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Character page for TRON: Legacy.

See also the character pages for TRON, TRON: Evolution and TRON: Uprising. The Alternate Continuity TRON 2.0 has its own page.


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Humans/Users

    Sam Flynn 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Normal_TRON_GHedlund_8313.jpg
Played by: Garrett Hedlund
Dubbed by: Adrien Antoine (European French)

  • Action Survivor: When he first enters The Grid.
  • Badass Biker: To the point that he is a lot more comfortable in the Games when he realizes they involve Light Cycles.
    Sam: Now this, I can do!
  • Batman Gambit: In his second fight with Rinzler, he opens with the same exact attack as the first fight, expecting Rinzler to perform the same dodge. Unbeknownst to Rinzler, Sam had both his own disc and his father's, and when he was forced to defend the second disc instead of his usual dodge, Quorra was able to kick him off the tower.
  • Bloodless Carnage: Averted. When Rinzler hits him with a disc, Sam bleeds and Rinzler recognizes him as a User.
  • Boring, but Practical: He's not capable of the acrobatics that Rinzler is, nor is his disk flinging as intricate as other programs. However, his direct style is simple and effective.
  • Changing of the Guard: Takes over Encom...or at least becomes the public face of Encom at the end of the film.
  • Collapsible Helmet: Standard for all programs.
  • Deadly Disc: Ditto.
  • Fights Like a Normal: Justified. Yes, he's a User, but he has no idea what he's capable of inside cyberspace and never really got a chance to find out.
  • Heroes Love Dogs: He gives his bulldog an entire burger. Best. Owner. Ever.
  • Idle Rich: Sam might have the most shares of Encom, but he's a college dropout with no job and no social connections outside Alan Bradley and his rescue dog Marv.
  • Indy Ploy: He isn't really big on making plans. In his own words, "I'm a user. I'll improvise."
  • Lonely Rich Kid: An adult version of it. The ARG depicts a troubled background with plenty of getting into fights, being shipped off to boarding school when his grandparents' health declines, and the choose-your-own-adventure tie-in states outright "Sam doesn't have friends." note 
  • Manchild: He acts more like a rebellious teenager seeking thrills than the 27 year old that he is. At the end of the movie, he decides to start working at Encom.
  • Mundane Utility: Apparently, he's the only one that realizes that his father's disc, which is essentially the MacGuffin of the entire film, can actually be used in combat like any other disc.
  • Parental Abandonment: The kid's got issues, to the point where bringing up his dad can be a minor Berserk Button, even if his motive for pranking the company is to remind them how far they've pulled away from his dad's (and Gibbs's, by extension) ideals.
  • Playful Hacker: Best seen when he hacks into Encom to give the latest operating system to the public for free and interrupts the board meeting with a video of his dog.
  • Shirtless Scene:
    • Gets one early on when he changes into new clothes after his stunt at Encom Tower and the subsequent brief stint in prison.
    • Once on the Grid, he gets stripped off of his old clothes by Gem and her colleagues. However, judging from how this is a different system from the one in the original film, that might in fact be necessary to get his new attire.
  • Shouting Shooter: He immediately starts shouting excitedly the moment he opens fire with the Light Fighter's twin-linked tail gun turret.
  • Spin-Offspring: Kevin's son.
  • Street Smart: Sam is actually giftedly smart in the conventional sense. However, the combination of his mother and father both disappearing from his life before he was ten, and his grandparents both dying at some unspecified point later, contributed to a very poor upbringing that forced him to become this trope. Notably, he was accepted into CalTech (no mean feat even for wealthy prospective students), but lacked the discipline to complete his education there. Throughout the film he displays qualities of this trope by being very quick on the uptake and able to adjust quickly to new conditions.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: He's never seen doing the things that make Users Physical Gods, which is unusual given that he's an accomplished hacker and very tech savvy. He's a good fighter though, and naturally a lot tougher than most programs. Not to mention that most of his handicap is due to being completely unfamiliar with the system; later on in the movie he is able to fight Rinzler on equal footing, although the fight is quickly interrupted.
  • When You Coming Home, Dad?: Kevin spent a lot of time on the grid, and wasn't exactly in a position to explain when he became trapped within the grid. Sam eventually became majority owner of Encom in his own right, following in his father's footsteps. By the time they meet in the grid, Kevin has fallen into a malaise, so Sam leaves and tries to stop Clu himself.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: He mistakes a Lightcycle baton for a lightsaber, at first.

    Kevin Flynn 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/300px-2010_tron_legacy_055_7237.jpg
"In there is our destiny!"
Played by: Jeff Bridges

The father of Sam, and the creator of another Grid.

  • Achilles in His Tent: After Clu's mutiny, Kevin runs far off the grid and hides, since any action he takes only allows Clu to copy more of his abilities. He is resigned to eventually die on the grid rather than let Clu have his disc. When Sam tries to convince him to fight, he straight-up quotes WarGames:
    Kevin: "The only winning move is not to play."
  • The Atoner: He admits he royally screwed up with The Grid, and his involuntary abandonment of Sam, and being unable to stop the slaughter of Quorra's people, and decides to make a Heroic Sacrifice to get them to safety, destroying himself, Clu, and probably a good chunk of what's left of The Grid.
  • Awesomeness Is a Force: Capable of turning the tide in a battle by simply showing up and touching the floor. As one person on Youtube said:
    The Admin has logged in.
  • Background Halo: When meditating on the Solar-Sailer, the light behind him gives him a halo.
  • Badass Pacifist: Kevin is so powerful that he usually wins without having to raise a hand against anyone. Subverted with Quorra's rescue: She states that she closed her eyes, surrounded by Clu's Black Guards, waiting for the end... and when she opened them, the guards were just... gone.
  • Big Good: Considered the great pioneer of information freedom and computer ethics in the analog world, and considered a benevolent deity among those who still believe in him on The Grid.
  • Chekhov M.I.A.: In the greater Expanded Universe arc. While Happy Ending Override was already in progress at that point, his entrapment and exile really loaded up the handbasket and sent it to hell. The Alternate Reality Game leading up to the film is all about Flynn's analog-world friends and supporters trying to find him.
  • Disco Dan: His personality is stuck in The '80s, largely because he has been cut off from society after being trapped in the grid. He does ask Sam about some of the goings on in the real world during his absence, however.
  • God in Human Form: More pronounced, but not as shown as in the original film.
  • God Is Flawed: More pronounced in the Expanded Universe material about the events leading up to the coup. He was still an immature Loveable Rogue when he made The Grid, and was pulled too many directions in the analog world with Encom and being a single dad to give the Grid the attention it needed, but had too much pride to acknowledge he was in over his head and ask for help.
  • God Is Good: The creator and Big Good of the Grid.
  • Government in Exile: More like God in exile, after Clu's rebellion.
  • Grandpa God: Due to spending the Tron universe equivalent to one thousand years on the Grid.
  • In the Hood: Wears a cloak to disguise himself on the streets of TRON City as he goes to the End of Line club.
  • Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: He was proud of The Grid, even to the point of calling it "[his] Rome" in the Betrayal comic, and boasting about how it would change "science, medicine, religion" in the analog world, but he neglected the problems the system had until it was too late and Clu took matters into his own hands.
  • Lotus Position: In his own words, he knocks on the sky and listens to the sound.
  • The Maker: Of the entirety of the new Grid. Inverted with the ISOs, which the Grid created.
  • My Greatest Failure: Clu. "He's me. I screwed it up!"
  • Older and Wiser: Or at least older and very much had the ego smacked out of him.
  • Older Than They Look: Mentally, not physically.
  • Physical God: He created The Grid.
  • Really 700 Years Old: If his years gone are counted in Grid time, he's over one thousand.
  • Shout-Out: To Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original trilogy (Episodes IV-VI) of Star Wars with the beard, cloak, hideout, hermit nature, and regret. Though a little bit of The Dude slips in as well.
  • Shipper on Deck: To Sam and Quorra, if the smile he gives when they talk is a sign.
  • Stop Worshipping Me: Subverted. By the time of the film, he's long since accepted that the Programs are gonna worship him, whether he likes it or not.
  • Unfit for Greatness: He had the best of intentions, and buckets of charisma and genius, but the Expanded Universe (especially the Betrayal comic) show that he was stupidly overconfident, way too distracted to focus on any one of his responsibilities adequately, too arrogant to ask for help, unwilling to see the reality of Encom and The Grid's situations, treated his allies shabbily, and those reckless mistakes compounded in a way that everyone suffered for.

    Alan Bradley 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/166913c76064dbc86ac7bf70fd412_5795.jpg
Played by: Bruce Boxleitner

Coming back from the original TRON, Alan Bradley is revealed to be one of Kevin Flynn's closest friends and still in the employ of ENCOM. According to the ENCOM website, Alan holds the position of Executive Consultant, and later promoted to Chairman of the Board by Sam. He was the man who sent Sam to Flynn's Arcade to investigate a message, starting the search again...

  • Ambiguous Situation: It's clear through the ARG and "The Next Day," and implied in the conversation with Sam that he knows more than he's telling, but it's never entirely clear as to how much he knows, when he knows it, how he was able to know it, and why he's not sharing what he knows with his allies.
  • Batman Gambit: Possibly. That pager went off well before Sam's annual prank, but Alan waited until after the prank was over, and seemed to be choosing his words specifically to goad Sam into investigating the arcade.
  • Beneath Notice: Still his standard operating procedure. He stoically puts up with being treated as a mascot and a joke by the Encom board, but uses it as a chance to spy on their actions and leak it to the hacktivists in the Flynn Lives movement.
  • The Chessmaster: A mild case of it. In the first film, he'd been building Tron for months beneath the notice of Dillinger and Master Control. The alternate reality game establishes that he's leading the Flynn Lives movement under the name ISOLated Thinker. He's also been minding the store as best he can at Encom for when Sam finally gets his act together, and looking the other way on the stunts. The speech with the pager and the fact he held off until after the prank was likely an attempt at a Batman Gambit, and "The Next Day" shows him going over a Plan with Roy Kleinburg about the company's future without Sam present.
    • Chessmaster Sidekick: He was Kevin Flynn's right hand man, helping turn the big, crazy ideas into workable technological progress, and acting as Cloudcuckoolander's Minder when Kevin's fanciful ideas got a little too out there. Deconstructed as he withered when put in the actual CEO seat after Kevin's disappearance, but Reconstruction in "The Next Day," when he was shown talking to Roy and planning Encom's future: Sam is going to be mostly a figurehead. Alan's the one calling the real shots.
  • The Creon: As seen above, Alan was never very talented at being the man in charge, and never wanted the job to begin with, but he's very good at being the one running day to day operations.
  • Cryptic Conversation: In "The Next Day" with Roy, Alan has clearly put it together that Kevin's dead, and is making all the big plans for Encom. However, he's being very evasive with both Roy and Sam by not telling Roy about Kevin's death and making those plans without consulting Sam. And is he keeping Dillinger Junior around because "Junior's earned his place," or because Junior needs to be watched?
  • Cool Old Guy: Staid corporate mascot and punchline by day...secret identity of a hacktivist as "IsoLATED Thinker," helping to run the Flynn Lives group under everyone's nose.
  • Happily Married: To Lora (who was Put on a Bus), per the ARG. (No word on if there's a version of Jet in this timeline, though.)
  • The Last DJ: The last hold out from the Gibbs era to still be working there, and definitely not happy with the current administration's emphasis on nonsense "updates," high prices for little improvement, and the emphasis on stock prices over quality product. Deconstructed as he's treated like a mascot and a joke by the "new era" board members, particularly Dillinger Junior. Ironically, this puts him in the same position Gibbs himself was in during the first film.
  • The Mentor: Arguably, since he became Sam's surrogate father during Kevin's disappearance.
  • Only Sane Man: He's the only one on the board who still believes in Flynn's (and Walter Gibbs's) vision for the company.
  • The Peter Principle: According to supporting materials including the Alternate Reality Game, he was made CEO of Encom after Kevin's disappearance, and was later forced to resign as a result of the company's decline in the late '80s. Consider that he's a computer programmer, not necessarily a businessman by trade.
  • Papa Wolf: During the introduction, when the reporters try to swarm the young Sam, we see Alan turn around, looking furious.
  • Parental Substitute: Alan took over as father figure to Sam after Kevin disappears. In one of the clips in the news montage on Kevin's disappearance, it looks like he's about to go Papa Wolf on some hounding reporters harassing young Sam.
  • Promotion to Parent: Acted as a father figure to Sam Flynn after Kevin's disappearance. But at the start of the movie, their relationship seems to be a bit strained.
  • Specs of Awesome: Still has the glasses.
  • Two First Names: "Bradley" is also a common given name.
  • Undying Loyalty: To Flynn. He still has a pager, even after all these years, because Flynn told him to hold onto it so he could contact him at anytime.

    Ed Dillinger, Jr. 
Played by: Cillian Murphy

  • Continuity Cameo: As the son of (one of) the first film's antagonists, and an arguable inversion of Sam, having worked his way up the ranks And very devoted to his dad...or what he thinks is his dad.
  • Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Thick hipster glasses, comes up with a very slick way to make the board look good and profit from Sam's prank and is collaborating with a resurrected Master Control in the bonus scenes.
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: To the Corrupt Corporate Executive Mackey. Also, in the bonus material Flynn Lives, Alan mentions that "the kid earned his place." After all, it must not be easy to rise in a company where your father was publicly revealed to be a fraud.
  • Overlord Jr.: In a sense, seeing as he's the son of Ed Dillinger, but he's really just a Continuity Cameo and isn't really in charge at all. Of course, the coda shows he's definitely up to something and conspiring with his father (and/or MCP 2.0). And he is shown phoning somebody after the launch of EncomOS 12 goes pear-shaped.

    Richard Mackey 
Played by: Jeffrey Nordling

  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Sure, he's going to charge schools, non-profits, and consumers out the nose for an overpriced OS where the only "justification" he can give is a new number on the box. What's wrong with that?
  • Pointy-Haired Boss: He can certainly go on at length about buying and selling stock around the world, but can't even come up with a convincing line of bull to justify the high cost of their latest OS, or know much about it at all.

Programs

    Quorra 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/280px-Quorra1_1118.png
"You could say I was a rescue."
Played by: Olivia Wilde

  • Badass Adorable: Although she knows how to kick ass, she's naive and innocent, much like a little girl.
  • Badass Biker: In the music video for the Daft Punk soundtrack tune "Derezzed."
  • Badass Bookworm: This badass sure loves her Jules Verne novels, as well as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Buddhist scriptures.
  • Badass Driver: Her Light Runner skills save Sam's life, though she does, admittedly, end up coming across to him as someone who Drives Like Crazy.
  • Badass in Distress: Captured by Clu partway into the film.
  • Collapsible Helmet: Only shown in the Grid rescue.
  • Deadly Disc: In conjunction below; if you notice, she uses hers more defensively and doesn't hurl it around like everyone else.
  • Dual Wielding: With her Identity Disc and a Laser Blade, in a sword and shield-like form in the battle in the End of Line Club.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Sam is terrified by Quorra's reckless off-road driving during their escape.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: Perhaps it has something to do with her being an ISO.
  • Grappling-Hook Pistol: Uses the "Cable" function of her Baton once to swing under the bridge to the Portal and get between Clu and the Flynns.
  • Instant Expert: On her first try, she basically becomes an Ace Pilot, complete with kills and complex maneuvers. Justified, due to her spending a millennium as Kevin Flynn's apprentice.
  • Jeanne d'ArchĆ©type: She's an Action Girl guided by a sort of "higher power." Her somewhat androgynous appearance reinforces this comparison.
  • Laser Blade: One of the rare programs in Legacy to use the "Light Sword" function of a baton.
  • Last of His Kind: Quorra's the last ISO after the Great Purge.
  • Living MacGuffin: Kevin wants to get her off the Grid so that she can change the outside world. Clu wants her for unspecified reasons, probably because she's the last ISO.
  • Magic Tool: Although many a program have them, Quorra uses her Baton for more than many of them.
  • Motorcycle Jousting: Partakes in the music video for the soundtrack tune "Derezzed."
  • My Nayme Is: Her name is pronounced exactly like "Cora".
  • Reverse Grip: At times.
  • Satellite Love Interest: Olivia Wilde went out of her way to ensure that her character didn't get saddled with this. We see the beginnings of an attraction between Sam and Quorra once they get to know each other a bit better on the Solar Sailer, which is probably a more natural true-to-life progression than this trope: they only recently met.
  • Skilled, but Naive: She knows her combat skills, but she knows almost nothing about the real world. Similarly, she is very well read, but appears to have missed the memo that says Jules Verne died a century ago. Possibly justified as it's hinted that Flynn may not be aware that she dabbles in fantasy besides the deep philosophical readings he's set out for her, therefore she might not have been able to ask him. Plus, it is strongly implied that most programs on the Grid do not have access to things like the Internet.

    CLU 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/300px-Tron_legacy_clu-1-_7474.jpg
Played by: Jeff Bridges

  • Affably Evil: Polite and charismatic, but ruthless.
  • Ambiguous Start of Darkness: It's unclear when exactly he made his Faceā€“Heel Turn or for how long he was planning his Start of Darkness before he attacked Flynn. The spin-offs seem to suggest he was a Bastard Understudy, if they're considered canon to the film.
  • Anti-Mutiny: As Clu himself notes, he has never strayed from what Flynn created him for. It's Flynn that changed directions, leaving Clu with no purpose.
  • Anti-Villain: According to Kevin Flynn, anyway. He's only created the dystopia of the film because that is precisely what he was programmed to do. He simply cannot contemplate Kevin's change in thought. Also, it is revealed that all he wants is his Creator's approval. In the final battle, he has Kevin Flynn at his mercy but doesn't kill him.
  • Ascended Extra: From the minor character Clu in TRON. Also in-universe, in that he was a hacker program meant to find things in the ENCOM server in his first incarnation, whereas his second incarnation was one of the three people in charge of the Grid in version two, and eventually the sole leader.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: For much of Evolution and Uprising, he led a successful coup against Flynn and Tron, managed to stamp out all opposition to his regime, exterminate all but one of the ISO race, and change the Grid according to his rules until Sam showed up in Legacy.
  • Big Bad: To the point where he's also an antagonist in TRON: Evolution and TRON: Uprising (though only as a Greater-Scope Villain).
  • Blofeld Ploy: When he seems like he's going to derez Rinzler, only to do it to Jarvis instead.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: He acts the way he does because he believes it is how he should fulfill his programs. Bonus points for living in a world where one's morality is shown by being blue or orange. Brilliant in that he's yellow, symbolizing how he's not simply good or evil, just trying to fulfill his "father's" wishes.
  • Chronic Villainy: He is a program, so he's basically obliged to pursue his quest for perfection, even if it implies genocide.
  • Collapsible Helmet: He wears one that initially hides his appearance from Sam.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: So freaking much. During the Games, he pits Sam Flynn, an inexperienced user, against Rinzler, aka freaking TRON. As in, the guy who took down Sark, effortlessly crushed four of Clu's Elite Mooks, and helped create the new Grid. He also modded his Cool Bike so that it is faster than others of its type.
  • The Computer Is Your Friend: Despite the fact that he goes genocidal against the ISOs and rules the grid with an iron fist inside an iron glove, Clu isn't a rogue A.I. at all. He is, in fact, working exactly as Flynn intended at the moment he created him. Flynn's attitude towards Clu is that of a remorseful father, not of one who created a monster, admitting that Clu's obsession with order was a reflection of his own misunderstanding of the concept of a "perfect system" - that User-generated programs became obsolete once the ISOs appeared. Flynn himself instantly recognized that the ISOs were superior to anything he or any User could create, but failed to realize that Clu, in turn, would see the ISOs as a threat to programs like himself for the exact same reason.
  • Cool Bike: A 5th Generation Lightcycle, used in the Game Grid. His is explicitly stated to be faster than the other combatants'.
  • Cool Plane: A Light Jet, which he generates, rather than keeping generated, twice over the course of a single scene.
  • The Corrupter: Since he can't create programs, he gets new recruits for his armies by "rectifying" them and removing their free will. He even manages to corrupt Tron, now known as Rinzler.
  • Creative Sterility: Cannot make new programs, so he must enslave them instead. Furthermore he is not capable of adapting to Kevin Flynns change of perspective on what would make the grid perfect. He continues to follow the original vision, unable to change.
  • Dimension Lord: He rules the Grid and wants to invade Earth.
  • Dramatic Unmask: He's revealed to look exactly like Kevin Flynn, causing Sam to mistake him for his father.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: At the climax, the otherwise omniscient Clu cannot understand why his creator would sacrifice himself to save Sam.
    Clu: WHY?
    Kevin: He's my son.
  • Evil Me Scares Me: Kevin Flynn created Clu in his own image.
  • The Evils of Free Will: Specifically, free will runs counter to maintaining order in a perfect system.
  • Fantastic Racism: If there's one thing Clu hates, it's imperfection. And boy, are ISOs and Users anything but perfect.
  • Freudian Excuse: His relationship with his creator is... complex.
    Clu: You promised we would change the world together! You broke your promise!
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: In the 1982 installment, the first version of Clu was best known for shrieking upon crashing his tank. 28 years later, this new, upgraded Program betrays Kevin Flynn and becomes one of the most evil villains in Disney history.
  • Gold-Colored Superiority: Started with white Tron Lines when he was loyal to Flynn, but assumed the unique gold colored circuits after he became unquestioned ruler.
  • Hitler Cam: For his Triumph of the Will-esque speech.
  • Knight Templar: He honestly wants to create a perfect system.
  • Large Ham: As seen in his speech to his soldiers.
  • Legacy Character: The original Clu was destroyed by the MCP in the original film. This Clu is an upgraded version that Flynn created to help him supervise the Grid.
  • Magic Tool: He uses his own Baton for a number of applications.
  • Neat Freak: He was upset by the slightest lack of order in Flynn's apartment. Comes with the program.
  • No-Sell: Clu shrugs off a direct hit from a disc.
  • Obliviously Evil: Being programmed to bring about perfection, he doesn't see his actions as evil.
  • Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: He has this dynamic with his creator Flynn. Besides their temporal ages, it's exaggerated by the fact CLU perpetually has a young Flynn's likeness, in contrast to Flynn himself physically aging within the Grid. CLU actually succeeds in usurping control of the Grid and making Flynn a fugitive for hundreds of cycles, and the Fatal Flaw that led to CLU's Faceā€“Heel Turn is that he's perpetually frozen at the mindset Flynn had when he created CLU whereas Flynn himself adapts and learns. CLU even briefly smacks down the aged Flynn and actually has a chance to kill Flynn but doesn't take it.
  • The Perfectionist: Unfortunately, his idea of "perfection" is permanently stuck at Flynn's at the time of his creation. Flynn explains that Perfection Is Impossible, and yet right in front of us all the time.
  • Position of Literal Power: He was created to be a substitute for the Grid's version of God. He takes a direct hit from an Identity Disc without flinching. Pretty much nothing is able to hurt him, let alone kill him. In a very literal way: Clu has all the authority that Kevin Flynn does, which is why he gets stronger the more Kevin uses his User powers.* A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Kevin programmed him for good. The Betrayal comics and TRON: Uprising seem to point to him being a Bastard Understudy the entire time, though.
  • Putting on the Reich: Seriously, his speech was one heck of a terrifying tribute to Leni Riefenstahl's movies. Not to mention the Black Guards.
  • Rage Against the Heavens: He loves Flynn like a son to his father, but hates him for essentially betraying him and making him obsolete.
  • Repressive, but Efficient: He rules with an iron fist (and there's that little problem of the ISO genocide), yet the Grid seems to work rather well. Clu even says that he brought the Grid to its maximum potential under his reign, which is why he tried to go into the real world to extend his reach.
  • Satanic Archetype: A sentient creation of the Grid's God who predates most of the other programs and was made when the Grid was still beginning, and he's the creator's Evil Former Friend who turned on him. He even corrupts other programs into his servants, and attempts to usurp and surpass his creator while painting the latter as an oppressive tyrant. CLU and Flynn's interactions very much come across as an Expy of a tragedy about God and Lucifer. CLU's betrayal was even triggered by his creator favoring a younger form of life which CLU believed was not worthy of such love, similar to Lucifer's refusal to bow to humanity.
  • Slouch of Villainy: Mirrors Flynn's from the first film.
  • The Superego: He acts like one for the whole Grid. More specifically, he acts like a very dysfunctional super-ego, obsessed with perfection at the expense of flexibility.
  • Sword Drag: With his Deadly Disc.
  • Totalitarian Utilitarian: A "perfect" system where he reigns unquestioned over an army of perfectly rectified drones.
  • Tragic Villain: He simply cannot realize what his quest for perfection means for his victims. He's sincerely distraught when Kevin Flynn doesn't agree with him.
  • Turned Against Their Masters: He really just interpreted Kevin's orders wrong.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: Since his moral compass is based on what fits or goes against the perfect system, even genocide is justified.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Experiences this twice; first when he's searching Flynn's house, and the second when his creator tells him that perfection is impossible.
  • Visionary Villain: Wants to create the perfect system... because that was the first order Kevin Flynn gave him upon his creation.
  • Zeroth Law Rebellion: What led to his Anti-Mutiny.

    Rinzler 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/212px-Rinzler_4501.png
Played by: Anis Cheurfa
Voiced by: Bruce Boxleitner

  • Bifurcated Weapon: Rinzler's Identity Disc can split into two separate ones. Complete with a hilarious jab from Sam.
    Sam: Oh come on, is that even legal?
  • Black Knight: Clu's attack dog and leader of the appropriately named Black Guard, having a similar helmet and orange lights that only they have.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Was once Tron until Clu corrupted him.
  • Call-Back: "I fight for the Users!", of course. In addition, Rinzler's introduction features him in a four-sided Disc Wars court, just as Tron was introduced fighting a four-on-one game in the original.
  • Catchphrase: Subverted. Being Tron, his Catchphrase is "I fight for the Users!" However, being Brainwashed and Crazy for almost the entire movie, he only says it once.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Always seems to have a backup of everything at hand, whether it's a disc, lightcycle, or aircraft. If one vehicle gets destroyed while he's riding it, he will summon another one in midair and hit the ground running like nothing ever happened.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Actually, Clu is, but his tactics during the fight with Sam mirrors video game Fake Difficulty (changing the rules to Rinzler's advantage).
  • Dance Battler: Courtesy of Anis Cheurfa, Rinzler is the only one who fights with incorporated acrobatics and dance choreography.
  • Deadly Disc: Like other Programs and Users, he can use his Identity Disc as a weapon. But unlike everyone else, Rinzler can wield two instead of one.
  • Death Equals Redemption: Unless he was just rebooting at the end.
  • Demoted to Extra: He is a secondary antagonist for most of the movie, despite being one of the main protagonists of the first movie and the title character of the series.
  • The Dragon: To Clu.
  • Dual Wielding: Uses two discs at once when fighting Sam in the Game Grid.
  • Dying as Yourself: As he sinks into the sea, his Tron Lines go from orange to blue.
  • Evil Costume Switch: After being corrupted by Clu, his Tron Lines change from blue to orange.
  • The Faceless: His mask never comes off.
  • Fighting from the Inside: Twice before his Heroic Sacrifice. The first time his gaze lingers on Kevin before he pulls back into position to attack, but he suddenly hears himself telling Flynn to run back during Clu's coup and has to shake it off. The second time happens seconds later as he hears Clu shout "Finish the Game!", which was something that Sark said. This time he simply pulls up to move into position to ram Clu, having regained his memories.
  • Foreshadowing: Two specific examples in Kevin Flynn's flashback to Clu's rebellion. In that flashback, Tron uses two discs at once, just as Rinzler does (they even have a scene where he specifically looks at the discs in his hands as if to highlight this). Secondly, if you listen very carefully straight after the camera pans from Clu smashing the disc onto Tron, you can hear Rinzler's signature sound.
  • Good Old Fisticuffs: If he gets in close, expect him to start throwing punches. It's how he quickly dispatches four of Clu's Blackguards, which in the flashback only attack by swinging their discs. Though the Blackguards later seem to have picked up on that particular strategy as well.
  • Heelā€“Face Turn: "I fight for the Users!"
  • Lightning Bruiser: Unlike Clu, who can just simply overpower his opponents and shrugs off hits, Rinzler artfully dodges out of the way. And then is on you a heartbeat later, going Ginsu on you with his dual discs.
  • The Quiet One: Says very little and only makes a quiet growling sound otherwise.
  • Pre-Mortem Catchphrase: "I fight for the Users!"
  • Red Lines Take Warning: He has red circuits like the rest of Clu's mooks, though Clu didn't change the pattern. Big hint that he's a rectified drone, and the pattern itself hints who he really is.
  • Reforged into a Minion: He evaded capture after the Coup and started a rebellion in Argon City, which was leveled in retaliation. Some time after that, he was re-captured, broken, and turned into a rectified drone.
  • Restraining Bolt: Immediately ceases his attack on Sam when he sees him bleed. Throughout the film, he seems to target everyone but Sam, since his original core program was designed to fight for the Users.
  • Save Your Deity: It starts with a Heroic Sacrifice to get Flynn to safety. And when he breaks the brainwashing, the suicidal charge at Clu prevents Clu from finishing off the Users and Iso in the stolen jet.
  • Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Although, admittedly, not by choice.
  • Three Laws-Compliant: Very tragically so. First law: He sacrifices himself to let Flynn Sr. escape and stops dead in the arena once he realizes Sam's a User. Second Law: He snapped out of Brainwashed and Crazy when he got a good look at Flynn and heard his User friend's dismay, which could be broadly interpreted as an order. Third law: He did fight to protect his own existence — until Users were in danger and he got that broadly worded "command", then he made a suicidal charge on Clu.
  • Three-Point Landing: Done frequently while fighting, especially after backflipping over his opponents.
  • Tuckerization: He's named after J.W. Rinzler, as the writers just happened to see his name on the cover of The Making of Star Wars.
  • Uncertain Doom: His lights change color and we never see him derez. There's plenty of ambiguity, but it looks like he might be starting to swim back up just as the scene changes.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Being the Final Boss of the Disc War games, the audience cheers him on over Sam Flynn and even boos when he spares him for being a user.
  • Walking Spoiler: His identity is a major reveal.
  • You Shall Not Pass!: Held off Clu's forces long enough for Kevin to get away.

    Castor 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ZuseHam_9738.jpg
Played by: Michael Sheen

  • Actually, I Am Him: Castor is Zuse.
  • The Ageless: It's unknown how truly old he is, but he's been around for far longer than Clu himself.
  • Camp Straight: He seems to have a thing for Gem and quite enjoys looking at Quorra, while also being the most flamboyant character in the franchise by far.
  • Cynicism Catalyst: He implied his eventual collaboration with Clu results from disillusionment with Users due to Flynn's disappearance, alluding to the events of Evolution where his original ISO hideout club was destroyed by Clu's forces and simply opted for securing his own survival.
  • Dissonant Laughter: Cackles in Quorra's general direction as she fights off some of Clu's Black Guard, gleefully fires off a few shots from his cane that bounce off his club's walls, and even does a bit of a kickline before Flynn arrives to interrupt.
  • Expy:
    • To David Bowie in the "Ziggy Stardust" persona. He even talks about having had to "reinvent himself." Possibly unintentional, but the way Michael Sheen plays Castor makes him a dead ringer for Alan Cumming too.
    • His Victory Dance and mannerisms also bring to mind Charlie Chaplin and Fred Astaire, especially considering he does the Tramp Twirl with his cane.
  • Faceā€“Heel Turn: Never quite as nice as his polite demeanor belies, but at least wanted the Grid to be independent and ISOs to be free when he is first met in Evolution. Then he sells out to Clu, for no reason other than it potentially meaning a huge profit if Clu succeeds.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Urbane, slick, and a consummate charmer. Then he shoots a guy straight in the face.
  • Irony: As established in Evolution, Zuse's clubs were meant to be safe havens for programs to mingle no matter their allegiances. Not only is Zuse a supporter of Clu's regime, but both times his club explodes in no small part due to the interference of the story protagonists (namely, Quorra).
  • Large Ham: A fitting tribute to David Bowie, don't you think?
  • Light Is Not Good: A shrewd businessman and not above using threats. As well as being a sell-out.
  • Meaningful Name: Zuse is named after Konrad Zuse, a German computing pioneer whose work was financed by the Nazis when they came to power. Apt, for a program who supports and works alongside Clu...
  • Oh, Crap!: Twice over. Once when Flynn arrives to interrupt the Bar Brawl, though he has the sense to hide in his quarters when he can. The second is when Clu's guards ready to bomb his club, where he stands paralyzed at his fate.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: He's camping it up a treat when the Black Guard storm the club and attack the protagonists... until Flynn shows up, at which point he stops all funny business and regards the situation with a cold, worried glare.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: It wasn't the run-of-the-mill poisoned drink that killed him, however. More like him grossly overestimating his worth to Clu.
    Zuse: (after giving Flynn's disc to Clu) You know you need me... right where I am... Clu?
    Clu: ...Of course you're right. Enjoy the drink. (turns to leave)
    (guards place bombs on the club's walls)
    Clu: End of line, man.
    (Clu and guards exit while Zuse looks stunned; Club explodes)
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: In all of his appearances, he always orders drinks by requesting "libations". He occasionally uses other flowery language.
  • Sword Cane: Conceals a blaster.
  • This Cannot Be!:
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Came with a bit of savvy because Clu knew it was coming.

    Gem 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/310px-Jem_headshot_5265.png
"Proceed to games."
Played by: Beau Garrett

    The Sirens 

    Jarvis 
Played by: James Frain

    Masked DJs 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/300px-DafttronIII_5670.jpg
Played by: Daft Punk

  • As Himself: Daft Punk playing DJs. Besides the addition of Tron Lines, they didn't have to change a thing about their costumes for their role.
  • The Cameo: Only appear in one scene, at the End of Line Club. They are conspicuously absent by the time Clu shows up.
  • Cool Helmet: As per Daft Punk standard, but with solid white colors instead of the usual red and rainbow.
  • Cyber Punk Is Techno: They're a techno band in a cyberpunk world.
  • Dissonant Serenity: A fight starts in the End of Line Club, and what do they do? Change the music!
  • The Faceless: Just like real life, they aren't seen without their masks.
  • Left the Background Music On: Started up the track "Derezzed" when Sam and Quorra fight the Black Guard. They appear to have slipped out by the time it's over.

    The Grid Announcer 
  • Large-Ham Announcer: When necessary, he will be overblown.
  • The Voice: His one purpose is to announce combatants and give play-by-play info.

    The Black Guards 
  • Elite Mooks: The most lethal of Clu's minions.
  • Faceless Goons: Have Stormtrooper-like helmets that never come off.
  • Laser Blade: Used against Quorra at End of Line.
  • Not Quite Flight: Their backpacks contain glider wings.
  • State Sec: Clu sends them after dissidents, vagrants, and damaged or corrupted programs for conscription.

    The Sentries 
  • Ambiguous Situation: How they're brainwashed. It appears that Clu simply captures and reprograms any Basic that is inconvenient to his rule, but there's some hints that the vast size of his army can't possibly be from just that. It seems that he somehow brought derezzed programs back to life and reprogrammed them in the process, but this isn't explicitly spelled out.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: They're conscripted programs captured by Clu's Recognizers.
  • Expy: Of Sark's Red Guards.
  • Faceless Goons: They all wear dark masks that only show their mouths.
  • Mooks: By far the bulk of Clu's invasion force.

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