Trivia: Director Steven Lisberger had several arcade games scattered all around the sets. The cast and crew often had to be called away from them to return to shooting, particularly Jeff Bridges, who would often claim he was "preparing for the next scene" in order to keep playing a bit longer.
Trivia: Apparently the real reason Jeff Bridges wears a toga-like garment over his circuit suit in this film is because he produced too much of a bulge in the crotch region while wearing said suit and had to be made to look more child-friendly.
Trivia: Peter O'Toole was originally offered the part of Dillinger/Sark. He was very interested in the role, but backed out when he discovered that it would involve mostly acting against a black screen, with all the sets and backgrounds to be added digitally later on.
Trivia: As Alan comes into his cubicle, on the wall is a banner reading "GORT, KLAATU BARADA NIKTO", a nod to "The Day the Earth Stood Still".
Trivia: In the arcade, there's a shot of a man dressed in black going up and hugging a girl. Even though he's only seen from behind, this is actually a small cameo by the movie's director, Steven Lisberger. (00:17:32)
Trivia: The character Alan Bradley in Tron was inspired by real-life computer scientist Alan Kay, one of the pioneers of modern computing. Kay helped invent the concept of the personal computer, including early ideas resembling today's laptops with graphical user interfaces. He was also instrumental in developing object-oriented programming, a key software design principle. Fittingly, Kay served as a consultant on Tron, bringing authenticity to its digital world.
Trivia: Before Tron became a Disney film, creator Steven Lisberger's studio developed an animated test featuring a glowing, backlit line character made from Kodalith film. The short depicted a "liquid neon" figure smashing two discs of light together. The team nicknamed him "Tron," short for "electronic," and this experimental test ultimately inspired Lisberger's idea for a full movie built around luminous, backlit digital characters.
Trivia: Director Steven Lisberger was inspired by the video game Pong and the stories of Alice in Wonderland to create this movie, using those stories to fantasize what it would be like for people to find themselves being thrown into a virtual world.
Trivia: Many animators at Disney chose to boycott working on this film, out of fear that the use of computer-generated work and special effects and art would put the hand-drawn artists out of work and become the industry norm. This mirrors a lot of the current-day concerns about AI-generated art.
