Let’s go back to the beginning: in Tron, Kevin, a young programmer at software company ENCOM, discovers that his boss Ed Dillinger (David Warner) has been stealing his work. One accidental digitisation later, Kevin is flung into the Grid, a neon-lit realm inspired by ENCOM’s video games. There, he teams up with heroic programs Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) and Yori (Cindy Morgan) to battle Sark, Dillinger’s ruthless avatar. 

Tron: Legacy picks up years after Kevin’s disappearance. His son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) stumbles into the Grid, now sleeker but more perilous than before. The realm is ruled with an iron fist by Clu 2.0, Kevin’s tyrannical AI double. In the Grid, Sam meets Quorra (Olivia Wilde), an advanced digital lifeform and Kevin’s protege, who becomes key to their escape.

By the time we reach Tron: Ares, the outside world has changed too. Sam has seemingly vanished, ENCOM is under the leadership of new CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee), and their fiercest rival is Dillinger Systems, headed by Ed Dillinger’s grandson Julian (Evan Peters). Both companies are racing to materialise digital constructs in the real world, but without the Permanence Code, these beings last just 29 minutes before disintegrating. One such virtual construct is Ares (Jared Leto), a next-generation soldier who must ultimately choose whether he stands with humanity or against it. 
 
Although Tron: Ares was once envisioned as a direct sequel to Legacy, much of that connective tissue has since been pared back, leaving only subtle nods to the 2010 film. What remains front and centre are themes timelier than ever: humanity’s relationship with AI and the consequences of letting the virtual bleed into the real. 

Jeff Bridges is the only actor to appear in all three movies. Fittingly, his character evolves from rebellious wunderkind to mythic mentor figure, something not uncommon in legacy sequels. (And yes, despite the franchise’s name, Tron himself isn’t the main character and features only in the first two instalments; Kevin remains the series’ most pivotal figure.)

One of the film’s most affectionate callbacks arrives when Ares visits the ‘Flynn Grid’, an isolated backup of the original system preserved in all its retro, low-fi glory. There, he encounters a digital echo of Kevin, a reconstructed consciousness rather than the Kevin we’ve previously known. It’s a delightfully Tron way to bring Bridges, who’s now in his 70s, back into the fold. 

Another multigenerational thread is the Dillinger family. The villainous Ed Dillinger drove the conflict in Tron, his son Ed Jr. (Cillian Murphy) made a tantalising cameo in Legacy, and Ares continues the lineage with daughter Elisabeth (Gillian Anderson) and grandson Julian. Fans long speculated that Murphy’s brief appearance in Legacy was setting up a villainous return in a future film, but that storyline ultimately didn’t transpire. 

Though the original Tron wasn’t a box office powerhouse, its boundary-pushing visuals changed cinema forever, and its cult following remains fiercely loyal. Even without directly continuing the Legacy storyline, Ares taps into that enduring affection for Tron, offering nostalgia, reinvention, and wild, trippy special effects that are a feast for the eyes.