SDCC 2009 Coverage

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Tron Watch '09: Flynn's Arcade

The Hype Machine Has Begun

By Robert T. Trate July 28, 2009

Flynn’s Arcade started the real hype for Tron Legacy (2011)
© Walt Disney, Robert Trate

Last year at the San Diego Comic Con inside Hall H I had the surprise of a life when Disney unveiled its Tron 2 teaser trailer. What was totally unexpected was how fan-boy-giddy I got just seeing the trailer. The trailer was quickly uploaded to YouTube but nothing else had really come out for Tron 2 in the last year. This year Tron 2, now known as Tron Legacy, was part of the Disney 3D panel. The footage shown, which had wrapped earlier in the week, was not of the Tron Universe nor was it in 3D but still exciting nonetheless. In the sequel Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) has been missing for twenty years. Flynn’s son, Sean (Garrett Hedlund) gets word that a friend of his father’s received a call from the old man’s arcade. This is impossible because that number had been disconnected for over twenty years. Sean walks into the arcade, turns on the power and the eighties nostalgia kicks into high gear as all the old arcade games come to life. Journey’s “Separate Ways” tops off the whole piece as Sean walks to the only game with its title above it in giant neon: TRON (see image in gallery). A quarter goes in and quickly pops out. Sean picks it up and sees that there are grooves from the wheels that the game has scratched into the floor. Sean rolls the game away from the wall and finds a door. Upon his entering the door the clip ends. Tron Legacy’s director Joseph Kosinski promised that at the next Comic Con we would see more footage. It was an incredible tease and almost completely the same thing as last year. That is until I got the word that there was a Flynn’s Arcade in town.

Flynn’s arcade was just a few short blocks away from the convention center. Flynn’s Arcade tokens were handed out when you walked into Hall H and they helped get you in if you followed all the instructions. There were also Flynn’s Arcade passes (see gallery for both) handed out by Disney. Inside the arcade was a huge collection of old school video games that were rigged to be completely free. Unlimited quarters will get any video game nut into a frenzy but amp it up with an eighties juke box and it is heaven. Yet looking around it seemed odd that this was the promotion. There was no bar or big screen TV showing the trailer. The arcade was a mirror image from the footage shown and one wall had a lone standing game of Tron. After fifteen minutes of collaborating with my friends on how to play Gauntlet Journey’s “Separate Ways” suddenly filled the room. Then the magic happened. The game, Tron, rolled away and we heard the new music for the film by Daft Punk. Disney poured on the magic and everyone became mesmerized with sketches from the film (see gallery). The coup de grâce was a full scale model of the new light cycle turning 360 degrees. This kind of event is exactly what Comic Con is missing, small personal moments that fuel the imagination for what is to come. Big lines, big crowds and people walking all over you doesn’t build a moment or anticipation it only creates a bad taste in your mouth. Thank you, Disney for bringing the magic back and making Comic Con fun again, if only for a few moments.

Visit the official site Flynn Lives for more details.

Check out the Tron Legacy Gallery of pictures Flynn’s Arcade, concept art and the light cycle.

TRON LEGACY Gallery:

For 16 photos from the SDCC Tron Legacy: Flynn's Arcade event, click on the photo below to get transported to our gallery.

THE TRON VIDEO GAME (original arcade):

TRON LEGACY Trailer:

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COMMENTS AND RESPONSES

almostunbiased 7/28/2009 7:03:27 AM

Is it just me or does Flynn seem like the bad guy?

I might have to pop in the old movie this week and watch it again.

Darkknight2280 7/28/2009 7:56:11 AM

Yeah i was thinking the same thing! I was like WTF?!? So i too have to watch the OG Tron to see what-up. I caint remember what went down at the end of it.

xenomorph 7/28/2009 7:59:46 AM

When I first saw the trailer, I completly geeked out. This is gonna be sweet!

pilgram 7/28/2009 8:58:48 AM

Flynn escapes in the original. The bad guy may be some digital copy that has imprisoned the original for 20 years. Just a guess at this point.

themovielord 7/28/2009 10:04:05 AM

Flynn got out but I love the fact that perhaps there is a dark digital self inside the game!!! Perhaps he is what trapped the real Flynn in the game?

Hobbs 7/28/2009 10:50:03 AM

It could be the classical myth that we have seen used in Star Wars where the father falls to the darkness and the son eventually saves him.

I'm with you almostunbiased, in the mood to watch the original again. It's been at least over a decade for me.

troopershades 7/28/2009 11:06:07 AM

who here thinks that the legacy in the title could refer to things in the PC world like "legacy" drivers or "legacy" os...that was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the young Flynn's mug.

themovielord 7/28/2009 11:06:09 AM

I have it on VHS... now I have come up with a VHS player!

krathwardroid 7/28/2009 11:45:17 AM

My movie theater used to have a Tron arcade game. You stood inside it like a phone booth and the object was to have your character hop from three different hover platforms while throwing discs at your opponent and vice versa. It was fun.

So this footage was shot specifically for this trailer and won't be in the movie itself? That's too bad. This seems really compelling. And in regards to Flynn's change, maybe he was drawn back inside the game and trapped ever since, now taking it seriously. I really need to watch the first movie again. I can't wait for this one.