2. Peace, Man
If Tron can be considered an anti-technology film for its negative representation of technology, it can equally be considered an anti-war film for its representation of war and the alluring prospect of peace. The mainframe into which Flynn is projected is a highly militarised and fascist-like world of repression, conformity and violence. The antagonist Sark runs a strict regime made up of warriors, giving new programs a choice to denounce their belief in the Users whilst killing each other in disc wars, or to join him and become a loyal warrior. Every program on the mainframe has an identity disc, and the same blue attire marks out the enemies of Sark and the Master Control Program from his loyal red attired warriors. The craft in which Sark travels and commands from is visually similar to the Nimitz Class aircraft carriers which the United States Navy effectively used as symbols of power and war in the 1980s when Tron was produced. The tanks seen on the mainframe are numerous, lined in a huge row similar to the processions of military hardware which passed through Red Square in Soviet military parades. These militaristic visual cues are contrasted by the protagonists and their peaceful alternatives. Where Sark and the Master Control Program rely on uniformly marked tanks, Flynn & company have brightly coloured light cycles; where Sark has an empowered aircraft-carrier-esque craft, Flynn & company have the delicate and tiny Solar Sailer. Finally, the main weapon which the character of Tron is so adept at using is for all intents and purposes a light blue Frisbee more suited to an afternoon in Central Park, rather than a militarised amphitheatre of death. The conclusion of the film sees the Master Control Program destroyed, and freedom and peace come to the mainframe. Individuality can be accepted, conformity is abolished, Jeff Bridges can collect his pay cheque.