Tron Legacy is a sequel to the original 1982 Tron film. It was released in 2010, directed by Joseph Kosinski and Produced by Sean Bailey, Jeffrey Silver and Steve Lisberger. The movie pivots around on the work of Kevin Flynn, the CEO of a company called ENCOM. Flynn mysteriously disappears and his son Sam eventually decides to look for him. Sam quickly discovers a secret passage at his father’s old arcade, which leads to a sophisticated computer and a portal that transports him to a virtual world created by his father. Tron Legacy is a movie, in broad terms, about light. The film is set in essentially two locations—the real world and a virtual one. The virtual world is without natural light, that is, there is no sun. And thus every object and building, including people both human and humanoid wear light. Like our world the virtual one created by computer programmer Kevin Flynn is filled with architecture, however the architecture of the movie uses light at its edges or on its surface, but not so much to illuminate space. Strips of light are not only found on people and buildings, but also on the fantastic machines like the lightcycle, light jets, fighters, transports and warships—which ingeniously can also produce strips of light that become physical objects. The architecture of the film takes clues from the general science fiction genre, but is set apart by the way light is utilized on objects and in space. The virtual city in the film Tron Legacy is much like those of the real world composed of various forms at varying heights. However these forms also resemble simple objects whose edges and surfaces are accentuated by light. It’s almost as though light has replaced the way paint is used to delineate or spell out a message in our real world. The visual aesthetics of the film are like a language of symbols of unknown origin. Light is used to wash surfaces rather than directly illuminate space, to describe otherwise unrecognizable darkened spaces, accentuate the human figure or as a kind of framework for objects that describes their inner workings. Surfaces are also darkly reflective and with the magic of selective illumination almost every object in the film seems to dance however mysteriously accentuated. In Tron Legacy there are more than a few notable examples of creative architectural space and form in the virtual world; the stadium where Sam Flynn is sent to perform a series of deadly physical challenges is otherworldly; His father’s home outside the city is also notable. The floors are luminescent, the ceiling is reflective, the walls are a kind of cave like carved stone and the objects within are black and white, modern and traditional; The nightclub where Sam ventures is set atop a skyscraper filled with curvalinear forms and accentuating strips of light; The architecture of Clu’s warship is a massive industrial space replete with an army of glowing soldiers, war machines and a vast web of passages and platforms; And finally the portal, which is both ancient and futuristic, stunning and death defying. Tron Legacy is a visually stunning film and a creative tour de force. It’s original thinking about architecture and light are also inspiring. It’s no surprise then that films director; Kosinski went to the Colombia Graduate School of architecture.

Comments

1. can you do ones in hayao miyazaki moviess
2. Would be cool to do one about the Star Wars films (or maybe just one specific for that matter!)
3. Hi Doug, my name is Marco from Rome and have bought your book. Can i ask u one question? You think zaha hadid've watched the first movie?
   Thank you!
4. thought this was Every Frame a Painting in my sub box
5. Love this channel.
6. I'd love to see you take a look at Akira, the anime film! :p
   
   I never realized until you pointed it out, but it's interesting seeing a film like Tron from the point of view of light. As you pointed out, light is the main tool used to create the world; almost a callback to genres such as film noire... Makes me want to go back and rewatch after all these years aha!
   
   Also random: I remember reading about an architect who played specifically with light, but can't now remember his name for the life of me... ahh well! Great video :p
7. if only the actual movie was close to the graphic quality, it might have been close to the quality of the original movie........
8. I want to become an architect. Your channel seems really helpful. Thank you. :)
9. this would've worked so much better as a video game. Exploring the world would be amazing while listening to a synthwave/electro soundtrack.
10. can anyone tell me the name of he background music?
11. Tron's design is so unique.
12. Will you do Joseph Kosinski's other film in the future? Oblivion!?