Outline of the First Term Paper

Film: Tron: Legacy (2010)

I.                    Introduction

a.       Short summary of the film

b.      The movie takes place in the computer world where the laws of physics are manipulated.

II.                  Gravity

a.       The Disc-Wars Arena

                                                               i.      The 16 battle stages float hundreds of feet above the ground with no indication of what is holding it up.

                                                             ii.      In the final round with Sam vs. Rinzler, the villain Clu is able to control the direction of gravity of the interior of the battle the stage.

b.      The Light Cycle Grid

                                                               i.      Rinzler is released to capture Sam. Rinzler travels upside down on the bottom side of the ground level.

c.       Large Hovering Objects

                                                               i.      The Recognizers are large claw shaped vehicles that hover only from the exhaust ports on its legs. Its upper body frame is larger than its legs and it has no wings.

                                                             ii.      The freight train (I’m guessing maybe 400 tons) is traveling on a single rail of light, miles in length, suspended in the air with nothing holding the rail up.

                                                            iii.      There are hovering boulders above the “Sea of Simulation” that are each being held up by single lines of light.

III.                Follow-Through and Drag

a.       Sam is captured after first entering the Grid. He is taken to an elevator where his feet are clamped down on the platform. The elevator drops down fast and there is no overlap present anywhere in his body.

b.      Sam, Kevin and Quorra are escaping a fight at the End of Line Club. The entrance explodes and the elevator loses its suspension rail making the elevator go on a free fall. The characters do not show any weightlessness as the elevator falls at an alarming speed.

c.       Contradiction: There is plenty of follow-through and drag in the action scenes including light cycles crashing into walls of light.

IV.                Exaggeration

a.       Clu

                                                               i.      At the final confrontation, Clu chases down Sam and Quorra as the bridge collapses. Clu needed to jump across the gap that is as long as the width of a two lane street.

b.      Kevin Flynn

                                                               i.      At the final confrontation, Flynn needed to stop Clu from chasing Sam. Flynn creates a small vacuum in a large open atmosphere to pull Clu away from Sam.

c.       Rinzler

                                                               i.      Rinzler is able to jump around 10 to 20 feet at will into the air and land safely on the ground. This occurs in two occasions of the film: in the light cycle grid and after the landing of the freight train.

V.                  Conclusion

a.       Some of the laws of physics are completely manipulated but in the sense of story that is probably how it was meant to be when Kevin Flynn created the computer world.