All the questions we still ask ourselves after “Tron: Ares”

Tron: Ares ends with some big questions about what might happen next on the Grid and beyond. Unfortunately, the most important of them after opening weekend is whether any of them will be answered. The film had a lukewarm opening, failing to surpass its 2010 predecessor, i.e. The World of Tron may be officially dead. And yet it took almost three decades for a second Tron to go out and almost two more for the third. Over the years, the franchise has shown an incredible ability to reboot, so let’s do that too.

Below are 12 questions and some attempted answers we have after watching Tron: Ares. Major spoilers follow.

What does Ares want with Quorra?

Tron: Ares ends with Ares (Jared Leto), now able to exist permanently in the real world, searching for the Iso named Quorra (Olivia Wilde), the digital being Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) having left the grid at the end of Tron: Legacy. That Ares, created by Dillinger Corp., would want to find Quorra, created naturally in the Grid, makes sense. He certainly has a lot of questions that she could potentially answer. But what does he think will happen beyond that? Is there a method to his madness? And also…

What did Sam and Quorra do?

While Tron: Legacy ended with big questions about what it meant for a digital being to now exist in the real world, Tron: Ares largely puts these events aside. We learn that Sam Flynn did indeed take over Encom for a time before leaving it for personal reasons. And, we see that there have been at least discussions or rumors about Quorra in the press. But what have they done in the 15 years since this film? What did Sam do at Encom when he was there? We don’t know.

Why did Sam Flynn leave Encom?

A consequence of the last question is the specific nature of Sam’s departure from Encom. Did he have a new project planned with Quorra? Has he reconnected with a digital version of his father? It almost feels like whatever story is happening with Sam and Quorra off-screen is somehow whatever the original version of Tron 3, Tron: Ascensionmaybe. Speaking of…

Could Tron 4 use elements of Tron: Ascension?

Last week we spoke to Tron: Ares writer Jesse Wigutow, who also worked extensively on Tron: Ascension before it is put aside. From Tron: Ascension focused on Sam and Quorra’s journey and was probably a pretty good storyline after years of development, we asked about it. “That’s a great question,” he said. “I don’t know if I thought about it that way, other than the fact that Ascent…. I don’t know, that’s the answer. We’ll find out if there’s an opportunity or conversation around doing another one at some point. That’s a little above my pay grade. But I think it’s an exciting idea anyway, potentially, for Ares and Quorra to get together.

What’s going on with Julian Dillinger?

To avoid prosecution and almost certainly prison time, at the end of Tron: Ares, Julian Dillinger goes to the Grid. There we see that he begins to sort of become Sark, the digital double of his grandfather, Ed Dillinger Sr., from the original film. How is it going? Why is this happening? And if Julian becomes Sark and works to take control of Dillinger Grid, what kind of damage will he cause? Of course, we can’t answer any of these questions, but it’s fun to think about.

Where the hell is Tron?

A major character who is not part of Tron: Ares is Tron itself, the original hero program from the first film. We asked Wigutow about his absence from the film. “I think there was a conversation at one point (about returning),” Wigutow said. “At a certain point in development, he just wanted to make it his own thing. And it wasn’t that there was a choice to say, ‘We don’t need Tron.’

So why is it called Tron?

Simple. Most people know Tron as a movie, not as a character in that movie or a game that exists in the world of the movie. You kind of have to call it that for name recognition.

Is Athena really gone?

Athena, played by Jodie Turner-Smith, is clearly one of the best roles in Tron: Ares. But when Encom hacks and destroys Dillinger’s grid while she’s still in the real world, it seems like she has nowhere to go and dies for real. Could it really have been permanently deleted? It’s certainly possible. But, with the permanence code now available, you have to think she might find a way to get revenge on Ares at some point.

What exactly was this version of Kevin Flynn?

To acquire the Code of Permanence, Ares accesses an old copy of the Grid from the original film. There he meets Kevin Flynn. But not just any Kevin Flynn. An older Kevin Flynn. This Flynn clearly shows that you can’t move from one grid to another without entering the real world. So is this a Flynn who has existed here since the 1980s? Does he have knowledge about Clu, Sam and everything in Legacy? We’re not sure and, frankly, we’re a little angry that it’s still so vague.

What exactly is Ares?

If you are a computer program with code that allows you to exist in the real world, what exactly are you? Do you have human organs? Are you just sons? We asked Wigutow what he thinks Ares really is now that he’s in the real world. “I think there is this kind of unspoken, probably very valuable, natural resource that powers these lasers,” he said. “And there’s something about the type of genetic linkage that can’t survive beyond the time limit that we put on it, which the Permanence Code then makes binding. So, in a way, if you were to cut them in half and do a diagnosis or an autopsy, yes, I would like to believe that you would discover human biology. But I don’t know if that’s the right answer.”

The ends of Legacy And Ares similar on purpose?

Ultimately, our hero takes the digital being off the grid to live as a human in the real world. It’s the end of Tron: Legacy as well as Tron: Ares. Was this done on purpose? “It’s part of the franchise’s type of genetic mapping,” Wigutow said. “I like the kind of time-skip that the movie ends on. (Ares) is out there. He’s learning. He’s growing. He’s developing. And who knows where we might find him next and what he looks like and, you know, what he’s become?” So this wasn’t done on purpose; it just made sense.

Where is Cillian Murphy in all this?

You may have forgotten, but Tron: Legacy, the Dillinger family was represented by Ed Dillinger Jr., played by eventual Academy Award winner Cillian Murphy. Ed Jr. was the son of the villainous character from the first film and was expected to play a larger role if a sequel had happened closer to the previous film. Murphy got a little too big for a small role at that point Ares was released so he’s not here. But Julian Dillinger is Ed Sr.’s grandson. So either he is Ed Jr.’s son or Ed Jr. is his uncle. We don’t know. But we can assume he’s out there.

What other questions do you have about Tron: Ares? Let us know below.

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