I started with Ares first to get a sense of how things were envisioned in the Tron universe in 2025.  The core idea in this movie was that the military-industrial complex, exemplified by ENCOM and Dillinger Systems, is in a race to bring digital constructs into reality.  The digital constructs can only survive in our "real" world for an hour before their 3D-printed bodies disintegrate.  Somewhere in the Tronverse, the OG Tron creators have created permanence code, which allows for these constructs to be permanently "rezzed" in the real world (until someone kills them, hence the "impermanence code" joke later in the movie.  It was a fun movie, with the protagonist hiding in plain sight at the end of the film, exploring humanity. It's very much begging for a sequel.  I'd give it a 3/5 stars.  It was a good plane movie.

Having had that background, I then watched the original Tron. Some of the history in Ares gets set in the original Tron, and it's nice to be able to make those connections.  Both the visuals and the story in the 1982 Tron are a bit primitive.  It was a fine movie, but I am not sure it's aged well. The explain a movie badly version of the plot is that Kevin Flynn (the dude), formerly employed by technology corporation ENCOM, now runs a video game arcade, where he hacks into ENCOM's system with a program called CLU, hoping to find proof that he is the true author of ENCOM's best-selling videogame, Space Paranoids. However, ENCOM's Master Control Program (MCP) halts his progress and deletes CLU.  The dude gets digitized and enters the arena games against other programs (picture Word and Excel, but in a colosseum!) to try to escape the digital prison. Ultimately, he wins, rematerializes in the real world, there's proof he's the author of the popular game, and MCP is deactivated. Hurray for the good guys!

There's something about this being watched on a small screen on a plane that made it palatable.  I think if I had to watch this at home, I'd most likely be zoned out from the weirdness of having Excel chasing Word with a tank in a virtual world 😂. I'd give this a very enjoyable 2/5.

Finally, I watched the middle of the movies, Tron: Legacy. So, in 1989 ENCOM CEO Kevin Flynn vanishes, leaving behind his son, Sam. Twenty years later, Sam investigates a signal from his father’s abandoned arcade and is accidentally digitized into "the Grid," a virtual world. Sam is captured and forced into gladiatorial combat (against Excel again? I forget). He is rescued by Quorra (no, no, not the discussion board), a unique digital being, who reunites him with his aging father. Kevin explains that his digital clone, CLU, betrayed him, turned the security program Tron into the villainous Rinsler, and wiped out the system's evolving programs to create a "perfect utopia." CLU now aims to steal Kevin's master identity disc to escape into the real world and conquer it. Sam, Kevin, and Quorra launch a daring heist on CLU’s flagship to retrieve the disc. During an aerial escape, Rinsler remembers he is Tron and sacrifices himself to protect them. At the portal, CLU corners the group. To save his son, Kevin sacrifices himself by forcibly absorbing CLU, destroying the Grid. Sam and Quorra escape into the physical world.

Overall, this was another enjoyable 3/5 movie. There is something about a plane's small tablet-style screen and lack of ability to move frequently that really makes these movies enjoyable.  Maybe it's that it forces you to focus on them instead of messing around with your phone or laptop 😂

So yeah... we need more Tronverse stuff!