The media is coming at the idea of being off the grid from a new angle with the launch of Tron: Legacy – a highly anticipated sequel to the original Tron, one of the first computer graphic, sci-fi movie blockbusters.
The media is coming at the idea of being off the grid from a new angle with the launch of Tron:Legacy – a highly anticipated sequel to the original Tron, one of the first computer graphic, sci-fi movie blockbusters.
The action starts a few years after Flynn’s adventures on the Grid, the computer gaming world from which he eventually escaped to take control as CEO of Encom, the software firm he founded.
Flynn’s 20-something son Sam enters the Grid to find his father, who’s become trapped in the computer world of his own creation, and he also meets Clu 2.0, a programme made in Flynn’s own (younger) image, who’s turned against him and now has control of the Grid.
After surviving some of Clu’s gladiatorial games, Sam finally finds his father at a safe house off the Grid, dressed in white and meditating.
So for the movie makers at least, Off the Grid is a place of meditation, harmony, a respite from the buffeting of the on-grid world.
But when Bridges himself, an aged guru stuck in time, blurts, “You’re messin’ with my zen thing, man,” we’re left to wonder how this might have gone down had the movie’s creators not taken the damned thing so seriously. That lack of humor and personality robs the film of emotion and likeability.