By It’s still something of a shock that in 2025, Disney decided it would release another Tron movie. Titled Tron: Ares, the film had a long gestation period after the success of Tron: Legacy that saw it jump between multiple scripts, directors, and stars before landing upon the Jared Leto-starring vehicle we have now. One could read that as the project ultimately being doomed, but I guess Disney needs something for its streaming service amid years of controversy and dwindling profits.
See, Tron: Legacy was Disney’s attempt at building an MCU-like franchise before it outright acquired Star Wars and the MCU. The film was so focused on establishing a broader narrative with possible extensions in the transmedia space that it failed to tell a coherent and simple story at its core. That was exactly what the first Tron was about: a simple story of people obsessed with the idea of what lies inside the computer rather than getting bogged down by the reality of how boring that actually is.
Tron: Ares does right some of that, but it also cannot help but be marred in controversy itself. From casting known sex pest Jared Leto to releasing in a time where Disney has shown it will wipe free speech off the face of the Earth if it helps gain favor with a dictatorial leader, the entirety of Ares feels at odds with the world we live in. A world where AI is threatening to overthrow the human workforce and where billionaires are playing hacky sack with the livelihoods of those underneath them.
I guess that Nine Inch Nails soundtrack is awesome, though.
Tron: Ares
Director: Joachim Rønning
Release Date: October 10, 2025
Rating: PG-13
While I may not be a fan of Tron: Legacy, those who are might as well forget that movie even existed. Tron: Ares takes place 15 years after the events of Legacy and even makes a passing reference to its main character, Sam Flynn, but is otherwise a continuation of the idea brought forth from the original Tron. In the present day of 2025, the resurrected Dillinger Systems is looking to sell a new type of technology to the military that will bring digital beings into the real world. Helmed by Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), grandson of original Tron villain Ed Dillinger, he promises to be able to print soldiers and machinery at a moment’s notice for when the world needs to go to war. His lead program for all of this is Ares (Jared Leto), the most proficient program to ever grace the grid and one who has been given the codename of “Master Control.”
The one issue with all of this that Julian leaves out is that Dillinger Systems and its rival, ENCOM, have not figured out a way to keep these digital beings alive for more than 29 minutes. ENCOM is seemingly closer to figuring out the how, as current CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) is in a remote part of Alaska hacking into Kevin Flynn’s (Jeff Bridges) old system with her partner, Seth Flores (Arturo Castro). While in Flynn’s old mainframe, she discovers what becomes known as the “permanence code” and, after some testing, has finally discovered the means to giving digital creations true life. Wishing to make good on the promise of her late sister’s desires for improving mankind, she sets off to bring this code back to ENCOM and help change the world for the better… that is, if Julian will let her.
So, if you’ve seen any of the promotional material for Ares, you already know that a good portion of this movie takes place in the real world. It’s a fine enough concept for a Tron movie (and one that was set up by the ending of Legacy), but it does raise a big question: why is a franchise built around the digital frontier inside of our computers suddenly interested in leaving that realm? You could say that part of the impetus for this story is to address the rising concerns that generative AI will have on humanity, but that barely registers as a thought here. There’s a passing line in the beginning where one of the military contractors asks Julian about AI, but his mother Elisabeth (Gillian Anderson) squashes that before it can ever become interesting.
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At least for the first half, this isn’t too much of a concern. Unlike Legacy, Ares has a basic plot that it sees through to the end without attempting to cram in too much worldbuilding or lore. I actually think the beginning is rather thrilling with how Ares and his fellow program, Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith), chase down Eve through the city streets. Taking place at night to give some nice contrast between the darkened alleyways and bright neon lightcycles, there’s a brutal sense of fatalism here as these programs seemingly have no concern for human life. Cars get turned upside down, destruction is rampant, and Eve practically shits a brick when Athena sprints at her like the T-1000.
This is accompanied by a fantastic score from Nine Inch Nails. Borrowing some leitmotifs from both Wendy Carlos’ original score and Daft Punk’s score for Legacy, the music here is darker, grittier, more industrial, and often gives off a bleak atmosphere. There are moments of levity, but with most of the film focused on programs acting as assassins, it makes sense that the soundtrack would reflect that murderous turn. In the action sequences, in particular, it’s thrilling and can sometimes lean into straight rock. A rather exciting chase through digital water caps off with light vocals that is unlike anything in the previous Tron movies and almost takes on a religious vibe.
Again, as spoiled by the trailers, the big “twist” in Tron: Ares is that Ares starts to gain self-awareness. As early as his introduction, there’s a line where Ed Dillinger says Ares and his ilk are “expandable” and that weighs on the program. He plays it back in his head time and again, but more importantly, he also takes note of the rainfall happening during the military demonstration. These sensations are totally alien to Ares, and I guess through that alone, he decides to go rogue on Dillinger. Either that or his digging into Eve’s past made him fall in love at first sight, which… fair. I, too, fell in love with Greta Lee at first sight.
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That’s, perhaps, the weakest overall element of this story. It’s understandable why Eve is fighting so hard, as she not only wanted to do right by her late sister, but her sister passed away from a rather devastating form of cancer. Eve spent her life working on “toys” and video games, so she has something of a survivor’s guilt going on. Greta Lee is able to convey that well, too, but she’s not really given much material to chew on. No one really is, as Ares is a little too focused on presenting thrilling set-piece after thrilling set-piece instead of building up its plot. As many have already said, the human element is lacking here, even if it’s the strongest the franchise has ever gotten at capturing one.
Where I think things go off the rails is with the movie’s obsession with the original Tron. In anticipation of watching this movie, I rewatched the original 1982 classic the night before to check out the new 4K restoration. It’s stunning to look at, but no matter how many times I watch that movie and how strong my admiration for its craftsmanship remains, Tron is kind of a mess. Anyway, checking that film out for the 10th time kept all of its specific quirks fresh in my mind, so I was kind of stunned that Ares is not only okay with throwing in name drops, but straight-up musical cues and plot points from the original. You could say that Tron: Legacy was a soft reboot/remake, but Ares wants you to recall everything you liked from the OG.
We have the aforementioned “Master Control” reference, a company named after the librarian program from the original film, the weird floating digital face in the digital world, a ringtone that is simply “The Light Sailer” off the OG soundtrack, a cameo appearance from Jeff Bridges that was probably filmed in a closet in 15 minutes, and a full-on recreation of the original grid from the 1982 film with an appearance from Bit. Maybe I’m spoiling a “surprise” here, but that last part really soured the film for me. It’s stunning how Tron: Legacy managed to feel like a proper evolution of Tron while not caving into nostalgic pandering. Ares, on the other hand, has a proper story this time and still feels the need to cram in as many references as possible.
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I’m doing a lot of complaining, but is there anything I did like? Well, Jared Leto is… fine? I don’t know whether to fault him or the direction, but his turn as Ares isn’t the worst thing I’ve seen from him. He doesn’t really elevate the picture in any meaningful fashion, and there’s this idiotic line where one character says Ares is “a pretty cool guy” that made me chuckle. I’m sure the dude who has a borderline sex cult is actually a cool guy. It’s one of those moments where you can just feel Leto attempting to rehabilitate his own image through throwaway dialogue that actually sucks you out of the film. Even still, Ares is meant to be more robotic than human, so I can accept the often stone-faced and cold delivery Leto has.
The action sequences are often cool, though they can’t help but feel like copies of stuff from John Wick or Mission: Impossible. Despite having limitless potential to do anything imaginable, most of the stuntwork is grounded. I appreciate that there is a practical approach to that, but I never thought the coolest thing I’d see in a Tron movie is people riding motorcycles through crowded city streets. When the characters are in the computer, everything is bright and flashy, and there are some cool acrobatics on display, but it’s not dissimilar to what Tron: Legacy had. The only difference is that Olivia Wilde actually performed her own maneuvers, while Jared Leto probably wasn’t even kicking at anyone.
I’m not really sure what to make of Tron: Ares. When I left my screening, my immediate thought was, “At least it’s better than Tron: Legacy.” As I’ve taken a few days to gather my thoughts, I don’t even know if that is true. I give Legacy a lot of crap for trying so hard to kickstart a franchise where one didn’t need to exist, but it did give us an absolutely incredible soundtrack and some cutting-edge visual effects. Tron: Ares does provide another great soundtrack and still looks nice, but 15 years on, this is kind of the same song and dance. Disney wants so desperately to make this series into a mega-franchise that it continues to forget why the original movie was so captivating to begin with. People didn’t care about the plight of Kevin Flynn or his claim to a video game, but the possibility of the life living inside our computers.
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This movie focuses less on Flynn, but then takes everything out of the computers and presents, essentially, a remake of that awful Adam Sandler comedy Pixels. Ares is certainly better than that movie, but it fails to say anything interesting, do anything groundbreaking, or present anything unique enough to stand out from the crowd. I’ve glossed over a lot of “plot” here, but when the one thing that sticks in my mind is the soundtrack, I can’t really say that’s good.
I’m sure in 10 or so years, there will be a rehabilitation of this film, much like what Tron: Legacy has seen, and Disney will attempt another reboot with a fourth installment. Tron will be around long after we’re all dead solely because of how innovative that classic film was. Maybe the fourth time will be the charm, but the third up at bat has absolutely resulted in a strike.
