28 years later

Tron: 1982

  •  I am 7 years old.
  •  The dawn of personal computing. For the first time, individuals have computers.
  •  Computing is nerdy, specialised. Arcade Computer Games are new and cool.
  •  Life inside the computer is depicted as banal, office-like, yearning to be real.
  •  Clumsy special effects pretend to be too-expensive computer effects.
  •  Completely unique film stock is created to make the film effects possible.
  •  Huge solid sets are painstakingly built and painted to look surreal.
  •  Real actors are clad in suits to make them look unnatural.

Legacy: 2010

  • I am 35 years old.
  • The internet is an inextricable part of life for most of the world.
  • Computing is everywhere, in everything. It’s uncool to not be a nerd.
  • Life inside the computer is depicted as impossibly cool. It mocks the real world.
  • Computer effects are trivial and cheap.
  • No physical film is ever exposed.
  • Hardly any physical sets are even built.
  • The central villain is a flawless digital emulation of Jeff Bridges of 1982.

This is what it must feel like to live through epochal change.