List of Tron (franchise) characters


The Tron franchise, including the film trilogy and animated series feature characters created by Steven Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. This article covers notable characters of the Tron franchise, including its various cinematic, literary, and video game adaptations and sequels.

Development

For the first film, Richard Rickitt explained that to "produce the characters who inhabit the computer world, actors were dressed in costumes that were covered in black-and-white computer circuitry designs....With coloured light shining through the white areas of their costumes, the resulting characters appeared to glow as if lit from within....optical processes were used to create all of the film's computerized characters..." Frederick S. Clarke reported that Tron: Legacy would "combine live action with Computer-generated imagery," adding that "several characters...will be completely digital..."

''Tron''

Kevin Flynn

Portrayed by:
Voiced by:
Kevin Flynn is a gifted software programmer and video game designer who serves as the protagonist of the original Tron film. A former employee of the software corporation ENCOM, Flynn owns and operates Flynn’s Arcade, where he entertains patrons by excelling at the very games he once developed for ENCOM, including Space Paranoids, Matrix Blaster, Vice Squad, and Light Cycles. In 1982, following his dismissal from the company, Flynn seeks proof that ENCOM executive Edward Dillinger plagiarized his creations to advance his own career. With assistance from programmers Alan Bradley and Lora Baines, Flynn infiltrates ENCOM’s computer system, where he is unexpectedly digitized and transported into the digital realm known as the Grid.
Inside the system, Flynn befriends Tron and Yori—the program counterparts of Bradley and Baines, respectively—and discovers that, as a User, he possesses abilities surpassing those of ordinary programs, enabling him to manipulate the laws of the digital environment. Together, they overthrow the authoritarian Master Control Program, freeing the system’s inhabitants. Flynn then returns to the real world with evidence of Dillinger’s misconduct, ultimately assuming the role of CEO at ENCOM.
Intrigued by his experiences within the Grid, Flynn later creates a second system on a private server located beneath his arcade. He transfers Tron to this new Grid and generates a digital doppelgänger of himself, Clu, to help construct a virtual utopia. Over time, Flynn becomes increasingly absorbed in his discoveries related to genetic algorithms and quantum teleportation, confiding only in Alan Bradley about his work. In 1988, this new Grid spontaneously gives rise to a unique class of self-generating programs called Isomorphic Algorithms, or ISOs. The following year, Clu stages a coup, defeating Tron, eradicating the ISOs, and trapping Flynn within the system when he fails to reach the portal back to the real world.
Forced into exile, Flynn rescues and protects Quorra, the last surviving ISO. Over the ensuing decades, his prolonged absence leads many programs to revere him as a divine Creator. In 2009, Flynn’s estranged son, Sam, is transported into the Grid and reunites with his father. In the ensuing conflict, Flynn sacrifices himself by reintegrating with Clu, seemingly destroying them both.
Fifteen years later, Flynn reappears as a digital construct within the original 1982 Grid, where he grants the Permanence Code to Ares.

CLU

CLU is a hacking program that Flynn created in his likeness to expose Dillinger's plagiarism by searching for evidence.
While searching for the stolen data, the Master Control Program captures and absorbs him, using the information he gained against Flynn as he attempts to escape the game grid on a light cycle.
An updated version of CLU serves as the main antagonist to the second film and its tie-in media.

Alan Bradley

Portrayed by:
Alan Bradley is a computer programmer and Flynn's partner at ENCOM.
He is the creator of Tron, who monitors communications between the MCP and the real world and addresses him by the username 'Alan-One'. However, after finding his progress to be limited, he assists Flynn in exposing Dillinger. In Tron, he is depicted as being in a relationship with Lora Baines. With Kevin Flynn's return to ENCOM in 1982, Bradley works closely alongside Flynn on his projects. After Kevin Flynn's disappearance in 1989, Bradley remained chairman of ENCOM and acted as a surrogate father to Sam Flynn. In 2009, Bradley remained a part of the ENCOM board of directors. Upon returning to the company, Sam restores Bradley's chairman role.

Tron

Tron, is a security program that Alan created in his likeness to monitor communications between the MCP and the real world. He is the main digital protagonist of the first film.
The MCP captures him and forces him to play on the Game Grid, but Flynn frees him and helps him shut down the MCP, which Alan ordered him to do. In Tron: Legacy, Flynn brings Tron in to work security on the new Grid; Clu 2.0 stages a coup and reprograms him into Rinzler, who hosts the Games before remembering his true identity as Tron and sacrificing himself to help defeat Clu 2.0

Lora Baines

Lora Baines is a research engineer at ENCOM and one of Gibbs' assistants, as well as Flynn's ex-girlfriend and Alan's current girlfriend.
She assisted in designing the laser that teleports Flynn into the digital world and created Yori, who assists in the derezzing procedure.

Yori

Yori is an input/output program that Lora created in her likeness to handle the creation of digital simulations, such as the Solar Sailer, and assist with the derezzing procedure.
Tron and Flynn's romantic interest, she reunites with Tron after he rescues her from the MCP and helps him and Flynn reach its core to destroy it and its factional programs.

Walter Gibbs

Walter Gibbs is the founder of ENCOM, where he and Lora work as scientists and helped develop the digitizing laser. After voicing concerns about the limitations of the company's grid in a meeting with Dillinger, Dillinger threatens to dismiss him.

Dumont

Dumont is a "guardian" program that Gibbs created in his likeness to protect the ENCOM grid's I/O Tower. He has a similar bond with Yori as Gibbs has with Lora.

Ed Dillinger

Ed Dillinger is the Senior Executive Vice President of ENCOM and father of Elisabeth Dillinger and Ed Dillinger, Jr. He is the overarching antagonist of the first film.
A programmer at ENCOM, he rises through the company's ranks and becomes its senior executive by plagiarizing Flynn's work and contributes to the rise of the MCP by creating the program Sark to act as its second-in-command. After learning of Flynn's investigation into his plagiarism, Dillinger authorizes the MCP to tighten security controls, but it threatens to expose his actions after he questions its intent to defy his plans of capturing other programs from government facilities like The Pentagon. Following the MCP's destruction, he is disgraced from the company and Flynn becomes its CEO.

Sark

Commander Sark, is a command program that Dillinger created in his likeness to serve as the MCP's chief lieutenant. He is the secondary antagonist of the first film.
He oversees the training of new programs that the MCP kidnaps and brings to the Grid, offering them a chance to join his elites if they renounce their belief in the users. While guarding the way to Master Control, Tron destroys him.

Master Control Program

The Master Control Program is the main antagonist of the first film.
An artificial intelligence created by Gibbs and improved by Dillinger, it rules over ENCOM's gaming grid, enslaving programs and forcing them to play games against its henchmen. Dillinger uses the MCP to manage ENCOM's computer network, but it turns on him and threatens to expose his theft of Flynn's creations. Empowered by Dillinger and seeking information, power, and control over other corporations and governments, it steals data from other systems before Flynn and Tron destroy it.

Roy Kleinberg

Roy Kleinberg is one of ENCOM's first computer programmers and Alan's coworker, as well as the creator of the Ram program, which makes connections between ENCOM and an insurance company. When Alan goes to Dillinger about being blocked from the system, Kleinberg asks if he can have some of his popcorn, which Alan agrees to. As a result, he is credited as "Popcorn Co-Worker".
Kleinberg also appears in the short film "The Next Day," included on the Blu-ray edition of Tron Legacy, which reveals his name. Along with Alan, he is shown to be the leader of the "Flynn Lives" movement.

Ram

Ram is an actuarial program that Kleinberg created in his likeness to "work for a big insurance company" before being captured by the MCP and forced to play on the Game Grid.
While participating in the games, Ram goes beyond his original programming and becomes a skilled player. Though he expresses confidence in his abilities between games, he also takes pride in his work as an insurance program, which he seems to associate with humanitarian causes. After escaping the game grid with Flynn and Tron, he dies after being injured by a game tank.

Crom

Crom is a compound interest program that full branch managing savings and loan bank programmer Mr. Henderson created in his likeness.
After the MCP captures him and forces him to play on the Game Grid, he and Flynn battle in the ring game. Flynn gains the upper hand, but disobeys Sark's orders and refuses to kill the defenseless Crom. However, Crom falls to his death after Sark removes the piece of the playing field he is hanging from.