Sam Flynn

“	I'm not a program, my name is Sam Flynn.	„
	~ Sam to CLU 2 after his duel with Rinzler.

“	You can't steal something that's designed to be free.	„
	~ Sam to a police officer.

Sam Flynn is the son of Kevin Flynn and the main protagonist of the Tron sequel, Tron: Legacy.

He is portrayed by Garrett Hedlund, who also portrayed Murtagh in Eragon, and James Hook in Pan.

Biography[]

He was born in 1983. His father was CEO of ENCOM and a computer software and video game creator. His father disappeared in 1989 and was dead shortly after leaving Kevin's father Alan Bradly in charge of the company until Sam was of age. By age 27, Sam became the CEO and majority shareholder of ENCOM. However, he has little interest in running the company and lets the board do that instead. This doesn't, however, stop him from pranking the company on an annual basis, which he does in the present by infiltrating it and releasing their operating system online for free.

One night while going to his father's old place of business, Flynn's, a video game arcade, due to being told by Alan Bradley that he received a message on his pager from there, and him insisting that Sam check it out in case it's really his long-lost father, he discovered his father's old computer lab in the basement. Upon accessing his computer, he accidently digitizes himself into the Grid. Right after this, he gets discovered and captured by programs who are rounding up strays and forced to fight in "the Games", where programs are made to fight to the death for entertainment. While he wins his first couple of matches, he is then matched up against a mysterious masked fighter named Rinzler, whom he's outmatched by. However, when he bleeds red blood from an injury, which reveals to everyone he's really a User, he is brought to CLU, a program which his father created in his own likeness and that he told him about when he was only a child. Though CLU's original purpose was to help Kevin create the perfect world, he ended up taking this to its logical conclusion by initiating a genocidal campaign against the Isomorphic Algorithims (or ISO for short) and running the Grid like a tyrant. When he meets Sam, he challenges him to a Light Cycle Match, but just before he can attempt to finish him off in it, Kevin's assistant, named Quorra, who is also the last known ISO to still be alive, bursts in, rescues him, and takes him to his father's hideout, which was outside of CLU's territory.

He then finally reunites with his father after all this time and discovers from him why he never came home; after CLU's coup, he had to go into hiding, and during that time, the Portal, which acts as the main means of transportation between the Grid and the real world, closed, leaving him trapped there. He also tells Sam that it was actually CLU who sent the message that Alan received since he hoped to lure him into the Grid and temporarily reopen it, a purpose that Sam serves just as well. When Sam insists that they make a break for the Portal now that it's open, Kevin objects since he explains that CLU is not only expecting this, but counting on it, since he intends to steal his identity disk, which is a "master key" of sorts, to escape to the real world with an army so he can bring order to it the same way he did to the Grid. This puts the father and son at odds over how to proceed.

Seeing his frustration and sincere drive to help fix the situation, Quorra approaches Sam alone and discreetly gives him instructions on how to find Zuse, a program who can apparently provide safe passage to the Portal. Sam then heads back to CLU's territory and heads to the End of Line Club, where he meets with Castor, the owner, who apparently takes other programs' requests to Zuse. While at first he seems cooperative and helpful, he later betrays Sam to CLU's guards and reveals that he's actually Zuse himself. His father and Quorra then arrive to rescue him, but Quorra is badly injured during the fight when her arm gets derezzed, and while they escape, Zuse manages to take Kevin's disk and give it to CLU later. Meanwhile, Sam gets scolded by his father for his recklessness, after which the two of them stow away on a Solar Sailer transport system, during which Kevin uses his knowledge of repairing codes to restore Quorra's arm, after which Sam uses some of their time alone onboard to bond with her a little more, such as hearing from her how she first met his father, and in turn, sharing stories about the real world, such as what their sunrises are like when she asks about them.

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 Kevin and Sam to escape. 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 Kevin's disk while Kevin steals a Light Jet, and uses it to retrieve them, which they all escape in. When CLU and Rinzler find out about this, they pursue them in Light Jets of their own, with Sam manning the tail gun to shoot at their pursuers. While he manages to take out a few of them with some help from Quorra's piloting, they sustain heavy damage from CLU. Rinzler, however, who Kevin 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 Kevin 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 Kevin. Sam, in turn, attacks CLU in a rage, but finds himself outmatched, with Quorra stepping between them with a light sword. Kevin 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 they previously swapped their disks to throw him off. 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. With a couple of final glances, he raises Kevin's disk to the sky, and when CLU makes one last desperate attempt to stop them, Kevin forcefully reintegrates CLU back into himself, causing a massive explosion that also takes out CLU's nearby ship.

With his father's sacrifice, he, along with Quorra, escaped the Grid and back into the real world, after which he deactivates the system. Shortly after this, he runs into Alan at the arcade, whom he tells that he now plans to assume control of ENCOM, is making him the chairman of the board, and that he was right about "everything". It's assumed that Sam is dating Quorra and helping her assimilate into the human world shortly after.