Tron (1982), or Jesus Rides a Light-Cycle

The other day I got to thinking about this new Tron: Legacy movie and realized I hadn't seen the original in years.  So, since the film is out of print on DVD and runs around $50 on eBay, I dusted off an old VHS copy and got cracking.  What I found was a film that relies almost as heavily on Christian mythology as those Narnia movies.

To refresh your memory, the plot revolves around three "users" who write computer programs for a large corporation call Encom. Jeff Bridges is a cocky 80's video game programmer who gets digitized into the computer world while attempting to hack into the system to get info on some intellectual property.

I hope I don't make this face when I play video games

In this world, computer programs personify inside the "game grid" and look exactly like the user who created them. The big cheese in this game grid is Sark.

You know I'm evil because my suit is red

He's the main bad dude and answers directly to the Master Control Program.  The MCP is a big floating head (coincidence?) that's an amalgamation of many programs from many users.

Also red

He's a little like Microsoft Windows - taking smaller programs and "de-rezzing" them in order to incorporate them into its power structure.

Now, if that sounds like some of the most convoluted gibberish you've heard since trying to decipher the the plot of The Killing of Satan, well, you're not alone. Don't worry though, the plot is only there to confuse you enough to ignore what the creators must have known would be a horribly dated film within 18 months of its release. That, and to get the glowing characters from place to place, doing things, running from glowing things that pew-pew at them, and generally journeying through a world that the filmmakers have made no attempt to infuse with anything but visual panache.

Seriously, this is the closest thing we get to a "culture" in this world

All that is relatively normal for the 80's though.  What sets this film apart is its depiction of Jeff Bridges as a Christ-like character.

If this image doesn't sell the idea, I'm not sure what will

Sure (you may say) there's really only a couple of things that make this connection.  One might also make the argument that what we really have in this film is simply the "Hero Archetype" and not necessarily a connection to Jesus.  I get it.

But hear me out.  First of all, within the game world, "users" are essentially Gods.  Sark (whose pajamas even have devil horns) goes so far as to persecute the believers if they refuse to denounce their faith in the users.  Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is a user who is made into a program (God becomes man?) and performs "miracles" with his user power inside the game grid.  Later, the obscure actress-lady program essentially "dies" and Flynn "brings her back" (Lazarus?).  And finally, he sacrifices himself by jumping into the MCP so that the system can be free from its evil.

And seriously, doesn't it just make sense that Jesus would ride a Light-Cycle?