“TRON: ARES” — “In the Image of” this generation
Disney’s “TRON: ARES” is on “The Grid” again, connecting intergenerational audiences through benevolent A.I. and industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails.
Across the U.S., “TRON: ARES” opened in theaters for early screenings on Oct. 9, 2025. Hollywood’s iconic TCL Chinese Theater had a special showing in IMAX and fans showed up dressed in iconic cosplays. Outfits were adorned with glowing blue accents and hand held legendary lit-up disks, hinting at past references to the second installment of the Disney trilogy, “TRON: Legacy.”
As a long-time fan of the TRON movies, anticipating its release is about moving at the speed of trust versus the speed of a “light bike”. Anytime there is more than a decade between storylines in a series or movie, fandoms worry whether what comes next will be as good as its predecessors. Will this movie keep me on the edge of my seat, or leave me weeping over the gas money I could have saved?
The film following the original “TRON” released in 1982, “Tron: Legacy” (2010), accompanied by a synth-heavy soundtrack from Daft Punk, included songs like “Derezzed” and “The Grid. ” Daft Punk's sound was the perfect fit to bring generations of fans together. Fifteen years later, just as significant as uniting audiences is the film’s universal message: the influence and effects of time and technology on human identity.
Nine Inch Nails (NIN) is tasked with the difficult mission of crossing over to the electronic sound as the virtual world of “TRON” enters ours. Revisiting the same themes, the influence and effects of time and technology on human identity, of the previous two movies with intensity, NIN's songs “Init” and “In The Image Of” score this year's visually striking film.
The movie opens with a modern sounding twist of 8-bit tracks, “As Alive As You Need Me To Be,” making way for the digital conjuring of Jared Leto’s Ares, an artificial intelligence entity. Ares is programmed, deresolutioned and brought back online several times before being christened “Master Control” of Dillinger Systems by antagonist Peter Evans’ Julian Dillenger, grandson of ENCOM’s former CEO Edward Dillinger Sr., the original villain in “TRON” (1982).
“TRON” enthusiast Julian Freck, a second-year film production student at Santa Monica College is beaming with joy after seeing the film three times. He mentions that his father saw the original film when it was first released in 1982 and is responsible for his fandom. He first watched the film while attending the D23 members’ triple feature at El Capitan, complete with all three movies and a state-of-the-art laser show to kick off the event.
“...Tron has always been just like cool visuals or like a kind of corny story.” Freck said in regard to complaints some viewers have about the storyline being basic. He has seen other critics online unhappy that the film is not a direct follow-up to “TRON: Legacy” although there is brief mention of Sam Flynn, son of Jeff Bridges’ character Kevin Flynn, who has resigned from ENCOM due to personal reasons.
However, it is this turning point in the “TRON” timeline that opens the opportunity for sisters Eve and Tess Kim to take over the company, to achieve great technological advances, and continue creating best-selling video games.
Greta Lee’s character Eve Kim, current CEO of ENCOM, is processing the death of her younger tech-mogul sister, who lost her battle to cancer. She travels to Alaska in search of Kevin Flynn’s secret lab, where her sister was searching for his “permanence code,” hoping to unlock the next big development in technology to foster a more sustainable future.
Freck highlights the interesting lore aspects added in the latest addition to the franchise. A question many fans had watching the first two films was: what if an AI program came into our world?
Leto’s character Ares discovers that his creator intends to use the permanence code for military investment, making him and his fellow programs expendable weapons. After infiltrating ENCOM’s systems and accessing Eve’s personal information, Ares goes rogue, disobeying Dillenger’s directive to extract the code and eliminate Eve.
Freck shared a video he recorded when watching it for the second time on opening day, Oct. 10, at the Grove, where Jared Leto surprised fans with a drop-in and spoke about how the film has been nine years in the making. Freck said, “Hard times make good movies.” Hard times indeed: 2016 marked a change in presidency that created an uncertain future for marginalized communities. The release of “Ares” marks the 10th day of the government shutdown this year under the same president.
It’s a curious point to make about how films are creative outlets, forms of documenting histories, culture and ideas for future generations to enjoy or reflect on.
Personally, I was having a hard time with loneliness and self-esteem the year “Legacy” was released, and the film gave me Olivia Wilde’s Quorra, a one-of-a-kind being born in “the Grid" but not one of Flynn’s programs. Alongside a Daft Punk soundtrack to cope with my grief of being a high school junior, an outcast dedicated to my science projects and competitions. Back then, I was witnessing Obama’s first term as president of the United States, and there was a glimmer of hope for the future.
As a millennial who thinks they were born in the wrong era, it’s difficult to join harsh critics when discovering Ares' developing infatuation with Depeche Mode and his praise for the ‘80s. It makes Leto’s character relatable and more “human.”
My hope is that if nostalgia—cheesy one liners, Rubik’s cubes, arcade consoles and hearing “Depeche Mode's Just Can't Get Enough”—brings you joy, then, like the NIN song “As Alive as you need me to be” says, “TRON: Ares” will “give (you) something to believe in.”