Sci-Fi Tron Legacy - v2.0

[chaseter]

CLU does look great until he talks. When he isn't talking...he looks pretty damn good.

 

[Kane52630]

Interview with Bruce Boxleitner (aka Tron)

​

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011...-on-his-digital-past-and-future/?dlvrit=63378

On Tuesday, the original 1982 “Tron” movie and its 2010 sequel “Tron: Legacy” made their Blu-ray debuts. Jay West, a true scholar and world-class collectorwhen it comes to the ”Tron” universe has been doing some guest pieces for Hero Complex over the past year and the latest is this interview with actor Bruce Boxleitner, who plays the title role in both “Tron” films as well as Alan Bradley.

JW: Your character of Tron, a.k.a. Alan Bradley, is perhaps one of the most iconic and well-known characters in sci-fi movie history. What are some of the reactions and feedback that you get from fans when they talk to you at sci-fi conventions?

BB: I’m glad you brought that up because I do a lot of conventions. I was just recently up in Seattle at the Emerald City Comic-Con, with William Shatner and Jonathan Frakes and the “Star Trek” guys — and I tell you what — I brought a lot of pictures with me from the original “Tron” movie (to sign for fans) because I didn’t really have anything new from “Tron: Legacy.” There were many fans that came up with “Tron: Legacy” pictures, too — and all of the “Tron” pictures sold really well. Even though I did “Babylon 5“ — and I have many fans who talk to me about that, and I’ve done other science fiction things also — “Tron” has seemed to resonate more strongly only because I think very few science fiction movies predict a world that we’re actually seeing or living in an age of information. I think that’s what was wonderful about “Tron: Legacy” — that it kind of picked that up again and showed it.

JW: I recently attended a sold-out screening of the original “Tron” movie at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica — they showed it in 70 millimeter — and it looked and sounded great. Steven Lisberger was there, along with his visual effects team, and they chatted about the making of the film afterward. It was interesting to see that over half of the audience hadn’t seen the movie when asked by a raising of hands at one point — and all reacted very enthusiastically with hoops, hollers, and applause when watching it. There’ll be many who will now be watching “Tron” & “Tron: Legacy” for the very first time with these new Blu-Ray and DVD releases — what do you hope that these people discover or take away with them when watching these films?

BB: Well, I think very simply — the wonderful magic of movie making. I’m still a fan, and always will be a fan of it. Doing “Tron: Legacy” was so different… my little bit of it was so different than what I’d done in the original movie. We have leapt forward in technology and motion capture — and I know that’s very controversial with some actors. They come out against it saying it’s not really acting. I just look at it as sort of a new kind of makeup — it’s kind of another trick in our acting bag. I think what people will walk away with when they see these two movies is how far we have come [in technology]. The first one is a very simple story set in a very elaborate new world — I don’t think anybody has really come near it since “Tron: Legacy.” The kids that were putting quarters into the arcade machines back in the ’80s “got” the original “Tron” movie — I just don’t think that the Hollywood establishment got it. Those kids have now “made” “Tron: Legacy” — I don’t know how many movies get a sequel 28 years later…

JW: Right — “Legacy” set a precedent in the time between a sequel and its original film.

BB: It is one. I think “Wall Street” may have been close — it was ’80 something, wasn’t it?

JW: Yes, “Wall Street” was in ’87 — and its sequel was last year — so a bit of a shorter time span between those films.

BB: Yeah — I don’t recall one otherwise, other than there being many remakes of films of the ’80s. The original “Tron” had incredible visuals by Syd Mead, Moebius, and other artists. They were very different. I don’t think anything in science fiction looks like it — and then when you come to “Tron: Legacy,” you see some of those same iconic images — the recognizers, the I/O Tower, Tron City — but now it’s very much sort of a ruthless, amped-up, but dark place — and it kind of reflects our world today. I think it’s a darker place than it was back then — that’s just the passage of time. There’s a certain innocence in the original “Tron” movie too that I enjoy. Kind of timeless…

JW: In terms of acting, how did you first approach your character of Tron in the original film?

BB: I had no idea at first. Back then, I was doing westerns on TV and about to start “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” about a year and a half later. I remember some reviewer said I played it like Buster Crabbe in “Flash Gordon.” Well, that’s not so off (laughs). “Flash Gordon” was a cool character.

JW: Absolutely — another iconic sci-fi character and hero.

BB: I didn’t know how to relate to Tron at first, and I played a very sort of innocent type of (program) guy. Flynn was this human, “The User” — and there was this scene where they were on the solar sailor and he’s sort of looking at Yori and she’s looking at him and I kind of stepped in between them like we were out in a school yard — like: “Don’t, don’t look at my girlfriend like that.”

JW: I know the scene you’re talking about very well (laughs).

BB: I was playing kind of a very innocent character compared to this worldly user who’s been out there. We were just having a ball — wearing our spandex tights and our hockey helmets and our rubber gauntlets and knee-high boots and dance belts… that’s what Jeff [Bridges] and I used to kid each other about, our dance belts! We’re the first guys on film I think to wear a male thong (laughs) — nobody saw it though!

JW: Another precedent, right? Another landmark right there.

BB: (laughs) A landmark right there.

JW: Regarding the promotion of “Tron: Legacy” — it’s fascinating how nuanced and layered the entire “Flynn Lives” ARG has been — and you’ve been very involved in it playing your character of Alan Bradley. Now in the bonus feature: “The Next Day: Flynn Lives Revealed” on the “Tron: Legacy” Blu-Ray — you appear again as Alan Bradley in a 10-minute, epilogue type of film to “Tron: Legacy” — which many fans on the web consider in essence to be an extended teaser trailer for a “Tron 3″ movie. In this film, you’re reunited with actor Dan Shor, who’d been known as the “popcorn guy” in the original “Tron” movie’s real-world portion — but definitely known more so by many fans of the movie as RAM — his digital program counterpart. What was it like working with Dan again, and when was that sequence shot?

BB: You know your “Tron”…

JW: Yes I do! [laughs].

BB: Well, I hadn’t seen Dan since we both attended the Aero Theatre’s screening of “Tron” in 2007. Dan had come out from New York for it, that’s where he lives — and before then, I hadn’t seen him since we worked together on “Tron,” so it was a thrill for that. I just love this out of-the-box thinking that they’ve been doing — the people associated with all this (“Flynn Lives” promotion).

JW: Yes, it’s very creative.

BB: Yes it is. I did an interview as Alan Bradley. I wish I’d had a little more lead time because I had to do a lot of cards beside the camera since I had a lot of technical stuff to talk about — it was for a gamers network which I’d never heard of — and I asked my sons about it and they knew all about it. After we finished filming “Tron: Legacy” — I came back months later and I’m still shooting the movie! It was like a part of a plot that was dropped — you know what I’m saying? The plot — the “Flynn Lives” events. We did this big thing that was very exciting — an online, live event at Wonder Con in San Francisco.
[ Download ]

JW: That was great — I was there on the front row for it.

BB: I want to tell you something, Jay — it all went wrong!

JW: There were some issues that came up with the timing of the helicopter right?

BB: Yes — but you know what, that’s what kind of made it exciting. I’m up there on stage with the presidential teleprompters — and I remember the wind is blowing, with some rain coming down — and I never had one rehearsal, not one — with everything that was supposed to work, and especially let alone a helicopter with a guy skydiving out of it. Just minutes before it all started we were up in the hotel room, all of us crammed in this one room: Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (“Tron: Legacy” writers), Joe Kosinski and Sean Bailey (“Tron: Legacy” producer & Disney’s president of production) — and it was kind of this ‘OK, we’re gonna wing it, we’re going out there, let’s see what happens…’ — and it was very thrilling. It was as live of an event as I’ve ever done — and of course, when it got to the point in the speech when I was talking to the audience — the teleprompter then displayed “Alan hears a helicopter.” Well, I didn’t hear a helicopter.

JW: (laughs) And I remember you saying: “… and I knew this was going to happen” at that point.

BB: (laughs) I know. I thought it had all fallen apart but it, we just sort of kept going with it, then the helicopter does show up. They’d been grounded temporarily over in Oakland across the Bay, and then they took off. They’d finally got the clearance after waiting for the winds to subside, but then the winds picked back up, and then the sky diver (portraying Garrett Hedlund‘s character of Sam Flynn) wasn’t supposed to jump, and he jumps anyway — and takes out two police barriers when he hit the ground! But it all worked out because they’d already filmed Garrett’s side. This was supposed to be one of Sam Flynn’s “annual pranks” on Encom (the fictional computer software company in the “Tron” movies).

JW: Right.

BB: And I’m introducing the “Space Paranoids” game, and it was just exciting, Jay — because nothing went right, yet it all worked out. My wife was watching it happen — when it went viral (on the Web) right away. The viewership was going up, up, up — what an ingenious way to do promotion, you know.

JW: Absolutely.

BB: Using the very technology that the original “Tron” film helped promote and predicted, it’s amazing — and the fans have been great. Like I said, I do a lot of conventions, for 20-some years now — from the mid-’90s. I was promoting “Babylon 5″ a lot at that time because that’s when I was doing the series — but I signed more “Tron” things then: VHS boxes, music covers, cards, posters, original posters — and I still do. It’s the majority of the things that I sign or that people come up and want to talk about. They love it. There’s a hard-core bunch of fans and I hope they stay with us.

JW: I think so. I think the stamina level’s pretty high!

BB: Yeah — I know… we weren’t “Harry Potter,” but my God — we were “Tron” — that’s all there is to it. And I thought my buddy Jeff was just brilliant. I also had the personal pleasure of being hired to screen test all the young actors and actresses months before we started shooting “Tron: Legacy”, which I thought was probably my screen test too, by the way. I was very happy to say that I thought Garrett and Olivia (Hedlund and Wilde – who play Sam Flynn and Quorra in “Tron: Legacy”) were the best of all of them — and we met with a lot of kids — a lot of name people too. I thought they were just wonderful.

JW: Well, that’s great. Bruce, I appreciate your time today — I’ve seen the Blu-Rays and they look fantastic — and “Tron” looks like it was shot yesterday. It looks great.

BB: Isn’t that amazing? That’s absolutely amazing. Wow. It’s almost 30 years ago in my life.

– Jay West

 

[Webhead2006]

Nice interview.

 

[CGHulk]

I want to see a young CG Tron unmasked in the third film, as a main character.

 

[The Caped Knight]

^ Ditto

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

CLU does look great until he talks. When he isn't talking...he looks pretty damn good.

This is exactly how I feel, when I first some before he talks, I was in awe at how good it looked, but when he talked, it took out of the movie a little bit.

 

[Kane52630]

I found these on deviantart by a user named Aaorin

 

[CelticPredator]

That last one is kinda....uh....yeah....I dont like it.

 

[The Morningstar]

I was thinking about the Tron/Rinzler character after re-watching this. I've seen a few complaints that his "turn" at the end came out of nowhere.

I disagree. I thought he started turning the moment he realized Sam was a User. The way he said it "User...?", I feel this realization kinda, placed a seed of doubt in his mind. And then seeing Flynn made him fully remember what he was before.

 

[hbdragon88]

I was thinking about the Tron/Rinzler character after re-watching this. I've seen a few complaints that his "turn" at the end came out of nowhere.

I disagree. I thought he started turning the moment he realized Sam was a User. The way he said it "User...?", I feel this realization kinda, placed a seed of doubt in his mind. And then seeing Flynn made him fully remember what he was before.

I don't believe there's anything in the movie that ever suggests that programs can be reprogrammed or can "remember" things. There's one scene, perhaps, that shows something like this - Flynn hitting the guy on the head in order to get access to the craft. But that was a physical thing, not Flynn yelling, "Tron, what have you become?"

To me it just seemed too convenient that, right at the climatic moment (after the weapon is jammed), Rinzler suddenly remembered who he was and was able to turn against Clu.

 

[MadVillainy]

I agree hbdragon. It just came out of nowhere right at the right moment.

Its not bad. They couldve hinted to it more throughout the story, but with him being Clu's devoted slave to switch was kinda weak

 

[The Morningstar]

Well programs can be "reprogrammed". Tron was obviously reprogrammed by CLU, turning him into Rinzler.

Then I thought his first encounter with same sorta jarred something lose. Like I said, it was the tone of voice in the way he said User. It wasn't "USER!!!!" it was more like "User?" Then when he sees Flynn at the end he remembers fully. And reboots, if you will.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Well programs can be "reprogrammed". Tron was obviously reprogrammed by CLU, turning him into Rinzler.

Then I thought his first encounter with same sorta jarred something lose. Like I said, it was the tone of voice in the way he said User. It wasn't "USER!!!!" it was more like "User?" Then when he sees Flynn at the end he remembers fully. And reboots, if you will.

Yeah that was my interpretation of the turn as well, I thought all the way through.

 

[Eelectro 2]

CLU looked fine except when he was just smiling, that didnt look right. altho if they had just kept the cg character to the tron universe i would have been perfectly ok with it, my problem was the flashback in the real world, they show an image or clip of the real guy and then the speech is shown with the cg version, even in sams bedroom, it just didnt look right. it didnt work.
if they made a sequel there will definetly have to be more talking and plot than legacy. i watched it again and while the visuals are still cool, the story and characters suffer from being a little stale

 

[DACrowe]

I watched this for the first time since theaters last night and I just wanted to say...

This film sure does have its share of problems. Tron's switch from evil to good at the end was indeed forced and arbitrarily cliché, what exactly the Isos do and how they'd change the world is vague to say the least, and Clu's face is a big step down from what Fincher and co. were able to pull off so seamlessly in Benjamin Button....

BUT, as someone who has only seen the first TRON once, over a decade ago, I LOVED this movie. It is such a fantastic visceral ride. Whatever it struggles with narratively, it makes up for in vision and ponderous thematic elements. There is so much to be said about its reflection on the technological world that TRON imagined in 1982 coming to be a sort of reality of a man losing his son and his life to the virtual world in a believable 2010. The sense that Clu and Quorra are as much the children of Flynn as Sam is and how they interact (Clu is the jealous middle child looking for affirmation and love) makes the villain very interesting in this techno-drama. Quorra despite on the surface looking like the badass vixen cliché in Hollywood is an actual character who feels a bit like the albatross coming into our world and the final shot is full of so much wonder and possibility.

Lastly, Daft Punk's music is flat out amazing. It brings back the sounds of 1980s sci-fi such as Blade Runner in an epic way.

Flawed, but great film.

 

[DACrowe]

P.S. Michael Sheen rocked his cameo in the movie.

 

[MadVillainy]

Yeah it had its share of flaws, but still a nice entertaining ride

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Ordered it on BD the other day so should be here by the weekend, didnt like the original but for £3 more it was worth getting on blu-ray for me.

 

[Lucifer Maranda]

I actually didn't care for this much very much.

I mean, I was looking forward to it, and I was sure that the visuals would be stunning.
But I just didn't get that from this film...

Everything just kind of seemed average.
I didn't find the visuals to be that creative or interesting at all. It only seemed to give that impression at first, untill you realize the only thing making everything look cool is the fact that it's covered in neon lights, and then you realize it's all only neon lights...
and you're like....eeEEeeeeehhh....yeeeah.....coool.....I guess.

And I was bugged by the fact that the main character lived inside of a giant storage locker. I mean, what the hell. isn't this dude supposed to be rich? but he chooses to live in a god damn storage locker? why? is he a god damn detective and is that his batcave or something?
Also, at the end, why does he leave that old guy in the arcade. It seemed kind of rude. He was like "yeah, okay, see ya "*SLAM*
But yeah, it was okay. The action was pretty good, and I loved the soundtrack.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Lucifer Maranda]

What?

Hey, don't be a playa hata. Suckaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[MadVillainy]

Ok I just read that little exhange and this forum is f***ing disintegrating

 

[BLACK-SPIDEY]

Ok I just read that little exhange and this forum is f***ing disintegrating

Dont you mean........................................................derezzing?

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

What?

Hey, don't be a playa hata. Suckaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Noobs.