flynn.
Huh.
Let's try the back door.
What were you working on?
Laser Control.
Okay.
This isn't happening.
Oh, man, this is happening.
Wait.
This program has no disk. Another stray.
Hey, wait.
Wait. I'm not a program!
He actually did it.
I'm on the Grid.
Does the name Kevin Flynn mean anything to you?
Be quiet if you want to live!
Not the games, not the games,
not the games, not the games...
What's his problem?
- Not the games, not the...
Rectify.
- Games. - No. Please!
Rectify.
You probably get this a lot, but there's been a big mistake.
Games.
- Please, no, no. - Whoa. Hey.
No! Erase me!
No! Wait! Wait!
Er, can somebody tell me what the...
Hey, hey. It's got a zipper.
He is different.
This can't be good.
Attention, program. You will receive an identity disk.
Everything you do or learn will be imprinted on this disk.
If you lose your disk or fail to follow commands,
you will be subject to immediate de-resolution.
Mirroring complete. Disk activated and synchronized.
Proceed to games.
Games?
Where are you going?
What am I supposed to do?
Survive.
All combatants, prepare for disk wars.
Disk wars! Disk wars!
Disk wars!
Platform 8.
I have a three-inch version of you on my shelf.
Combatants 3 and 11.
Disk wars.
You definitely didn't do that.
Damn it!
So that's how it is.
Combatant 11, de-resolution.
I won. Now let me out!
Combatant 3, round one, victory.
No unusual activity on the Grid.
Security sweeps and patrols
have been intensified. Rectifier on schedule.
Your initiative should be fully operational within 12 cycles.
Perhaps if you were to include me
in this initiative, I could be of even greater service.
Combatants 3 and 7, disk wars.
Initiate.
Yeah. I'm out.
Combatant 3, victory.
Combatant 3, violation.
Combatant 6, de-resolution.
What is that program?
Combatant 3,
violation.
Initiate final round.
Combatant 3 versus Rinzler.
Rinzler!
You gotta be kidding me.
Rinzler!
Come on. Is that even legal?
Why do I feel like I just got dumped on?
Come on. Huh? Come on.
De-rez!
User.
Identify yourself, program.
I'm not a program.
Identify.
My name is Sam Flynn.
Bring him to me.
Let me go.
Freaks.
Where am I?
Am I on the Grid?
Who are you?
Dad.
Sam.
Look at you, man. Look at the size of you.
- How did you get in here? - I got your message.
Oh. So it's just you?
Yeah.
Just you. Oh.
Isn't this something?
You look the same.
A lot's happened, Sam. More than you can imagine. Disk.
Let's have a look.
Got it.
Hmm. I expected more.
So, you were trapped in here.
That's right.
- And you're in charge. - Right again. You're two for two.
So can we just go home now?
Not in the cards.
Not for you.
That's a hell of a way to treat your son.
Oh, that.
I'm not your father, Sam.
But I'm very, very happy to see you.
CLU.
Where is he?
What did you do to him?
Same thing I'm going to do to you, user.
Greetings, programs.
Oh, what an occasion we have here before us.
Because your rumors are true.
We do indeed have in our midst
a user!
A user.
So, what to do?
What does this user deserve?
Might I suggest perhaps the challenge of the Grid?
And who best to battle this singular opponent?
Perhaps one who has some experience in these matters.
Oh, yes, indeed, programs.
Your liberator!
Your luminary!
Your leader and maker!
The one who vanquished the tyranny of the user
those many cycles before!
I've been waiting a long time for this.
CLU!
You wanna play? I'll play.
Excellent words, sir.
Were you pleased with my execution?
The crowd seemed quite energized.
It wasn't meant for them.
What's this?
What do I do with this?
I'll give you a hint.
Not that.
Grid is live.
Initiate light cycle battle.
You got no chance, user.
Their bikes are faster than ours. Use the levels.
Now this I can do.
Here we go.
Come on. Come on!
Hey! We gotta work together.
It's the only way.
That's it. You got me.
Boo!
- Whoo-hoo! - Yeah!
Now that's what I'm talking about.
Another customer. Let's go!
Hang on, buddy, I'm coming.
Come on.
This is it. Come on.
Illegal combatant on the Grid.
Get in.
Illegal combatant on the Grid.
Get in!
System failure. Release Rinzler.
Game on, old friend.
- Who are you? - Hang on.
Pull up, man, you can't make that!
Made it.
I'm Quorra.
They're turning around.
Not by choice.
Their vehicles can't go off Grid. They'll malfunction on this terrain.
- What about us? - Obviously not.
- Where are you taking me? - Patience, Sam Flynn.
All your questions will be answered soon.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Wait here.
Quorra.
I dreamed of Tron.
First time in years.
It's a sign.
A sign, my dear apprentice, of a weary soul.
- I'm afraid something's happened. - Something has happened.
We have a guest.
There are no guests, kiddo.
Sam...
Long time.
You have no idea.
You're... You're here.
You're here.
I'm here.
You're big.
You're...
Old.
How did you get here?
Alan came over.
Bradley.
Yeah. He got your page.
I found your office under the arcade.
Page...
Oh, the page.
Of course.
CLU had him on the light cycle grid.
I intervened.
Oh.
Dinner soon.
We'll talk then.
He never thought he'd see you again.
Yeah.
Vintage. Flynn built it many cycles ago for the games.
It doesn't get out as much as it used to,
but it's still the fastest thing on the Grid.
Do you know it?
His patience usually beats out my more aggressive strategy.
Flynn shared them with me.
I've read them all.
Oh. Light reading.
Tolstoy.
Dostoyevsky.
I-Ching. Journey Without Goal.
Must have a killer ending.
Flynn is teaching me about the art of the selfless,
about removing oneself from the equation.
But between you and me, Jules Verne is my favorite.
- Do you know Jules Verne? - Sure.
What's he like?
Your move, Flynn, come on.
Come on!
- How old are you now, Sam? - You should be 27.
Yes, 27.
- Do you attend a college? - Caltech.
Caltech. My alma mater.
Yeah.
Till I dropped out.
Work?
- Job? ENCOM? Are you... - No.
I check in once a year.
- Wife, girlfriend? - Dog.
Marvin.
- A rescue. - Well, dogs...
Dogs are cool.
I'm sure you must have a few questions of your own, Sam.
Actually, just one.
Why I never came home.
Those nights when I went to the office,
I'm sure you've figured it out by now, I was coming here.
Human form into digital space.
Heavy stuff.
But I also had you.
I had ENCOM. I couldn't be in here all the time.
I needed partners to help out.
Tron and CLU?
That's right.
Tron was created by Alan for the old system.
I brought him here to protect this one.
CLU was my creation.
A program designed to create a perfect world.
We were jamming, man, building utopia.
Hours in here were just minutes back home.
Just when I thought it couldn't get any more profound,
something unexpected happened.
The miracle.
You remember.
ISOs. Isomorphic algorithms.
- A whole new life form. - And you created them?
No. No.
They manifested, like a flame.
They weren't really from anywhere.
The conditions were right and they came into being.
For centuries we've dreamed of gods, spirits, aliens,
an intelligence beyond our own.
You seeing this?
I found them in here. Like flowers in a wasteland.
Profoundly naive.
Unimaginably wise.
They were spectacular.
Everything I'd hoped to find in the system,
control, order, perfection,
none of it meant a thing.
I'd been living in a hall of mirrors.
The ISOs shattered it.
The possibilities of their root code, their digital DNA.
Disease? History.
Science, philosophy,
every idea man has ever had about the universe up for grabs.
Bio-digital jazz, man.
The IS Os, they were going to be my gift to the world.
So what happened?
CLU. CLU happened.
Your transport to the portal is waiting for you.
I don't like it when you cut it this close.
Will you stop worrying, Tron? Everything's just fine.
- Everything's under control. - Flynn!
Am I still to create the perfect system?
Yeah.
It was a coup.
Go.
You've been corrupted.
Why? Why?
Flynn, go!
Tron, he fought for me.
I never saw him again.
So why didn't you fight?
- Hmm. - He did.
CLU fed on my resistance.
The more I fought, the more powerful he became.
It was impressive, really.
And my miracle... CLU saw the IS Os as an imperfection.
So he destroyed them.
The Purge.
- He killed them all? - It was genocide.
I tried to get back but I couldn't get to the portal.
It uses massive power and it can't stay open forever.
And like a safe, it...
It can only be opened from the outside.
It closed on me, Sam.
That's why I never came home.
So the portal, it activated
when I came in. So it's open now.
Not for long.
Only one millicycle, about eight hours.
So we go now. Go home. We make a run for it.
- We get you out of here. - Don't rush.
What do you mean? The portal's gonna close.
What? What is it?
The moment Flynn is on the Grid, CLU will stop at nothing to obtain his disk.
My disk is everything, Sam.
It's the master key. The golden ticket. The way out.
- And not just for me. - What do you mean?
Our worlds are more connected than anyone knows.
CLU figures if I can be in...
He can be out?
- With my disk, it's possible. - And then what?
Game over.
The guy doesn't dig imperfection.
What's more imperfect than our world?
I can't let that happen. I won't.
So what do we do? Nothing?
It's amazing how productive doing nothing can be.
CLU's planning something. We've known that for a while.
Programs have been disappearing.
There's unrest out there, even revolution.
If we sit tight, CLU might be brought down from the inside.
If the portal is closing, we can't sit around. We have to move now.
Tell me, what brought you here, to the Grid?
Alan got your page.
I didn't send any page.
It was CLU.
CLU sent that page. That's why you're here.
This is all his design. He wanted a new piece
on the board to change the game!
With you, he got more than he ever dreamed.
This is precisely what he wants. Us together heading for the portal.
It's his game now. The only way to win is not to play.
Well, that's a hell of a way to live.
But it is a way.
We can go home.
Don't you want that?
Sometimes life has a way of moving you past things like wants and hopes.
That's great, Dad. Keep telling yourself that.
Good night, Sam.
How can he be so afraid of his own creation?
I mean, he built CLU. Why doesn't he just end him?
He could, but it would require reintegration.
Yeah, all right.
Flynn would never survive the event. It would mean the end of them both.
If he refuses to save himself, then I will.
How?
I'm going through the portal.
CLU wants Flynn's disk, not mine.
I'm going to find Alan and we'll figure this thing out from the other side.
This may be CLU's game here, but in my world, he's gone in one keystroke.
But I can't do anything unless I get to the portal.
And my guts tell me
that you don't want to be stuck in this place for eternity either.
I really think you should consider your father's wisdom.
I have.
There's someone I once knew,
a program named Zuse who fought alongside the ISOs.
They say he can get anyone anywhere.
How do I find him?
This is his sector.
Make it there alive, and he'll find you.
Sam?
All programs are required to present identity disks
at city checkpoints.