Before you start reading, I feel I should warn you all that the following blog post has Tron Legacy spoilers, so if you haven’t seen it, I’d love to hear what the hell you’ve been doing instead of seeing this film. Really. It’s like if someone told me “Yeah, I’ve never had a Coca-Cola before”, and then I’d be all like “Wha-? Dude, what do you mean you’ve never had a Coca-Cola before? My dad’s traveled to pretty much everywhere on this planet and no matter where he went, even if the people there didn’t have water, they sure as hell had four varieties of Coca-Cola. ON TAP!”
So, if you’ve continued reading this post, I’m going to assume that:
A) You have seen the film, which means I really like you.
B) You have not seen the film, but you have read the plot online, which means I sorta like you.
C) You know nothing of the film and decided to charge ahead and ignore my advice, which means I don’t like you, but dammit, do I respect you.
Game on, old friend…
When I saw Tron Legacy in theaters, I was blown away. I thought it was as wonderful as it was glowy, and I thought that besides some TERRIBLE lines, the story was quite something (check back in 2 weeks for another, better, Tron Legacy blog post). But the one thing that bothered me in a lot of comments/reviews I’ve read online was that people did not feel that Clu was a sympathetic villain. I kept going back to theaters and watching it again and again. What was I missing? Why did I feel bad for Clu? Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to eloquently explain my emotions, and Tron Legacy disappeared from theaters to make way for the next blockbuster. Now that Disney has released Tron Legacy on Blu-Ray/DVD/LaserDisc, I can finally defend my position.
Clu, with his entourage, break into Kevin Flynn’s Apple Store hideout and look around. After observing Kevin Flynn's meditation cushions and fiddling with an ornament of a Bit, which is a simplistic program that is made up of only a few polygons and can only say “Yes” or “No”, Clu walks over to his creator's table. Leaning on said table, Clu thinks back to when Kevin created him:
Kevin: “You are Clu.”
Clu: “I am Clu.”
Kevin: “You will create the perfect system.”
Clu: “I will create the perfect system.”
Kevin: “Together we’re gonna change the world, man.”
Clu then screams and knocks the bowl of metallic fruit off the table, making his posse of Storm Trooper programs feel awkward and uncomfortable. Clu tries to laugh off the outburst and tells them to head out. That scene shows exactly who Clu is. He was the first program created by Kevin in the new Grid, back in the 80s, after the first Tron film. All the other programs were made afterwards, possibly around the 90s. That’s a HUGE technological leap. That’s going from pixels in Super Mario Bros on the NES to polygons in Super Mario 64 on the N64 and going from The Adventures of Andre and Wally B to Toy Story 2. All the other programs faffing about have complex thoughts and even personalities; Clu, being a significantly older program, does not have all those bells and whistles. He only has three absolute laws running through his noggin:
1. He is Clu
2. He will create the perfect system
3. He and Kevin Flynn will change the world
Joseph Kosinski had shots of Clu only studying those 2 items for a reason. Clu stopped by Kevin Flynn’s meditation pillow because, to someone who constantly has three thoughts on repeat, the concept of clearing one’s mind cannot be understood, and Clu analyzed the ornament of a Bit because, like a Bit, Clu is also an outdated program. Everything Clu does relates back to those 3 commandments. Clu is defined, and he will not break that definition. Now that we’ve gone over Clu’s creation and how his mind works, let’s look back to Clu’s betrayal.
The film starts out with Uncanny Valley Kevin Flynn tucking his son into bed, telling him a story that’s about himself. Holding up a Chinese knock-off action figure of himself, Kevin explains, that “So, I created a program in my own image that could think, like you and me, and I called him Clu.” So far, the audience knows that Clu is a photocopy of Kevin Flynn, who is basically The Dude, but with work ethic and a case of narcissism. He seems alright so far. 20 years later, Sam finds his father trapped in the Grid, and Kevin continues his story, introducing the ISOs, which are advanced programs that came into being on their own. Kevin explained that once he found them, “Everything I’d hoped to find in the system, control, order, perfection, none of it meant a thing. I’d been living in a hall of mirrors. The ISOs shattered it.”
To Kevin, the ISOs are “bio-digital jazz”, but to Clu, they are noise without a steady beat. Kevin Flynn is loose and adapts with life, but the rigid rules that control Clu make him view anything that does not follow their purpose correctly to be inefficient, faulty, stains on his blouse.
And if there is one thing Clu does not tolerate, it is a stain on his blouse. Kevin reflected, noting that, “Clu saw the ISOs as an imperfection. So he destroyed them.” But can we really blame him? Let’s look again at the three commandments Clu must follow:
1. He is Clu- Ok; he knows his name.
2. He will create the perfect system- He is trying to do so, but those free-spirited, and therefore, imperfect ISOs are ruining the plan.
3. He and Kevin Flynn will change the world- If the ISOs continue to distract Kevin from allowing Clu to complete rule #2, then this task will also not be completed.
Last semester, I learned to make games in the UDK. And I remember watching my one of my classmates finishing some scripting and attempting to play the game. Somewhere in the Kismet editor, he made a mistake, which caused the game to produce an error message so many times per second that the game’s frame rate dropped into single digits. At this point, Clu must be going through a similar existential crisis: he either has to go against his programming and somehow redefine his definition of perfection to allow the ISOs to exist, or he kills his God, his creator, Kevin Flynn, and completes the task as best as he can. Heavy stuff, man.
Clu decides to seek Kevin to help him solve his problem by asking, “Am I still to create the perfect system?” Once Kevin replies with “Yeah”, Clu knows what he has to do, and he attempts to remove Kevin from the mission, explaining to Kevin, “You’ve been corrupted.” Tron, whose own absolute programming is to “Fight for the Users”, stops Clu from derezzing Kevin, allowing him to escape. He’s been hiding, trapped in the Grid, ever since.
To Clu, he has created the perfect system. Sure, he executes programs through computer gladiator games like the Disc Wars and the Lightcycle Battles, and there is some sort of a resistance group, and he is brainwashing “repurposing” a bunch of programs into becoming his own army, and yes, he had to remove his programmer, his creator, from the mission by force, but looking/listening at the audiences at both arenas, Clu is certainly doing something right. In his speech to his army, Clu points out:
“ We have created a vast, complex system. We've maintained it, we've improved it. We've rid it of its imperfection. Not to mention, rid it of the false deity who sought to enslave us!”
Kevin also explained to his son that Clu must not escape into the real world, as Clu “doesn’t dig imperfection. What’s more imperfect than our world?” Clu would follow his programming and do what he did in the Grid to the real world and create a “Utopia” on Earth, through control and moderating others. Although I love the idea of Clu committing genocide against hipsters around the world, Clu would also kill everyone else with free will, sparing only the certified public accountants whose free will was crushed years ago.
He’s not Snidely Whiplash; he’s not curling his mustache in a sinister manner. Clu is merely following his programming, which is his God/creator’s divine word. He thinks he’s doing the right thing. Still confused why Kevin, Sam, and Quorra continue to fight against him for doing what he was told to do, Clu stands between them and the portal looking for an explanation. Clu breaks down his logic to Kevin: “I did everything! Everything you ever asked! I executed the plan! You promised that we would change the world. Together. You broke your promise…I took this system to its maximum potential. I created the perfect system!” To Clu, he did exactly as he was told, exactly as he was supposed to. But Kevin Flynn reveals, “The thing about perfection is that it's unknowable. It's impossible, but it's also right in front of you all the time. You wouldn't know that because I didn't, when I created you. I'm sorry, CLU. I'm sorry.” Because Kevin didn’t realize that perfection lies in free will and experimentation when he created Clu (and because he didn't add an If Statement), Clu cannot comprehend this information and attempts to continue with his plan, only to fail and be reintegrated with Kevin Flynn.
Clu isn’t really evil. Nor is he misunderstood. He just misunderstands. He is given a set objective by his creator, but the game changes, and no one updates his objective. To paraphrase Jessica Rabbit, “He’s not bad. He’s just coded that way."
That's interesting opinion, thanks.
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