Tron (character)


 * This article is about Tron. You may be looking for the character's alternate form.

Tron is a protagonist of the film of the same name, alongside Kevin Flynn. Tron is a security program, created by his user, Alan Bradley, whom he resembles physically, at one point leading a digitized Kevin Flynn to believe that Tron was Alan himself. In Tron: Legacy, he was reprogrammed by "CLU" and transformed into the evil enforcer Rinzler.

1980-1982
A prototype of "Tron" was completed in January 1980 by ENCOM programmer Alan Bradley as a self-monitoring security program. The full name of this program was "TRON-JA-307020". Work continued on Tron until 1982, when the program was complete. During a meeting with ENCOM's then Senior Executive Ed Dillinger, Alan explained how Tron worked:"Well, it's called Tron. It's a security program itself, actually. It monitors all contacts between our system and other systems. It finds anything going on that's not scheduled, it shuts it down."

- Alan Bradley

After Dillinger asked if Tron was part of the Master Control Program, Alan said no and added that it could "watchdog the MCP as well."

This meeting took place shortly after Alan found out that his access to Tron and the ENCOM computers was suspended after Kevin Flynn tried to hack his way into ENCOM to get his video game copyright data that Dillinger stole from him. It was during this time that Tron was held captive under Commander Program Sark and the MCP and forced to play gladiator video games on the Game Grid.

After Flynn explained to Alan why he tried to hack into ENCOM to rightfully get back his data, Alan and his girlfriend, Lora Baines, decided to help him by using Tron to shut the MCP down and let him get the evidence that Dillinger stole Flynn's data. Shortly after this, Kevin Flynn was digitized by the MCP to fight the same gladiator video games that Tron was playing.

When Flynn finally met up with Tron, Flynn thought he was Alan, to which Tron responded, "Where did you hear that name?" Flynn replied, "Well, that's your name, isn't it?" Tron said, "The name of my User!"

Shortly after this, Tron, Flynn, and another conscript, Ram were forced to play a gladiator game of light cycles against three programs from Sark's Army. As Flynn wrote the "Lightcycle" game, he had complete knowledge of the game's AI and routines and caused one of the programs to crash into a wall of the game grid, leaving a crack in the wall. Flynn knew this was the way out and drove his light cycle through the hole and escaped out of the game grid. Tron and Ram escaped as well. As Flynn looked behind to see Tron and Ram behind him, he yelled out, "Greetings, Programs!"

In order for Tron to destroy the MCP and change the system, he needed data from Alan-One, his user, to be encoded on his "Identity Disc". To do this, he would have to communicate with Alan-One via the Input/Output Tower, which was strictly forbidden by the MCP. While on the way to the I/O Tower, the three conscripts were spotted by one of the tanks of Sark's Army. The tank fired and hit Flynn and Ram's light cycles, mortally wounding Ram. When Tron looked back to see if Flynn and Ram were still alive, there was no trace of life and no response. Upset with the loss of his friends, Tron drove off to the tower and an armada of Battle Tank were firing at him.

With the help of his "girlfriend", Yori and the Tower Guardian Dumont, Tron communicated to Alan-One and escaped with Yori by stealing a simulation and flying it towards the heart of the ENCOM system, where the MCP was located.

While traveling towards the MCP, Tron was reunited with Flynn. Flynn had survived the attack, but Ram didn't.

After several attempts by the MCP and Sark to stop the Solar Sailer from reaching its destination, Sark finally succeeded by ramming his carrier into the Solar Sailer in an ambush. As the Solar Sailer started to derez from the damage, Tron fell off to what seemed to be his death. Yori and Flynn hung onto the remaining wreckage as the remains of the sailor floated in a landing bay of the Carrier.

While Yori and Flynn were held captive (along with Dumont who was taken away for helping Tron) Sark removed all of their energy and revealed that the carrier was going to derez after he disembarked in his Escape Pod. With their very low energy levels, that would mean Flynn and Yori would derez as well. He was also going to take Dumont away and have the MCP derez him and take away his functions.

As Sark left the carrier, little did he know that Tron had survived the ambush and hung onto the outside of the carrier. He made his way to the escape pod and hung on as the pod flew out of the carrier and onto the vast mesa that the MCP sits on.

Due to the fact that he was a User, Flynn secretly had enough energy to survive while the carrier derezzed around them. Yori did not and began to derez along with the carrier, until Flynn grabbed hold of her and transferred his energy to her, thus saving her life. The walls of the prison they were in disappeared and they escaped as the carrier turned into a wireframe.

Meanwhile, Dumont was slowing being absorbed by the MCP. The MCP "felt a presence" and realized that "another warrior" was on the mesa. Sark immediately turned around and saw Tron on the mesa. The two of them fought with their identity disks as they jumped to avoid the crevasses in the mesa. With one mighty swing, Tron threw his disk so hard that Sark's disk broke in two and sliced Sark's scalp, killing him.

The MCP noticed that his ally died and gave all of his functions to him, successfully reviving him. As Tron threw his disk at the base of the MCP, the MCP's shields went online and protected him from the lethal disk. When a hole in the shields finally appeared, Sark appeared from behind. With the MCP's functions, Sark grew 15 feet tall and was invulnerable to disk attacks.

Flynn, while watching the battle from the remains of Sark's Carrier realized, that he had to "distract" the MCP so Tron can get his disk in. In order to distract the MCP, Flynn decided that jumping into the "beam" of the MCP would confuse him greatly and would make him vulnerable to attacks. However, Yori said to Flynn that he would derez by doing this, to which Flynn replied, "Don't worry". Flynn then shared a passionate kiss with Yori - something that programs had never experienced before - and jumped off of the carrier.

With Flynn "inside" of the MCP, Tron threw his disk and derezzed the MCP. Dumont and the other Tower Guardians were saved and escaped from the mesa just in time before the MCP blew up in a great explosion. Yori and Tron reunited and shared a kiss, as Dumont remarked that all of the I/O Towers were lighting up again.

Flynn, as a User, really didn't die but was kicked out of the computer world and returned to his original analog format in the real world. With the MCP deleted, he finally obtained the evidence that proved that Dillinger stole his video games. Dillinger was then fired and Flynn was rehired at ENCOM as Senior Executive V.P. As he was reunited with Alan and Lora, he greeted them with the same saying he said to Tron and Ram; "Greetings, Programs!"

1983-1988
During this time, Tron was upgraded and moved over to Flynn's personal server in order to help protect the Grid and had a cyberspace city named in his honor. He was also present when the ISOs began emerging. When CLU 2.0 gradually started to effect his rule over the Grid, Tron became suspicious of his friend's actions and - on at least one occasion - managed to save a program that had been defeated in the games from being derezzed on Clu's orders.

1989
Tron assisted a prototype system monitor program named Anon to prevent system-wide infection by the viral program Abraxas. He and Flynn were later attacked by CLU 2, and Tron is assumed to have been derezzed while helping Flynn escape.

Tron: Uprising
Somehow, despite being severely damaged, Tron was able to escape Clu's grasp, resorting to disguising himself as a mysterious program called "Rinzler", changing his circuitry color and donning a jet black helmet to avoid detection and capture. Tron's sudden disappearance led most programs on the Grid to believe that he was derezzed and Clu encouraged this rumor. Disgraced that he had failed to properly carry out his role as protector of the Tron system, Tron went to hiding, ultimately allowing Clu to begin taking over the Grid.

Beck's actions in rebelling against Clu drew Tron's attention, and disguised as Rinzler, Tron tracked down the young program and took him under his wing. He wanted Beck to become his successor as protector of the Grid, emphasizing that a war was raging. Initially skeptical, Beck agreed and began the training that would set him on a path to "become the next Tron".

2010
Kevin Flynn had long presumed that CLU derezzed Tron. However, it turns out that Tron was actually reprogrammed to serve him as Rinzler, with the familiar "T" insignia on his suit hinting at his true identity. While engaging the heroes in a Light Jet dogfight, he begins to overcome his reprogramming and makes an unsuccessful attempt to derez CLU 2 that sends him plummeting into the Sea of Simulation. As he sinks deeper and deeper into the ocean, he is gradually restored to normal as his system reboots and his circuitry returns to its natural white color.

His current status is unknown.

Kingdom Hearts II
Tron meets Sora, Donald, and Goofy while trapped in a Pit Cell with them in the mainframe of Ansem the Wise's computer. After escaping the cell and enabling access back to the real world, the four companions proceed to find a way to unlock the D.T.D (Door to Darkness). After activating a power core, Tron sends Sora and the others back to Hollow Bastion to locate the password required to access the DTD. They locate the password behind a large painting of Xehanort (thanks to Tifa moving it aside), the password being the seven names of the Princesses of Heart. Tron hacks into the DTD and changes the password to Sora, Donald, and Goofy, to bide himself time before the MCP attacks again. Sora, Tron and the others reach the I/O Tower where they fight a Hostile Program, which they defeat.

Tron reveals to the three that Ansem is his user (although which Ansem it remains a mystery). He also explains Ansem rebooted the MCP, suggesting "Ansem" to be Xehanort.

During the group's return visit to the mainframe, Tron has been forced onto the Game Grid to fight for his life, while Hollow Bastion is being overrun by digitized Heartless by the corrupted town defense mechanism. Sora and the others save Tron and he learns all the Hollow Bastion residents are supporting him. Cid creates an Eradicator Program to stop the MCP's threat for good, which Aerith later passes on to Tron at the I/O Tower. Using the Solar Sailor vehicle to reach the core of the mainframe, Tron, Sora, Donald, and Goofy battle an upgraded Sark and the MCP. The MCP is eventually deleted and Sark dies with him. Tron is overjoyed and shows off his "funny side" to his friends, who he hugs in a term of goodbye, before jumping into the core to take over the MCP's programming. He locates an old footage of Hollow Bastion when it was first built and reminded every one of its former name: Radiant Garden.

It is never shown if Tron learns the truth about "Xehanort" having been the actual person to activate the MCP but under the stolen name Ansem, especially since Sora learned this by the time of his return trip to Space Paranoids.

Tron is last seen in the credits, where he apparently downloaded other software and happily "danced" back to the data space.

He is voiced by Bruce Boxleitner (English) and Hiroshi Tsuchida (Japanese).

Personality
Tron's personality is that of a determined warrior, willing to do anything for the users and for the freedom of his fellow programs. He is usually serious and task-focused and has a deep reverence towards users, especially his own user, Alan-One. Tron displays a particularly high loyalty to Kevin Flynn, who is both his friend and a user. Tron bravely stood his ground against a superior number of soldiers, including Clu, to protect Flynn.