Tron: Ares

NOW IN THEATERS! Directed by Joachim Rønning and written by Jesse Wigutow, Tron: Ares is the long-awaited continuation of Disney’s neon-soaked digital saga that began over 40 years ago. What should have been a bold exploration of artificial life crossing into the real world instead becomes a confused spectacle that mistakes visual effects for vision.

First, it’s not about Tron. It’s about Ares (Jared Leto), a digital program created as an experimental project by tech mogul Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters). Julian, the CEO of Dillinger Systems, intends to revolutionize warfare by bringing artificial, digital life from the Grid into the real world and selling it to the highest bidder in the military. Ares is the strongest, fastest, most agile warrior—but his mere existence is unstable as he, along with anything else from the Grid, can only survive for twenty-nine minutes outside before de-rezzing. The key to stabilizing him lies in a lost fragment of source code known as the Permanence Code, which holds the power to make digital beings permanent in the human world.

(L-R) Greta Lee as Eve Kim, Jared Leto as Ares, and Arturo Castro as Seth Flores in Disney’s Live Action TRON: ARES. Photo by Leah Gallo. © 2025 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

“Eve soon finds herself hunted by Ares and his fellow digital soldier, Athena, under Julian’s command.”

The story of Tron: Ares revolves around two competing technology giants: Encom, led by Eve Kim (Greta Lee), and Dillinger Systems, run by Julian and his mother (Gillian Anderson). Following her sister’s mysterious death, Eve inherits control of Encom and uncovers the Permanence Code hidden within her sister’s remote snowy laboratory. When Julian learns of this discovery, he launches a covert mission to seize the code from Eve.

Eve soon finds herself hunted by Ares and his fellow digital soldier, Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith), who are operating under Julian’s command. Their orders are clear—capture Eve by any means necessary and bring her back to the Grid so that her memories can be extracted and the Permanence Code located. Which leads to a light cycle chase across the city. At the same time, upon seeing Eve, Ares starts to have “feelings” for her.