name	Tron
director	Steven Lisberger
producer	Donald Kushner
screenplay	Steven Lisberger
story	Steven LisbergerBonnie MacBird
starring	Jeff BridgesBruce BoxleitnerDavid WarnerCindy MorganBarnard HughesDan Shor
music	Wendy Carlos
cinematography	Bruce Logan
editing	Jeff Gourson
studio	Walt Disney ProductionsLisberger/Kushner
distributor	Buena Vista Distribution
released
runtime	96 minutes
country
language	English
budget	$17,000,000
gross	$33,000,000 }}

''Tron'' is a 1982 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Lisberger, and released by Buena Vista Distribution. It stars Jeff Bridges as protagonist Kevin Flynn; Bruce Boxleitner in a dual role as security programme Tron and Tron's "User", computer programmer Alan Bradley; Cindy Morgan in a dual role as programme Yori and her "User", Dr. Lora Baines; Barnard Hughes in a dual role as the tower guardian Dumont and his "User", Dr. Walter Gibbs; Tony Stefano in a dual role as Ed Dillinger's secretary Peter and Sark's otherwise-nameless Lieutenant; and Dan Shor as Ram. David Warner plays all three main antagonists: the programme Sark, his "User", Ed Dillinger, and the voice of the artificially intelligent Master Control Programme. The film also features cameo roles by Jackson Bostwick and Michael Dudikoff (who makes his acting debut as a video-game-conscript).

Development of ''Tron'' began in 1976 when Lisberger became fascinated with ''Pong''. Along with producer Donald Kushner, he set up an animation studio to develop ''Tron'' with the intention of making it an animated film. Lisberger decided to include live-action elements with the computer animation. Various film studios had rejected the storyboards for the film before the project was set up at Disney. There, backlighted animation was combined with the computer animation and live-action. ''Tron'' was released on July 9, 1982 in 1,091 theaters in the United States.

The film received positive reviews from critics. Critics praised the visuals and acting, but criticized the storyline. The film also was a box office success, grossing $33 million in the United States (approx. $74 million in 2010). ''Tron'' received nominations for Best Costume Design and Best Sound at the 55th Academy Awards, and received the Academy Award for Technical Achievement 14 years later. Over time, ''Tron'' developed into a cult film and eventually spawned into a franchise, which consists of multiple video games, comic books and an animated television series. A sequel titled ''Tron: Legacy'' was directed by Joseph Kosinski and was released on December 17, 2010; it also saw the return of Lisberger, Bridges, and Boxleitner to the franchise.

Plot

Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is a software engineer formerly employed by ENCOM, having been fired by Ed Dillinger (David Warner) who plagiarized several video games invented by Flynn to gain a series of promotions. Flynn attempts to obtain evidence of Dillinger's action; but is prevented by the Master Control Program (MCP), an artificial intelligence that controls the ENCOM mainframe and seeks control over other mainframes as well. Dillinger attempts to stop the MCP after it reveals its intentions to hack into and gain control the Pentagon and Kremlin, but he's blackmailed by the MCP, which threatens to reveal to the media his plagiarism of Flynn's games, which are hugely successful.

Visited by ENCOM employees Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) and Lora Baines (Cindy Morgan) who warn him that Dillinger knows about his hacking attempts and has tightened security, Flynn persuades them to admit him into ENCOM's buildings. There, he forges a higher security clearance for Bradley's programme "Tron", which would monitor communications between the MCP and the outside world; whereupon the MCP uses an experimental laser to transfer Flynn into the ENCOM mainframe.

In the mainframe, computer programs appear in the likeness of the human "users" who created them, and wield as their chief weapon an "identity disc" thrown at their enemies. Here, the MCP and its assistant, Sark (Warner), seek control over input/output in the system. Programs resistant to their rule are forced to play in martial games in which the losers are destroyed. Imprisoned by Sark, Flynn meets Tron (Boxleitner) and another programme named Ram. Together, they escape their prison during a Light Cycle match. During their flight, Ram is mortally wounded and dies, but Flynn gradually discovers that, as a User, he is capable of manipulating the reality of the digital world...

At an input/output junction, Tron communicates with Bradley and receives instructions about how to destroy the MCP. Tron, Flynn, and another program named Yori (Morgan) board a "solar sailer simulation" to reach the MCP's core; but Sark's command ship destroys the sailer, capturing Flynn and Yori. Sark leaves the command ship and orders its destruction, but Flynn keeps it intact while Sark reaches the MCP's core on a shuttle, carrying captured programs. Tron then confronts Sark outside the core while the MCP attempts to consume the captives. Tron critically damages Sark and attacks the MCP; whereupon the MCP raises a shield around its core and re-empowers Sark against Tron, transferring all its powers to him. To circumvent the MCP, Flynn leaps into it, distracting it long enough to reveal a gap in its shield, through which Tron destroys it (and also Sark) with his disc. Input/output junctions are illuminated as programs begin to communicate with their users, and Flynn is reconstructed in the world. A nearby printer produces the evidence that Dillinger had plagiarized his creations; and Dillinger, entering his office, finds the proof broadcast and the MCP inactive. Flynn takes his place as executive of ENCOM, while Bradley and Baines remain his closest friends.

Cast

Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn. Bridges also portrays Clu (Codified Likeness Utility), a hacking program intended to find evidence of Dillinger's plagiarism in the mainframe.

Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley, a friend of Kevin Flynn and employee of ENCOM. Boxleitner also plays Tron, a security program developed by Bradley.

David Warner as Ed Dillinger. Warner also plays Sark, a command program, and provides (uncredited) the voice of the Master Control Programme, an artificial intelligence created by Dr. Walter Gibbs and expanded by Dillinger.

Cindy Morgan as Dr. Lora Baines, Alan's co-worker at ENCOM and assistant to Dr. Walter Gibbs. Morgan also plays Yori, a program created by Baines and a confidante of Tron.

Barnard Hughes as Dr. Walter Gibbs, a founder and employee of ENCOM. Hughes also plays Dumont, a "guardian" program protecting input/output junctions.

Dan Shor as Ram, an actuarial program for an unnamed insurance company and close friend of Tron, Flynn, and Crom in the mainframe.

Peter Jurasik as Crom, an accounting program.

Production

Origins

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. He was immediately fascinated by video games and wanted to do a film incorporating them. According to Lisberger, "I realized that there were these techniques that would be very suitable for bringing video games and computer visuals to the screen. And that was the moment that the whole concept flashed across my mind". "Everybody was doing backlit animation in the 70s, you know. It was that disco look. And we thought, what if we had this character that was a neon line, and that was our Tron warrior – Tron for electronic. And what happened was, I saw Pong, and I said, well, that's the arena for him. And at the same time I was interested in the early phases of computer generated animation, which I got into at MIT in Boston, and when I got into that I met a bunch of programmers who were into all that. And they really inspired me, by how much they believed in this new realm." He was frustrated by the clique-like nature of computers and video games and wanted to create a film that would open this world up to everyone. Lisberger and his business partner Donald Kushner moved to the West Coast in 1977 and set up an animation studio to develop ''Tron''.

Pre-production

Because of the many special effects, Walt Disney Pictures decided in 1981 to film Tron completely in 65-mm Super Panavision (except for the computer-generated layers, which were shot in VistaVision and some scenes in the "real" world which were filmed in anamorphic 35mm and "blown up" to 65mm). Three designers were brought in to create the look of the computer world. mostly scenes that show digital "terrain" or patterns or include vehicles such as light-cycles, tanks and ships. Because the technology to combine computer animation and live action did not exist at the time, these sequences were interspersed with the filmed characters. The computer used had only 2MB of memory, with a disc that had no more than 330MB of storage. 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". The movie's Computer Effects Supervisor Richard Taylor told them "When in doubt, black it out!", which became their motto.

Most of the scenes, backgrounds, and visual effects in the film were created using more traditional techniques and a unique process known as "backlit animation". Lisberger later had these flickers and sounds digitally corrected for the 2011 restored Blu-ray release as they were not included in his original vision of the film. Due to its difficulty and cost, this process was not repeated for another feature film. who was responsible for the sound design on ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' in 1979. ''Tron'' was a 1983 Academy Awards nominee for Best Sound.

At one point in the film a small entity called "Bit" advises Flynn with only the words "yes" and "no" created by a Votrax speech synthesizer.

More than 569 people were involved in the post-production work, including 200 inkers and hand-painters in Taiwan's Cuckoo's Nest Studio (unusually, for an English-language production, in the end credits the personnel were listed with their frames written in Chinese characters).

This film features parts of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; the multi-story ENCOM laser bay was the target area for the SHIVA solid-state multi-beamed laser. Also, the stairway that Alan, Lora, and Flynn use to reach Alan's office is the stairway in Building 451 near the entrance to the main machine room. The cubicle scenes were shot in another room of the lab. ''Tron'' is the only movie to have scenes filmed inside this lab.

The original script called for "good" programmes to be colored yellow and "evil" programmes (those loyal to Sark and the MCP) to be colored blue. Partway into production, this coloring scheme was changed to blue for good and red for evil, but some scenes were produced using the original coloring scheme: Clu, who drives a tank, has yellow circuit lines, and all of Sark's tank commanders are blue (but appear green in some presentations). Also, the light-cycle sequence shows the heroes driving yellow (Flynn), orange (Tron) and red (Ram) cycles, while Sark's troops drive blue cycles; similarly, Clu's tank is red, while tanks driven by crews loyal to Sark are blue.

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. featured a mix of an analog Moog synthesizer and Crumar's GDS digital synthesizer (complex additive and phase modulation synthesis), along with non-electronic pieces performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (hired at the insistence of Disney, which was concerned that Carlos might not be able to complete her score on time). Two additional musical tracks were provided by the band Journey after British band Supertramp pulled out of the project.

Reaction

Box office

''Tron'' was released on July 9, 1982, in 1,091 theaters grossing USD $4 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $33 million in North America, moderately successful considering its $17-million budget.

Critical reception

The movie was critically acclaimed by reviews; Roger Ebert of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' gave the film four out of four stars and described the film as "a dazzling movie from Walt Disney in which computers have been used to make themselves romantic and glamorous. Here's a technological sound-and-light show that is sensational and brainy, stylish, and fun". However, near the end of his review, he noted (in a positive tone), "This is an almost wholly technological movie. Although it's populated by actors who are engaging (Bridges, Cindy Morgan) or sinister (Warner), it is not really a movie about human nature. Like [the last two ''Star Wars'' films], but much more so, this movie is a machine to dazzle and delight us". Ebert was so convinced that this film had not been given its due credit by both critics and audiences that he decided to close his first annual Overlooked Film Festival with a showing of ''Tron''. Perhaps unsurprisingly, InfoWorld's Deborah Wise was impressed, writing that "it is hard to believe the characters acted out the scenes on a darkened soundstage... We see characters throwing illuminated Frisbees, driving 'lightcycles' on a video-game grid, playing a dangerous version of jai alai and zapping numerous fluorescent tanks in arcade-game-type mazes. It's exciting, it's fun, and it's just what video-game fans and anyone with a spirit of adventure will love—despite plot weaknesses."

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". In her review for ''The New York Times'', Janet Maslin criticized the film's visual effects: "They're loud, bright and empty, and they're all this movie has to offer". The ''Washington Post'''s Gary Arnold wrote, "Fascinating as they are as discrete sequences, the computer-animated episodes don't build dramatically. They remain a miscellaneous form of abstract spectacle". In his review for the ''Globe and Mail'', Jay Scott wrote, "It's got momentum and it's got marvels, but it's without heart; it's a visionary technological achievement without vision".

In the year it was released, the Motion Picture Academy refused to nominate ''Tron'' for a special-effects award because, according to director Steven Lisberger, "The Academy thought we cheated by using computers". The film did, however, earn Oscar nominations in the categories of Best Costume Design and Best Sound (Michael Minkler, Bob Minkler, Lee Minkler and James LaRue). In 1997, Ken Perlin of the Mathematical Applications Group, Inc. won an Academy Award for Technical Achievement for his invention of Perlin noise for ''Tron''.

In 2008, ''Tron'' was nominated for AFI's Top 10 Science Fiction Films list.

Books

A novelization of ''Tron'' was released in 1982, written by American science fiction novelist Brian Daley. It included eight pages of color photographs from the movie. Also that year, Disney Senior Staff Publicist Michael Bonifer authored a book entitled ''The Art of Tron'' which covered aspects of the pre-production and post-production aspects of Tron.

Cultural effect

The film, considered groundbreaking, has inspired several individuals in numerous ways. John Lasseter, head of Pixar and Disney's animation group, described how the film helped him see the potential of computer-generated imagery in the production of animated films stating "without ''Tron'' there would be no ''Toy Story''". The two members of the French house music group Daft Punk, who scored the sequel, have held a joint, life-long fascination with the film. ''Tron'' developed into a cult film and was ranked as 13th in a 2010 list of the top 20 cult films published by ''The Boston Globe''.

Sequel

On January 12, 2005, Disney announced it had hired screenwriters Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal to write a sequel to ''Tron''. In 2008, director Joseph Kosinski negotiated to develop and direct "TR2N", 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. Filming began in Vancouver, British Columbia in April 2009. During the 2009 Comic-Con, the title of the sequel was revealed to be changed to ''Tron: Legacy''. The second trailer (also with the "Tron: Legacy" logo) was released in 3D with ''Alice In Wonderland''. A third trailer premiered at Comic-Con 2010 on July 22. At Disney's D23 Expo September 10–13, 2009 they also debuted teaser trailers for Tron: Legacy as well as having light cycle and other props from the movie there. The film was released on December 17, 2010.

Home media

''Tron'' was originally released on VHS, Beta, LaserDisc and CED Videodisc in 1983. As with most video releases from the 1980s, the film was cropped to the 4:3 pan & scan format. The film saw multiple re-releases throughout the 1990s, most notably an "Archive Collection" LaserDisc box set, which featured the first release of the film in its original widescreen 2.20:1 format.

''Tron'' saw its first DVD release on May 19, 1998. This bare-bones release utilized the same non-anamorphic video transfer used in the Archive Collection LaserDisc set, and did not include any of the LD's special features. On January 15, 2002, the film received a 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition release in the form of a special 2-Disc DVD set. This set featured a new anamorphic video transfer, and included all of the special features from the LD Archive Collection, plus an all-new 90 minute "Making of Tron" documentary.

To tie in with ''Tron'''s sequel, ''Tron: Legacy'', the movie was re-released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on Special Edition DVD and for the first time on Blu-ray Combo on April 5, 2011, with the subtitle "Original Classic" to distinguish it from its sequel. ''Tron'' was also featured in a 5-Disc Blu-ray Combo with the 3D copy of ''Tron: Legacy''. The film was re-released on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK on June 27, 2011.

See also

''Tron'' (franchise)

TRON command in BASIC, a probable inspiration for the film title

Simulated reality

Demoscene

''Automan'', a 1983 TV series inspired by ''Tron''.

Notes

References

External links

Article about the CGI in ''Tron''

Tron Wiki – A wiki devoted to ''Tron''

Dorkosphere – An extensive review of ''Tron''

Category:1982 films Category:1980s action films Category:1980s science fiction films Category:American science fiction action films Category:Article Feedback 5 Additional Articles Category:Computer-animated films Category:Cyberpunk films Category:Disney films Category:Films about telepresence Category:Films about video games Category:Films shot in 70mm Category:Films with live action and animation Category:Tron (franchise) Category:Films set in 1982 Category:Religion in science fiction Category:Chase films

bg:Трон (филм) cs:Tron de:Tron (Film) es:Tron fr:Tron gl:Tron hi:ट्रॉन it:Tron (film) he:טרון (סרט) ka:ტრონი (ფილმი) nl:Tron (film) ja:トロン (映画) no:Tron (film) pl:Tron (film) pt:Tron ru:Трон (фильм) simple:Tron fi:Tron sv:Tron (film) th:ทรอน tr:Tron (film) uk:Трон (фільм) zh:電子世界爭霸戰

name	Jay Maynard
birth date	June 28, 2008
residence	Fairmont, Minnesota
nationality	American
other names	Tron Guy
occupation	}}

Jay Maynard is a computer programmer and system administrator and the volunteer project maintainer for Hercules, an emulator of IBM mainframe hardware. He is known for his self-made electroluminescent Tron Guy costume.

Internet fame

Maynard became a subject of Internet discussion forums when his costume, inspired by the film ''Tron'', spread across the net from postings on Slashdot and Fark. He parlayed his notoriety into a series of appearances on the late-night talk show ''Jimmy Kimmel Live'' in 2004.

In 2006, Maynard appeared in a music video entitled "We Are the Web", for the website of the same name. The video advocates the concept of network neutrality. In it, Maynard appears alongside several other internet celebrities, including Leslie Hall and Randy Constan. He was also parodied in the ''South Park'' episode "Canada on Strike". His likeness appeared alongside those of such other Internet celebrities as Gary Brolsma, Star Wars Kid, Chris Crocker and Tay Zonday.

In 2009, Maynard was a special guest on the television series ''Tosh.0'' for the "Web Redemption" segment, where Internet celebrities openly make fun of themselves by answering questions from Daniel Tosh and re-enact their original acts.

In 2010, Maynard was banned from seeing the film ''Tron: Legacy'' in his iconic Tron suit in his local movie theater because of the illuminating lights on his suit.

On June 8, 2011, Maynard appeared on ''America's Got Talent''. He received a "no" vote from each of the three judges and did not make it past the audition round. Howie Mandel had him start his speech over several times; the audience did not allow him to finish it.

In 2011, Maynard appeared in a commercial for Duck Brand duct tape. The ad recreates the light-cycle race from ''Tron'' using stop-motion animation, followed by Maynard's appearance in the Tron Guy outfit.

Personal life

Maynard is the maintainer for Hercules, which is an emulator for IBM mainframe hardware released under the liberal Q Public License.

Maynard's hobbies include amateur radio (callsign K5ZC), pistol shooting, flying, and attending technology and fan conventions. He currently resides in Fairmont, Minnesota.

See also

List of Internet phenomena

References

External links

Jay Maynard (ham radio website)

Jay Maynard (personal website)

Jay Maynard (Tron Wiki)

Jay Maynard (livejournal)

Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:Amateur radio people Category:Cosplay Category:American Internet personalities Category:People from Minnesota Category:Internet memes Category:Tron (franchise) Category:IBM System/360 mainframe line

fr:Jay Maynard