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This article covers notable characters of the Tron franchise, including its various cinematic, literary, and video game adaptations and sequels.
Development
For the first film, Richard Rickitt explained that to "produce the characters who inhabit the computer world, actors were dressed in costumes that were covered in black-and-white computer circuitry designs....With coloured light shining through the white areas of their costumes, the resulting characters appeared to glow as if lit from within....optical processes were used to create all of the film's computerized characters..." Frederick S. Clarke reported that Tron: Legacy would "combine live action with Computer-generated imagery (CGI)," adding that "several characters...will be completely digital..."
Tron
Kevin Flynn
Kevin Flynn (portrayed by Jeff Bridges) is a former employee of the software company ENCOM and the protagonist of the first film.
He is the owner of the arcade Flynn's, where he impresses his patrons with his skill at games that he designed at ENCOM, while searching for evidence that Ed Dillinger, Vice President of ENCOM, plagiarized his work to advance his position within the company. After being transported into the digital world, he accompanies Tron before discovering that, as a User, he commands the physical laws of the digital world and possesses abilities beyond those of an ordinary program. Eventually, he enables Tron to destroy the MCP, which was oppressing the digital world, and returns to the real world, where he obtains the evidence necessary to expose Dillinger and becomes CEO of ENCOM. In Tron: Legacy, which is set twenty years after his disappearance in 1989, his son, Sam, reunites with him in the Grid and he seemingly dies after sacrificing himself to defeat Clu 2.
Clu
Clu (short for Codified Likeness Utility) is a hacking program that Flynn created in his likeness to expose Dillinger's plagiarism by searching for evidence.
While searching for the stolen data, the Master Control Program captures and absorbs him, using the information he gained against Flynn as he attempts to escape the game grid on a light cycle.
Alan Bradley
Alan Bradley (portrayed by Bruce Boxleitner) is a computer programmer and Flynn's partner at ENCOM.
He is the creator of Tron, who monitors communications between the MCP and the real world and addresses him by the username 'Alan-One'. However, after finding his progress to be limited, he assists Flynn in exposing Dillinger.
Tron
Tron, code number "JA-307020", is a security program that Alan created in his likeness to monitor communications between the MCP and the real world. He is the main digital protagonist of the first film.
The MCP captures him and forces him to play on the Game Grid, but Flynn frees him and helps him shut down the MCP, which Bradley ordered him to do. In Tron: Legacy, Clu reprograms him and he becomes Rinzler, who hosts the Games before remembering his true identity as Tron and sacrificing himself to help defeat Clu 2.
Lora Baines
Lora Baines (portrayed by Cindy Morgan) is a research engineer at ENCOM and one of Gibbs' assistants, as well as Flynn's ex-girlfriend and Bradley's current girlfriend.
She assisted in designing the laser that teleports Flynn into the digital world and created Yori, who assists in the derezzing procedure.
Yori
Yori is an input/output program that Baines created in her likeness to handle the creation of digital simulations, such as the Solar Sailer, and assist with the derezzing procedure.
Tron and Flynn's romantic interest, she reunites with Tron after he rescues her from the MCP and helps him and Flynn reach its core to destroy it and its factional programs.
Walter Gibbs
Walter Gibbs (portrayed by Barnard Hughes) is the founder of ENCOM, where he and Baines work as scientists and helped develop the digitizing laser. After voicing concerns about the limitations of the company's mainframe in a meeting with Dillinger, Dillinger threatens to dismiss him.
Dumont
Dumont is a "guardian" program that GIbbs created in his likeness to protect the ENCOM mainframe's I/O Tower. He has a similar bond with Yori as Gibbs has with Baines.
Ed Dillinger
Ed Dillinger (portrayed by David Warner) is the Senior Executive Vice President of ENCOM and father of Ed Dillinger, Jr.. He is the main antagonist of the first film.
A worker in ENCOM, he rises through the company's ranks and becomes its senior executive by plagiarizing Flynn's work and contributes to the rise of the MCP by creating the program Sark to act as its second-in-command. After learning of Flynn's investigation into his plagiarism, Dillinger authorizes the MCP to tighten security controls, but it threatens to expose his actions after he questions its intent to defy his plans of capturing other programs. Following the MCP's destruction, he is disgraced from the company and Flynn becomes its CEO.
Sark
Commander Sark, code number "ES-1117821", is a command program that Dillinger created in his likeness to serve as the MCP's chief lieutenant. He is the secondary digital antagonist of the first film.
He oversees the training of new programs that the MCP kidnaps and brings to the Grid before Tron destroys him.
Master Control Program
The Master Control Program (MCP) (voiced by David Warner and portrayed by Barnard Hughes) is the main digital antagonist of the first film.
An artificial intelligence created by Gibbs and improved by Dillinger, it rules over ENCOM's mainframe computer, enslaving programs and forcing them to play games against its henchmen. Dillinger uses the MCP to manage ENCOM's computer network, but it turns on him and threatens to expose his theft of Flynn's creations. Empowered by Dillinger and seeking information, power, and control over other corporations and governments, it steals data from other systems before Flynn and Tron destroy it.
Roy Kleinberg
Roy Kleinberg (portrayed by Dan Shor) is one of ENCOM's first computer programmers and Bradley's coworker, as well as the creator of the Ram program, which makes connections between ENCOM and an insurance company. When Bradley goes to Dillinger about being blocked from the system, Kleinberg asks if he can have some of his popcorn, which Alan agrees to. As a result, he is credited as "Popcorn Co-Worker".
Kleinberg also appears in the short film "The Next Day," included on the Blu-ray edition of Tron Legacy, which reveals his name. Along with Bradley, he is shown to be the leader of the "Flynn Lives" movement.
Ram
Ram is an actuarial program that Kleinberg created in his likeness to "work for a big insurance company" before being captured by the MCP and forced to play on the Game Grid.
While participating in the games, Ram goes beyond his original programming and becomes a skilled player. Though he expresses confidence in his abilities between games, he also takes pride in his work as an insurance program, which he seems to associate with humanitarian causes. After escaping the game grid with Flynn and Tron, he dies after being injured by a game tank.
Crom
Crom (portrayed by Peter Jurasik) is a compound interest program that full branch managing savings and loan bank programmer Mr. Henderson created in his likeness.
After the MCP captures him and forces him to play on the Game Grid, he and Flynn battle in the ring game. Flynn gains the upper hand, but disobeys Sark's orders and refuses to kill a defenseless Crom. However, Crom falls to his death after Sark derezzes the piece of the playing field he is hanging from.
Bit
The Bit is a representation of a bit (binary digit), and as such can only provide yes and no (1,0) answers to questions, though which it conveys emotions. It has a limited role in the film, acting as a companion to Clu and Flynn; though intended to have a more extensive role, it only had two minutes of screentime due to scheduling reasons. Despite this, the co-creators of Max Headroom, in their book Creative Computer Graphics, called it "one of the most memorable characters in the film." At the time of the film's release, the character represented an innovative use of vector graphics and morphing.
Physically, the Bit was represented within the movie by a blue polyhedral shape that alternated between the compound of dodecahedron and icosahedron and the small triambic icosahedron, the first stellation of the icosahedron. When it answers "yes", it changes into a yellow octahedron, and when it answers "no", it changes into a red 35th stellation of an icosahedron; these resemble prismatic forms or "3-D versions" of the Latin letters 'O' and 'X', respectively.
Tron 2.0, Tron: Killer App, Tron: The Ghost in the Machine
The video game Tron 2.0, released in 2003, serves as a sequel to the original film, but its events became non-canon with the release of Tron: Legacy in 2010. The comic book Tron: The Ghost in the Machine further explores its characters and storyline.
Jet Bradley
Jet Bradley is the son of Alan and Lora and the protagonist of Tron 2.0. Following Alan's disappearance, Jet searches for him before being digitized and transported to the digital world, where he is tasked with finding the Tron Legacy Code.
Jet is the basis for the experimental program that is the central character of Tron: The Ghost in the Machine. This version of Jet is a digital backup of him, copied and stored within the system. Due to the complexities involved in creating a copy of a human being, it is corrupted and split into three separate aspects before they are united and given the choice to ascend from the digital world into the real world.
Mercury
Mercury (voiced by Rebecca Romijn) is a female humanoid computer program, known within the digital world as a champion lightcycle racer. She also appears in Tron: The Ghost in the Machine as one of the leaders of the resistance against the red version of Jet, who is masquerading as the MCP.
Ma3a
Ma3a (voiced by Cindy Morgan), short for Math Assistant 3 Audio, is a female computer program who is similar in personality to Lora, who improved her from Yori. When Lora originally improved her in March 1988, she was known as Ma1a (short for Math Assistant 1 Audio), followed by Ma2a (short for Math Assistant 2 Audio) in June 1996 and Ma3a in 2003. Some ENCOM employees have come to believe that part of Lora was digitized into Ma3a's code following her death in the 1994 digitizing accident. In March 2003, Alan Bradley received the "Digital Pal" award for Ma3a.
Thorne
J.D. Thorne was an executive from fCon who was corrupted after being improperly digitized into the computer and spread like a virus throughout the system, with corrupted programs known as Z-Lots following him as "The Master User". Thorne is derezzed after a battle with the Kernel and gives vital information about fCon to Jet before dying.
The Kernel
The Kernel is a security program that commands the system's ICPs before Jet destroys him during a battle with Thorne.
Byte
The Byte resembles the Bit, but, unlike it, can speak in full English sentences.
Data Wraiths
Data Wraiths are digitizable, elite hacker users that fCon employs to create havoc in computer systems, steal top-secret data, and destroy the databases of fCon's competitors. After being derezzed in the digital world, they are kicked out and return to their original human form.
Seth Crown, Eva Popoff, and Esmond Baza
Seth Crown, Eva Popoff, and Esmond Baza are fCon executives who attempt to transfer themselves into the digital world, but are unaware that the correction algorithms necessary for proper transfer had been disabled. Without the algorithms, the digitization process goes awry and they are merged into a monstrosity. After Jet defeats them and pushes them out of the digitizing stream, as their corrupted state would have killed them in the real world, they are stored in a hard drive so Alan can fix their code.
Tron: Legacy, Tron: Betrayal, Tron: Uprising and Tron: Evolution
Tron: Legacy, its comic book tie-in Tron: Betrayal, the animated television prequel Tron: Uprising and the video game tie-in Tron: Evolution serve as direct sequels to Tron. Several characters appear in all four parts, while others are specific to one part. All four parts establish a specific timeline of the Tron universe.
Sam Flynn
Samuel "Sam" Flynn (portrayed by Garrett Hedlund and voiced in the video games by Ross Thomas) is the son of Kevin Flynn and a controlling shareholder at ENCOM. He is the protagonist of Tron: Legacy.
Twenty years after Kevin's disappearance in 1989, Sam is lured into the Grid, where he reunites with Kevin and helps him destroy Clu 2. Deciding to take responsibility of ENCOM, he names Alan the Chairman of the Board and takes Quorra to see her first sunrise.
Quorra
Quorra (portrayed by Olivia Wilde and voiced in video games by Erin Cottrell) is a skilled warrior and the last remaining member of a group of "isomorphic algorithms" destroyed by Clu 2.
She is a confidante to Kevin, who saved her from Clu 2's purge of the ISOs. Anxious to experience the outside world, Quorra accompanies Sam to escape the grid and enter the real world, ultimately succeeding.
Clu 2
Clu 2 (physically portrayed by John Reardon, voice and likeness provided by Jeff Bridges), short for Clu 2.0, is an updated version of Clu that Kevin created to oversee the development of the Grid. He is the main antagonist of Tron: Legacy.
Programmed with the command of creating a "perfect system", Clu 2 grew to resent Flynn, particularly his fondness for the "imperfect", spontaneously-generated Isos, or "isomorphic algorithms". Clu 2 betrayed Flynn and Tron to seize control of the Grid and enacted genocide upon the Isos, forcing Flynn into hiding for twenty years after he rescued Quorra.
During this time, Clu 2 reprogrammed his opponents as soldiers for his army, led by a reprogrammed Tron under the name Rinzler, while seeking Flynn for his "identity disc", whose contents would allow Clu 2 to cross into the real world. He later lures Flynn's son Sam into the Grid and attempts to kill him before using him to draw out Flynn and obtains his identity disc, but destroyed after Flynn 'reintegrates' him into himself, apparently destroying them.
ISOs
The ISOs (short for Isomorphic algorithms) are a race of programs that spontaneously arose on the Grid. Clu 2 saw them as an obstacle to his creation of a perfect system, while Kevin saw them as the next stage of evolution. After Clu 2 betrayed Flynn and destroyed most of the ISOs, Kevin saved Quorra, the sole surviving ISO, who later enters the real world with Sam.
Castor/Zuse
Castor (portrayed by Michael Sheen) is a supermodel program and the owner of the End of Line club in the tallest tower on the Grid.
Originally named "Zuse", he was an ally of Flynn and the ISOs Sam and Quorra to bargain with Clu 2; he wishes to control the Grid once Clu 2 leaves for the real world. However, though Clu 2 seems to agree to the bargain, he traps Castor in his club, setting off explosions that kill him and his associate Gem.
Zuse is most likely named after Konrad Zuse, whose Z3 was the first automatic programmable digital computer constructed, in 1941.
Rinzler
Rinzler (portrayed by Anis Cheurfa, voiced by Bruce Boxleitner) is a security program that serves as Clu 2's right-hand man.
Considered a master warrior for his strength and acrobatics, he wields dual identity discs. This may come from the two-disc DVD edition of Tron, which revealed that in the late 1970s, Lisberger Studios produced an early demo animation showing Tron armed with dual "exploding discs". It is later revealed that Rinzler is Tron; although it appears in Legacy that he was defeated at the beginning of Clu 2's coup, Tron: Uprising reveals that he escaped capture and served as a mentor to the program Beck in inciting an uprising against Clu 2's regime before Clu reprogrammed him into serving him as Rinzler. Throughout Legacy, he has several encounters with Sam, culminating in an aerial pursuit during which he remembers his true identity and turns against Clu 2 before falling into the Sea of Simulation.
Rinzler is named after Lucasfilm Executive Editor, J. W. Rinzler, who authored several books, including The Making of Star Wars, The Complete Making of Indiana Jones, and Making of The Empire Strikes Back. Director Joseph Kosinski chose the name during a working session with the writers when one of Rinzler's books happened to be on the table.
Jarvis
Jarvis (portrayed by James Frain) is an administration program who serves as Clu 2's chief bureaucrat.
Though efficient in his function, he is sycophantic and cowardly and seeks to impress Clu 2 and win his approval. After Jarvis fails to prevent Sam from taking back his father's disc, Clu 2 derezzes him.
Bartik
Bartik (portrayed by Conrad Coates) is a basic program and the leader of a rebel faction in TRON City.
In Tron: Uprising, he and his friend Hopper join a task force that Paige formed to hunt down the renegade after witnessing workers standing up to Pavel. In Tron: Legacy, he demands to Castor that Zuse have an audience and later fights the Black Guards when they attack the club, but is derezzed.
Edward Dillinger Jr.
Edward Dillinger Jr. (portrayed by an uncredited Cillian Murphy) is the son of Ed Dillinger and lead programmer on the ENCOM operating system.
In Tron: Legacy, he attends an ENCOM board meeting, having earned a reputation for making the ENCOM operating system more secure and harder to copy than previous versions. When Sam releases the software for free, Dillinger attempts to defuse the situation by suggesting that the company take credit and claim that it was a gift to their customers.
Anon
Anon is the main protagonist of Tron: Evolution. He is a security program that Kevin owns to maintain order in the Grid and investigate conspiracies. He teams up with Quorra to stop Clu 2 from taking over the grid, but is derezzed saving her from falling debris.
Abraxas
Abraxas (voiced by John Glover) is the main antagonist of Tron: Evolution. He was once an ISO named Jalen before being re-purposed by Clu 2 as a computer virus to justify the purge of the other ISOs from the Grid.
Beck
Beck (voiced by Elijah Wood), also known as Renegade, is a vehicle maintenance program and Games warrior. He is the main protagonist of Tron: Uprising.
Through the series, Beck leads a revolution against Clu 2 and his armies from the Grid while being trained by Tron, who he looks up to as a mentor. Beck eventually becomes as powerful as Tron and opposes the tyranny of Tesler and his forces.
Tesler
General Tesler (voiced by Lance Henriksen) is a command program that serves as one of Clu 2's generals and is the main antagonist of Tron: Uprising.
He is in charge of the forces occupying Argon City and is the boss of Pavel and Paige, having recruiting Paige after claiming that the ISOs derezzed her friends, when in reality he ordered that they be executed. He believes that Tron is dead and that Beck is Tron, after which he calls him Renegade and attempts to stop him from helping the people of Argon. Tesler does not hesitate to derezz his men for their failures and dislikes Dyson, as well as failing Clu should the Renegade free Argon and the Grid. He has the ability to extend his arms and derez others with his hands.
Dyson
Dyson (voiced by John Glover) is Clu's highest-ranking officer, who is sent to spearhead the apprehension of the Renegade. He is a recurring antagonist in Tron: Uprising.
Dyson was once a friend of Tron and member of his security force until half of his face was derezzed when he tried to stop a riot between programs and ISOs. Believing that Flynn betrayed the Grid after siding with ISOs, he joined Clu and participated in the coup against Tron and Flynn. During the coup, he scarred Tron's face with his own code and believed Tron to have died after the recognizer carrying him was shot down. During the series, he is sent to Argon to deal with Renegade and Tron sends Beck to capture him. When Tron arrives to face him, Dyson believes that he is Renegade until Tron reveals himself to him. Dyson offers Tron the opportunity to join him, but Tron refuses and nearly derezzes Dyson before deciding to spare him so he can deliver a message to Clu. Afterwards, Dyson flees to report Tron's survival to Clu.
Minor characters
- Gem (portrayed by Beau Garrett) appears in Tron: Legacy. She is a servant to Castor and works for Clu 2 before it presumably kills them.
- Able (voiced by Reginald VelJohnson) appears in Tron: Uprising. He runs Able's Garage, where Zed, Mara, and Beck work, and knows Tron. He is later killed by Cyrus while freeing Zed and Mara.
- Link (voiced by David Arquette) appears in Tron: Uprising. He is a worker at Able's Garage and is friends with Beck, Zed, and Mara.
- Mara (voiced by Mandy Moore) appears in Tron: Uprising. She is a friend of Beck's at Able's Garage and is attracted to The Renegade.
- Paige (voiced by Emmanuelle Chriqu) appears in Tron: Uprising. Along with Pavel, she is one of Tesler's field commanders, having been recruited when he claimed that the ISOs derezzed her friends, when in reality he ordered that they be executed. While hardened and dedicated, she is less antagonistic than Tesler and takes a personal interest in the new Tron.
- Pavel (voiced by Paul Reubens) appears in Tron: Uprising. Along with Paige, he is one of Tesler's field commanders. Sadistic and power-hungry, Pavel seeks to undermine Paige and General Tesler.
- Zed (voiced by Nate Corddry) appears in Tron: Uprising. He is one of Beck's friends at Able's Garage and is in love with Mara.
References
- Rickitt, Richard (2000). Special effects: the history and technique. Watson-Guptill. p. 126. ISBN 9780823077335.
- Clarke, Frederick S. (2003). "". Cinefantastique. 35 (1–6): 60.
- Dinello, Daniel (2005). Technophobia!: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology. University of Texas Press. p. 157. ISBN 9780292709867.
- ^ Jankel, Annabel; Morton, Rocky (1984). Creative Computer Graphics. Cambridge University Press. p. 67. ISBN 0-521-26251-8.
Unfortunately, Bit's extensive role in the film was curtailed to two minutes for scheduling reasons, but it remains one of the most memorable characters in the film - not bad for a pint-sized polyhedron.
- Sobchack, Vivian (1999). Meta-Morphing: Visual Transformation and the Culture of Quick-Change. University of Minnesota Press. p. 91. ISBN 0-8166-3318-5.
- Longridge, Mark. "The Character Bit from Tron". Retrieved June 2, 2007.
- ^ Gilchrist, Todd. "TRON: Legacy' Screenwriters Discuss Stars, Story of the Upcoming TV Series". Boxoffice Magazine. Archived from the original on December 24, 2010. Retrieved December 24, 2010.
- Kit, Borys (January 7, 2009). "Little known actor lands lead in 'Tron' sequel". Reuters/Hollywood Reporter. Reuters. Retrieved December 24, 2010.
- Jai Nitz (w), Salvador Larroca, Andie Tong (a). Tron: Betrayal, vol. 1, no. 1 (October 6, 2010). Marvel Comics.
- "Michael Sheen Confirmed for Tron Legacy". ComingSoon.net. July 29, 2009. Retrieved August 4, 2009.
- "Tron's Rinzler Has Lucasfilm connection". starwars.com. Lucasfilm Ltd. December 17, 2010. Archived from the original on December 20, 2010. Retrieved December 18, 2010.
- "IMDB Cast list for Tron Legacy". IMDb.
- "No Bounds". Tron: Uprising.
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