The track Arrival came on the iPod today (the one where they arrive at the portal), and it made me think.

The track is not really what you might expect for such a scene-- it's a little more sad, a little less triumphant, than you would expect for that part of the film. They got past Clu, they're going home... or so we think at that point, anyway.

So I've questioned when Flynn knows he's not leaving the Grid. I've got an old fic in which I speak of it (I'll probably end up having to post it here soon so you get an idea of what I'm thinking), but I don't necessarily think that what I thought in there is what the film's writers intended and I'm not even sure I agree with it 100%-- it's just what fit the story and it's one possibility.

I think he understands it pretty early in. I would say he thinks it's more than a possibility when he switches discs with Q-- like, he's not just doing it "just in case." He maybe is aware at that point that he's not leaving, even though he doesn't say as much to Sam. He says to Clu outright when they meet up with him at the portal: "I had a feeling you'd be here." (He must have seen, then, what happened between Clu and Tron, and knows Clu escaped.) He knows there's not going to be any way out.

There's definitely a sense of resignation when he reintegrates with Clu-- you can see him realize that he needs to do it because it's the only way to keep Clu from getting to Sam and Quorra. Whether he knows before that that he's going to need to do it, I don't know. That one scene almost seems like he doesn't, because you sort of see him make the split-second decision to do it when he sees he has no choice. However, he must know before that; if he only thought Sam was going to go out and then delete Clu from the outside... then once Sam and Q were gone, Flynn and Clu would still be left standing there, and it's not like they'd sit down and quietly play Go Fish until Sam does his thing. There'd immediately be a fight-- one I'm not 100% sure Flynn would win-- unless he really still believes he can talk Clu down without violence.

I've thought it possible he realizes (or at least makes the decision to switch discs with Q) on the Solar Sailor, the part when he gets done meditating and opens his eyes and has this enigmatic look on his face. It's possible he has that look because he sees that S & Q get along and he's glad for it, but it also could be that he's glad they get along because he knows they're going to be stuck with each other out there, without him.

I'm not sure if my interpretation is what the writers intended, or even what Daft Punk intended with the track (and it may be a bit much to try to interpret what a film's writers/directors intended from the soundtrack, but perhaps not-- it would depend, I guess, on how much direction they gave DP re: what they wanted for the score of certain scenes. IOW, was it something DP came up with on their own somewhat arbitrarily, or was it according to their own interpretation of the scene, or were they specifically told "this is what's going on, and this is the emotion we want"? Much also depends on the orchestration, as a change in orchestration and perhaps tempo could change the mood exponentially even with the same general melodic structure, so the question of the orchestration also returns us to the above question of exactly how it was arrived at.)


(The funny thing, though, is that he first tries to distract Clu from going after S & Q by saying "remember what you came for." Then pretty much lets Clu take his disc. If he'd fought a bit and made it harder for Clu to take it, perhaps S & Q would've had time to get out before Clu discovered he had the wrong disc, and he wouldn't have had the chance to go for them. So Flynn sort of sealed his own fate by being so compliant-- I'm not sure if he just didn't realize that Clu would figure it out so soon and still try to go after S & Q [maybe he didn't think Clu would try to look at the disc right then], or if he really really didn't want to fight Clu to that extent.

I'm really not sure I agree with his decision to "take himself out of the equation" in that manner-- in fact, I wonder if his obsession with that concept may have been an attempt to tell himself that him giving up on fighting Clu all those cycles ago was okay [see Beat of Your Heart fic re: Flynn and apathy/nonaction]-- but that's a subject for another thread if anyone so wishes, as it's way off-topic for this one.)

' Clone LIkeness Utility ' Program. C.L.U.

Clu was created by Flynn as the same likeness and looks just like his user. Because Flynn is his user and Clu just a program. Think of projector or a self mirror image. When you look into a mirror you see yourself. That is all Clu was. Self image of Flynn's existance. The fact that Clu had such a hard time killing Flynn was the fact that Flynn himself was Clu. Both were linked in some way weather you want to call it ' Spiritually ' or even ' Scientificly ' . Eather way. They were both one to begin with. Now I can see Clu returning because after all.. * Smiles * he is just a program. Programs that have been long forgotten can turn up somehow within a system. Take a sene in ' Tron: Legecy ' after Sam exited Flynn's computer. He downloaded a file or a program from Flynn's machine. Could be the just the data of Flynn's disc that provides the infomation? Could it be Clu's infomation to stop him from ever being reprogrammed back into the Grid? Honestly we don't know, but what I can tell you. It can play a big part later on during the Tron storylines for all we know.. Clu could return. Programs don't actually get destroyed or lost. They can be repurposed and even reprogrammed back into the system again. Tiime will tell.

As far as Flynn's consern for weather or not he knew that he could NOT go back home. Well... On the grid he was getting older. Waiting his time till he passed. But sence Sam entered the Grid. It changed his perspective and gave him currage to face and challenge Clu and I beleive he knew. That he was not going to leave the grid because. He was already older and knew this was where he WANTED his resting place to be. He faught for what he beleived in being inside the Grid so much. That there was where he wanted to be. But after the curruption of Clu and the ' Purging ' of the ISOs. He knew there would be no way out. Even if he would have made it to the portal. He still may ... or I could be wrong. Have stayed on the grid by choice. Leaving Sam and the company behind so he can face Clu on his own and fix the problem he created within his own system.

Now I don't know if this sound crazy, but... Anything is possible in the Tron universe. And Flynn beleived in that. And so do I.

It could be she just didn't recognize Tron. To other programs (and ISO's I guess) they read the file directory and see the program names and as far as the system is concerned that is the name of the file. But as users we remember what they were before, we can scan the code or look at the file size and know what it use to be. She may have been telling Flynn about Rinzler, and Flynn just took it as another of Clu's henchmen. It wasn't until he saw Rinzler that he knew who he was.

I can only guess Rinzler came after Flynn stopped fighting, otherwise they would have crossed paths before no doubt.

I'm reaching here, I know.

I think he realized it when he gave his Disc to Quorra..

Bu I was a little dissapointed in the last Battle Scene...

I mean I feel CLU and Flynn should have fought a Disc Battle....
like when Flynn fights Sark in the 1st TRON movie.

Yes, all of that, essentially. Aside from the fact that I'm not knowledgeable about about the games (and who could be, since it sounds like there are at least three, each for a different platform and each with a different storyline if what I've head is true, so unless you own three different gaming systems, you're always going to be in the dark, and I don't think that's right to do to fans), I've sort of ignored them anyway, canon-wise. But you also know from past postings that I feel Disney spread the storyline WAAAAAAY too thin and has made fans chase all over way too much if they want the whole story (film, videogames, graphic novel, TV show, other additional material like The Next Day, etc.), and quite frankly, it's too much for THIS fan to keep up with and try to piece together everything in a way that it makes sense, so I've had to turn a blind eye to some. Especially since some sources provide different info that completely changes the storyline (like whether Tron escaped Clu at the time of the betrayal. T:L strongly implies he didn't... now they're saying he did. Or why Clu went bad-- T:L pretty much says he was a power-hungry nut; T:B says he went too far over legitimate concerns about safety and security. Etc.).

I agree with you that it's getting too complex though, and I think that's why I don't like it. I've said before that I feel, from the explanations and such that we're getting, that they seem to be blindly grasping to explain things rather than think them out, as I find many explanations for X, Y, and Z that a bunch of amateur fans here have come up with are more plausible than what professional writers came up with. (clearly they need to hire us.) And some stuff feels like it was patchworked on (like the animated series). Ah, well. They'll do what they do and no one else is going to get much say in the matter.

Oh, forgot to add.....Abraxas was formerly a good ISO "Jalen" who became corrupted by a virus, he then was Abraxas who is / was the virus. This is supposedly why Clu wanted to rid the grid of ISO's who he says introduced this virus to the grid. Clu betrays Flynn and the begins to take out the ISOs, but this occurs only after the Abraxas virus has been introduced. So, again, you are left wondering if Clu was corrupted by the virus and turned bad or if he created the virus as a cover to rid the grid of ISOs.

Just wanted to clarify that a bit. Of course, knowing this doesn't make it any clearer.