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What if first contact doesn’t come from the skies but from inside our computers? That’s the unnerving question at the centre of Tron: Ares, Disney’s long-delayed sequel to 2010’s Tron: Legacy. Director Joachim Rønning (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) brings scale and spectacle to the series’ long-dormant codebase as the programmes of the Grid’s glowing corridors step onto humanity’s turf—a first for the Tron-verse.
A New Programme in Town
As AI continues to grow in intelligence and become a part of our daily lives, the notion of AI arriving as an emissary from our own technology feels terribly timely. Rønning leans into that timeliness, turning the sequel into a parable about creation, consciousness and what happens when the programme outgrows the programmer.
Tron: Ares picks up fifteen years after Tron: Legacy, exploring the next evolution of the boundary between digital and physical worlds. ENCOM’s reclusive CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) is on the hunt for Kevin Flynn’s permanence code, a potential key that could allow digital creations to exist off the Grid. Racing to find it first is rival tech company Dillinger Systems, helmed by Julian Dillinger, the grandson of Edward Dillinger, Sr (aka the baddie of 1982’s Tron). Jared Leto stars as Ares, a sentient programme engineered as a perfect soldier and the defender of Dillinger Systems’ Grid.
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Humanity.exe
Like its predecessors, Tron: Ares wants to be an odyssey that explores what happens when creation and creator meet. But where Tron: Legacy found its heart in the father-son relationship, this chapter struggles to generate the same emotional current.
The film asks what it means to be human, but sprints towards the next action sequence without exploring the question. Lee grounds the story with a calm intelligence, while Leto delivers a restrained but proficient performance as artificial intelligence made corporeal — take that, Tilly Norwood. Both Kim and Ares are reaching for connection and understanding, but it’s the kind of human-meets-machine premise that was better explored in films like The Creator, Ex Machina, AI: Artificial Intelligence, and Bicentennial Man, not to mention the Blade Runner and Terminator series.
Virtual Made Reality
What Tron: Ares lacks, it compensates for in screen craft. Given that 1982’s Tron was a revelation for being one of the first films to use CGI, Tron: Ares is surprisingly practical. A motorway light-cycle scene shot largely in-camera on the streets of Vancouver is an undeniable thrill, as are many of the film’s neon-and LED-drenched action sequences.
Rønning and cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth also shot large portions of the film for IMAX, lending a kind of muscular energy that’s made more tangible by the production’s practical effects, including functioning LED suits built by Wētā Workshop. It’s a movie made for a big screen, and in Tron tradition, that includes the music.
Nine Inch Nails’ score pulses through every frame, functioning as a darker, more aggressive take than Daft Punk’s iconic Tron: Legacy tracks. There’s one particular chase sequence on the Grid involving a “Light Skimmer” where the NIN score truly soars.
Sequential Data
Rather than retcon what came before, this is a true sequel, complete with callbacks that will delight longtime fans (keep an eye out for the OG Tron outfit in a crowd scene). Those details will be completely lost on newcomers, as will Jeff Bridges, who returns as Flynn and is thankfully spared the de-ageing treatment this time.
Why a computer programme would age at all is just one of the many moments that are probably better left unexplained. This still has big-budget Disney hardwired into it, occasionally feeling as if it was made to make its theme park ride, Tron Lightcycle Run, more relevant—much like Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, and Tomorrowland did before it. It’s a big step above those titles, though, with the best sequences humming with energy. Rønning’s vision also sometimes feels radical for a studio sequel, exploring how technology mirrors our own desire for permanence, empathy and rebellion. ★★★☆☆
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