Forty-two years ago today, the silver screen was graced by the movie TRON, a Hollywood film that became a seminal work in early computer animation and special effects. In 1982, at the dawn of the personal computer revolution, actors Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, and Cindy Morgan became anthropomorphized programs, bringing theatergoers into a fictional world of what happens on the other side of their monitors. In 2007, on the 25th anniversary of the film’s release, I conducted an interview with John Knoll, co-creator of Photoshop and chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic, who said of TRON, “It opened everyone’s eyes to something they should be watching because it had a lot of potential.”
The connection to the Apple II goes beyond the movie and the computer being contemporaries, or even the movie featuring an Apple III. In 2013, Bruce Boxleitner — TRON himself! — made a cameo appearance on episode #28 of the Open Apple podcast:
Boxleitner reprised the role of TRON in the 2010 live-action film TRON: Legacy and the 2012 animated series TRON: Uprising. He is not currently slated to appear in the next film in the franchise, 2025’s TRON: Ares.
Our eternal thanks to the esteemed actor and novelist for lending his voice to the Open Apple podcast!