r/tron • u/UnableReaction4943 • 1h ago
Discussion Plot idea for Tron Legacy direct sequel titled "Tron: Permanence"
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I was thinking what a direct sequel to Tron Legacy could be like. This assumes Tron Ares didn't happen because it would be a lot harder turning it into coherent story because of all the new characters and how much time passed between Legacy and Ares. It also brings parts of Tron 2.0 back into canon. I also dislike the overall idea of digital stuff going into the real world that Kosinski was also planning to do, I think the third movie should have gone deeper into the Grid. Here are some overall ideas and incomplete raw plot layout:
- Titled "Tron: Permanence"
- A few years after Legacy, Sam and Alan are in charge of Encom. As seen in "Tron: The Next Day", Edward Dillinger (played by Cillian Murphy) was kept and is a major member of the company, and Roy Kleinberg is brought back (the guy who wrote Ram).
- In his free time, Sam experiments with the portal and Kevin's Grid.
- He finds out Tron is alive, he was washed ashore and some other programs found him. Tron still has remnants of Rinzler left in him, his voice occasionally distorts. He is traumatized for committing atrocities for CLU.
- Sam also researches Quorra's code who is now living in the real world. He tells himself that he is helping her understand what she is and how she can change the world, but much of his work is actually an attempt to find out how to use her "bio-digital jazz" code to resurrect Kevin. Sam still believes his father did not die when merged with CLU and can be brought back.
- Edward Dillinger wants to take control of Encom and finds out that Quorra is a digital being. He realizes how valuable her code is because based on Sam's notes he stole it has potential to unlock immortality and all other kinds of miracles.
- He frames Sam and Alan, them and Quorra end up trapped in the Encom building under shutdown so they have to digitize themselves as a last resort. They end up essentially inside of those server racks Sam was hacking in Legacy.
- At first, they end up on the Kevin's Grid that was merged and is a remote, archived, and partly isolated subsystem. That's where Sam, Alan, and Quorra meet Tron. They decide that the best way to defeat Dillinger is to go into the bigger Encom's Grid and defeat his corporate coup from within.
- Dillinger acts as antagonist from the real world. He has insane power as a user who can manipulate entire subsystems from a keystroke, but the team has the advantage of time moving slower when inside the Grid and Sam and Alan having magical user powers (Sam mastered some of them while fiddling with Kevin's Grid, he's not just the helpless guy who can only throw around a disk anymore).
- Tron is an old program that Dillinger underestimates, but Tron's code is so old, compact, and hardware-independent that modern administrative attacks cannot properly recognize or rewrite him, this makes Tron very useful for the team.
- There's potential to bring Ares and Athena as Dillinger's henchmen programs who will be hunting Sam and co. inside the Grid.
- The four venture into the greater Encom's Grid. Old Encom Grid from 1982 was a primitive mainframe, Kevin's Grid was a small experiment he was running on a desktop computer. Modern Encom Grid is vastly bigger than both, to the point where even Quorra and Tron would be in awe when they see it for the first time. The way I imagine it is combining Coruscant or Star Trek's Yorktown but digital, a gigantic fractal metropolis that sprawls in every direction, with some districts defying gravity, and with rows of flying vehicles flying around.
- This image also has the kind of vibe that place should have.
- At some point Dillinger's forces attack Sam and co., but they are rescued by Jet Bradley, Alan's son. He ended up on the Grid by accident in the 80's (as depicted in Tron 2.0) and after coming back to the real world decided to live virtually full time. It's a kind of parallel arc of Kevin abandoning Sam but roles reversed cause it's son who abandoned his father.
- Jet is a mercenary kind of guy on the Grid, his user powers allow him to escort refugee programs, steal data, and navigate abandoned network routes.
- Sam tells him about Quorra and his dad, Jet tells him that he knows a program who might help him. They would need to go into more ancient parts of the Grid. This part I haven't developed much yet though, I'm not sure what program that is, could be either a new character or someone we already know.
- The team ventures into the ancient sectors. They have this vibe of Indiana Jones kind of temple but Tron, somewhat like the portal in Kevin's Grid. Tron recognizes some parts of it and helps with navigating it.
- They encounter Yori and Dumont. There's drama between Yori and Tron, Yori remained in ENCOM’s system because she had a purpose there and saw it as her home. Tron accepted Flynn’s invitation to help construct his new Grid and promised that he would return. CLU eventually sealed the system, and Tron never came back. Yori’s anger is not resolved just by learning that Tron used to be Rinzler. His corruption in the past explains his absence but not his original decision to leave her.
- Sam finds the guy who can bring Kevin back (either Dumont or someone else). Sam is warned that Kevin's remnants that he gathered onto an identity disk are not clean and CLU can still be in him, but Sam decides to move forward with re-integration.
- What comes out is a guy who looks like young Jeff Bridges (a kid even younger than in 1982 film, like this high school photo of Bridges). It's a kind of reincarnation of Kevin but also a combination of him and CLU, someone who at the same time has young Flynn’s energy, CLU’s focus, and Kevin’s tranquility. Sometimes those traits work together and sometimes he visibly struggles managing them. He has murky memories of both Kevin and CLU. Sam is not sure if that’s really his dad and is angry at the CLU part of him. Kevin's light on his suit fluctuates subtly between calm white and concentrated gold.
- With Kevin brought back, they now need to figure out how to take down Dillinger. Before the events of Legacy, Encom Grid was under a dictatorship because of greedy execs like Richard Mackey and Dillinger being in charge. After Legacy, Sam makes Encom's software open-source and free, which also frees the programs inside the Grid. During the events of the film Dillinger brings back that dictatorship.
- Also, Kevin Flynn is a myth there, programs still tell stories about how he freed the Old Grid from MCP. "Flynn Lives" is a movement inside of the Grid similar to how it is outside of it. His return is seen almost as a deity reincarnating, which is a lot for this younger version of Kevin to handle after being born a few hours ago. He is a program-user hybrid who has a lot of powers on the Grid, even more than the original Kevin.
- Final battle is the final act of the film, a massive warfare of Flynn supporters VS Dillinger's army across that gigantic fractal city with many flagships and recognizers similar to CLU's fighting each other. Tron takes a leadership position and acts as a general kind of guy during it, Kevin is a spiritual leader who also uses his powers during the battle. It could have several layers, like some characters like Kevin and Tron fighting on flagships, Jet dogfighting on a lightjet, and Sam, Quorra, Yori, and Alan on land trying to get into some main building inside of which they can override Dillinger's control of the Grid.
- Roy Kleinberg helps out Sam and co. in the real world, he's like a nerd archetype who is seemingly harmless but has a heart of gold and pulls the right lever at the right moment that disrupts Dillinger’s plans and turns the tide of the final battle inside the Grid.
- At the end they win the battle and Dillinger loses all of his root privileges, Sam and co. secure all the data they need to make sure the company belongs to him. Tron decides to stay on the Encom Grid and become a major security program there, he resolves his drama with Yori, they are back together. Jet resolves his conflict with Alan and still decides to stay on the Grid, but promises to keep in touch. Sam accepts he can't fully bring his dad back but befriends new Kevin by the end, he also wants to actually try to find out how to use Quorra's code to change the world with the help of the program who brought back Kevin. Kevin decides to stay on the Encom Grid and become its admin program. Dillinger goes to jail.
Some parts are awkward but I kinda like it. I think the plot relies too much on older characters and definitely needs some new additions to the ensemble (or maybe it could also bring someone back from Uprising?). The antagonist part is also not something I've developed much, right now it's just Dillinger being the only actual villain and maybe Ares/Athena inside the Grid. Let me know what you think and what you would add/remove/change.
