By: A.B. Timothy
Introduction
Tron: Ares is a movie released in 2025 by Disney, starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee, and Jeff Bridges. It is the third installment in the Tron franchise of movies and is a spiritual successor, rather than a direct sequel. Directed by Joachim Rønning, Tron Ares was released on October 10th, 2025. The ratings have been mediocre, with a critic’s rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 55% and an audience rating of 86%
My review will consist of three parts: Characters, Plot, and Pacing, concluding in an overall rating of my own.
Characters
In this movie, there are four characters that matter. The titular character of Ares, played by Jared Leto. The CEO of ENCOM, Eve Kim, played by Greta Lee. The CEO of Dillinger Systems, Julian Dillinger, played by Evan Peters. Lastly, a security program, called Athena, played by Jodie Turner-Smith. An honorable mention to Jeff Bridges, who reprised his role as Kevin Flynn, playing the guardian of the object of desire in the plot.
Ares
Ares is the most advanced security AI ever developed, across the board. During the opening of the film, we see Ares pitted against virus after virus. We see this from his perspective, inside the GRID (the digital frontier), intercut with the neural network presented as a digitized spiderwebbed vortex, along with shots of Julian Dillinger writing and executing the commands that train Ares. He is next shown to us receiving his name after his training is complete; he is called Ares and receives the title of Master Control, a title steeped in Tron Lore. We are then shown him being extracted from the Grid and brought to the real world as a tech demo by Julian, to receive government contracts as a weapons manufacturer. After the visitors had left, Ares approached the door of the massive facility where the demo was happening and reached his hand outdoors. For the first time, this program feels water falling on his skin, which begins his awakening.
Ares is a very compelling character because he dives into many philosophical questions. How human can AI be? Is it better to live eternally while suffering death every thirty minutes, or to live once the length of a human life?
Eve Kim
Eve Kim is the CEO of ENCOM, the successor of Sam Flynn, who disappeared again sometime between the events of Legacy and this movie. Her sister died of a disease, and Eve took up her sister’s work, finding what is called the “Permanence Code.” This code is the object of power and desire that drives the rest of the plot of the movie. It stops the 29-minute de-rez that happens to programs brought to the real world from the Grid, which includes plant life and infrastructure, not just AI like Ares.
It is the empathy Eve shows Ares that causes him to disobey his directive for the first time, after she is uploaded into the Grid, mirroring her predecessor, Sam Flynn.. She then partners with him for the rest of the movie to protect the permanence code, which eventually gets gifted to him by Kevin Flynn.
Overall, Eve Kim is a great character and plays her role as a friend and philanthropist well.
Julian Dillinger
Dillinger Systems is the rival technology company to ENCOM. Thus their CEOs are also at odds with one another. Julian is under stress from his board to get his market share back up and stop obsessing over the Permanence Code. He finds out that Eve has it, however, and sends Ares after Eve to stop her from getting the code to ENCOM and retrieving it for Dillinger Systems. This sets in motion the process of events which leads to his and Dillinger System’s ultimate downfall.
As a Foil for Eve Kim, Julian does an amazing job. Evan Peters portrays a desperate, manic, and boderline obsessive CEO who is playing with forces beyond his comprehension. His ending is the most tragic, while also being the most hopeful for a sequel.
Athena
The other Security AI, Athena, is totally obident to her directives, unlike Ares. She is sent to finish the mission Ares could not bring himself to finish. Retrieve Eve Kim, bring her back to the Grid, extract the permanence code from her disc and delete the carrier.
It is on this mission, however, after she watches Ares get uploaded into an acient rendition of the Grid, while she is about to upload Eve and complete her mission, the sprinklers inside the building, reminescent of the rain Ares felt at the start of the film, falls on her making her hesitate as she expierences the new sensation. Unlike Ares, however, who reacts to the rain by beginning his path to sentience and permanence, Athena allows this sensation to embolden her and turn against her Creator, Julian Dillinger, forgetting everything but the directive and locking the creator out of his override powers.
Athena is an amazing foil for Area and, paired with him, shows the two sides of the AI coin.
Plot
The plot summary is this: Eve Kim discovers the Permanence Code, needed to allow objects summoned from the Grid to remain in the real world indefinetly, and begins her return to ENCOM, to distribute the code. Meanwhile, Julian Dillinger designs, devlops, and deploys Ares, the Master Control, and the Perfect Weapon. The hitch is that this perfect weapon can only last in the real world for 29 minutes without the permanence code. Thus, Julian sends Ares and Athena out to retrieve the code from Eve Kim. Rather than let it fall into unworthy hands, Eve snaps the USB containing the code in two and throws it into the river. Julian anticipated this and enacted Plan B. Eve gets uploaded into the Grid. Ares has a change of heart and goes agains The Creator (Julian Dillinger)’s directive to kill Eve and retrieve the Permanence Code from her Identity Disc. Ares and Eve escape the Grid together and are chased by Athena in the real world. Athena runs out of time the first time she is sent out. Then decides that she will succeed at all costs, killing people in the process. Athena is then confronted by Ares, who has been transformed by a meeting with Kevin Flynn, and has recieved permanence. They battle, and Ares defeats Athena. Meanwhile a team of hackers form ENCOM manage to infiltrate and crash, or “nuke” as they call it, the Dillinger Systems servers, winning the day.
The Plot is very much a monomyth story about a an AI learning to become mortal. Flynn calls the “Permanence Code” the “Impermanence Code” as he realized that if this code was used, these programs would stop being imortal lines of code on servers and gpus, and would begin to age, decay, and die like humans. The time Ares spends in Flynn’s server helps him solidify his new identity and decide that he truly wants to be mortal, because things passing away is what gives them meaning.
I give the plot, all around, a 9/10 because it tackles a very human story. This is even called out by Julian who asks Eve, “What? And turn Pinocchio here into a real boy?” refering to Ares.
Pace
The pace is wonderful. Breakneck from start to finish. The only time it slows is during the scenes between Ares and Flynn in the old server Ares is uploaded to. These breaks are much needed and allow us to process the threat that our heroes in the real world are facing.
Conclusion
I give Tron: Ares a 9/10 overall. As a life-long lover of the Tron franchise, I was thrilled to see all of the eras of Tron come together into this story. I am excited for a sequel if it comes.
Plugs
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