If you haven't seen the movie, don't read this blog entry. It may constitute a spoiler.
On my longish drive in to work, this morning, I found myself listening to the soundtrack from Tron: Legacy. It got me thinking... that's a really clever title.
I try not to superimpose meaning onto movies. So many people fall into that trap and it gets a little obnoxious after awhile. In this case, though, it's hard not to do that. Think about it...
In the late eighties or early nineties, this guy has the genius idea that he can build the perfect system. He sets his grand project in motion with no criteria for success beyond the vague requirement "create the perfect system."
Over time, this creation becomes increasingly powerful until, eventually, this guy loses control over it. It traps him and begins the process of enslaving the system that hosts it. Along the way, something of real value is discovered. This value threatens the runaway system and so it is destroyed.
Eventually, through an act of great sacrifice, the man who created the cancerous system destroys it. The new generation is left free of its grasp, left with bad memories and the tiny scrap of value that survived the process. This value is the legacy of the Flynn.
Or is it? Does that story sound familiar to anyone?
It's pretty much the back story for every legacy system, if you let the date of creation and who makes the sacrifice to destroy it.
The studio is Disney, after all, I wouldn't put it past them to hire a bunch of subject matter experts to create a real meaningful allegory. The cost of doing so would be a drop in the bucket for them and, if it keeps people chattering on about the movie, it would be more than worth the cost and they're all about doing things that are more than worth the cost.
...and if all of that is so, them I'm really impressed. That's some mighty fine double entendre, there, Lou.
