Every Tron Movie, Ranked Worst to Best

Hollywood Movies

Every Tron Movie, Ranked Worst to Best

Rotham October 10, 2025 0 Comments

Tron is not a traditional film franchise. The original 1982 film is more of a daring experiment in computer-generated imagery, while the stylish 2010 sequel kickstarts the legacy sequel trend. Now, with Tron: Ares finally coming out after almost a decade of development, the film continues its exploration of the close link between the digital world and the real world. Jeff Bridges, who stars as Kevin Flynn, is the sole actor to have appeared in all three movies.

But while all Tron films share that sleek neon DNA, they vary widely in execution. All of the movies’ visuals are unquestionable, but nearly all of them fell short in storytelling. With Tron: Ares set to continue the legacy and potentially redefine the franchise for a new generation, it’s worth looking back at how this digital odyssey has evolved. In this article, we rank the Tron films from an entry that should be considered for deresolution to one that can live in permanence alongside other sci-fi greats.

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‘Tron: Ares’ (2025)

jared-leto-tron-ares-bike — jared Leto riding a bike in Tron: Ares

Set years after the events of Tron: Legacy, Tron: Ares centers on Encom CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) who finds the permanence code for digital creations to last for good in the real world rather than just a short time. This triggers her rival, Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) to stop at nothing to obtain that elusive code. Dillinger creates a master control program named Ares (Jared Leto) and transports him out of the Grid to do his bidding. This brings the Grid into the real world, with lightcycles splitting cars in half and Recognizers unleashing mayhem in the city.

Tron: Ares is a serviceable blockbuster film. It is visually sleek and has a killer score courtesy of Nine Inch Nails. However, it is hollow at its core. The simpler storyline offers nothing new and its script is riddled with gibberish exposition. The performances from Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith are quite electric, but Jared Leto seems to be miscast in his role as Ares. The film owes almost everything to the previous film, from its colors, production design, to its choice of music. Even the film gives an extended nod to the original 1982 film, but did not do anything much about it other than fan service. To be fair, all the Tron movies can be classified as ‘style over substance‘. But given its timing, the film could have given a fresh perspective on AI and technology, yet it plays it safe, only assuming its role as entertainment. The film does set itself up for a sequel, so here’s hoping for more Tron and also more improvement.

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‘Tron’ (1982)

Lora (Cindy Morgan) and Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) standing together in 1982's 'Tron' — Lora (Cindy Morgan) and Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) standing together in 1982’s ‘Tron’

Tron follows Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a gifted programmer and arcade owner who discovers that his former employer, ENCOM, stole his game designs. While trying to find proof, Flynn is digitized into the company’s mainframe, a virtual world ruled by the authoritarian Master Control Program. Inside, he meets programs that look like humans and joins forces with the security program Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) to bring down the MCP and restore freedom to the system.

When this Steven Lisberger film premiered, critics were divided, many, including legendary critic Roger Ebert, praised its ambition and visuals while others found its story underdeveloped and distant. However, its impact is still undeniable. Tron is one of the first films to make extensive use of CGI and computer animation, making it a daring prototype for subsequent movies and games. Its lightcycle sequence is incredibly iconic. Its bold art direction, especially its glowing costumes, were harder to achieve back then before the advancement of CGI. Bridges brings a breezy charisma to Flynn that resonates even until the latest film. The film was a financial failure for Disney, but it has such a strong cult following that the studio decided to make a sequel three decades later.

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‘Tron: Legacy’ (2010)

Tron: Legacy follows Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), who investigates his father’s mysterious disappearance. He’s soon pulled into the digital Grid, a more advanced but darker version of the world his father once entered. There, he discovers that Kevin has been trapped for years by CLU (a de-aged Bridges) a program he created in his own image to build a perfect system. With help from Quorra (Olivia Wilde), Sam must reunite with his father and stop CLU’s plan to invade the real world.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski in his feature-film debut, Tron: Legacy started a lot of trends in Hollywood. The film is arguably the earliest legacy sequel and a rare one that works so well. By de-aging Bridges, it also opened the doors for even more de-aging effects in blockbuster movies. Kosinski is also responsible for the film’s inspired choice of music, which was handled with so much style by Daft Punk. The production design is simply jaw-dropping. Helped by Kosinski’s architectural and design background, the style of the Grid is updated with glass and neon, while the costumes are redesigned to reflect the Grid’s evolution from 1982. Released during the height of 3D craze, the film opted to show only the part of the movies set in The Grid in 3D, reflecting Sam’s journey in the digital world. Just like its predecessor, the film has some drawbacks in the script department but it is a mighty entry for the franchise with dedicated fan following. The film itself was just a modest hit, which was one of the reasons the third film took so long to make.