Steven Lisberger’s original 1982 movie Tron mostly takes place within the fantastical world inside video games, where programs, envisioned as people in neon-streaked costumes, compete on the Grid in deadly games. Programs are ruthlessly killed (or “derezzed”) in the Disc Arena and crushed by jetwalls in light-cycle battles. Joseph Kosinski’s 2010 sequel Tron: Legacy goes back inside the computer world for more light-cycle action and more combat on the Grid.
Joachim Rønning’s Legacy follow-up Tron: Ares takes a slightly less video game-y approach. In the movie, programs still battle each other for survival on the Grid, but mainly in life-or-death struggles over secretive data, acting as avatars for their corporate creators. Security programs and infiltration programs clash on ENCOM servers, and in the real world, Recognizers and light cycles exported from the Grid behave as they do in the virtual world.
The warrior program Ares (Jared Leto) is another new innovation: a super-soldier who can be endlessly 3D reprinted to fight wars in our world. But would the flesh-and-blood Leto have the real-world skills to survive if he was pulled into one of the Grid’s games? During a recent press event, Polygon asked Tron: Ares’ principal cast and crew what games they would be most likely to survive in. We have their answers — but we have our own assessments about their abilities to survive inside virtual worlds.
Greta Lee
Role: In Tron: Ares, Lee plays Eve Kim, the CEO of ENCOM, who is distracted from her executive duties as she tries to recover the “permanence code” believed to be left behind by Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges).
The game Lee thinks she could survive in: “My kids are really into Minecraft,” she tells Polygon. “I would never want them to know this, but [Minecraft] is so cool, the worlds that they build. I think I would want to go onto one of the worlds that they’ve built. My youngest has built this one with animals — it’s just filled with parrots, because he loves parrots.”
Lee’s likelihood of survival: 90%. If Lee simply hangs out with her kids’ parrots, she’s all good. But it’s unclear whether she knows how to avoid or contend with a Creeper.
Evan Peters
Role: Peters plays Julian Dillinger, the head of ENCOM rival Dillinger Systems and grandson of Ed Dillinger (David Warner) from the original Tron.
The game Peters thinks he could survive in: “I would definitely lose in the [Disc Arena],” Peters said. “I’d go into BioShock.” Explaining that answer to co-star Gillian Anderson, he says, “It’s such a good video game, it’s the best. BioShock, Fallout 3 and 4, amazing post-apocalyptic worlds in Fallout, and BioShock is an underground, decrepit dystopia.” Did he understand the question? Unclear.
Peters’ likelihood of survival: In BioShock? 5%, like any other normal human’s chances in Rapture. In any Fallout game? 10%, purely based on his charisma rating.
Gillian Anderson
Role: Anderson plays Elisabeth Dillinger, mother to Julian and daughter to Ed. She’s the former CEO of Dillinger Systems, and a more level-headed leader than Julian.
The game Anderson thinks she could survive in: “Pong,” said Anderson, despite her apparent familiarity with the game Myst and her co-starring appearance in the 1998 interactive CD-ROM The X-Files Game. “That’s about as sophisticated as I could get. It would take so long for the [ball] to come that I could duck out of the way quickly before it came to hit me in the head.”
Anderson’s likelihood of survival: 50%, based on the abstract nature of Pong and whether being hit by the ball, or not volleying the ball back to the other player, would be fatal. Also, it’s really dark in Pong — could she fall off the stage to her death? What does the black void of Pong do to a person?
Joachim Rønning
Role: Rønning is the director of Tron: Ares. He also directed Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.
The game Rønning thinks he could survive in: Tomb Raider. “I’m a kid of the ’80s, so I was into the Commodore 64 and the Atari, but the first game that got to me was the very first Tomb Raider on PlayStation,” Rønning says. “Being a movie guy — it was the first game that was so immersive, it was physical. I’m not sure that’s the game I would actually want to be in, but that was my first amazing experience, at least.”
Rønning’s likelihood of survival: 20%. If Rønning was dropped into a Tomb Raider game and had to contend with the wildlife and booby traps of a typical Lara Croft adventure, I think he’d be a T. rex meal relatively quickly. However, since Rønning’s a “movie guy,” he might be able to detect traps and other dangers in the environment, provided he’s watched Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Jared Leto
Role: Leto is the eponymous Ares, a computer program created by Dillinger Systems who longs to escape the Grid and become a real human boy.
The game Jared Leto thinks he could survive in: “I would have to say Frogger,” Leto says. “Because I’ve spent a lot of time in New York — and LA, which might be even more dodgy — but I have the skills. I have a lot of practice [crossing the street].”
Leto’s likelihood of survival: 51%. I too have crossed traffic in both New York and Los Angeles, and I find it relatively easy. That said, about half of a Frogger screen requires log-rolling and balancing on the backs of swimming turtles. Leto may not have the jumping and equilibrium needed to avoid being consumed by an alligator. Sorry, Jared.
Tron: Ares comes to movie theaters on Oct. 10.
