The Story of Tron

An anonymouse reader writes "Tom's Hardware has a feature up on the makings of Tron which may interest latent fans. Through interviews with the creators they explore the makings of Tron, from how it came to be picked up by Disney to how the effects were put together ('While the majority of the film takes place in the computer world, only 15 minutes worth of footage actually used CGI', because it would have taken years to make the film otherwise). They then explore why the film flopped at the box office. 'It was like we put LSD in the punch at the school prom and it was just way more than they can handle,' said Steven Lisberger."

Can anyone...

[fredistheking]

honestly think about tron without the image of the tron guy [tronguy.net] coming to mind?

welcome to slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

I can handled some better grammar and/or editing

Re:Easy answer

[include($dysmas)]

""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.""

hey! but thats what i tell all my new sysadmins!?!

Re:Where is our Pixar/Disney Sequal?

[solarbob]

Prehaps the plot should be about the redux of the MCP trying to taking over the internet and enforce its own standards which everyone else has to confirm to ... Oh sorry that was Verisign wasn't it. OK What about a multi-national company that tries to get into every corner of your home to control the environment that has an evil overlord at the top... no sorry thats microsoft Right ok definitly good idea this time My Little Pony attack the Care Bares .... (goes off into a strange, caffine induced rant)

Re:Easy answer

[Anonymous Coward]

They started with a lousy script, and an implausibly silly plot that its very hard to look past. The market for movies that look pretty but don't engage on a human level is very, very small.

"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."

See? That's dialogue bad enough to have come from one of the Matrix sequels.

Speak for yourself. It was the only movie that I have ever seen that has engaged me on a human level. But engaged on a human level I mean human-machine-human which is a lot closer that I usually get.

And for once I really understood the dialogue. I can't say that it connected very well, sort of like an RS-45 to a DE-9. But like any other dialogue, a little solder and a little rewiring made it work. And after that movie I finally understood the philosophical significance of an open collector logic gate! The bit really spoke to me! Yes, no, and when you didn't ask him anything, nothing!

Re:Can anyone...

[Agram]

LOL! The only thing that I could think of when I visited the "pictures" page with the link "headshot" was... BOOM HEADSHOT

Re:Easy answer

[solarbob]

It works the same for us people in tech support. Users always seem to go one step further and break things

Re:Can anyone...

[beantherio]

Thank you for erasing my childhood sir!

And they pimped up a PDP-10!

[ettlz]

For Tron's special effects — The Super Foonly F-1. I bet it had a phat exhaust, blue downlighting, a killer sound system with a 16 inch subwoofer, and a stylish fibreglass skirt fitted to the front of the reel-to-reel cabinet.

Re:Can anyone...

[ettlz]

http://www.tronguy.net/TRONguard/ has just managed to put me off my breakfast which is nice

Time to "crack out" Goatse again, eh? ;)

Separated at birth?

[srl100]

Is it just me, or does Tronguy look quite a lot like Ned Flanders at a fancy dress? "Yes indeed-e, tron-a-roony."

Re:Can anyone...

[BRSloth]

honestly think about tron without the image of the tron guy coming to mind?

I could, just before clicking the link. Thanks for nothing.

Sequel?

[Hamster Lover]

What were they going to call it? Troff?

Re:Can anyone...

[Firewheels]

I wasn't aware of him before you mentioned it.

Now I have to go brillo my brain.

Thanks. Thanks a lot.

Re:Sequel?

[Anonymous Coward]

What were they going to call it? Troff?

No, that would require you to have some knowledge of how a computer works. To capture your sequel audience you ALWAYS have the name of the original movie in the title (exception: if major characters become so popular their names are more widely known than the title of the movie, e.g. Rambo) followed by the number of the sequel it is, which may optionally be in Arabic or Roman numerals. This is generally followed by a catchy subtitle that explains how the sequel is different from, or similar to, the original.

Thus, the only feasible titles for a "Tron" sequel are:

"Tron 2: Milking the Wave of '80s Nostalgia"
    -or-
"Tron II: We Thought We Could Make a Better Movie Than The Original"

SQL?

[dodobh]

Cron of course.

Obligatory Simpsons Quote...

[CrazyTalk]

"Has anyone here seen Tron?"
"No"
"No"
"No"
"Yes - I mean no."

Re:They ignored the Bonnie MacBird/Alan Kay bit!

[bkr1_2k]

Interesting to whom?

You had to see it dossed on some good LSD!

[jimijon]

Obviously all the trails and glowing auras were meant for us trippies!

Re:welcome to slashdot

[Herkum01]

Obviously the Slashdot Spell Checker program met its fate early on on the Game Grid.

Excuse me...

[Rob T Firefly]

I believe he has my stapler.

Raging Frisbee Bull

[SeanDuggan]

There's a reason why Scorcese's "Raging Bull" doesn't center on the world frisbee champion, you know.
Obviously, because people wouldn't be able to stand the sheer thrill and excitement if it did.

Re:Where is our Pixar/Disney Sequal?

[Cat_Byte]

How about a prequel where they have it all taking place inside a calculator and everything is slow motion and LCD black on grey?

An Actuarial Perspective

[xactuary]

I saw TRON on opening day with a bunch of pals, on mushrooms. I 'm happen to be an actuary, and when RAM announces that he is an actuarial program, believe me, it cracked me up. I've always loved that movie and have probably seen it a dozen times since.

Re:Grossing Twice the Cost is a Flop?

[cubicledrone]

ron cost 17 million to make and pulled in 33 million. How is this considered a flop?

Well, they expected it to make $400 million, so it was a disappointment.

And if it made $400 million, it's still a disappointment because they expected it to make $2 billion.

Re:SQL?

[FuzzyBad-Mofo]

Or Pr0n, the X-rated version.

The Delusional Director

[oni]

From the article: "One of the things I'm most proud about in Tron is there are no guns in the movie -- it's a killer Frisbee!" he said. "I mean, try to make an action adventure movie without a gun. I dare you."

So, those aren't gun turrets on the tanks? I guess those are love turrets, and they fire love and happiness.

Re:Excuse me...

[Anonymous Coward]

ROFBMALFO!!!

Do I have this right? you're Rolling On the Floor But [Y]our Ass Loves Foreign Objects? Even if so, what does that have to do with Tron? ... and that's too much sharing.

Re:Excuse me...

[PhoenixPath]

Rolling On the Floor Because My Artificial Limbs Fell Off.

Where the hell have you been?!?!?

Re:Where is our Pixar/Disney Sequal?

[Doctor Memory]

As long as there's a scene where somebody slashes a giant talking paperclip with a lightsaber, I'm there!

Re:Sequel?

[Anonymous Coward]

Tron++

Re:Easy answer

[jonaskoelker]

Toy Story? The creators are totally unoriginal--they named all the characters after Debian releases!