The latest Tron: Legacy trailer is packed full of links to the 1982 Tron – here’s our run-down of a few of the ones we noticed…
As many of you will have already seen, the Tron: Legacy trailers are filled with subtle references to the 1982 original. For those who grew up with the first Tron, these loving nods and allusions are a heartening sign that, although director Joe Kosinski’s take on the property is slick, contemporary and very much its own film, it still has a knowledge and respect for Steven Lisberger’s 80s classic.
Here are a few of the references to the 80s Tron we spotted in the third Tron: Legacy trailer that arrived yesterday…
00:08 – Tron duvet and pillow set
We’re a mere eight seconds in, and the references are already there to be seen – first there’s the great Tron duvet and pillow set, which is covered in Light Cycles and Recognisers.
On the young Sam Flynn’s shelf, there are numerous Tron toys that are easy to spot, including Light Cycle toys, a little guard figurine, and tucked away among a collection of board games, a few replicas of Bits, the floating polyhedrons seen in the first film.
There’s also a reference on the top left to Disney’s 1979 The Black Hole, a film Tron: Legacy director Joe Kosinski is set to remake next.
00:09 – Tron poster
This one’s fairly self-explanatory – a reproduction of the classic 1982 Tron poster. Viewed in HD, there’s also a strapline that reads, “From the creators of Space Paranoids”, a reference to the game Kevin Flynn programmed in the original movie.
Note, too, that the Encom logo is just as it was in 1982…
00:19 – 80s helicopter
In a direct lift from the conclusion of Tron, this shot sees a youthful Kevin Flynn emerging from an Encom helicopter in a rather dapper grey suit.
00:45 – Flynn’s arcade
Tron: Legacy uses the exact same building for Flynn’s arcade as the original Tron – which is actually a restaurant located in Culver City, Los Angeles.
00:50 – Touchscreen technology
The retro look of the touch-screen controls here is strikingly similar to the MCP console David Warner’s character, Dilinger, used back in 1982. Back then, of course, touch screen technology was akin to witchcraft.
00:54 – Digitizer
This entire sequence, where a 27-year-old Sam Flynn is sucked into the virtual world of the Grid by the Digitizer, is directly inspired by the first film, with the laser in the same position as it was when it zapped Sam’s father Kevin almost 30 years before.
Are there any references we’ve missed? If so, let us know in the comments!
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