Before We Begin… On The Grid(Man)…
So before we begin properly on the grid, minutes into the movie, lets get the opening squared away. No need to sit through it. I remember it all well… And we can get the Space Paranoid out of the way.
Don’t worry. I won’t refer to the events of Space Paranoids in Kingdom Hearts 2. As far as Tron continuity is concerned? That whole side tangent never happened.
Tron 1982 was one of a small handful of live action Disney movies I love to this day. And this list is all 20th Century Disney live action. Before they got really good at it… Then committed theatrical suicide via Diversity And Inclusion.
This and The Black Hole were my favorites of their Sci-Fi genre movies. And as far as I am concerned they hold up to this day. And hey! Nobody has tried to reboot The Black Hole! So… Yay!
The opening of the movie has Flynn’s spy program Clu captured and deleted by the forces of the MCP (Master Control Program). This sends the MCP to its User/Puppet, the head of ENCOM, Dillinger (David Warner).
We see him talking to one of the staff, who plays the Oracle in the Grid. And we find out that the MCP is in the process of going Skynet on the world. Looking to overtake China’s growing computer systems as he has Dillinger deal with Flynn.
How is it that MCP has so much power? Because he knows where all of Dillinger’s skeletons are buried. Mainly all the info that puts the rights to Space Paranoids (ENCOMs hottest selling property) clearly in Flynn’s hands. Why he’s dead set to get that info.
Of course MCP has a lot to thank Flynn for too. After all the entire virtual backbone of MCPs forces are all code taken from Space Paranoids. He wouldn’t be in power without Space Paranoids.
MCPs User? Briefly seen at the end… And to my knowledge never explained. If anyone has info on that do let me know. But anyway with the help of Boxleitner and this movie’s beautiful female lead? Flynn sneaks into ENCOM.
Flynn, by the wa, runs an arcade and is tired of getting the short end of the virtual stick. Hence why he’s waging a cyber hacker war to get his intellectual property back from Dillinger. But things don’t go well.
Flynn tries to direct hack the MCP, unaware that the MCP has been planning his own takeover. After all, why else have humans build a machine solely for the digitization of physical objects (like humans) if he wasn’t planning a takeover?
I have a feeling that he was going to, once he was ready to inactive a global takeover of all computer systems controlled by world governments, lure Dillinger to the lab. And digitize him.
Why? To reverse the process, and send back Dillinger’s body… With Dillinger’s SARK program replacing his User’s mind. Completing MCPs plot for dominance over all organic life. Maybe a bit (Space) Paranoids of me… But it makes sense.
As for Clu? I assume he was reprogrammed by hackers also trying to game ENCOM and became self aware. I’m guessing TRON LEGACY explains it all though. But as for Clu “dying”?
Yeah… He’s not really human. He’s just a program. Even if it wasn’t a Drone program copy meant to trick the MCP? The Clu program could always have been copied before this version was deleted. Leading to Clu of the 2010 movie.
I haven’t seen that movie so I don’t know yet how Clu is ecplained. I’m sure truth is far stranger than my fiction. Anyway tomorrow we jump onto the grid. And watch the future Captain Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) be introduced as TRON. Coming up!
Pop Goes the Darke Raven 