The Eighties in America - Salem Press (2009)

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Tron

Identification Science-fiction film
Director Steven Lisberger (1951- )
Date Released July 9, 1982

One of the first feature films extensively to utilize computer-
generated imager y,Tronalso combined an innovate tech-
nique called backlight compositing with footage of live actors,
creating a visually exciting virtual computer environment
for the big screen.

Released in 1982 by the Walt Disney Company,Tron
stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a talented pro-
grammer whose video game inventions have been
stolen by an unscrupulous corporate executive named
Dillinger (David Warner). Flynn asks Alan (Bruce
Boxleitner) and Lora (Cindy Morgan), who both
work at Dillinger’s company Encom, for help in
proving the theft, but the sinister Master Control
Program (MCP) “digitizes” Flynn and transports
him into the virtual computer environment over
which it rules.
Disoriented, Flynn is shocked to find that com-

puter programs are not just lines of code, but rather

individual alter-egos of the users who create them.

Tron, for instance, is Alan’s counterpart, a heroic pro-

gram who defies the MCP in its efforts to wipe out

programs’ belief in the users. The MCP forces pro-

grams to play games to the death in a gladiator-like

environment (represented as the “reality” behind

computer video games) and intends to make Flynn

play on the grid until he dies, but Flynn, Tron, and

another program named Ram escape the grid and

mount an assault on the MCP with the help of Yori,

Lora’s alter-ego program. Ultimately, the good guys

destroy the MCP, restoring open communication be-

tween programs and their users.Tronrepresents one

of the earliest attempts visually to portray cyberspace,

an inhabitable “virtual reality” somehow located in-

side and between computers. Written by its director,

Steven Lisberger,Tron’s plot grew out of the visuals

that Lisberger hoped to create, rather than the other

way around. Several computer and special-effects

companies contributed to the film, and part of the

shooting took place at the Lawrence Livermore Na-

tional Laboratory in California, lending authentic-

ity to many of the film’s “real world” sequences.

AlthoughTron’s story line is somewhat simplistic,

the idea of individuals battling against a multina-

tional corporation for free and open access to com-

The Eighties in America Tron
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The Pursuit of Trivia

In the original Genus edition of Trivial Pursuit, players had to correctly answer questions in six catego-

ries: geography, entertainment, history, arts and literature, science and nature, and sports and leisure.

The questions were written on a set of cards, with the questions on one side of the card and the answers

on the other side. Below are the questions and answers on one of the game’s cards.

Category Question Answer

Geography What Rocky Mountain ridge separates North

America’s eastward and westward-flowing rivers?

The Continental Divide

Entertainment What was Stanley Kubrick’s first film after2001: A

Space Odyssey?

A Clockwork Orange

History What was the nineteenth-century term used by the

United States to justify expansion?

Manifest Destiny

Arts and Literature What Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem tells of sailor

who kills an albatross?

The Rime of the Ancient

Mariner

Science and Nature How many grams make up a dekagram? Ten

Sports and Leisure What do you call the playing pieces in dominoes? Bones