tronsequel.com

“Oh man. This isn’t happening, it only thinks it’s happening.” (or does he say “I only think it’s happening”?)

From this line (the first thing Flynn says after arriving in the Tron world), it seems like Flynn knows where he is. But this can’t possibly be. You’d think that Flynn would would be suffering a bit more dissonance than this after finding himself in such a strange place wearing a glowing circuit board suit. But he immediately asks to see the guy in charge. When he sat down at Laura’s terminal in that experimental laser lab, he couldn’t possibly have been expecting to be sucked into the Tron world. Yet he seems to have some idea where he is, and just goes with it - “I play games better than anybody”.

As I was saying in the last post, it would be cool for the sequel to reference the making of the original Tron. In the original there were two levels of reality: the real world, and the Tron world. This is the idea that should be played off of in the sequel. So, if a re-enactment of the making of the original were to be incorporated into the sequel, this would add another level of reality. So, there could be an element of faux-documentary of the making of the original Tron. And what if we were to treat this reality (the reality of the cast and crew on the set of the making of of the original Tron) as parallel to the world of Alan and Kevin Flynn, as well as to that of Tron and Flynn? This would add a further level of reality: that of the movie ‘Tron’. Into the world of the movie (and then into the Tron world within this), and then out to the world of the early 80’s. This could be carried further, and there are many ways that this could be incorporated into the other traditional elements of Tron, but I will expand on that later.

I realize that this may sound kinda far-out. But if you read the earlier posts, you will see my reasons for this radical re-interpretation.

Here is an idea that I really liked (these ideas are all scattered, and not necessarily a coherent whole): it would be cool if the sequel somehow incorporated a re-enactment of the making of the original (as one setting in the sequel). Here is why: watching the documentary on the re-released 2-disc, it was really amazing to hear about the elaborate process they went through for the effects of the original. That isn’t the only reason - going back to my earlier posts, I don’t think the sequel should follow the same form as the previous chapters (the PC game, and the comic book) of being set in the present day, here and now, real world of someone getting sucked into the computer world. Another reason was that I saw an article somewhere about remaking the original as well as a sequel. This is my justification for the idea of somehow incorporating a re-enactment of the making of the original (as well as a revamping of the visual effects while we’re at it) would be great for the sequel. I will now get into some possibilities of how that could pan out.

In a re-enactment of the making of the original (as an element of the sequel), it would be cool to amplify, and exaggerate, the culture of the 80’s, the arcades, music, clothes, music, etc. I’m imagining this done in some kind of retro-chic bubble-gum vintage style. Enough of that, you get the idea.

I really like the idea of the different levels of reality (tron/real world). I think it would be really cool to play on this even more in the sequel, and possibly even blurring the distinctions (within the movie, hence my reference to David Lynch and ‘Shadow of the Vampire’). This is what I am arguing all of the talk about security programs and Mater Control Programs should be replaced with. (see my earlier posting about ‘why the tron world wouldn’t work in the same way today’) Or rather, security and the MCP shouldn’t be the focus like it has been in its previous incantations.

There are a couple of different ways that it could go from here, but I may have to go into some of them next time.

(See my earlier post as a preamble to this).

When the original came out, computers may have been a bit more mysterious, not so common as they are today. At the time, most people probably had no idea how distant the technology of digitizing a body was and sucking it into a computer - it might not have seemed so ridiculous (I can’t say, I was just a kid at the time). Regardless, the original didn’t do very well anyways, I think it bombed at the time (except for the few fanatics who were kids at the time). Maybe the cultural climate has changed, or something, but I think a Tron sequel done like the original (a guy getting sucked into a neon computer world) would seem really dumb.

Even if it was made for kids, I don’t think it would work. It didn’t work the first time. And sure there are heaps of fantasy movies around, and you might think that this might hint to a public that is ready for the fantasy of Tron, but I think you are wrong. Fantasy films are set in another world, so we can suspend disbelief. Star Trek was set in the future, and likewise we can imagine that anything might happen in the future. But Tron is set in the present day, and I think that is the place for it (this gets into my vision for Tron’s cultural role, which will have to elaborated on later). Like I said, computers were still so new at the time, and so there were these cheesy speculative movies like ‘Electric Dreams’, ‘Flight of the Navigator’, ‘Short Circuit’, ‘WarGames’, and there was another one I can’t remember. Had the original been set in the future, it might’ve been more popular, but Tron belongs in the real world, here and now. So since it must be set the present day, and we are much more savvy then we used to be, I don’t think the Tron world would work (in the same way) today.

These are the foundational arguments to support my ideas for a Tron sequel (which I haven’t really gotten into yet).

A few words on the Tron constituency before I go on to talk about why the Tron world wouldn’t work in the way it has been used up to now. Who is the sequel being made for? If it is being made for the Tron fans, there aren’t many of them. Among the people I’ve ever met, there is not one who seems to approach my level of concern with Tron, and I am in the right age group for running into Tron fans. It’s novelty status among my age group has possibly swelled a little, but not that much. There are certainly some fans, and it certainly isn’t as forgotten as most movies from the time (it does have that going for it).It wasn’t really popular as a kids movie either, even though it was thought of as a kids movie (what with the acade games, trading cards, learn-to-read book+tape, etc.). It would be a serious shame it the sequel were to be even more geared towards kids. But I can’t see this happening really, so we can discard that possibility.

Otherwise, and of course the obvious answer is that it will be made for mass appeal. The original was targeted for mass appeal, so I can’t argue that mass appeal doesn’t fit the spirit of Tron. But why do it? If you are going for mass appeal, then why use Tron? Why not just make up another story with great special effects and action. People will still go see it anyways if it has all these things. Considering the constituency, you don’t fare to make all that much more money by calling the movie a sequel to Tron. And you would risk possibly pissing off the fans by making a stupid action movie, and ending the Tron legacy forever.

Therefore…don’t make a movie for kids, and don’t make a movie aimed at mass appeal. Make a movie tailored for exactly those who saw something in it from the beginning. Believe me (and I know you have no reason to), but if you make it for this constituency, it will have the same lasting effect, and will probably be even bigger. If you make a movie for mass appeal, it will disappear like any stupid ‘Armageddon’ or ‘Battlefield Earth’ or what the hell ever.

(Continued here)

This follows from a point I was making here. The point was that it is strange that the games they are playing in the real world are so accurate to the way things are in the Tron world. The causal ramifications of this will have to worked out elsewhere. It seems like either the video game is a window into the Tron world, or else Flynn is kind of seeing what he wants to see. He is being appeared to in a way that makes sense to him, he is familiar with. This makes me think of the movie Contact, when Ellie meets the aliens on the other side of the universe, she meets her father on a familiar beach, and is told by the aliens that they assumed this appearance to make her feel comfortable or something.

I was also thinking of myths, and the computer as the new paradigmatic myth that we understand things in terms of. Like the computational model of the mind, and artificial life and simulating astronomical goings-on in computer. The matrix and brain-in-a-vat type ideas. The universe used to be a big clock, before that it was gods creation, before that there was a pantheon of gods, but they all assume the guise of the most advanced thinking of the time.

In the original Tron, I think the arcade game is supposed to be a window into the Tron world. But this raises issues: What about the other arcade games? (That would make a good Twilight Zone ending, where they look around and everyone is playing games with these Tron characters, baseball games where they are all Tron characters, fighting games, etc.) Are they all such windows? Or are these Tron games privaleged windows? This just isn’t addressed in the movie. I’m guessing you’d have to say that all such arcade games (computer games these days) are windows into the Tron world. So even when people are playing Guitar Hero III (I don’t actually know what that is), or Tetris, or when junior high girls are playing those cute little pink games about cute punky little characters, this is also a window in. This would be one way to reconcile this problem. But the differences between all of these games would have to be explained in the movie.

Another would be that these Tron games are privaleged windows into the computer world, they are an actual picture of the Tron world, whereas these others are just made up. So, how did these games come about then? Did someone write them? If someone did, then they presumably would have to know how to access this world. Here you could have some Videodrome (the sequel should take some hints from videodrome) like connection with this other realm, but that might be too similar to that movie where those kids are playing a video game, and they are actually getting killed, whatever that was. Anyways, I like the former idea about all games being similarly tapped into the Tron world serves the spirit of Tron better.

I’ll have to continue on these ideas later.

In the movie you see people playing the light cycle game from the Tron arcade game, and you see Flynn (Jeff Bridges) playing a 1st person type tank game where he is shooting recognizers. This game is exactly what Flynn’s programs look like when he is seen communicating with them from his computer terminal. And we are transported through the screen of light cycle arcade game into the Tron world where everything is as it appears on the screen. Why is this?

I guess Flynn didn’t necessarily design those games (above); he only says that among a “slew” of others, that he wrote “Vice Squad” and “Matrix Blaster”, if my memory serves me.

Whoever designed these games (in the movie), had some intuitive idea of what was going on on the inside, in the Tron world? Do you see what I’m saying? This tank game that Flynn is playing is a window into the Tron world. Because as we see in the Tron world scenes, there are tanks and recognizers just as there is in that game that Flynn is playing. So somehow these games either accurate or direct views of the Tron world, or the Tron world scenes have conformed to the designers design (this idea expanded here).

These are just ideas for the rough feel of what an ideal Tron sequel would be:

A cross between ‘2001′ and ‘Shadow of the Vampire’, just to give you the mood and style I had in mind.

Instead of programs battling for freedom against the MCP, the story should be more like a labyrinth, like Alice in Wonderland, Lynchian (David Lynch), etc.

So, possibly someone falling in the rabbit hole in some way (maybe not digitizing lasers), losing themselves, forgetting who you are, the disorientation that is commonly experienced in transport, themes of identity.

Instead of security, I think the theme should be something about identity. The movie should play on themes of online personas, avatars, etc. Themes of artiface, facade, persona, reflection. I’m thinking of the kinds of persona switching that goes on in movies like David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and others.

Online personas as a reflection of yourself or not or in what way, getting lost in these personas. Maybe as a story, there could be a quest to find out about some enigmatic Andy Kaufman joker prankster.

Even identity theft could make a decent story, even though it sounds too topical and current.

It looks like the Tron sequel is in the works. They’ve got some slick-ass looking director for the sequel, Joseph Kosinski. The got some writers from ‘Lost’ to write the screenplay (I’ve never seen Lost, so I don’t know if that is good news). Jeff Bridges is ready for more (and here).

Thats all I know.