Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is a computer genius and a former software expert for ENCOM, a large computer technology company. Flynn created many programs for ENCOM. One of his creations was a video game called “Space Paranoids”. Flynn’s work was stolen by ENCOM, and he has been trying to break into their database in order to find proof that his ideas were stolen by the company’s now Senior Executive Vice President, Ed Dillinger (David Warner). ENCOM’s computer system is protected by their “Master Control Program” which was developed by Dillinger but has since attained autonomy and now orders Dillinger around. Dillinger is aware of the attempts to infiltrate the system and thinks that the intruder may be Flynn. The system is shut down to anyone with series 7 clearance until Dillinger can verify who was trying to hack into the system and what to do about it.
Shutting down the system for security purposes affects a lot of people in the company. Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) has been working on a program called “Tron” that he says will keep an eye on the Master Control Program and its interactions with other computer systems at other companies. Bradley’s girlfriend, Lora (Cindy Morgan), also works for ENCOM. Her project is a digital laser program that is designed to transport an object from one place to another, in essence, teleportation. Lora, who used to date Flynn, thinks that he could be the one trying to access the mainframe and wants to warn him that Dillinger is on to him.
Flynn convinces Lora and Alan that he is the one who developed all the games that Dillinger took credit for. Lora and Alan decide to help Flynn. The three of them go to ENCOM where Lora puts Flynn at her terminal so he can try and hack into the system. When Flynn attempts to access the system the Master Control Program realizes that it is Flynn. To try to stop Flynn the MCP accesses Lora’s laser and zaps Flynn. It digitizes Flynn and inserts him into the computer system turning him into a veritable computer program where he is forced to play computer games with other computer programs. In the games Flynn befriends two programs, Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) and Ram (Dan Shor). Together with Yori (Cindy Morgan) they escape the confines of the game board to engage in a life-or-death battle to win their freedom from the MCP.
“Tron” was released in 1982 and was directed by Steven Lisberger. It is an American science fiction action fantasy movie. The Tron franchise consists of three full length films, including “Tron Legacy” 2010 and “Tron: Ares” 2025, as well as video games, novels, an animated series, and comics.
The main actors in the film have dual roles both in the real world and in the computer world. Bridges plays Flynn and was Clu, a hacking program. Boxleitner is Alan and Tron, a security program. Cindy Morgan plays Lora and Yori, an input/output program. David Warner plays Dillinger and Sark, a command program that works for the MCP and is the voice of the Master Control Program itself. Barnard Hughes plays the co-founder of ENCOM, Dr. Walter Gibbs, and Dumont, a guardian program.
When the film was released computer generated effects were new. So new that the Academy Awards refused to recognize computer generated images as special effects, this kept the film from garnering a nomination for them. The “state-of-the-art” computer used to generate the film's key special effects only had 2MB of memory and 330MB of storage.