After fifteen years of silence following the neon-soaked TRON: Legacy, the Grid has finally flickered back to life. However, director Joachim Rønning’s TRON: Ares is not the direct continuation many fans expected. Instead, it’s a bold, albeit narratively thin, “soft reboot” that flips the franchise script: rather than humans entering the machine, the machines are coming for us.
The Plot: A Race Against the Clock
The story centers on Ares (Jared Leto), a highly advanced security program designed by Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters)—the grandson of the original film’s antagonist. Dillinger Systems has perfected a “materialization” laser that can 3D-print digital entities into the real world. The catch? These constructs only last 29 minutes before crumbling into digital dust.
The movie becomes a high-stakes corporate thriller as Dillinger and rival CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) race to find the “Permanence Code,” a mythical piece of software hidden by Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) that would allow programs to exist in reality forever.
The Spectacle: Audio-Visual Nirvana
If you go to a TRON movie for the “vibes,” Ares is a triumph. Visually, the film is stunning. Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth (a frequent David Fincher collaborator) brings a noir-ish, industrial grit to the real-world sequences. Watching a Light Cycle unfurl its solid ribbon of light across the rainy streets of a modern city is a genuine cinematic highlight.
Then there is the music. Stepping into the massive shoes of Daft Punk, Nine Inch Nails (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) delivers a score that is arguably the film’s strongest character. It’s aggressive, mechanical, and haunting—a “sinister industrial grind” that elevates every frame it touches.
The Performance: Leto and Lee
Jared Leto’s performance as the titular Ares is a point of contention for many, but his “stiff and mechanical” approach actually suits a program trying to understand human nuances like rain, empathy, and—oddly enough—the discography of Depeche Mode. Greta Lee provides the much-needed emotional anchor, though the script often wastes her talent on heavy-handed exposition.
The return of Jeff Bridges as a digital vestige of Kevin Flynn is the film’s nostalgic heartbeat, providing a brief but welcome bridge to the franchise’s past.
The Verdict: Style Over Substance
Ultimately, TRON: Ares is much like it’s predecessors, it is a masterpiece of design with the narrative depth of a floppy disk. The film touches on timely themes like AI sentience and corporate greed but refuses to engage with them deeply, preferring to move on to the next pulse-pounding action set-piece.
It is a “popcorn flick” in the truest sense—big, loud, and gorgeous to look at. While it may not satisfy those looking for a complex sci-fi epic, it is a sensory feast that demands to be seen on the largest screen possible. And if you liked the previous entries in the franchise or are a fan of TRON in general, you will love this one as well.
Check out some of the most notable Easter eggs, references, and callbacks to the 1982 original found in TRON: Ares:
1. The “Bit” Cameo
In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment during the scene in the Dillinger Systems archives, a deactivated Bit (the polyhedral program that can only say “Yes” or “No”) is visible on a shelf. It’s a touching nod to Flynn’s original companion.
2. “Greetings, Programs”
While Jeff Bridges’ role is limited, his digital projection greets Ares with the iconic phrase, “Greetings, Programs.” Hearing that voice deliver the line again in a modern theater is a high point for long-time fans of the franchise.
3. Space Paranoids and Light Cycles
In the “Real World” sequences, there are several shots of arcade cabinets. Not only can you see the original TRON arcade game, but a modern VR version of Space Paranoids is being played by a background character, referencing the game Kevin Flynn originally claimed he invented.
4. The Dillinger Legacy
The antagonist, Julian Dillinger, is the grandson of Edward Dillinger (played by David Warner in 1982). The film goes further by mimicking the cold, brutalist architecture of the original MCP-controlled Encom building for the new Dillinger headquarters.
5. Identity Disc Physics
During the first real-world chase, Ares uses his Identity Disc to deflect bullets. The sound design used for the disc—that specific mechanical “thrum”—is a remastered version of the sound effects used in the 1982 film, creating a bridge between the digital and physical worlds.
6. The “I’m Not a Program” Reversal
In the original film, Flynn (a User) has to prove he isn’t a program. In Ares, there is a clever role-reversal where Ares is forced to pass a sophisticated Turing test and captcha-like security measures, highlighting how much technology has evolved since the 80s.
