The Grid
Geographical information
Region	Tron system
Points of Interest	Tron City Argon City Purgos Sea of Simulation Gallium City Arjia City ISO City Outlands Bostrum Colony
Other information
Designer	Kevin Flynn
Owners	Kevin Flynn (1983 – 1989) Clu 2 (1989 – 2010)
Inhabitants	Programs ISOs Bits Code worms Gridbugs Viruses
Behind the scenes
Appearances	TRON: Evolution TRON: Betrayal TRON: Legacy TRON: Legacy Graphic Novel TRON: Uprising Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance TRON RUN/r TRON Lightcycle Power Run TRON: Identity (map & mentioned) TRON: Catalyst (map & mentioned) TRON: Ares (map & mentioned)
Gallery

The Grid is a vast part of the Tron system, programmed by Kevin Flynn. Often referred to by Flynn as his "digital frontier", the Grid was made to provide an experimental platform where all forms of research could be carried out at unparalleled speeds. Perceived time on the Grid is measured in cycles and runs at a pace far greater than time perceived in the real world, thus allowing anyone immersed in the computer environment to perform the same functions in a fraction of the time it would take them otherwise, as hours on the Grid are just minutes in the real world.^[1]

History

Creation

After his adventure within the ENCOM Mainframe in 1982,^[2] Kevin Flynn decided to make his own computer system in 1983. He called the world within the system "the Grid", a digital landscape which he could fill with his ideas. Flynn made a digital copy of himself named Clu 2, as well as bringing over the System Monitor, Tron, to protect it.^[3][1] Flynn often promoted the Grid, such as through his book The Digital Frontier: Mapping the Other Universe and in interviews.^[1][4]

Things in the Grid had run as usual until the emergence of a new life form in 1984, dubbed as "the ISOs".^[1][5] The first of these beings was Ophelia,^[6] now known as Radia. Unlike Flynn, who saw the ISOs as miracles,^[7] Clu and many other programs had a strong dislike of the ISOs, and as such, they often discriminated against them.^[8]

Game Grid tournament

In 1985, a Game tournament across the Grid was held. The champion of this Game tournament was Beta.^[9]

Takeover

Abraxas Virus

In 1989, Clu corrupted an ISO named Jalen by turning him into a virus known as Abraxas. This virus infected many Basic and ISOs on the Grid, and once it was discovered Abraxas was an ISO, programs turned against ISOs.^[5]

Coup against Kevin Flynn

Main article: Coup against Kevin Flynn

During Abraxas's attack, Tron attempted to escort Flynn to the Portal, the exit from the Grid to the real world. However, the two were ambushed by Clu, who viewed them as corrupted.^{[1][5][8][10]}

Prior to being trapped in the Grid by Clu, Flynn created a backup of the Grid called the Arq Grid solely to protect ISOs from Clu.^[11][12][13] Like in the primary Grid, ISOs began manifesting on their own in the Arq Grid as well.^[11] Flynn promised a program named Alpha that he would return to the Arq Grid, but he became trapped in the primary Grid indefinitely and was never able to return to it.^[14][15] As a backup server, the Arq Grid shares numerous characteristics with the Grid, but has since developed into its own unique society over the centuries, with various factions and cultures forming within it.^[16][17][18]

From 1989 onward, Clu tyrannically ruled the Grid until the arrival of Flynn's son, Sam, on the Grid in 2010 soon led to the program's demise, coupled with Flynn's, and the liberation of the Grid. When Sam and Quorra returned to the real world, Sam transferred the Grid to a microchip on his necklace.^[1]

Description

Much of the Grid consists of a flat, dark platform with glowing blue, cyan, or white ribbons of light covering it in a vast latticework. Within the Grid itself lie a number of cities, the most populous being Tron City, a metropolis modeled on a real world city which hosts a diverse range of programs. The programs carry out all the day-to-day tasks involved in running the system. On the periphery of the Grid lies the Outlands, an inhospitable region where most programs could not venture without flying or using specially coded ground vehicles.

Inhabitants

The Grid's original population consisted of programs written or installed by Kevin Flynn. Despite their programming, programs were autonomous to a large extent, living daily lives similar to that of a User in the outside world, clubbing, socializing, resting, playing games, and maintaining hobbies outside the primary directives that dictated their day jobs.

After the emergence of the ISOs from the Sea of Simulation, these unique, directive-free programs settled on the Grid as well. While they mingled with User-written programs at first, they eventually withdrew to colonies of their own, remaining there until the Purge. Both the User-written programs -- known then as Basics -- and the ISOs had factions of political and social thought jockeying for influence on the Grid. After the Purge, sympathetic programs attempted to convey surviving ISOs to safety until there seemed to be none left on the Grid, and factions quarreled for scraps of power in the heavily militarized system.

The Grid also contained other living entities, such as bits, gridbugs, code worms, and viruses.

Known Locations

The Grid consisted of many cities and other terrain with weather simulation that mimicked the real world. The Grid's capital, Tron City, was a centralized community comprising the Grid's administration, including the sysadmin Clu, and Kevin Flynn. Well-known landmarks in Tron City included Flynn's Arcade, a copy of the one in the outside world and the site of Flynn's arrival when he visited the Grid; the Disc Wars and Light Cycle Arenas, where programs competed in games of skill; and the End of Line Club, originally open to both Basics and ISOs, with a direct Solar Sailer line to the Portal. Over the cycles, Tron City was almost completely depopulated as programs were repurposed or flung into deadly games.

In TRON: Betrayal and TRON: Evolution, the Grid's largest ISO population lived in Arjia City, located on the Codestream Nexus. Evolution also introduced a distant settlement, Bostrum Colony, which was the exclusive home of a faction of ISOs and like-minded Basics who preferred solidarity to segregation. Along with all the other ISO colonies, Bostrum and Arjia were destroyed in the Purge.

TRON: Uprising introduced the far-off port of Argon City, its neighbor and original settlement Purgos, and a large metropolitan area called Bismuth of which only the Light Rail station was seen in the show. Concept art for a location used in one episode was labeled with the name "Gallium City," but the city was never named in the episode, though a map in another episode showed the location of a small city called Gallium which was even further out in the Outlands than Argon City. The pit concealing a secret compressed space prison lay near the road from Argon to Gallium. Also near Argon, in the Outlands, was a snowy peak concealing Tron's secret base of operations.

The Grid is surrounded by the apparently endless Sea of Simulation, once the birthplace of the ISOs, now corrupted by an isomorphic virus which, while not harmful to Basics, does not allow new ISOs to develop. Passage over the Sea to the Portal, the only way to leave the Grid for the outside world, is possible only via Solar Sailer or Light Jet.

Trivia

• The "voice" of the Grid is credited as Tricia Helfer in TRON: Uprising and Ana Free in TRON RUN/r.
• The architecture in Tron City is partially based on designs by Jordan Canas.
• The Grid was intended to reappear in the cancelled TRON: Legacy sequel film, TRON: Ascension, where Sam Flynn would have rescued Tron from the Sea of Simulation following his fall after attacking Clu 2 during the climax of Legacy.^[19]
• Both the Dillinger Grid and the ENCOM Grid in TRON: Ares draw much of their design and visual effects language upon the Grid as it appears in TRON: Legacy, including the materials, light lines, atmospherics, effects, and camera opticals.^[20]
  • The ENCOM Grid was intended to be similar to the Grid as it appears in TRON: Legacy while feeling brighter and more hopeful.^[20]
  • The Grid's landscapes created for both TRON: Legacy and TRON: Uprising inspired Industrial Light & Magic's senior visual effects art director Alex Jaeger when designing the ENCOM Grid for TRON: Ares, with him combining the landscapes with more complex details for the foreground structures and more simplified forms for the distant structures.^[21]
• The map of the Grid on the noticeboard in the basement of Flynn's Arcade can be seen in the title screen of both TRON: Identity and TRON: Catalyst, and is briefly seen when Ares rematerializes in the basement in TRON: Ares.

References