Hacker/arcade owner Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is digitally broken down into a data stream by a villainous software pirate, Master Control, and reconstituted into the internal, 3-D graphical world of computers. In this colorful/geometric landscape of cyberspace, Flynn joins forces w/ Tron, who looks just like his pal Alan (Bruce Boxleitner- perhaps best known for the sci-fi TV show Babylon 5), to outmaneuver the Master Control program that holds them captive in the equivalent of a big/dangerous computer game. Though V basic by our (modern) standards, this was an innovative/labor-intensive movie in its day! There is a BTS (behind-the-scenes) documentary re: the movie (free on YouTube: see link below).

Many Disney animators refused to work on this movie because they feared that computers would put them out of business. In fact, 22 years later Disney closed its hand-drawn animation studio in favor of CGI animation. Hand-drawn animation was resumed at Disney after creative director, John Lasseter, also head of Pixar (a computer animation company). TRON was disqualified from receiving an Academy Award nomination for special effects, because the Academy felt at the time that using computer generated effects was “cheating” – wow!

Y’all, I gotta keep it real w/ you; I ONLY watched this for Bridges! He’s adorable w/ a fringe haircut (like the one Kurt Russell had in his day), quirky physicality, and a nerdy personality. ALL the actors (when inside the computer) wore skintight outfits; IRL these were white w/ black markings (where the graphics would be added in later). Bridges had TOO much of a bulge in the crotch area in his costume (hey, this was released by Disney); he had to wear a dance belt to conceal it. To inspire the actors, arcade games were placed on the sets and played during downtime. Bridges found it hard to tear himself away from a game to shoot a scene- LOL! Boxleitner (who lived on a ranch at that time) said he was reluctant to take on this role, BUT ended up having a good time. When asked about his co-star, Boxleitner recalled: “He WAS Kevin Flynn!”

In the 1st act of this movie, we meet 3 young computer programmers- Kevin, Alan, and Lora (Cindy Morgan- I’d never seen her acting before). They’re still close friends, even though Kevin no longer works w/ them at Encom. Kevin and Lora used to be a couple, BUT now she is dating Alan. The main baddie roles are played here by British character actor David Warner; he recently passed away after a long life/prolific career. Warner was a working class kid (from Manchester, England) who came out of the theater world (studied at RADA). Trekkies remembered him fondly on social media; he acted in several notable roles: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (St. John Talbot), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Chancellor Gorkon), and Star Trek: TNG (Gul Madred). He was also on an ep on S1 of Babylon 5; I watched that recently. Warner was the cold/gun-toting Lovejoy in the hit movie, Titanic (2002), who chased Jack and Rose.