A sequel titled Tron: Legacy, directed by Joseph Kosinski, was released in 2010, with Bridges and Boxleitner reprising their roles and Lisberger acting as producer.
When Alan confronts the senior executive vice president, Ed Dillinger, he asserts the security measures are an effort to stop outside hacking attempts.
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.
The space is ruled by the MCP and its second-in-command, Sark, who coerce programs to renounce their belief in the Users and force those who resist to compete in deadly games.
Tron's victory in the system has released all lockouts on computer access, and a nearby printer proves that Dillinger had plagiarized Flynn's creations.
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 and saw Pong for the first time.
[15] Besides many story changes after the script went to Disney, including giving it "a more serious tone with quasi religious overtones",[14] and removing most of the scientific elements,[14] none of her dialogue remains in the final film,[16] and there was a "rather bitter credits dispute.
[10] 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.
[10] Tom Wilhite, Disney's vice president for creative development, watched Lisberger's test footage and convinced Ron Miller to give the movie a chance.
[10] 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.
[10] To create the computer animation sequences of Tron, Disney turned to the four leading computer graphics firms of the day: Information International, Inc. of Culver City, California, who owned the Super Foonly F-1 (the fastest PDP-10 ever made and the only one of its kind); MAGI of Elmsford, New York; Robert Abel and Associates of California; and Digital Effects of New York City.
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".
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.
[19][27] With multiple layers of high-contrast, large format positives and negatives, this process required truckloads of sheet film and a workload even greater than that of a conventional cel-animated feature.
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.
[33] Budgeting the production was difficult by reason of breaking new ground in response to additional challenges, including an impending Directors Guild of America strike and a fixed release date.
[41] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune 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.
"[45] On the other hand, Variety 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".
[47] The Washington Post's Gary Arnold wrote, "Fascinating as they are as discrete sequences, the computer-animated episodes don't build dramatically.
[49] Colin Greenland reviewed the home video release of Tron for Imagine magazine, and stated that "three plucky young programmers descend into the micro-world to battle the Master Control Program with a sacred frisbee.
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.
"[56][57] The two members of the French house music group Daft Punk, who scored the sequel and also had a cameo appearance in it, have held a joint, lifelong fascination with the film.
The music video for Australian rock band Regurgitator's 1997 song "Everyday Formula" was also heavily inspired by the film and recreates several scenes.
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.
In 2016, Shanghai Disneyland opened Tron Lightcycle Power Run, a semi-enclosed, launched roller coaster based on the original film and its sequel.
[71] In 2008, director Joseph Kosinski 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, with Lisberger co-producing.
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, General Tesler.
[77][78] The concept and ideas for a third film continued behind the scenes, from August 2016 to March 2017, when Jared Leto was announced to have signed on to co-star as a new character named Ares.
[82] By January 2023, Garth Davis had exited as director, with Joachim Rønning entering negotiations to replace him; while production was planned to begin in Vancouver by August 2023.