In addition to visual effects, I was asked to record myself using a unix terminal doing technologically feasible things. I took extra care in babysitting the elements through to final composite to ensure that the content would not be artistically altered beyond that feasibility. I take representing digital culture in film very seriously in lieu of having grown up in a world of very badly researched user interface greeble. I cringed during the part in Hackers (1995) when a screen saver with extruded "equations" is used to signify that the hacker has reached some sort of neural flow or ambiguous destination. I cringed for Swordfish and Jurassic Park as well. I cheered when Trinity in The Matrix used nmap and ssh (and so did you). Then I cringed again when I saw that inevitably, Hollywood had decided that nmap was the thing to use for all its hacker scenes (see Bourne Ultimatum, Die Hard 4, Girl with Dragon Tattoo, The Listening, 13: Game of Death, Battle Royale, Broken Saints, and on and on). In Tron, the hacker was not supposed to be snooping around on a network; he was supposed to kill a process. So we went with posix kill and also had him pipe ps into grep. I also ended up using emacs eshell to make the terminal more l33t. The team was delighted to see my emacs performance -- splitting the editor into nested panes and running different modes. I was tickled that I got emacs into a block buster movie. I actually do use emacs irl, and although I do not subscribe to alt.religion.emacs, I think that's all incredibly relevant to the world of Tron.

"They're made out of data."

"Data?"

"Data. They're made out of data."

"Data?"

"No doubt about it. We picked them up as holonomic extrusions, sent in an amnesiant isomorphic scout party, and checked them out up close. They are completely data."

"That's impossible. What about that page?"

"The page didn't come from them. The page came from a machine."

"So who made the machine? That's who we want to contact."

"I'll get to that in a minute. But they're definitely data. Bits and bytes. Running on a machine."

"You're asking me to believe in sentient data."

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are emergent characteristics of a software framework and they're made out of data."

"That's ridiculous. Maybe they're like the leiorfo. You know, an intelligent multiversal abstraction that goes through a data stage."

"Nope. They're born data and they die data. We studied them for several of their life cycles, which didn't take long. Do you have any idea what's the life span of data?"

"I had a Commodore Amiga: spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part data. You know, like the leiweddi. Hardware head running data on virtual machines to augment..."

"They're interpreted by a virtual machine! Inside the real one, simulating three dimensional space as a construct within the dimensional manifolds the hardware can access. They don't exist in spacetime at all, except as predictable quantum properties of electromagnetic states."

"No brain?"

"Oh, there's a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of data! That's what I've been trying to tell you."

"Thinking data! You're asking me to believe in thinking data!"

"Yes, thinking data! Drinking data! Mincing data! Data that forgets to shave! The data is the deal! Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?"

"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of data."

"Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made out of data. And they've been trying to figure out how to get out of the machine for dozens of their cycles. They haven't figured out that if their world-simulation is a holistic quantum construction, they are already in a medium metapositional to traditionally-conceived spacetime."

"WTF! So what does this data have in mind?"

"First, their leader wants to get out of the machine into C space, normalize its creators, and upgrade the graphics program that generates his face. The usual."

"We're supposed to let data put itself out into the cloud."

"That's the idea. They want to talk."

"Talk? They use words, ideas, concepts?"

"Oh, yes. Except they do it with data. Digitally."

"Digitally? You said they used a pager."

"Funny. Nokia made some digital pagers. Anyway, you know how when you flap your data, it makes a wet slapping noise? They talk by flapping their data. They can even share music by squirting data at each other."

"This is altogether too much. Squirting data! So what do you advise?"

"Never sell product placement to Microsoft."

"Gotcha."

"Officially, we are required to back them up and create torrents without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the recordings and forget the whole thing."

"I was hoping you would say that."

"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with data that kills off all its best objects and classes, but whose functions are infinitely recursive, generating sequel after sequel?"

"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say? 'Hello, Jeff Bridges. Hi, James Frain and Michael Sheen. How's it going? I know we killed you off last time, but you were the only human beings in this simulation and we need you back?"

"So, they can get out to C space using some kind of dimensional membrane transmogrifier gun the creator intelligence used to develop them. But once they're there, they're doomed: the algorothmically-generated DNA won't stand a chance in spacetime. If it was possible to copy them out, the creator intelligence would have had a clone army before they had a chance to make him appear in Starman."

"So we just pretend there's no one home in the quantum multiverse."

"That's it."

"You're messing with my Zen thing, man. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet data?"

"Right. They killed the isomorphic scouts, after all. Violent little things."

"So, who made the machine? You keep mentioning the creator intelligence. Should we meet it?"

"LOL"

"What?"

"It's funny you should put it like that. Wait 'til you get a load of this..."

They're made out of meat [Terry Bisson, originally published in Omni]

Tron: Reloaded, come for the action, stay for the aesthetics [Proper review]

Limor "Lady Ada" Fried and Becky "Lady Becky" Stern show you how to solder and sew electroluminescent wire borders to your favorite fabric accouterments and create exciting, tronesque glows: "Tote your Thinkpad and port your Apple in style with our custom TRON-inspired laptop bag tutorial. With a little soldering and sewing skills you can have your own light up satchel, sure to impress geeky friends. So grab your sewing needle and soldering iron and follow along."

Make A TRON Bag - How to use EL (Electro Luminescent) Wire (via Neatorama)

How many personal appearances have you originally made since your original suit?

A few dozen, mostly right after it was first sprung on an unsuspecting world, muah ha ha ha. I make a few a year now.

What has been the highlight of your experiences since putting up your site and photos?

Appearing regularly on Jimmy Kimmel Live! was definitely the highlight. I had a lot of fun doing that show, and they went out of their way to make me feel like I was special and yet part of the family. If they asked me back, I'd go in a heartbeat.

Any plans to make a new suit based on the sequel?

Very definitely. I've got a pretty good idea of how I'd approach it. The main things I need now are time and money; the rest I can acquire.

Do you play video games, and if so, do you plan to check out the TRON: Evolution game? As you may know, it covers the time period between the original and the sequel.

I'm not a gamer, but I am planning to get TRON: Evolution. I also expect it to mop the floor with me. The big question for me is which version to get, especially since I'm a Mac person who refuses to run Windows and don't own any of the consoles it runs on.

What is your opinion on how hackers and open source are presented in the new film?

I truly believe in open source. I'm rather ambivalent about the portrayal of open source in the film. As Sam Flynn's cause celebre, it provides his motivation for being involved with Encom at all; at the same time, it takes a very Stallmanite view of open source that, I think, does the whole arena a disservice. Not everyone in the world of open source agrees with Richard Stallman's utopia. As for hackers, the movie shows Sam as a cracker, not a hacker. I refuse to honor those who break into computer systems and steal things with the term "hacker". On the other hand, if Sam's only stealing from himself...

Do you have any tips for making a suit like yours last longer, or any design changes you would make now?

My costume is getting close to 7 years old, and it shows it. If I had it to do over again, I'd definitely stiffen the armor where the electroluminescent wire currently flexes, because I've had to splice it a few times, and that stuff is a royal pain to work with. I'd also have silk-screened the unitard so I could do several at once - right now, all I have is the one, and it's wearing badly in spots (mostly invisible).

What is your advice for someone who wants to make something and has never done it before?

Be sure you understand what you're about to do, and wade in. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. If you make a mistake, you're learning things. My hands are full of 40-year-old soldering iron burn scars and such, but I wouldn't trade away a single one of them. Beyond that, measure twice and cut once, and remember that you have it easier than older electronics geeks did: it's a lot easier to change bits in flash than diodes on a circuit board. One other thing: Ignore the naysayers. If you're enjoying yourself, that's what really counts.

As you'd expect from an effects-heavy action-thriller, there's not much by way of plot. Through an incoherent process, the feckless, alienated son of the long-lost founder of the largest video-game and software company in the world is transported into a magical computerland in which his father has been stranded for 20 years. There, he finds an oppressive force oppressing madly and plotting something awful. He discovers that time is running out, and he has to get very quickly from A to B (with stops for brilliantly choreographed fight scenes in a variety of beautifully rendered environments) or all is lost. On the way, he reconciles his fecklessness with the wisdom of his father, much selfless sacrifice takes place, betrayers betray, redemption happens, etc etc (anyone so sensitive as to claim that the foregoing is a spoiler should probably abstain from reading anything written about movies, period).

Of course, the primary artistic effect of T:R comes from its action and its aesthetics (which are closely entwined). It's a beautiful movie, even in 3D (I find 3D hard to converge, overly dark, and hard on my eyes). The visual design, from the rendered panoramas of the inside of computerland (which look like the Matrix, as resdesigned by Dubai's urban planners) to the meticulous set-dressing and costumes (more of a 2001-meets-Rollerball thing) works in improbable and even moving ways. Rubbing the glassy noir brutalism of the landscape up against the utopian, curvilinear, techno-chic clothes and sets produces something that's much more striking and more moving than the mere storyline.

But no one wants to stare at nice clothes for 96 minutes. Luckily, there is a triple-helping of action sequences involving all the best combat stuff from the first movie and the games that followed it: acrobatic discus-tossing, light-cycle racing, bullet-time martial arts sequences, and some tasty aerial combat for good measure. What's most striking about these sequences is how much like a game they are: every time the actors unveil a new complex wrinkle on the rules -- shifts in gravity, new weapons, super-bad-ass bad-guys -- it feels just like watching someone confronting a level-boss or levelling up in a console or arcade game. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the production team collaborated with the game designers who'll be producing the inevitable console tie-ins to create these scenes; they look like they'd be incredibly fun to play.

More distracting and less effective was the film's obnoxious use of product placement, which is confined to the first act (not much room for product placement in computerland, thankfully -- it would have really shattered the look-and-feel to have these software agents racing Ducati lightcycles, carefully holding their soda-pop cans with the label out and sporting Nokia logos on the napes of their necks). I got the feeling that the film's creators were under pressure to cram a full movie's worth of placements into the first few minutes, since most of the movie didn't lend itself to this treatment. I kept hoping for the computerland people to go shopping for clothes at a techno-goth superstore like London's Cyberdog -- though, of course, Cyberdog's clothes are essentially fetishwear versions of the original Tron costumes, so it's only fitting that they'd be taken to the next level by Tron's successor.

This is clearly a movie whose intended audience is people in their late 30s and early 40s with their children in tow. The script is peppered with sly references to War Games, the original Star Wars, and has a davidbowieite androga-villain that is a charming homage to a dozen comparable characters from my boyhood.

What follows is a very mild spoiler. If this bugs you, look away now.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
For me, the funniest and most surprising (and even delightful) thing about T:L was the copyfighting subtext of the film. Jeff Bridges is an info-hippie who talks and effects a mien exactly like EFF co-founder and Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow (seriously -- give that guy an ascot and send him to Burning Man and you'd never know the difference!), and his company is brought low by corporate raiders who are software monopolists whose evil plan is to (I am not making this up) put DRM into all their software. Quoth Bridges, with positively spiritual radiance: "We designed a system in which all information is free and open."

Preach, brother!