The long-awaited third ‘Tron’ film, starring Jared Leto, is now in theaters—and we have follow-up questions.
Tron: Ares ends with a couple of big questions about what could come next on the Grid and beyond. Unfortunately, the biggest of those after opening weekend is whether any of them will ever get answered. The film experienced a tepid opening, failing to outgross its 2010 predecessor, meaning the world of Tron may be officially dead. And yet it took almost three decades for a second Tron to come out and almost another two for the third one. Over the years, the franchise has shown an incredible ability to reboot, so let’s do that too.
Below are 12 questions and some attempts at answers we have after seeing Tron: Ares. Major spoilers follow.
What does Ares want with Quorra?
Tron: Ares ends with Ares (Jared Leto), now able to exist permanently in the real world, looking for the Iso named Quorra (Olivia Wilde), the digital being Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) moved off the Grid at the end of Tron: Legacy. That Ares, created by Dillinger Corp., would want to find Quorra, created naturally in the Grid, makes sense. He certainly has a lot of questions she could potentially answer. But what does he think will happen beyond that? Is there a method to his madness? And also…What have Sam and Quorra been up to?
While Tron: Legacy ended with some big questions about what it meant for a digital being to now exist in the real world, Tron: Ares largely pushes those events to the side. We learn that Sam Flynn did take over Encom for a while before leaving for personal reasons. And, we see that there were at least discussions or rumors about Quorra in the press. But what have they been up to in the 15 years since that film? What did Sam do at Encom when he was there? We don’t know.Why did Sam Flynn leave Encom?
An offshoot of the last question is the specific nature of Sam’s leaving Encom. Did he have a new project planned with Quorra? Did he reconnect with a digital version of his father? You almost get the sense that whatever story is happening with Sam and Quorra off-screen is just, kind of, whatever that original version of Tron 3, Tron: Ascension, may have been. Speaking of…Could Tron 4 use elements of Tron: Ascension?
Last week, we spoke to Tron: Ares writer Jesse Wigutow, who also worked extensively on Tron: Ascension before it was shelved.
