See Inside Disney’s Long-Awaited Tron Ride For The First Time
Are you ready to be de-rezzed at Disney World? After a long delay, the Orlando theme park is finally finished with the long-awaited TRON Lightcycle Power Run ride. Inside the Magic shared a tweet that shows us all what we can expect while waiting in the queue for the roller coaster. It imagines riders to be Users racing against Programs inside the computer world on the vehicles made famous by the original 1982 movie and its 2010 sequel.
The TRON ride was originally designed for the Florida park in 2017, but there have been delays to its construction over the years. However, recently the Tomorrowland attraction has been going through testing to ensure its safety and integrity. These trial runs should be easy for the park since Disney already has the same ride in its Shanghai park and resort.
The TRON ride is based on the titular 1982 movie about Kevin Flynn and his adventures inside the computer when the evil Master Control Program (MCP) kidnaps him for snooping around in an attempt to prove that the MPC’s developer plagiarized Flynn’s programming. The MCP has decided that it can do things better than humans and is going to attempt to take over the Pentagon.
But inside the computer are Programs called User-believers who are willing to help Kevin combat the digital overlord. This is in a world where games such as the one in the TRON ride are played to the death by the participants. The original movie was praised for being one of the first movies to use CGI. It colored the red-and-blue world as Kevin and the security program Tron try to overthrow the MCP.
The TRON ride reappears in the second movie, TRON: Legacy. It was not released until 2010 and follows the adventures of Kevin’s son Sam as a new Program has seized control of the digital world. “Clu” was the Program developed by Kevin Flynn to prove that his Programs were stolen in the first movie, but now rules the digital world with an iron fist the MCP would envy. Kevin disappeared when Sam was a child, and when Sam accidentally de-rezzes himself into the computer, he finds that Kevin is once again trapped there. The two must work together with Tron and the new program Quorra to escape.
The lightcycles are one of the games that Programs are sent to play for the amusement of the Users, the mythical people who interact with the digital world from beyond (in other words, we humans). As instantly recognizable as the movies’ red-and-blue theme, the lightcycles are digitized motorbikes used also for travel in Tron’s world. Quorra is among those who ride them for transportation aside from inside the game. They are the perfect setting for a TRON roller coaster ride, as millions who have visited the Shanghai structure can attest.
Soon, fans in the United States can experience this exciting adventure in a TRON ride that is almost ready to be open to the public. The ride was scheduled for a Spring 2023 opening, but with test runs going on now, maybe it will be open sooner than we think. This sneak peek, as well as photos and video from the Shanghai ride, gives us all a glimpse of what the Orlando roller coaster might be like.
