MAX HEADROOM (1987-1988)
Tron’s personified programs paved
the way for the first celebrity avatar.
Though most remember the New
Coke ads, his short-lived sci-fi
series stayed true to its dystopian
inspiration with Max as a self-aware
ghost in the machine.
THE FIFTH ELEMENT
ELEMENT (1997)
(1997)
The sparkly sci-fi flick has little
in common with the stark virtual
world of Tron, except that both
boast strikingly inventive
production design conceived
by famed French comic-book
artist Moebius.
REBOOT (1994-2001)
This groundbreaking Canadian cartoon,
TV’s first all-CGI series, was set inside
a computer mainframe filled with
games and run by users – just like
Tron. But ReBoot arrived late enough
to incorporate the Web.
TRISH McALASTER/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
REZ (2001)
This cult rhythm-based shooter
was a favourite with the raver set.
But beyond its pulsing electronic
soundtrack lay a Tron-inspired story
about hacking into a stylized computer
world to stop a rogue Master Com-
puter.
TOY STORY (1995)
Disney cartoonist John Lasseter, who
DAFT PUNK (1993-PRESENT)
Dance music’s robot-suited superstars
— with their Tron-inspired visual aes-
thetic and sonic debt to the film’s origi-
nal synth composer Wendy Carlos —
jumped at the chance to craft the
sequel’s soundtrack.
would later become Pixar’s creative
mastermind, snuck a peek at early
lightcycle race renderings and saw
the future in its primitive computer
animation. “Without Tron,” he later
said, “there would be no Toy Story.”
THE MATRIX
MATRIX (1999)
(1999)
Consider the Keanu Reeves classic
Tron: Reloaded, as both involve
“chosen one” hacker heroes in a
computer-generated world battling
deadly “security programs” while
fomenting a rebellion to destroy
an evil CPU.
SECOND LIFE: (2003-PRESENT)
Tron’s notion of programs that look
like their “user” inhabiting a virtual
world was realized by Linden Lab’s
Second Life, an online community that
took on a life of its own, including
an economy and fetishes.