Well, it may be a stretch, but recently a friend of mine watched Tron with me on a big 36" screen--great fun! But she kept pulling out all this spiritual connotation that I'd never noticed before, such as the fighting with "identity" disks. It was a cool thought that when Tron was being attacked, it was an attack on his identity--who he was, how he saw himself or believed himself to be. And when he stood firm on what he believed, he became a stronger fighter. I don't think the writers meant that, but I liked the extrapolation.

Cool. I never thought of it that way before. Kinda gives even deeper meaning to the movie.

That's interesting, however it seems to me that this is less a matter of spirituality. That's the users. The users are concidered the unknown, something they have to have faith in in order to believe, which is spirituality. But the identity disks are substance to them, something like our brains are to us. With that, it may seem like the story is conveying that they are 'pitting their brains against each other' when having a disk duel.

This is an interesting topic.

Yea, I see what you mean.

This could also be a kind of representation of how each character/program/combatant's abilities is a mathmatically literal thing with very distinct and defined edges and limitations, and is determined during their creation by a user. Unlike Flynn, who isn't nearly as 'predetermined' as they. Another reason he might not have used his disk is that in that world he has no identity that either can be represented or represents itself in their measured way.

You know what would have been cool? It would have been cool if Bit that belonged to Clu could have, when found and recognized Flynn, been able to transfer Clu's "spirit" to Flynn and that only "then" he could interact with the computer world. Before that he didn't know how to fight good or at all, heck even barely knew how to walk, if you know what I mean. But Bit could have been the means that Flynn be made to alter his persona into a possible and explainable equal to the warriors there, and could be something he brought back with him in the real world other than memories.

Hm.

She's not online, Driver. Or else I would

"Those who continue to profess a belief in the Users will be given the standard SUBstandard training, which will result in your eventual elimination." -Sark

I loved the User/God element of the film and how the powers-that-be were attempting to usurp the position of the Users in a Lucifer-type of way. Although that may lead to a Christ/Flynn comparison (ouch!). I think I'd lean more toward a Michael/Flynn comparison (Michael being the Archangel that threw Lucifer from heaven).

I like this tread, it brings a new angle to the film.
In the quotes section of this site - to the left - there's a quote of a Dr. John Lilly, he talks about spirituality in tron, and man he delves deep. He talks all about the different roles of programs and their similarities to the user. Cool stuff.

as a fan of sci-fi, I'm challenged to find similarities between the subjects of some of major sci-fi movies and spirituality. From Tron, SW and matrix, there is a parallel idealogy that there is a greater power around us, and the characters in the movies. They try to discover or deal with 'what is real', 'what is feelings' and what is the 'tie that binds it all together'. "Luminous beings we are, not this crude matter..." Yoda says, "The matrix is all around us..." Morpheus says and the digital beings in Tron wonder if "There are users out there".
We must close our eyes and see with our hearts, for from out of the heart of man comes good or evil, whatever is in the heart of man.

That is cool. I'm not sure I ever really tried to look at TRON from that perspective. Heck, would probably make a great Senior Thesis. (If I could only find the articles to use as resources )

The movie seems to start out that way, but then kind of dwindles off on the subject.