What an interesting situation this is. You see, Tron was the first complete Cinematic Chiasmus I found as a result of a reader making that suggestion to me. That was Jordan, the same one responsible for Escape from New York, Dreamscape, Akira, Conan the Barbarian, Scream, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Goldfinger, Revenge of the Sith, X2: X-Men United, The Running Man, and Forbidden Planet.

However, this time the credit goes not to Jordan but to another amazing reader of mine. Jo recently asked me to see if the 2010 sequel Tron: Legacy is also a chiasmus. And it turns out that it is! Jo previously showed me that How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a chiasmus, and she helped me find the chiasmus in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, The Lion King, and The Hunt for Red October, too.

So I’d like to give a huge round of applause to Jo for suggesting Tron: Legacy to me. Its chiasmus was a delight to discover, and now I’d like to present it to you.

The Chiasmus

This chiasmus is a thing of beauty. Watch how it unfolds:

A. Kevin Flynn describes the Grid to his young son Sam the night before he disappears from the real world
 B. Grown-up Sam rides his motorcycle to the ENCOM building
  C. Sam expertly sneaks inside ENCOM with a mission to upset their software release
   D. Alan Bradley visits Sam and tells him he got a pager message from Flynn’s arcade. Sam refuses to take control of his father’s company
    E. Sam goes downstairs under Flynn’s arcade, finds Flynn’s empty office, and gets transported onto the Grid
     F. Sam gets captured by a Recognizer and transported to the Game Grid. A program fights his guards and kills himself rather than playing the Games
      G. Female programs prepare Sam for the Games as part of his captivity, and he’s given an identity disc
       H. Sam plays Disc Wars and kills two opponents before losing to Rinzler. Rinzler spares his life and takes him to his master
        I. Sam meets Clu. Clu analyzes his disc, and then his assistant gives a speech to a stadium full of programs
         J. Sam joins a few good programs to fight Clu with Light Cycles on the Grid. Quorra gets Sam out of Clu’s reach
          K. Quorra rescues Sam, goes off the Grid, and takes him to meet his father
           L. Sam sees Flynn for the first time in years, and they’re too stunned to say much at first
            M. Sam peruses Flynn’s well-worn book collection with Quorra. She asks if he knows Jules Verne, not understanding that the author is dead
             N. Clu tells Flynn to make his move
              O. Over dinner, Flynn asks Sam about his personal life and the man he’s become. Sam feels betrayed. Tron and Clu helped Flynn manage the digital world
               P. Flynn explains where ISOs came from, and he talks about Clu’s coup
                Q. Sam wants to escape the Grid, but Flynn doesn’t want to assist him
                 R. Quorra refuses at first when Sam asks her to help him get back to the real world
                 R. Quorra returns to Sam and gives him a lead named Zuse to help him get back to the real world
                Q. Sam goes downtown to find Zuse, and a program named Gem assists him
               P. Clu remembers the day he was created after he infiltrates Flynn’s home
              O. At a bar, Sam asks Castor about Zuse and learns who he really is. Zuse betrays Sam. Flynn and Quorra help Sam escape from Clu’s programs
             N. Flynn makes his move by taking Sam and Quorra to the portal
            M. Flynn delves into Quorra’s code to repair her damaged body. Flynn admits he didn’t write Quorra’s code, and Sam learns that she’s alive and an ISO
           L. Sam and Flynn discuss how the world changed over the years, and they have a lot to say
          K. Clu kills Zuse, while Quorra comes back online and tells Sam how she met his father
         J. Clu is building an army of evil programs to fight users in the real world. Quorra puts herself in Rinzler’s custody
        I. Quorra meets Clu after Clu analyzes Flynn’s disc. Then Clu gives a speech to an army of programs
       H. Sam kills several guards with his disc before defeating Rinzler. He rescues Quorra and brings her to Flynn
      G. Quorra flies Sam and Flynn to the portal as part of their escape plan after Flynn gets his identity disc back
     F. Sam avoids capture by shooting the Light Jets trying to prevent him from leaving the Grid. Tron fights his mind control and sacrifices himself rather than being a pawn
    E. Sam and Quorra go upstairs to the portal, find Clu waiting for them, and get transported out of the Grid
   D. Alan visits Sam at Flynn’s arcade in response to his pager message. Sam agrees to take control of his father’s company
  C. Sam casually walks out of Flynn’s arcade with a mission to change the world
 B. Sam and Quorra ride his motorcycle away from Flynn’s arcade
A. Quorra is introduced to the real world by Sam the morning after she escapes from the Grid

What a Discovery

It was fun to revisit Tron: Legacy. I hadn’t watched this movie in years, so I was pleasantly surprised to see how well it holds up. The first Tron will always be my favorite because of nostalgia and other factors related to my childhood. But its sequel is a worthy follow-up, especially since now we know that it’s a chiasmus.

When I showed this chiasmus to Jo, she was particularly impressed by how the beginning and ending match up so well (A.), as well as Alan Bradley’s conversations with Sam Flynn (D), and Sam using his disc to defeat programs and fight Rinzler at H. I agree that those are all amazing parallels. In addition, I like when Sam and Quorra meet Clu at I, the father-and-son reunions at L, and Flynn’s and Clu’s flashbacks at P.

The turning point is perfect, too. The first half of the film is about survival and acting without a clear plan. But the second half of the film is laser-focused on escape and fighting back against a corrupt system. We see this dichotomy when Quorra’s reluctance to help Sam escape the Grid quickly dissolves into a resolve to help him at any cost.

Her story mirrors Sam’s. Sam has to learn to live for something, not just run away from his problems. That’s what this film (and the chiasmus) is all about. When he agrees to take control of his father’s company and make it his own at the end of the film, it’s the natural result of all the experiences he’s had up to that point. It was all pointing him to the power he possesses to change the world for the better. He’s not just a passive spectator or troublemaker anymore. He’s a man with a mission to do something good with the life he’s been given.

Quorra was willing to sacrifice herself for Sam, his father just wanted to protect him, and Clu represents a corrupted version of all three of them. Clu is a program with delusions of grandeur, he’s made in the image of his user, and he sees himself as the true successor to Flynn.

I like the symmetry of it all. Clu is the Yang to Flynn’s Yin. Quorra is the last of her kind, and Sam is basically an orphan. They need each other to be complete. And a grid is a perfectly symmetrical pattern of lines and shapes.

Jo is awesome for helping me discover Tron: Legacy’s chiasmus. Or should it be disc-cover?

This is the Deja Reviewer bidding you farewell until we meet again.

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