When You Can’t Get Daft Punk…

It’s been 15 years since the last time we saw anything from Tron. Although that’s nothing in comparison to the nearly 30 years between Tron and Tron: Legacy, it’s still a long time for a new sequel in a franchise, especially when you consider that rumors of a third film have been swirling practically since the second movie came out. And yet it’s taken all that time (and, presumably, multiple failed productions that didn’t get off the ground) for Disney to find a take on the material they were happy with. Something that, this time, might actually turn Tron into more than a really interesting tech demo that, seemingly, only the fanboys want to watch.

About a month ago the full trailer for Tron: Ares was released, and while I wasn’t originally intending to review it (as I don’t feel like trailer reviews are always the best use of my time), I’m making a special exception here since I just went through and reviewed not only the two previous films in the series but also the two short films that were released officially as well. In for a penny, in for a pound, as it were, and in the absence of the film being out yet (although it will be soon enough) it felt like now was a good time to complete my “set” and get this new trailer banged out as well.

However, before we get to the actual meat of the trailer, I do want to discuss the one thing that the film has already done that garnered at least some modicum of respect from this reviewer. Tron: Legacy got a lot of mileage out of its soundtrack, which was produced and performed by Daft Punk. There’s a good chance that if a sequel to Tron: Legacy had been put out in a timely manner after that film’s release, Daft Punk could have come back to produce the next soundtrack as well. However in the 15 years since Tron: Legacy, Daft Punk has retired as a group. No more songs, no more soundtracks. While I’m sure Disney would have been willing to throw a gob of money at them for the band to get back together and do their magic again, that clearly wasn’t in the cards.

So who did they go with instead? Probably the only other group with a massive following and the skill to make a cool, tech-infused soundtrack that would get people to sit up and take notice just from name recognition alone: Nine Inch Nails. That is really awesome, even if at this point Trent Reznor (with or without the NIN name) doing soundtracks is just part of our world now. He’s been working on soundtracks since the days of Quake, with that game even including the Nine Inch Nailgun as a homage to the work NIN did for the game. And then you have Reznor’s recent output with collaborator Atticus Ross with the soundtracks for The Social Network (for which the duo won an Academy Award), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Mank, Bird Box, and Soul (which also won an Academy Award) among many, many others. Suffice it to say that if Nine Inch Nails is on the case, the soundtrack will slap.

Honestly you can already hear it in just the trailer alone. How the one song we’ve heard so far, “As Alive as You Want Me to Be”, builds slowly behind the action, more as a kind of rumbling effect that then becomes a full track for the trailer. It sounds exactly how you’d expect Nine Inch Nails, especially on a Tron soundtrack. Clearly Reznor and Ross knew exactly the assignment and they went for it, blending the NIN style of music into the kind of vibes that Tron delivers. They didn’t copy Daft Punk’s work but they knew the world they were working in all the same.

But as for the trailer itself, we only get snippets of the real story. We know that a corporation, presumably ENCOM (not run by Alan Bradley, it should be noted) has not only tapped into the Grid but has found a way (as hinted at the end of Tron: Legacy) to pull the programs out of the digital world and bring them into the real world. CEO Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) is quite excited by the prospects, especially when it comes to Ares (Jared Leto), a soldier that can die in the real world and then simply be respawned again and again. The military applications seem limitless.

But there’s just one small problem: Ares is sentient, and he has his own plans. It’s hard to know from just the trailer if Ares is the hero or the villain of the piece. On the one hand, he seems to be actively working with, and defending, a scientist, Greta Lee’s Eve Kim. On the other, though, Ares wears red LEDs, and we all know that the bad guys in these films always dress in red (or orange, or sometimes yellow). Warm colors in Tron mean “bad guy”. Just because Ares is a sentient program that doesn’t also mean he’s the guy we should be rooting for.

And, as we see in the trailer, the invasion of the real world does eventually kick in. Red lightjets taking down real world planes. Red jets flying through the air like an invasion force. Red ships blasting a city with missiles. Is Ares the one doing this or is this the world of someone else? Another evil program? Maybe the CEO himself? We can’t really be sure from just a couple of minutes of footage (and a couple of TV spots that barely revealed anything more), but I will say that the fact the trailer raises questions and then doesn’t feel the need to answer them is a big plus. Some mystery is good for a trailer.

I like the idea that the programs are invading into the real world. While we do see a number of scenes that take place inside the Grid as well, this inversion of the standard Tron story means we’re unlikely to get the same kind of Tron movie. The fact that a program, and not a user, might be our hero could also mean we get a very different kind of hero’s journey this time around. After two films that used the same kind of story in the same way, a change of pace is certainly appreciated this third time around (if that’s what we’re actually getting).

It is notable also that neither Sam Flynn (as played by Garrett Hedlund) or Quorra (Olivia Wilde) will be in this sequel. It’s a more standalone project, as can easily be seen from the trailer (although I did look up notes online just to confirm), that has few connections to the original films (outside of at least a cameo from Jeff Bridges as the merged Kevin Flynn-CLU hybrid being). I think that’s fine this time around. With that said, if this film is successful and sequels are eventually plotted, one would think they’d eventually have to have Sam and Quorra arrive at some point in the future (that is if they aren’t written out by the sequel killing them off between films, or them going back to the home planet, or something).

Unfortunately we do have Jared Leto in the film, and in the lead role to boot. Leto is, well, a pretty scummy human being, not just from his “method” on set behavior during the shooting of films like Suicide Squad and Morbius, but also because he’s been accused of sexual misconduct with nine women just a couple of months back. If those charges stick, expect Ares himself to get a reboot in any sequels that might come from this film.

Still, so far this trailer seems promising. It’s hard to get a real bead on where the story is going or how the film will shape up, but I consider that a plus, not an issue. Too often trailers spoil everything about the film you’re going to watch so it’s refreshing to see one that keeps so much close to its chest. I’m not the biggest Tron fan (which is why it took me so long to get around and review this works as it is) but with this trailer I might just be nudged towards the theater to see it on the big screen. If nothing else, the spectacle and soundtrack could make it worth the theater visit.