Enjoy some Sci-Friday with this discussion of old-school scifi movies in ‘The Making of Tron.’ This homage to imagination and innovation is nothing short of remarkable – enjoy!
Here are some more fun facts about Tron:
- The film was disqualified from receiving an Academy Award nomination for special effects, because the Academy felt at the time that using computer generated effects was “cheating”.
- The state-of-the-art computer used for the film’s key special effects had only 2MB of memory and 330MB of storage.
- The MCP’s original form is shown using an Oliveri typewriter – most likely a model 3, produced from 1902-1907.
- Although apparently it’s a minor detail in the plot, (at around 25 mins) MCP reveals to Dillinger that it was planning a coup d’état against Pentagon and Kremlin for the next week, because “I’m bored with corporations” in MCP’s words. It alleges not only that it’s 2415 times more intelligent after Dillinger created it, but that it would be 900 to 1,200 times more efficient that any human being. It implies that when (at around 1h 26 mins) Flynn jumps into MCP to give Tron the chance to defeat it, they not only beat it, but save the world from what would have been the first cyber-terrorist attack.
One more interesting takeaway that I want you kiddies to focus on: digital VFX hasn’t lowered the cost of filmmaking. The original Tron cost $17M in 1982 ($55M in 2024 dollars) compared to $170M to make Tron:Legacy in 2010 ($244M in 2024 dollars)!
Remember what I said earlier, about ‘too much of a good thing?’ There you go – the original Tron was and still is a ground-breaking scifi film whereas Tron 3 … yeah, who knows.
So yes, I love Tron – if that wasn’t obvious already. I hope you enjoyed this dive through scifi movie history. Please feel welcomed to dive down the rabbit hole of every other Sci-Friday I’ve published in the past couple years. Have a great weekend!
