This movie I have really enjoyed recently. I felt when I first saw it about five years ago, I didn’t really appreciate the fullness of the film. It’s beyond the great special effects, music in accordance to action, and the wardrobe. I mean these costumes look like they were engineered in the future. They did a good job. Daft Punk being in the futuristic bar was a great touch. The story is well written, and brings about themes of love, perfection and imperfection, as well as God and creation. It’s a very compelling movie, and really makes the viewer reflect on the statements on these themes.
It starts with the father son relationship, of the Flynn’s. His father decided to pursue ideas that were way ahead of their time, get enveloped in creating utopias, while realizing that “perfection” was right at his finger tips (more on the perfection them later), and it was that of his son. I quote, “I would give it all up for just one more day with you.” In order to really appreciate the power of those words, I have to explain the premise of the movie.
Flynn was able to take the human image and put it into a digital self. Sort of like a Matrix I guess, but different intentions and conditions. In this world, Flynn is God. He created a program to protect users (himself) named Tron. He then created a program, a digital representation of himself, to create the perfect system. That program was named Clue. With those three, they created utopias. First one they created, only programs could exist in the world. They finally after that attempt, started over and made a utopia for both programs and users. In a super computer for the time it was made, in the bottom of an arcade, there was a universe and Flynn was God.
In fact, the image that is presented in this post, is my favorite part I think. It is the moment that God revealed himself to His creation after many cycles. Everyone goes in to awe and fear was expressed. There was a program that was praying the in the presence of Flynn. Imagine that? First, imagine being God. Isn’t that insane? He created all of that. As shown later in the film, Flynn has powers that only He can have. Since He has the master file on his disk, He can manipulate what He created. Imagine seeing God right in front of you. I would just wait and stare in awe honestly. To actually be with the Creator, brings a mixture of emotions I can’t describe. Imagine living in a world where they know there is a God, and they know who He is. That society has a much different psyche than ours, and in a sense, I envy them. I would love to have the luxury to have seen my God and know that He is there. What is interesting, is Flynn doesn’t hear prayers. It’s something I have thought hard about with our Creator, does he actually listen to prayers? Or does he let the system run and does something else? I will never know.
Now it is understood the strength of those words, “I would give it all up just to spend one more day with you.” He would give up being God to be with his son again. He was forced to stay in The Grid because the portal closed. He hadn’t seen his son in years, and he thought he would never see him again. Flynn knew what had to be done in order to get The Iso and his son out. That is why he said,”one more day” because he was going to merge with Clue and create an instant explosion followed by a complete reset. Flynn died, but The Grid remains to be manipulated, or improved, by his son. Flynn knew he was going to die, and it would of given up his life’s work, at being God, to be with his son more. That was more important to him. That is really strong, and shows what we all desire and what usually happens. Father’s aren’t home making the cheddar, and some get so caught up in their career it is more important than family. A song that shows this well is “Cats in the Cradle.” It’s a cycle. The boy mimics a distant father and becomes a distant father. Most of us yearn for a close father because not only is it human, but a lot of us have had distant relationships with our fathers because of our society.
There is another love story. The son Flynn and The Iso. Iso’s were literally a result of The Grid. They were a different race of people created by The Grid. Flynn, God, not only created a digital frontier and utopias with programs, but created another being that lived in The Grid, with their own DNA. Clue saw them as imperfections, and slaughtered them. “It was genocide.” The Iso, she is the last remaining Iso, that Flynn saved. Imagine, being saved individually by your Creator. In any case, The Iso’s DNA could revolutionize technology back on Earth, and was the true purpose of The Grid to Flynn. His creation, of living beings, He truly is a God if one thinks about it.
Clue was programmed to make the perfect system. He did it well. Flynn had a long time to think, and told this to Clue. “The thing about perfection, is that it is unknowable. It’s impossible but it is also right in front of you all the time. You wouldn’t know that because I didn’t when I created you. I’m sorry, Clue. I’m sorry.” When his son went to the portal, there were images of his son when he was younger. To show what he was thinking. “See ya kiddo.” Flynn then combined Himself with Clue, resetting The Grid.
I don’t know why, but that quote is making me think of a concept. Could the world be more perfect that we originally thought? I think it is a perfect super-organism. Meaning it has processes that ultimately balance everyone out, and is cyclic to bring motion to the planet. There’s a carbon cycle, a water cycle, an oxygen cycle, a carbon dioxide cycle, and the list goes on. It’s a perfect system, that was created through the laws of this universe. But could it be more perfect? Perfection to us is pure symmetry, uniform color, evenly divided angles. Sterile. But could the structure and all of the planet be perfect? Sure the structure is different than our preconceived notion of perfection, but what if Flynn is right? What if perfection is unknowable? Then our views of perfection are not valid because perfection is unknowable.
Could it be possible that perfection is our universe itself? Could the very variable leaves of a tree actually all be perfect? Sure there is variance in nature, but it is truly random, and that could mean true perfection. Maybe a part of perfection is variability, or randomness? Maybe our preconceived notions of perfection blinds us from the perfection right in front of us. Excuse my french, but it’s the fact that we fucking exist in the first place. I believe there were systemic steps, and I think considering all the Earth like planets we are finding, we are bound to find life. If we are truly alone in this universe, then those are planets for our taking.
Singularities. There is no reality. There is no time. There is nothingness, but a infinitely small and dense particle. Do you think that particle could of exploded in an infinite amount of ways? After all, there is no reality. The singularity exploded with just enough energy to produce the exact mass of 14 decimal places to create a universe that is flat and eventually harbors life. That to me is perfection. Iso’s are us. As a result of the flow of energy becoming more efficient, life was systematically created. We are the result of energy.
This movie has really changed me. I think the climax of the film, where Flynn explains perfection, has actually changed my perception of the world. I think we are living on a perfect planet, in not only processes, symbiotic relationships, but also in structure itself.
I’m going for a walk I think tonight. Thanks for reading.
Journey of the Mind 