The technology, open source bits and corporate back-story is a red herring nobody seems to be able to see past. Watching it I couldn't help but notice it's chock full of religious commentary (mostly Christian but sprinkled with some Buddhist and miscellaneous other Eastern philosophies). I’m not religious by any stretch, but I found the movie deeply satisfying when viewed this way.
***Warning Spoilers***
This analysis is very preliminary, I’ve only seen the movie once, but I think it’s fairly sound.
- In the movie Kevin Flynn represents the Christian God the Father, the creator of all things, all powerful, all knowing (supposedly) etc. etc.
- Tron represents the Christian Holy Spirit, the kinetic 'action' arm of God (or perhaps more likely an Archangel like Michael or some synthesis).
- CLU then, I thought originally, represented Jesus, but may also represent the Christian God's other creation, Lucifer (or perhaps both simultaneously).
- (I'll get to Sam Flynn in a minute).
Where the story plays with the allegory (and quite cleverly I think) is in the twist it takes on the traditional Judeo-Christian story of God the father, omniscient and omnipotent. In the story Flynn sets out to create a new world with his holy trinity, and while he thinks he's creating something fantastic, all he ends up doing is creating conditions ripe for a new life-form that, emerge from the wilderness. This is commentary that perhaps mankind was not the direct creation of God, but an emergent behavior of a complex universe that God couldn't possibly understand.
From there, it uses this principle to define the rest of the story.
From there, it uses this principle to define the rest of the story.
CLU, tasked with creating perfection turns against his master to eradicate this new life-form and leave Flynn a powerless and mere observer of the going ons in his creation. With the power of destruction and the ability to repurpose programs, CLU tries to build an army of true believers to take into the real world and conquer it. Considering the Christian Story of the apocalypse, the story is not about world domination in the 007 sense, it's about Satan's gathering of an army, turned by temptation and corruption (which has meaning in both the digital and religious worlds), into an assault on Heaven itself! Here Heaven is the real world (as represented by the portal high in the clouds). Except in Tron, Heaven is deeply flawed and not the world of perfection described in Christianity.
The allegory extends further if you consider the common concept in many Christian faiths that God must leave the world alone for mankind to exercise free-will. The story hints at this, that the programs have a kind of free-will, there are programs that resist CLU and ones that seek to serve him. Even the turned army is given an inspirational speech to keep them along CLUs path...implying that they need encouragement to stay on his side.
Where the commentary gets some spice is in the elements of Buddhism and Eastern philosophies that are brought in. Left as an observer, Flynn fights the compelling need to interfere in his world by seeking a Buddhist-type detachment. It finds him deep in meditation, a Guru to Quorra (who represents a particular naive and warlike humanity in the movie BTW)...on the edge of Enlightenment -- advising non-action. To further add to this, he's meditating high in a mountain, far from "civilization" in his quest for detached enlightenment, just as Buddhists today will head to the mountains to meditate and focus on their detachment. His house is a representation of the things he has not yet detached from...most things are pale imitations of things in the real world, the furniture is white and featureless, but implies a rich elegance (temptation towards attachment), but the furnishings are rather spartan in a way. Yet two notable things are virtually exact mimics of things that Flynn cannot yet give up (representing how far he has to go to yet achieve enlightenment), food (sustenance) and books (knowledge). These things are rendered in exacting detail, down to dusty book covers. And the books in particular standout as center pieces in his home. The sudden appearance of Sam convinces Flynn that enlightenment, detachment from the world and inaction, are not the right ways to go, and he resumes his place as God the Father to save his son from creation out of his control and under the influence of Lucifer/CLU (in notable opposition to the Christian tradition of God the Father sacrificing his son) and send him (and humanity as Quorra) back to heaven.
However, this changes back as Flynn finds further and further detachment from the world useful. In order, he abandons his house (and thus the last remnants of the real world, his books and food). Then he abandons the world and Sam in a final act where he faces and absorbs his last vestige of attachment, his ego/CLU and brings about not only the end of the world but also enlightenment.
Sam Flynn represents a kind of Jesus/Adam character in opposition to Flynn's false son Lucifer/Jesus/CLU. It's an interesting literary fracturing/blending/bending of Jesus/Lucifer/Adam as a character into two parts. CLU, who is to do Flynn/God's work on Earth/the Grid for him, just as Jesus was to perform God's work on Earth for God the Father. Sam represents simultaneously Flynn's true son, and the first man in the Grid (with Quorra the first woman). Another interesting twist on this concept is that the movie ends with Flynn sacrificing himself (as opposed to his son), by reintegrating with his false creation CLU with himself, thus bringing about the end-times and destroying the world/grid. This is of course a metaphor for both the Judeo-Christian story of Jesus's sacrifice (re-rendered as God the Father's sacrifice) and for the Apocalypse.
Quorra represents both humanity and Eve before temptation. As humanity she represents an uncontrollable free-will, and warfare. Notably, even though she appears a warrior in the movie, her skills never seem to quite match up with the tri-part God's abilities, thus ensuring her place in the hierarchy of the characters -- yet she's willing to sacrifice herself to/for her God. As a woman, she represents Eve, the first woman. And like in the Judeo-Christian tradition, it's never discussed or revealed where the rest of humanity comes from (others of her kind, the Isomorphs). As the bearer of children, women are also often symbols of humanity.
Other characters can be analyzed this way as well, Gem & Castor also represent humanity, but they represent temptation and false paths. Quorra, flawed as humans are, send's Sam to meet with Castor, obviously from younger years when she was tempted and entranced with this character. As a nightclub owner and sometimes revolutionary, he represents the temptation of cheap thrills and a wayward path that would ultimately lead to Sam's (and the real-world/heaven's) destruction. Only the appearance of God-the-Father/Flynn sets Sam and Quorra back on the straight and narrow (interestingly represented by the Solar Sailor, which rides a straight and narrow beam of pure light and in the interest of extending interesting dichotomies via twists in traditional Judeo-Christian stories is also the vehicle Satan/CLU is using to bring his armies to Earth/the flawed Heaven).
There are more analogies and symbols that bring it home, the Grid is obviously an extrusion of solid land in an ocean. The floating stones leading to heaven represent a kind of stairway or ladder to heaven. In an extension of more traditional symbolism, discs are the place of the soul, but are also a traditional symbol of heaven in the Chinese tradition. The grid evokes the idea of squares which is the traditional Chinese symbol for Earth. In the beginning of the movie, Sam is seen falling from on high both literally via a parachute, and figuratively as he descends from the opulent Encom tower down to street level, then his warehouse/house then to an obviously crappy part of town, then into the arcade where he descends even further down stairs and finally behind a closed door until he descends down into the Grid (where he descends further in the Armory). Only after he descends, literally into hell, does the story really begin. This evocative both of the Christian story of Jesus's descent into hell before his ascent into Heaven, but also of the notion, present in some traditions, that only through suffering can one ascend into heaven/enlightenment -- present in both some forms of the Judeo Christian tradition and several Eastern philosophies.
As commentary, it rejects the notion of an involved, omniscient, omnipotent God. Instead it makes the bold statement that God is aloof, uncaring and in the end only destructive of his creations -- Flynn's major contribution when he gets involved is to bring about the apocalypse in the grid. God/Flynn sits bewildered and amazed at emergent behaviors in a complex system, at the craftiness of his own creation (CLU's coup), Sam's presence in the Grid, Quorra's impulsive behavior, etc. He is powerless to effect change in a creation grown greater and stronger than he. His own creation, the Grid evokes the world and hell at once. While the real world/Heaven is represented as free from Satan/CLU's control. And perfect in its flaws, as opposed to a fake perfection. CLU as Lucifer also represents ego, and the presumption that ego brings about great suffering. Flynn seeks detachment as a way of throwing away ego, paying for his mistakes...the flaws of an ego filled, jealous God made manifest in his own creation. Curiously, by reintegrating with his ego/CLU, Flynn not only brings about armageddon, but it's represented by a blinding light that may also symbolize finally achieving enlightenment as Flynn rejects the real world. His soul/disk is left in Sam's possession at the end, supposedly as a prophet to bring this news out into the world forgetting that it brought about the end of the world.
I actually found the movie's symbolism and commentary very deep and I'm only touching the surface here. I'm sure on further viewings I'll find more. The plot as such is merely a scaffolding for this rather interesting blending of Judeo-Christian and Eastern philosophies. I think the only point I'm yet to resolve is the flip-flopping of Flynn from detachment to attachment back to detachment. Perhaps this is supposed to evoke Buddha's final walk on down the Middle Way?