Tron: Ascension (stylized as TRON: Ascension) is a 2025 American science fiction action film directed by Joseph Kosinski from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger, Edward Kitsis, and Adam Horowitz, and a story by Kosinski, Kruger, Kitsis, and Horowitz. It is the third installment in the Tron series and a sequel to Tron: Legacy (2010). The film stars Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Cillian Murphy, Bruce Boxleitner, and Jeff Bridges, who reprise their roles as Sam Flynn, Quorra, Edward Dillinger, Jr. Alan Bradley/Tron, and Kevin Flynn/Clu, with new roles which feature Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Millie Bobby Brown, Jason Marsden, Dylan O'Brien, Diane Guerrero, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, and Gillian Anderson. The story centers on the rivalry between ENCOM and Dillinger Systems—now headed by Julian Dillinger, grandson of Ed Dillinger and cousin of Edward Dillinger Jr.—as both corporations compete to bring digital entities into the physical world. Julian dispatches a highly advanced program named Ares from the digital realm into reality, marking humanity’s first contact with artificial intelligence originating from the Grid. Meanwhile, Tamara Flynn, adopted daughter of Sam Flynn and Quorra, and adopted granddaughter of Kevin Flynn, plans to rescue Tron from the Sea of Simulation and bring her adopted grandfather back to life with the help of Andy Bradley, son of Alan Bradley, as the ascension begins after the legacy ends.
Development of a sequel to Tron: Legacy began in October 2010 by franchise creator Steven Lisberger. In March 2017, a sequel to Tron: Legacy was revived by Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm Ltd. following the box-office success of the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, and Jared Leto who plays a new character and serves as a producer. Kosinski was confirmed to return as a director and serve as a producer through his production company Monolith Pictures in August 2020 when Kruger was working on the script alongside Legacy screenwriters Kitsis and Horowitz. Production was expected to begin in August 2023 but was delayed by the 2023 Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Filming ultimately began in January 2024 in Vancouver and finished in May. By August, industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails had been announced to be providing the original songs, while Legacy composer Joseph Trapanese returned to compose the score alongside Top Gun: Maverick co-composer Hans Zimmer. The band's members, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, served as executive producers on the film, alongside Legacy executive producer Donald Kushner.
Tron: Ascension premiered at El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, California on October 6, 2025, and went into general release on October 10. The film received generally positive reviews who praised its visuals, musical score, Kosinski's direction, script, action sequences, and performances of the cast (particularly Leto). It was deemed an improvement over its predecessor and the best Tron sequel by many. It grossed $880 million against a production budget of $180-220 million and became the fourth highest-grossing film of 2025, as well as the best-reviewed installment in the series.
Plot[]
In 2015, after Sam Flynn's attempt to retrieve his father, Kevin Flynn, from the Grid and his marriage to Quorra, they adopt a girl from the orphanage and name her Tamara. Ten years pass, Sam welcomes Eve Kim and her sister Tess as new co-chief executive officers (CEO) of ENCOM while Alan Bradley remains chairman of the board. After Tess's death, Edward Dillinger, Jr. gives his order to Tamara to take control of Flynn's Arcade with the help of Andy Bradley, Alan's son, after Sam reopened it with his own money as they hang out often with two managers Howell and Hattie and rebuild Kevin's second grid. Meanwhile, ENCOM, Flynn's Arcade, and Dillinger Systems are in a race to bring digital constructs into reality. Dillinger Systems is led by Julian Dillinger, Ed Dillinger's grandson and Edward Dillinger Jr.'s cousin, and Eve has been promoted as chief executive officer by Alan who became a senior chief executive officer as Sam Flynn becomes chairman of the board.
Eve and her partner Seth Flores visit a remote Alaskan station set up by Kevin Flynn decades ago, believing his computers hold the "permanence code" to break the 29-minute barrier holding back the constructs. After finding the code, they transfer a digital orange tree into the real world, where it lasts for hours. Meanwhile, Julian introduces Ares, a Master Control Program (MCP), to shareholders, calling him the "perfect, expendable soldier". Ares shows self-awareness, noting Julian's indifference to his survival, and interest in real-world phenomena. After Ares de-materializes, Julian's mother, Elisabeth, expresses concern about the limited lifespan. Julian disregards this and later uses Ares to attack ENCOM's grid for the code. A security fight ensues as Ares downloads Eve, Tamara and Andy's personal data. During their escape, Ares, against his programming, tries saving an injured program, but Julian pulls him out and disables ENCOM's Grid.
Meanwhile, at Flynn's Arcade, Sam, Quorra, Alan, Tamara, Andy, Howell and Cammie announce to make new game ports for Tron and Space Paranoids, the upcoming MMORPG games Space Paranoids: Panic City and Tron: Grid Sandbox, and the new arcade games Tron: Grid Battles and Space Paranoids: Strategic Warfare. Eve and Seth return to ENCOM with the code. Their colleague, Ajay Singh, reports Julian's cyberattack, forcing Eve to flee while Julian and Ares track her, with Ares, his second-in-command Athena, and his member of the special forces elite Caius chasing Eve on Light Cycles. Eve hits Athena and hijacks her Light Cycle, but Ares corners her in a nearby port, where Eve gives the drive containing the code to Sam who shows up with Quorra, Tamara, Alan, Andy, Howell, and Cammie. Ares recognizes Eve, Tamara and Andy's empathies as Julian digitizes them to the Dillinger Grid, with the exception of Alan, before Ares, Athena and Caius de-resolve (get "derezzed").
Julian becomes more determined to retrieve the code. Ares reveals it can be obtained using Eve's identity disc but will kill her as a result; Julian accepts this risk. However, Ares then lies to Athena, claiming that Julian is "indisposed" and attempts to bargain with Eve, asking to achieve permanence and bring Kevin Flynn back to the real world in exchange for Eve's freedom. Suspicious of Ares' behavior, Athena contacts Julian and returns with orders to de-rez Ares. Ares, Eve and the group are able to evade their pursuers and return to Dillinger headquarters. En route to ENCOM Headquarters, Eve and Ares reflect on their motivations, with Ares determining that Eve pursued the Permanence Code out of a sense of inferiority to her sister, who worked on humanitarian projects. Eve realizes a copy of the code might be stored in a museum display at ENCOM of Kevin Flynn's original office dedicated by Sam. Meanwhile, Athena discovers in Sam's apartment and recognizes the helmet that belonged to Kevin Flynn's creation Clu. They reunite with Seth to digitize and upload Ares onto Flynn's second grid along with Sam, Quorra, Tamara, Andy, Howell, and Cammie. Athena destroys the particle laser to trap Ares, Sam, Quorra, Tamara, Andy, Howell, and Cammie and then pursues Eve. The sprinkler system activates, and Athena shows a moment of self-awareness before de-materializing. Ajay and his assistant Erin arrive, and Seth and Eve explain their plan to use Athena's own particle laser so they can free Ares and thwart Julian. Elisabeth retakes the CEO position and she tries turning off the particle lasers, but Athena re-materializes and fatally stabs her, having interpreted her as an obstacle in the directive given by Julian to obtain the code "by any means".
On Flynn's second grid, Ares and the group encounter a binary digit named Bit as they ask to find Tron at the Sea of Simulation and ride on the Light Submarine but with plenty of space. They arrive at the Sea of Simulation as Ares dives into it and rescues Tron who was cleansed of the Rinzler programming while he drowned. Ares and the group encounter the real Kevin Flynn who was brought back to life by Sam, Quorra, and Tamara after sacrificing himself to destroy Clu, as Tamara recognizes him as her adopted grandfather. While Ares and Tron meet each other the very first time and discuss about the Permanence Code, Tamara tells Kevin why he sacrificed himself and never returned home back in 1989. Andy meets his father's creation the very first time and tells him why he became Rinzler and drowned in the Sea of Simulation for 15 years. Intrigued by Ares's wish to live permanently and his initial awareness, Flynn and Tron grant Ares the Permanence Code. Later, Ares and the group come across the game arena to confront the resurrected Clu as Ares fights Clu for the disc and light cycle battle and wins two games. But Clu escapes to the portal across the Sea of Simulation as Ares and the group follow him on the Light Jets.
Clu comes across Athena who pilots a Recognizer with Caius as they team up to invade the real world and Clu builds a new warship. Athena finds Eve and eventually captures her while the ENCOM staff breach the Dillinger Grid. Meanwhile, Ares, Kevin, Tron, and the group re-materialize and teleport back to Flynn's Arcade via the backdoor. After Athena captures Eve and prepares to return to Dillinger, Ares, Tron, and Kevin intercept them, as Ares and Tron engage Athena, Clu, Gaius, and their allies, while Kevin returns to ENCOM Headquarters by the bus as Tamara, Andy, Howell, and Cammie fly on Light Jets and destroy Clu's new warship and it plunges into the river. Sam, Quorra, Alan, Ajay, Seth, Erin, and Edward Jr. penetrate and shut down the Dillinger mainframe after Roy Kleinberg returns, preventing any of the Dillinger programs (barring Ares) from re-materializing. A wounded Athena permanently de-materializes in Ares' arms along with Caius and Clu who becomes executed by Tron who derezzes him with his Light Baton. The authorities raid the Dillinger headquarters as Edward Jr. exposes Julian as a fraud. After Julian downloads a second version of a program that belonged to his grandfather, Sark, the authorities arrest Julian who vows his speech for revenge.
Kevin reunites Sam, Quorra, and Alan for the very first time as Edward Jr. thanks Sam and the group for their help. Tron finally meets his user, Alan, for the very first time as the ENCOM staff brings programs to the real world and plans to rebuild the ENCOM Grid. Eve and Ares go their separate ways as ENCOM uses the permanence code to benefit the world while it brings programs to the real world. Meanwhile, Ares sends a postcard to Eve about his life outside the Grid as the new game ports for Tron and Space Paranoids, the new MMORPG games Tron: Grid Sandbox and Space Paranoids: Panic City, and the new arcade games Tron: Grid Battles and Space Paranoids: Strategic Warfare have been released as Sam autographs them with the help of Quorra, Kevin, Tamara, Alan, Andy, Howell, Cammie, and Edward Jr. at Flynn's Arcade. In a mid-credits scene, Sark 2.0 has been created by Julian as he discovers the damaged Dillinger Grid and meets the second version of the Master Control Program as they plan to have their vengeance on Tron and everyone.
Cast[]
- Garrett Hedlund as Samuel "Sam" Flynn, the son of Kevin Flynn, and chairman of the board of ENCOM.
- Jared Leto as Ares, a super-intelligent program created by Julian Dillinger.
- Olivia Wilde as Quorra, an "isomorphic algorithm," adept warrior, confidante of Kevin Flynn, and a successful wife of Sam Flynn.
- Greta Lee as Eve Kim, the chairwoman of the board of ENCOM who is in search of Kevin Flynn's permanence code.
- Miru Kim as young Eve
- Cillian Murphy as Edward Dillinger Jr., the head of ENCOM's software design team and the son of former ENCOM Senior Executive Ed Dillinger.
- Murphy also provides the voice of Master Control Program 2.0, the second version of the MCP at the mid-credits scene.
- Evan Peters as Julian Dillinger, the CEO of Dillinger Systems, the grandson of Ed Dillinger and the cousin of Edward Dillinger Jr.
- Peters also portrays Sark 2.0, the second version of Sark originally developed by Dillinger
- Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley, the senior chief executive officer (CEO) of ENCOM and close friend of Kevin Flynn.
- Boxleitner also portrays Tron, a security program originally developed by Bradley to monitor ENCOM's Master Control Program and later reassigned by Flynn to defend the Grid. He was overpowered and re-purposed by Clu as a masked command program wielding an identity disk that splits into two. He remains in the Sea of Simulation after he becomes cleansed of the Rinzler programming.
- Jodie Turner-Smith as Athena, a program second-in-command to Ares.
- Millie Bobby Brown as Tamara Flynn, the adopted daughter of Sam Flynn and Quorra, and the adopted granddaughter of Kevin Flynn. She takes control of Flynn's Arcade that Sam reopened it with his own money and works on new games from ENCOM.
- Jason Marsden as Andrew "Andy" Bradley, the son of Alan Bradley. He helps Tamara Flynn take control of Flynn's Arcade and work on new games from ENCOM.
- Dylan O'Brien as Howell, the manager of Flynn's Arcade who hangs out often with Tamara Flynn and Andy Bradley.
- Diane Guerrero as Cammie, the manager of Flynn's Arcade and Howell's righthand woman who hangs out often with Tamara Flynn and Andy Bradley.
- Hasan Minhaj as Ajay Singh, Eve's business partner and chief technology officer (CTO) of ENCOM.
- Arturo Castro as Seth Flores, a colleague and friend of Eve.
- Gillian Anderson as Elisabeth Dillinger, Julian's mother and the son of Ed Dillinger.
- Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, the former CEO of ENCOM, the father of Sam Flynn, and the adopted grandfather of Tamara Flynn who is brought back to life by his son with the help of his adopted granddaughter.
- Bridges also portrays CLU (Codified Likeness Utility), via digital de-aging and voiceover, while John Reardon portrays CLU physically. CLU is a more advanced incarnation of Flynn's original computer-hacking program, designed as an "exact duplicate of himself" within the Grid. He becomes reincarnated after being reintegrated by his creator and teams up with Athena and Caius in the film's climax.
- Cameron Monaghan as Caius, a combat program and member of Ares' elite special forces unit.
- Sarah Desjardins as Erin, an ENCOM employee and Ajay's assistant.
- Selene Yun as Tess Kim, Eve's deceased sister.
- Catherine Haena Kim as Tess Kim (voice)
- Narsha Kim as young Tess
- Jeffrey Nordling as Richard Mackey, the chairman of ENCOM's executive board. Nordling reprises his role from Tron: Legacy (2010).
- Aaron Paul Stewart as Cyber Security Pete
- Roger Cross as Cross, a high-end executive at Dillinger Systems, and Julian Dillinger's right-hand.
- Roark Critchlow as General McGrath, a member of the military that attended Julian Dillinger's pitch.
- Katharine Isabelle as Marica Lee Hadlow, an attendee of Julian Dillinger's pitch.
- Kwesi Ameyaw as Silvio
- Dan Shor as Roy Kleinberg, a former computer programmer of ENCOM who wrote the actuarial program Ram and co-founded the Flynn Lives movement. Shor reprises his role from Tron: The Next Day (2011). Shor also makes an archival footage cameo appearance as Ram from Tron (1982).
Nine Inch Nails members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross make cameo appearances as F-35 pilots. Shannon Leto, brother of Jared Leto and co-founder of Thirty Seconds to Mars, makes a brief appearance as a pizza parlor patron who witness the climax. Reporters Robin Roberts, Kara Swisher, Curt Sandoval, Jaclyn Lee, Trevor Ault, and Zohreen Shah appear as themselves, as does computer scientist Fei-Fei Li. David Warner makes an archival footage cameo appearance as the original Sark and the voice of the original Master Control Program from Tron (1982), and archival footage of James Frain, Beau Garrett, and Michael Sheen as Jarvis, Gem, and Castor/Zuse from Tron: Legacy (2010) is used.