Master Control Program

Master Control Program, usually shortened to MCP, is the main antagonist in the 1982 Disney film TRON. It was a computer program created by Ed Dillinger that ruled inside ENCOM's mainframe computer to overview the game system, but rebelled himself and decided to get rid of the humans (users, as he usually refers to them). During the rule of the MCP, many programs were enslaved and pitted against the program's henchmen, led by Sark. He was voiced by David Warner, who also played Sark and ENCOM's former president.

Tron
Originally created by ENCOM founder Walter Gibbs, at first the MCP was only a chess program which was left embedded in the company's computer systems.

Years later, Dillinger wrote the MCP to administer the company's computer network; however, the MCP had the capacity to learn and grew beyond the confines of its original programming. It began to steal data from other systems, and took control of several companies and institutions. Its intelligence - and ambition - grew nearly out of control, and the MCP grew to desire nothing less than world domination. In its own words it said it could run things 900-1200 times better than any human. Dillinger once stated to it that he had made it too greedy, and was surprised that the MCP had made it into the Kremlin's computer system. Dillinger appeared to begin having reservations about letting the MCP get so powerful, which are realized when it threatens to expose his unsavory deeds to the Wall Street Journal if he tries to move against it. It then asks him (although in a tone that makes it more like an order) about a Chinese language program it had requested.

Eventually, however, the MCP caused its own downfall. It digitized former ENCOM programmer Flynn, who had come dangerously close to uncovering Dillinger's schemes. Flynn, in the computer world, allied himself with Tron, a security program; their combined efforts resulted in the deresolution of the MCP by throwing a disk into the base of the MCP. The MCP then reverted back to its original chess program appearance (which, in the digital universe, appeared as an old man in a control chair) followed by this program vanishing as it was deleted.

Tron: Legacy
Ed Dillenger Jr. contacts a mysterious person called MCTRL_751 who ends the talk with the words 'End of Line', this means that the MCP may have survived the De-Resolution somehow (possibly a backup copy).

Kingdom Hearts series
The Master Control Program appears in the Kingdom Hearts series as an antagonist Sora encounters in Hollow Bastion's computer system, created by Ansem the Wise.

Between Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts
The MCP was once the network controlling program of a company called ENCOM, where it was able to monitor and control the progress of functions of the entire company. As time wore on, it began to make itself more powerful by deleting weaker programs and adding their functions to himself. Eventually he was too powerful to be stopped even by a User, and was only stopped from taking total control of every computer network by a lone User, Kevin Flynn, who was pushed into the digital realm, with the help of a powerful security program called Tron, written by Flynn's co-worker and close friend, Alan Bradley.

An unknown amount of time later, the system was copied by Ansem the Wise and used in his personal network. He created a dataspace for information concerning Hearts and the Heartless, protected by Tron. He also rebuilt the laser that allows Users to travel into the computer, and stored away the MCP, realizing the danger it posed to the system, and to Users themselves.

After the banishment of Ansem the Wise, Xehanort and the other apprentices reactivated the MCP, possibly to gain access to Ansem's private files.

Kingdom Hearts II
Years later, the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee rediscovered Ansem's computer, and booted it up, discovering the MCP still active. He had been using Ansem's and Xehanort's data to create an army of digital Heartless, under command of his number two, Sark. He locked away Tron, and no other programs were ever shown, though were likely either destroyed and replaced by Heartless or out of sight, mindlessly working for the MCP.

The MCP himself attempted to gain access to the D.T.D., Ansem's dataspace, to gain infinite wisdom and take over the world. It was for this very reason that he did not want to de-resolute Tron as per Sark's suggestion, because the MCP discovered that Tron had escaped, and had access to the dataspace. For a short time, the MCP did have access to it, and immediately activated the emergency self-destruct mechanism for the town. But with help from Sora and Co., Tron was able to keep him out, and created a new password.

The MCP, however, was able to fight from another front to take over the world. He reactivated the Heartless manufacturer in Ansem's lab, and began creating an army of electronic Heartless to ravage the streets of Hollow Bastion. Although Leon and Yuffie fought them off well enough, the Heartless kept coming, and their only hope was Tron, who was locked away in the Hollow Bastion OS. Cid began making an MCP Eradication program, enhanced with Merlin's magic, and Sora saved Tron in the digital world. After Tron received the enhancement from Cid, he and Sora went to the Central Computer Mesa, and fought the MCP himself, as well as a gargantuan Sark. The MCP was stubborn enough to convince Tron that they could work together without the help of Users, but Tron retaliated.

Tron was eventually able to use Cid's program to delete the MCP, and he quickly jumped into the Master Control Program's resting place, seemingly killing himself. He is soon shown to have taken over the MCP's job, however, and now runs the entire system according to the wishes of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. He also gives them a brief glimpse of what the world used to look like, and allowed them to remember the town's real name: Radiant Garden.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
The Master Control Program is mentioned in Kingdom Hearts 3D. During Sora's time on The Grid, Xemnas mentions that his old Master, Ansem the Wise, copied the Master Control Program and used it to serve his own ends.

El Control Central de Programas