One of the most visible changes is the color coding: while the original series focused on blue lights, this installment uses red to emphasize its artificiality, moving away from the natural.
Fifteen years after Tron: Legacy, the film maintains the basic structure of a world within computers, but its plot and aesthetics reflect technological changes. It moves from 5.25-inch floppy disks, CRT monitors, and classic keyboards to spaces dominated by AI and advanced technologies, including 3D printers capable of materializing buildings, bridges, water, organic matter, and even people in seconds.
Steven Lisberger, Tron, 1982.
The plot revolves around ENCOM and Dillinger Systems, who compete for Kevin Flynn's permanence code, capable of materializing Network programs in the real world. Dillinger seeks to create weapons and instant soldiers, while Eve Kim aims to use the technology to heal, feed, and honor her deceased sister. Without the code, the creations only last 29 minutes, generating existential crises for Ares, Dillinger's Master Control Program.
When Kim obtains the code, Dillinger attempts to capture her, but Ares rebels and joins her against Athena and an increasingly desperate Dillinger. The story takes place almost entirely in the real world, leaving the Grid as a minimalist visual backdrop.
Tron: Ares, 2025 by Joachim Rønning. Image courtesy of 2025 Disney Enterprises, Inc.
The film stands out for bringing Tron's iconic aesthetic to the physical world, with striking visual sequences. The opening chase on light cycles, with trails that become real obstacles like in Akira, exemplifies this fusion of digital design and reality, repeated throughout the film. The visual spectacle is maintained from beginning to end, although the narrative avoids deep philosophical reflections and presents a positive view of technological advances.
