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“
Kevin Flynn: The Grid. A digital frontier. I tried to picture clusters of information as they moved through the computer. What did they look like? Ships? Motorcycles? Were the circuits like freeways? I kept dreaming of a world I thought I'd never see. And then one day... Young Sam Flynn: You got in! Kevin Flynn: That's right, man. I got in.
„
~ Kevin speaking of the Grid.
“
Goodbye, kiddo.
„
~ Kevin Flynn's last words.
Kevin Flynn is the main protagonist of the TRON franchise.
He is a user who ends up in the Grid while trying to hack into Encom to prove he's the true creator of the video games that the company's Senior Vice President claimed are his own.
He was portrayed by Jeff Bridges, who also portrayed The Dude in The Big Lebowski, Rooster Cogburn in the 2010 version of True Grit, Roy Pulsipher in the 2013 film R.I.P.D.(Rest In Peace Department), The Giver in the film of the same name, Dan Chase in FX's The Old Man, and voiced Prince Lír in the 1982 animated film The Last Unicorn and Big Z in Surf's Up.
Kevin Flynn was a rising star at ENCOM, creating several video game programs on his own (Space Paranoids, Vice Squad, Matrix Blaster, etc.) before the private memory cache he had set up to store these programs was coopted by Edward Dillinger, Sr., which led to the latter's meteoric rise to Senior Vice President of ENCOM, and Flynn's eventual dismissal from the company. After leaving ENCOM, Flynn would eventually launch an arcade venture, but he would never really stop searching for the files that would prove that he was the creator of the video games that Dillinger claimed as his own, which would lead to the creation of the first CLU (Codified Likeness Utility) program.
Flynn's forays into hacking the ENCOM mainframe would be detected by the Master Control Program, and the eventual de-resolution of the first CLU. While it was a blow to Flynn's plans, it wouldn't deter him at all; instead, it only brought him once more into contact with Lora Baines and Alan Bradley, and the three of them hatched a plot to sneak Flynn into ENCOM and hack the mainframe from the inside, leading to the MCP sending Flynn down to the original Grid and his adventures with Tron, Ram and Yori, leading up to the destruction of the MCP, his return to the real world, and retrieving the evidence which would vindicate his claims, reinstate himself at ENCOM, and eventually allow him to become one of the company's largest (if not the largest) shareholders.
Tron: Legacy[]
Kevin Flynn would also become a father, marrying and eventually having a son, Sam Flynn. However, he never ceased laying the groundwork for a digital frontier to reshape the human condition. Flynn would become more absorbed in this task, creating the second version of the CLU program specifically for the task of aiding to shape the Grid to perfection. But after the death of Sam's mother, Flynn would become progressively detached from the real world, choosing to spend more and more time on the Grid, to the point it became obsessive. This would lead to the discovery of the ISOs and his thought that he had made a breakthrough that would effectively change the entire world. Unfortunately, his new creation and companion, CLU 2 (often referred to as just CLU), saw them as an aberration since Flynn designed him to help him create the perfect system and they contradicted his idea of this. This led to CLU betraying Flynn by arranging a coup, apparently killing Tron and going on a genocidal purge of the ISOs. During this time, the Portal, the only way to travel between the Grid and the real world, closed, leaving Flynn to go into hiding.
After a couple of decades pass in the real world, his son Sam Flynn would eventually find himself in the Grid by accident while investigating his father's old arcade after Alan Bradley tells him that he received a message through his pager from there. After Sam gets forced to participate in "the Games" and subsequently nearly gets killed by CLU in a Light Cycle match, he's rescued by Quorra, who takes him to his father's hideout, which is outside of CLU's territory. The two of them finally reunite and Flynn reveals why he's been stuck in the Grid for so long and never came home, as well as that Quorra, whom he met some time ago, is the only surviving ISO that he knows of from CLU's genocide of her kind. He also reveals that, contrary to what Sam and Alan believed, it was actually CLU who sent the message to Alan since he hoped to lure him into the Grid so he could temporarily reopen the portal, with Sam serving that purpose just as effectively. Because of this, he's also counting on Sam to bring his father to the portal while it's still open in an attempt to escape so that he can steal his identity disk since it's considered the master key and is the only way to use the portal to travel between the Grid and the real world. By taking it, CLU will be able to invade the real world with his massive army and impose his idea of perfection on it just like with the Grid, which puts Flynn and his son at odds about what to do.
Seeing his frustration and sincere drive to help fix the situation, Quorra approaches Sam while he's alone and discreetly gives him instructions on how to find Zuse, a program who can apparently provide safe passage to the Portal. Sam then travels to CLU's territory behind Flynn's back and goes to the End of Line Club where he meets with the club's owner, Castor, who can apparently get him into contact with Zuse. However, he soon reveals that he's actually Zuse himself and betrays Sam to CLU's guards. Thankfully for him, Flynn and Quorra almost immediately arrive to rescue him, but Quorra is badly injured during the fight when her arm gets derezzed, and while they are able to escape, Zuse manages to take Kevin's disk and give it to CLU later. Flynn subsequently scolds his son for his recklessness. The two of them stow away on a Solar Sailer transport system, during which Flynn uses his abilities and knowledge of repairing codes to restore Quorra's arm, after which she and Sam spend some time bonding.
Along the way, they unexpectedly come across a giant carrier ship and start sneaking around it. When they come across Rinzler, who almost catches them, Quorra decides to act as a distraction and allow herself to be caught to allow Flynn and Sam to escape, which as Flynn observes, is a result of his training her to be selfless by "removing oneself from the equation". She is then taken to CLU's Command Ship. However, during a big speech that CLU is giving to his fellow programs, Sam manages to break into the ship and rescue her as well as retrieve Flynn's disk while Flynn steals a Light Jet and uses it to retrieve them, which they all escape in. CLU and Rinzler find out about this and subsequently pursue them in Light Jets of their own. Though they manage to shoot down a few of their pursuers thanks to Sam's skill on the tail gun and Quorra's piloting initially keeps them safe, they sustain heavy damage from CLU. Rinzler, however, who Flynn earlier discovered was really a re-programmed Tron, finally remembers his real identity, and crashes his jet into CLU's to prevent him from shooting them down, causing them both to fall into the Sea of Simulation.
Meanwhile, Quorra makes a crash landing near the Portal and the three of them approach, only to find CLU there waiting for them, who ejected himself from his jet before it crashed. There, he confronts Flynn about doing everything he asked of him to create the perfect system, to which Flynn apologizes to him since he admits that his idea of perfection was extremely flawed and misguided at the time he created him, and therefore, accepts responsibility for making him pursue the same misguided goal. However, this only makes CLU angry, and caused him attack Flynn. Sam, in turn, attacks CLU in a rage, but finds himself outmatched, with Quorra stepping between them with a light sword. Flynn then reminds Clu what he actually came there for, so CLU turns his attention back to him and takes his disk, only to realize it's Quorra's since Flynn previously had them swap their disks to throw him off. When CLU asks him why, Flynn simply replies that Sam is his son, implying he values his wellbeing over his own. Sam then yells to his father that he's not going to leave him there, but he insists that he do so along with Quorra, who emphasizes it's what he wants. After giving him a couple of final glances, Sam raises Flynn's disk to the sky, and when CLU makes one last desperate attempt to stop them, Flynn sacrifices himself by forcefully reintegrating CLU back into himself, causing a massive explosion that also takes out CLU's nearby ship.
Abilities[]
As a user, he has God-like powers like absorbing another Program's color lights, reassembling a destroyed Recognizer, and redirecting an energy transport beam. He's even able to save himself and Yori from derezzing after Sark left his ship.
Heroes
