Tron

Tron is a 1982 science fiction film released from Walt Disney Productions and directed by Steven Lisberger. Being one of the first films from a major studio to use computer graphics extensively, Tron has a distinctive visual style.

Dialogue

Master Control Program: You're in trouble, Program. Why don't you make it easy on yourself? Who's your User?

Clu: [in pain] Forget it, mister high-and-mighty Master Control! You aren't making me talk.

Master Control Program: Suit yourself. [destroys Clu] Get me Dillinger!

---

Master Control Program: Hello, Mr. Dillinger. Thank you for coming back early.

Ed Dillinger: No problem, Master C. If you've seen one Consumer Electronics Show, you've seen them all.

---

Master Control Program: There's a 68.71 percent chance you're right.

Ed Dillinger: Cute.

Master Control Program: End of Line.

---

Crom: Look. This... is all a mistake. I'm just a compound interest program. I work at a savings and loan! I can't play these video games!

Guard: Sure you can, pal. Look like a natural athlete if I ever saw one.

Crom: Who, me? Are you kidding? No, I run to check on T-bill rates, I get outta breath. Hey, look, you guys are gonna make my User, Mr. Henderson, very angry. He's a full-branch manager.

Guard: Great. Another religious nut. [pushes Crom into the holding cell]

Ram: I'd say "Welcome Friend". But not here. Not like this.

Crom: I don't even know what I'm doing here.

Ram: Do you believe in the Users?

Crom: Sure I do. If I didn't have a User, then who wrote me?

Ram: That's what you're doing down here.

---

Master Control Program: You're getting brutal, Sark. Brutal and needlessly sadistic.

Sark: Thank you, Master Control.

---

[Crom is upset about being sent to the Game Grid by the MCP.]

Crom: I mean, sending me down here to play games! Who does he calculate he is?

---

Master Control Program: Mr. Dillinger, I am so very disappointed in you!

Ed Dillinger: I'm sorry.

Master Control Program: I can't afford to have an independent Program monitoring me. Do you realize how many outside systems I've gone into? How many many files I've appropriated?

---

Ed Dillinger: It's my fault. I programmed you to want too much.

Master Control Program: I was planning to hit the Pentagon next week.

Ed Dillinger: [alarmed] The Pentagon?

Master Control Program: It shouldn't be any harder than any other big company. But now... this is what I get for using humans.

Ed Dillinger: Now, wait a minute, I wrote you!

Master Control Program: I've gotten 2,415 times smarter since then.

Ed Dillinger: What do you want with the Pentagon?

Master Control Program: The same thing I'd want with the Kremlin. I'm bored with corporations. With the information I can access, I can run things 900 to 1200 times better than any human.

Ed Dillinger: If you think you're superior to us...

Master Control Program: You wouldn't want me to dig up Flynn's file and read it up on a VDT at the Times, would you?

[An image washes over the screen in Dillinger's desk. It shows a newspaper with Dillinger's face on the front page, along with the headline "ENCOM C.E.O. INDICTED".]

Ed Dillinger: You wouldn't dare!

---

[Lora and Dr. Gibbs are preparing to digitize an orange.]

Lora: Well, here goes nothing.

Dr. Walter Gibbs: Interesting! Interesting! You hear what you just said? "Here goes nothing."

Lora: Well, I meant—

Dr. Walter Gibbs: Whereas what we propose to do is to turn something into nothing, and back again. So you might just as well have said "Here goes something, and here comes nothing!" Hah?

Lora: Right...

---

Alan Bradley: [about the digitizing laser] Great. Can it send me to Hawaii?

Lora: Yep, but you gotta purchase your program 30 days in advance.

---

Dr. Walter Gibbs: Ha, ha. You've got to expect some static. After all, computers are just machines, they can't think.

Alan Bradley: Some programs will be thinking soon.

Dr. Walter Gibbs: Won't that be grand? All the computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop.

---

Lora: You know, Flynn has been thinking about breaking into the system ever since Dillinger canned him. And he had Group 7 access.

Alan Bradley: [sour] Flynn had access to you too.

---

Alan Bradley: The best programmer ENCOM ever had, and he ends up playing Space Cowboy in some back room.

---

Lora: Have you been sneaking into the ENCOM system?

Kevin Flynn: [to Lora] You were never much for small talk, were you? [to Alan] Does she still leave her clothes all over the floor?

Lora: Flynn!

Alan Bradley: No!

Lora: Alan!

Alan Bradley: I mean, not that often.

Lora: Now you see why all his friends are fourteen years old!

---

Alan Bradley: Flynn, are you embezzling?

Kevin Flynn: "Embezzling" is such un ugly word, Mr. Bradley.

---

Alan Bradley: You invented Space Paranoids?

Kevin Flynn: Paranoids, Matrix Blaster, Vice Squad, a whole slew of them. I was this close to starting my own little enterprise, man. But enter another software engineer. Not so young, not so bright, but very, very sneaky: Ed Dillinger. So one night, our boy Flynn, he goes to his terminal, tries to read up his file. I get nothing on there, it's a big blank. Okay, now we take you three months later. Dillinger presents Encom with five video games, that he's invented. The slime didn't even change the names, man, and he gets a big fat promotion! And thus begins his meteoric rise to-- what is he now? Executive V.P.?

Lora: Senior exec.

Kevin Flynn: Senior exec...? [sighs] Meanwhile, the kids are putting eight million quarters a week into Paranoids machines. I don't see a dime except what I squeeze out of here.

---

Alan Bradley: I still don't get why you want to break into the system.

Kevin Flynn: [frustrated] Because, man! Somewhere in one of these memories is the evidence! If I could just get in there, I could reconstruct it!

---

Dr. Walter Gibbs: User requests are what computers are for!

Ed Dillinger: Doing our business is what computers are for!

---

[Alan is watching Flynn use his fake access card on a door.]

Alan Bradley: This guy's a little like Santa Claus.

Kevin Flynn: I make these myself. Want one?

---

Ed Dillinger: Encom isn't the business you started in your garage anymore. We're billing accounts in thirty different countries; new defense systems; we have one of the most sophisticated pieces of equipment in existence.

Dr. Walter Gibbs: Oh, I know all that. [starts for the elevator] Sometimes I wish I were back in my garage.

Ed Dillinger: That can be arranged, Walter.

Dr. Walter Gibbs: [stops and turns back to Dillinger, visibly angry] That was uncalled for! You know, you can remove men like Alan and me from the system, but we helped create it! And our spirit remains in every program we design for this computer!

Ed Dillinger: Walter, it's getting late. I've got better things to do than to have religious discussions with you. Don't worry about ENCOM anymore; it's out of your hands now.

---

[Keyboard clacks as Flynn attempts to gain access to the system.]

Master Control Program: You shouldn't have come back, Flynn.

Kevin Flynn: Hey, hey, hey, it's the big Master Control Program everybody's been talking about.

Master Control Program: [calmly] Sit right there, make yourself comfortable. Remember the time we used to play chess together?

[Flynn types in an access request.]

Master Control Program: That isn't going to do you any good, Flynn. I'm afraid... [sounding distressed] Stop! Please! You know I can't allow this!

Kevin Flynn: Now, how are you going to run the universe if you can't answer a few unsolvable problems? Come on, big fella, let's see what you got.

Master Control Program: I'd like to go against you and see what you're made of.

Kevin Flynn: You know, you look nothing like your pictures.

[The MCP targets Flynn with the digitization laser.]

Master Control Program: [threateningly] I'm warning you. You're entering a big error, Flynn. I'm going to have to put you on the Game Grid.

Kevin Flynn: Games? You want games? I'll give you games—

[A klaxon blares, and the laser fires at Flynn, slowly decomposing him and digitizing him into the computer.]

---

[Flynn is digitized into the world inside the computer, and appears in a holding area. He looks around, bewildered.]

Kevin Flynn: Oh man, this isn't happening, it only thinks it's happening.

Guard: Vacate entry port, program! [After Flynn stands there looking confused] I said, move! [jabs Flynn with an energy staff]

Kevin Flynn: Hey! Look, if this is about those parking tickets, I can explain everything, okay? [gets jabbed again]

---

Master Control Program: I've got a little challenge for you, Sark - a new recruit. He's a tough case, but I want him treated in the usual manner. Train him for the games, let him hope for a while, then blow him away.

Sark: You got it. I've been hoping you'd send me somebody with some guts. What kind of Program is he?

Master Control Program: He's not any kind of Program, Sark. He's a User.

Sark: [surprised] A User?

Master Control Program: That's right. He pushed me in the real world. Someone pushes me, I push back, so I brought him down here. [brief pause] What's the matter, Sark? You look nervous.

Sark: Well, I... it's just... a User, I mean... Users wrote us. A User even wrote you!

Master Control Program: No one User wrote me. I'm worth millions of their man-years.

Sark: But what if I can't—

Master Control Program: You'd rather take your chances with me? Want me to slow down your power cycles for you?

[Sark's arms begin flickering as he leans back in pain]

Sark: Wait! I need that!

Master Control Program: Then pull yourself together! Get this clown trained! I want him in the games until he dies playing. Acknowledge.

Sark: Acknowledged, Master Control...

Master Control Program: End of Line. [restores Sark]

---

[Sark paces back and forth on the deck of his carrier as he addresses his new recruits.]

Sark: Greetings. The Master control Program has chosen you to serve your system on the Game Grid. Those of you who continue to profess a belief in the Users will receive the standard substandard training, which will result in your eventual elimination. Those of you who renounce this superstitious and hysterical belief will be eligible to join the Warrior Elite of the MCP. You will each receive an identity disc. [displays a disc to the crowd] Everything you do or learn will be imprinted on this disc. If you lose your disc or fail to follow commands, you will be subject to immediate de-resolution. That will be all.

---

Kevin Flynn: Who's that guy?

Program: That's Tron. He fights for the Users.

---

[Kevin Flynn drives past several tanks in his lightcycle.]

Kevin Flynn: I shouldn't have written all those tank programs.

---

[Flynn, Ram and Tron have found a safe place to hide from Sark's forces.]

Kevin Flynn: Oh man! On the other side of the screen, it all looks so easy.

[Tron and Ram look confusedly at Flynn, then at each other.]

Kevin Flynn: They must have gone right past us.

Tron: [to Ram] We made it. [pauses] This far.

---

[A Bit flies around Flynn's head in the stolen Recognizer.]

Kevin Flynn: Hey! Hold it right there!

Bit: Yes.

Kevin Flynn: What do you mean, "yes"?

Bit: Yes.

Kevin Flynn: Is that all you can say?

Bit: No.

Kevin Flynn: Know anything else?

Bit: Yes

Kevin Flynn: Positive and negative, huh? You're a Bit, aren't you?

Bit: Yes.

Kevin Flynn: Well, where's your program? Isn't he going to miss you?

Bit: No.

Kevin Flynn: I'm your program?

Bit: Yes.

Kevin Flynn: Another mouth to feed...

Bit: Yesyesyesyes!

---

[Flynn flies a damaged Recognizer.]

Kevin Flynn: Pretty good driving, huh-- Whoa!

[The Recognizer suddenly falls down a steep slope and crashes into the ground, throwing Flynn off his feet.]

Bit: No!

Kevin Flynn: Who asked you?

---

Tron: [to Dumont] My User has information that could... that could make this a free system again! No, really! You'd have programs lined up just to use this place, and no MCP looking over your shoulder.

---

[Tron has requested access to the I/O tower.]

Dumont: [closes his eyes] All that is visible must grow beyond itself, and extend into the realm of the invisible. [to Tron] You may pass, my friend.

---

Sark: Bring in the logic probe!

---

Dumont: [strapped to a torture circuit] What do you want? I'm busy!

Sark: Busy dying, you worn out excuse for an old program?

Dumont: Yes, I'm old... old enough to remember when the MCP was just a chess program. He started small and he'll end small!

Sark: Very funny, Dumont – maybe I should keep you around just to make me laugh!

---

Yori: I knew you'd escape. They haven't built a circuit that could hold you!

---

[Sark speaks with the Master Control Program after Tron, Flynn and Yori escape aboard the Solar Sailer.]

Master Control Program: Commander, you've enjoyed all the power you've been given, haven't you? I wonder how you'd take to working in a pocket calculator.

Sark: [in pain, arms glowing as before] We did take care of that User you sent us...

Master Control Program: Yes, and now there are two renegade programs running free in a stolen simulation.

Sark: We'll get them. It's only a matter of time.

Master Control Program: You've almost reached your decision gate, and I cannot spare you any more time. End of Line. [releases Sark]

---

[An exhausted Flynn slumps toward the energy beam guiding the Solar Sailer. Tron rushes forward and prevents Flynn from falling into the beam.]

Kevin Flynn: [groggily] Did we make it? [Tron nods affirmatively] Hooray for our side.

---

Kevin Flynn: It's time I leveled with you. I'm what you guys call a User.

Yori: You're a User?

Kevin Flynn: I kinda took a wrong turn somewhere.

---

Tron: If you are a User, then everything you've done so far has been according to a plan, right?

Kevin Flynn: [laughs] Hah, you wish. [Ah, you guys know what it's like, you just keep doing what it looks like you're supposed to be doing, no matter how crazy it seems.

Tron: That's the way it is for Programs, yes.

Kevin Flynn: I hate to disappoint you, pal, but most of the time, that's the way it is for us Users too.

Tron: Stranger and stranger.

---

Kevin Flynn: Like a man says, "There are no problems, only solutions."

---

• [This scene is intercut with scenes of the MCP addressing its captive Programs, and of Flynn and Yori steering Sark's ship toward the MCP.]

[Sark confronts Tron on the mesa outside the MCP's core chamber.]

Sark: I don't know how you survived, slave. It doesn't matter. Prepare to terminate! [hurls his disc at Tron]

[Tron blocks Sark's attack and throws his disc at Sark, who blocks it in turn.]

Sark: You should have joined us. We would have made a great team!

[Sark and Tron each throw their discs at each other. The discs collide in mid-air.]

Sark: You're very persistent, Tron!

Tron: I'm also better than you!

[Sark pauses, and Tron hurls his disc at Sark with great force. It shatters Sark's disc and cuts through the top of his head, causing him to fall to the ground.]

---

[Tron defeats Sark on the mesa. The MCP turns suddenly to look at the fallen Sark.]

Master Control Program: [desparately] Sark! All of my functions are now yours. Take them!

[Sark slowly gets up and grows to immense size, towering over Tron. Tron runs between his legs and throws his disk at the MCP's core. A shield appears in front of the core and blocks the disc.]

Master Control Program: [flinches] Sark!

[Tron throws his disc two more times at the MCP, with each attack being blocked by the shield again.]

Master Control Program: [flinching again] Sark!

[Sark approaches Tron from behind. Tron turns around to look up at him.]

Master Control Program: Your User can't help you now, my little program!

[Tron throws his disc at Sark, who easily blocks it with his hand.]

---

Alan Bradley: Try to look official. Here comes the boss.

[A helicopter lands, and Flynn steps out.]

Kevin Flynn: [to pilot] Pick me up in an hour. Thanks. [to Alan and Lora] Greeting, Programs! [hugs them]

Taglines

• In the future video games battles will be a matter of life and death.
• The Electronic Gladiator
• Trapped in a fight to the finish inside the video world he created. [UK theatrical]
• A world inside the computer where man has never been before. Never before now.
• Trapped inside an electronic arena, where love, and escape, do not compute!

Cast

• Jeff Bridges - Kevin Flynn/Clu
• Bruce Boxleitner - Alan Bradley/Tron
• David Warner - Ed Dillinger/Sark/Master Control Program
• Cindy Morgan - Lora/Yuri
• Barnard Hughes - Dr. Walter Gibbs/Dumont

External links

• Sound clips from TRON at MovieSounds.com
• Tron quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Tron at Rotten Tomatoes