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Similar to its predecessor from 1980s, Tron Legacy showed what a man-coming-home subject is all about. Sadly, it was the only plot it got. Nothing more!

“Man-coming-home,” which was frequently used in Hollywood, conveys a particular idea of the importance of family. The story often goes like this: a once happy man suddenly deprived from his family, whether being outcast by divorce or other tragedy. He strives himself to go through a series of hardship, finally comes back home, reunites with his lovely family, and in the end he can be a happy man again. Though cliché as it has been, the plot itself unintentionally carries out a serious metaphor: a man loses his family; the society loses its function. Only by letting the man go home can he regain his self-value, and meanwhile the society can regain its function. In other words, it is the very salvation to both the man and the society, and also the very happy ending that we audiences are always expecting.

From a storytelling perspective, Tron Legacy basically shared the same story as Tron in 1982, with slight differences. Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges, trapped in the cyber world by a program Clu he created. In order to find Kevin, his son Sam was accidentally transcended to the world, just like his father. There, he tried every means to rescue his father from Clu’s power, but he never thought there was a conspiracy: Clu was using Sam to terminate Kevin, and to escape outside, releasing his digital army, and concurring the real world!

The audiences would, without a doubt, be painfully disappointed if they try to find certain philosophy like how the telecommunication progress alters human activity, or the interesting argument about online sharing in the film. As the matter of fact, the movie has no intention to discuss any of the social argument, or to involve audiences to experience the thrill of cyber-revolution; rather, it simply obsessed in showing off the latest 3D technology, the spectacular cyberspace backdrop, the neon-glow art direction, and the shallow man-coming-home cliché. Feels like you enter your living room, looking under your colorfully glowing Christmas tree with enthusiasm, then you shockingly find that there is no present underneath. This is exactly like how it felt after you walked out of theater! You were cheated!

Since it was a typical man-coming-home plot, was Kevin Flynn home eventually? That’s a good question. In the film, Kevin Flynn never made it home; he blew up with Clu after absorbing him into his body. However, if looked closer to the characteristic before/after Sam Flynn coming in/out of Tron, we would get an obvious answer. Before Tron, Sam Flynn was an outcast, passively living on his solitude and rage; afterward, he amazingly became optimistic, ready to take over his father’s company. Despite the fact that Kevin never went home, along with his son, his spirit did. The ending scene also symbolically displayed, as Quorra riding with Sam on the bike, enthusiastically admiring the sunrise, a gradual formation of a new happy family. It was the perfect salvation for Sam, Kevin included as well.

In conclusion, the man is home for sure. However, a movie with man-coming-home subject does not necessarily means it has to embrace the subject unconditionally. The biggest failure of Tron Legacy is that the story itself only emphasizes on whether Sam can bring his father back, but nothing else.