TRON/Characters

For characters that debuted in Tron: Legacy and tropes that apply to characters here that also appeared in the sequel, please see that movie's page.

Humans

"Greetings, programs!"

Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges)

A former programmer at ENCOM whose ideas for video games were stolen by Dillinger. Dillinger subsequently fired him from the company to silence him. When we meet him, Flynn has spent at least a year seeking evidence of Dillinger's theft, with no success. Alan and Lora enlist him to help them put an end to Dillinger's abuse of power, but the MCP responds to their efforts in a way none of them could have predicted.

• Action Survivor
• Audience Surrogate
• Deadpan Snarker
• Did Not Get the Girl: Broke up with Lora before the film, and briefly kisses Yori.
• Friend to All Children: He gets along with kids better than the adults.
• God in Human Form: As a User to the programs.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Thinks jumping into the laser will cause this, but it simply rematerializes him back into reality.
• Hollywood Hacking
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: When he started, he was mostly in on busting Encom for stealing his game ideas. Once in the Game World however, he's both amazed by the world's wonders and horrified by the deaths of programs in the deadly games.
• Last Kiss: With Yori.
• Master of Unlocking
• Messianic Archetype: From the programs' perspective he is a literal divine being who descends from on high, joins the fight against evil, and returns to his own world by sacrificing himself to save program-kind.
• Nerds Are Sexy
• Playful Hacker
• There's No Place Like Home: although his goals do eventually shift from "get home" to "free the system".
• Trapped in Another World

Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner)

One of the programmers at ENCOM, with big nerdy glasses and a hot-air popcorn machine, he created TRON.

• Glasses Pull
• Nerd Glasses
• Nerds Are Sexy
• Nice Guy: He shares popcorn with his fellow workers. He is also willing to hear Flynn out, even though he initially didn't like him. They later become good friends.

Ed Dillinger (David Warner)

The Corrupt Corporate Executive responsible for the Master Control Progam, and Flynn's termination from ENCOM. He is now Senior Executive Vice President thanks to his "contribution" to the company line.

• Corrupt Corporate Executive
• Even Evil Has Standards: Dillinger balks when MCP expresses desire to hack into the Pentagon and Kremlin.

Lora Baines (Cindy Morgan)

One of the programmers at ENCOM, specializing in laser research and digitizing objects. Also the current love interest of Alan Bradley, and the former love interest of Kevin Flynn.

• Hot Scientist
• Sweater Girl

Walter Gibbs (Barnard Hughes)

An ENCOM scientist. Gibbs founded ENCOM, originally running it out of his garage, before Dillinger took over, and doesn't approve of Dillinger's methods.

• Cool Old Guy
• For Science! : He was so happy to be working in a lab with his laser project that he all but handed Dillinger the company he built.
• Kicked Upstairs: By Dillinger.
• Nerd Glasses

Programs

"That's Tron. He fights for the Users."

TRON (Bruce Boxleitner)

A security program, written by Alan, that threatens the Master Control Program's plans to infiltrate and take over government computers. Held prisoner by Sark as a Game Grid gladiator when Flynn first sees him.

• Action Hero
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Yes, he's the biggest Badass in Cyberspace. He's also a very loyal and sweet guy. He's visibly shaken when it looks like Flynn and Ram were killed. When he's running through the city, an urgent call from his User pending, he goes to rescue his girlfriend first (and if you believe that Deleted Scene, go back to her place for a while). His Kingdom Hearts incarnation is even more so.
• Friendly Sniper: Is an expert at throwing his disc.
• Meaningful Name: TRON means "trace on," similar to his functions in the game. Also abbreviated from "electronic."
• NameTron
• Religious Bruiser
• Supporting Protagonist
• Tron Lines: Blue, with a large T on his chest made of light squares.

"End of line."

Master Control Program (voice of David Warner)

The Big Bad. An artificially intelligent program used by Dillinger to advance his career at ENCOM by assimilating the functions of all the other programs on their mainframe. It eventually begins planning to take over other systems, like the U.S. Military's computers, and even overcomes Dillinger's control. Inside the computer world, the MCP is a totalitarian dictator attempting to stamp out even the belief in users.

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot
• Big Bad
• Evil Sounds Deep
• Flat Earth Atheist: Is not one himself, but promotes the attitude among the programs.
• Huge Holographic Head
• Instant AI, Just Add Water
• Ludicrous Precision
• Nay Theist
• Serkis Folk
• Sinister Geometry
• Turned Against Their Masters
• Verbal Tic: "End of line."
• You Will Be Assimilated: Kills programs and takes on their functions.

Commander Sark (David Warner)

The Dragon to the MCP, with Dilinger's face and voice. Runs the gladiatorial games.

• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Sark becomes a giant after the MCP transfers all its functions to him.
• The Dragon
• Fantastic Racism
• Nay Theist
• Robots Enslaving Robots
• We Can Rule Together: Offers Tron a place by his side.

CLU (Jeff Bridges)

One of the programs Flynn used to hack into the ENCOM system.

• Defiant to the End
• Heroic Sacrifice His first action upon crashing his tank is to tell his friend Bit to get out of here while the Recognizer closes in on them.
• Hollywood Hacking
• Sacrificial Lamb
• Screams Like a Little Girl

Yori (Cindy Morgan)

A program written by Lora. She appears to be a 3D simulation program and may play a role in the digitization process.

• The Chick
• The Engineer: She designed the Solar Sailer that gets them out of the city and most of the way to the fight with Master Control.
• Last Kiss: With Flynn as Flynn jumps into the beam.
• Lingerie Scene: Cut from the final release, but seen on DVD.

Ram (Dan Shor)

An actuarial program for an insurance firm conscripted into the gladiatorial games. An ally to Tron and eventually Flynn.

• Action Survivor
• Badass Bookworm / Badass Normal / Badass Unintentional: Ram seems pretty damn good at the gladiator games he was forced into despite being an actuarial program with no security features.
• Go Out with a Smile
• Mr. Exposition: He gives Crom, and by extension the audience, the low-down on the MCP's regime and the game grid.
• Nice Guy: Before being a video game warrior, he was an actuarial program for an insurance company. While most free programs respect and follow their users, he takes the cake because he likes helping people in general.
• Sacrificial Lion

Dumont (Barnard Hughes)

A Tower Guardian who is nearly killed by the MCP for trying to help the heroes communicate with the real world.

• Casual Danger Dialog: Dumont's reaction to Sark kidnapping and torturing him is to treat it as though his work was being interuppted.

 Dumont: What do you want? I'm busy!!

• Cool Old Guy
• Defiant to the End
• Obi-Wan Moment: Sark's troops storm the gates of his tower, intending to arrest him and drag him to certain de-rez. He calmly (but sarcastically) addresses Sark as just another Program seeking communion with a User.
• Turbulent Priest: Guardians serve a priest-like role in the system, and he maintains the last free tower. He's cranky and embittered for a good reason, but he's just fine with being a pain in the ass.

Crom (Peter Jurasik)

A banking program conscripted into the games.

• Jewish and Nerdy: He has a pronounced New York Jewish accent and is essentially a pencil pusher.
• Sacrificial Lamb

Bit

A binary digit resembling a compound of dodecahedron and icosahedron, Bit can only say "yes" or "no" when asked a question, and is used by other programs for advice.

• Big No: Says "No no no no no" when scared.
• Big Yes: Says "Yes yes yes yes yes" when amused.
• Deadpan Snarker: Despite only being able to say "yes" and "no."
• Robot Buddy
• Verbal Tic: Only says "yes" and "no."
• Zeroes and Ones