Midweek Mention... Tron Ares

This one starts the way all great cinema analysis starts: Dan’s birthday sandwich (father-in-law today, Dan tomorrow, Mrs the day after), a bit of life admin, and then straight into neon sci-fi with Tron: Ares.

If your Tron knowledge is basically “glowing lines, lightbikes, and that vibe,” you’re fine — this film mostly plays in the real world, and asks a simple question: what happens when programs from the Grid step into reality?

The hook

Two tech giants are racing to crack the next breakthrough:

• ENCOM, led by visionary philanthropist Eve Kim (trying to build tech that helps the world)
• Dillinger Systems, led by Julian Dillinger (weaponising the future)

Dillinger’s flex is terrifyingly straightforward: laser-built constructs — vehicles, weapons, even soldiers — “printed” instantly into existence. The catch (and the film’s ticking clock): these creations normally degrade after ~29 minutes.

What we dig into

• Ares (Jared Leto) as a “program-soldier”: built for control, but quickly starts developing something dangerously human — curiosity, empathy, judgement.
• The “permanence code” McGuffin: Flynn’s old work hints at a way to make constructs last — which flips the film from flashy demo into existential threat (and/or world-changing miracle).
• A full-on real-world lightbike chase: glowing trails carving through traffic, near-misses, collateral chaos — the biggest “this is why Tron exists” sequence.
• AI awakening… without deep philosophy: it doesn’t pretend to be Ex Machina. It’s more “stylish action thriller” than serious tech parable — and we call that out.
• Athena as the escalation engine: when the second-in-command takes “by any means necessary” literally, the film goes from corporate rivalry to open urban warfare.
• The ending teases: Dillinger’s next evolution, Ares going rogue, and sequel-bait that actually works.

The verdict

We’re blunt about it: this film isn’t saying anything profound about humanity and technology. What it is doing is delivering a clean, coherent action plot, a proper ticking-clock hook, and a visual/audio assault that feels like a two-hour music video in the best way.

Even the resident sci-fi sceptic came out surprised: watchable, clear stakes, great set-pieces, banging soundtrack — and sometimes that’s enough.

If you want an episode where we:

• break down the plot without pretending it’s smarter than it is,
• obsess over the chase scenes and Grid aesthetics,
• and argue whether “29 minutes to live” is a flaw or a feature…

…press play.

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Until next time, we remain...

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