The opening Disney logo on the film is a Tronified version of the more traditional Disney castle logo. It is the same logo as seen at the beginning of Legacy, but colored red instead of blue.
Tronified	Traditional

The opening animatics of data moving through circuits in the System during Flynn's voiceover look similar to the Light Cycles game.  

The Ares-era Tron logo used here is a modified version of the Legacy one, which itself was a modified version of the logo of the first film.
Original logo	Legacy-era logo	Ares-era logo

The cover of National Business Report Weekly is seen in the opening montage of the film. This is a fictitious magazine.

The news reports glimpsed during the opening montage reveal that sisters Eve and Tess Kim have been left in charge of ENCOM by Sam Flynn. Julian Dillinger is now the CEO of Dillinger Systems. Julian is later said to be the son of Ed Dillinger, Jr. (Legacy) and grandson of Ed Dillinger (Tron).

A brief segment from ABC News' Good Morning America with real world host Robin Roberts is seen in the opening montage.

At 5:03 on the Blu-ray, Ares' identity disk has the Dillinger Systems logo on it.

    The old Quonset hut remote station set up by Kevin Flynn in Skagway, Alaska decades ago now has recent magazine covers and articles pinned up by Tess Kim before her death. The periodicals seen include World Tech Startups Report, Maximum Gamer, Current Tech, Endcode, Gridworld, Electrotek, The Weekly, Gamer, and Extreme Ga(mer?). These are fictitious periodicals.

    There is also a Flynn Lives poster hanging among the articles. This is a reference to the Flynn Lives Organization mentioned in "The Next Day". 

At the shareholder demonstration, Julian Dillinger introduces the Dillinger Systems Amphibious Rapid Response Tank (DART), a military tank that can be rezzed into the real world from the Dillinger Grid.

Julian has tattoos on his arms and neck that are circuit-board-like in design.

Elizabeth Dillinger is the eldest daughter of Edward Dillinger and mother to Julian.

At 17:17 on the Blu-ray, Seth has a box of Chocolate Lucky Charms cereal sitting next to the microwave.

At 18:29 on the Blu-ray, we see that Eve is working at an IBM Personal Computer in the old Alaska station.

The orange tree and orange fruit that are digitized into the real world at the remote station are callbacks to the first item seen digitized in Tron, an orange.

At 21:22 on the Blu-ray, Aquem Arena in Center City hosts Paranoia-Con for fans of ENCOM's Space Paranoids family of video games, the latest of which being Space Paranoids: Panic City. The Arena's digital ticker wrapping around the outside of the building reads "WELCOME PARANOIACS". Center City is the fictitious city around which the Tron universe's "real world" scenes take place (seemingly based on San Francisco).

A painted portrait of Ed Dillinger, Sr. (late actor David Warner) is hanging in Julian's office at 22:41 on the Blu-ray.

Julian's data readout on Eve Kim reveals she was born on July 26, 1986 to Tae Hyun Kim and Bora Kim. She lives at 1982 Gilford Road (presumably in Center City). She attended Franklin High School and Northwestern University. It also reveals Eve is the creator of Space Paranoids: Panic City.

At 25:23 on the Blu-ray, Ajay runs up on stage at Paranoia-Con past images of Code Wars and Astro Gunner. These were both games glimpsed in Tron. A wider shot of the stage shows images for other games like W.A.S.P., Word Word, Time Narc, Vice Squad, Arson Squad, Trooper Charger 3, Ishioka's Treasure, Laser Nightmare, D-Con, Light Cycles, Space Paranoids VRP, Astro Gunner Retro, Arc Wars: Aquae, Matrix Blaster Retro, X9 Racer, (Something) Planet, Eon, Solar Sailer, Solar Sailer Retro, Intruder Retro, Hex, X-Cross, Lethal Hyper Drive, W.A.S.P. Stinger, Discs of Tron, Tron Retro, ENCOM Retro, Retro Circuit Cycles, Vice Squad Retro, and Zaruxa. Vice Squad was also mentioned in Tron.

At 25:31 on the Blu-ray, a convention attendee is seen wearing Tron-style armor and a woman next to him holding up a Tron-style identity disk.

At 26:35 on the Blu-ray, as Ares skims through ENCOM's databank looking for Eve's file, a newspaper article is seen with the headline, "Who is Sam Flynn's Mystery Woman? Could She Be Behind the Latest Technology Boom at ENCOM?" and features a photo of Sam and Quorra.

The red eye seen at the ENCOM server farm at 26:39 on the Blu-ray may be a nod to the computer HAL 9000 from the 1968 and 1984 movies 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010.

Ares and his soldiers use Jump Jets to escape from the ENCOM security warriors.

The car Ajay rides in is a 2024 Audi Q8 e-tron.

At 33:01 on the Blu-ray, Ares' readout of the digital files he stole from ENCOM reveals that Seth Flores was born on June 20, 1989 in Guatemala City. And Ajay was born May 2, 1985 in Davis, CA.

In the digital files, Eve is seen riding a 2021 Ducati Hypermotard 950 SP motorcycle; she rides it again at 35:46. She is also seen reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. This is a reference to Mary Shelley's 1818 novel about Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a (possibly insane) scientist who created life from death. Quotes from the novel are seen in Ares' display as he analyzes what he is seeing.

At 33:23 on the Blu-ray, writer Sunny Cibulka is seen to have written in an article about the massive success of the reboot of the video game Space Paranoids. He writes, "By offering a variety of character options, as well as incorporating feedback from communities, Space Paranoids has become a rallying point for inclusivity in..."

The digital files reveal that Tess Kim was born January 5, 1988 in Los Angeles. She died from glioblastoma, an agressive type of brain cancer in 2025.

Ares' display identifies Eve's jet as a Gulfstream G600. But the plane she and Seth disembark from appears to be a Dassault Falcon 7X.

The blue and white jacket Eve wears while riding her Ducati in the chase scene has a Ducati patch on the left shoulder.

At 35:46 on the Blu-ray, Seth drives a 1983 Audi quattro B2 rally car.

The police cruisers that enter the chase at 38:35 are 2011 Dodge Charger Pursuit models.

    The transit bus labeled Blue Apex Bus at 39:08 on the Blu-ray is a New Flyer D 40 LF. Notice that its destination sign reads "MEAD-MOEBIUS", a nod by the filmmakers to Syd Mead and Jean "Moebius" Giraud, iconic concept artists who largely developed the visual aesthetic of the original Tron movie.

   The side of the bus has an advertising placard for Miss Moo's Dairy. This appears to be a fictitious business.

During the chase scene at 39:49 on the Blu-ray, an Enterprise Rent-A-Car business is seen. Enterprise also sponsored the TRON Lightcycle Power Run ride at Disney World.

The car Ares almost runs into with the infant aboard at 42:59 on the Blu-ray is a 2025 MINI Cooper S. The car has license plate 4YW-Y37, with no state nomenclature on the plate. At the bottom of the plate is "PACIFIC NORTHWEST". There is no state uses that slogan on their license plates, though Oregon has a blue-and-gold retro specialty license plate with "PACIFIC WONDERLAND" at the bottom.

At 44:45 on the Blu-ray, Ares and Eve chase each other into the grounds of Dumont Recycling. This appears to be a sister company to Dumont Shipping, as they share the same "Dumont" logo design. In Legacy, Sam Flynn was seen to be living in a structure built out of shipping containers from Dumont Shipping. The Dumont name is a tip-of-the-hat to the Tower Guardian called Dumont in the original system seen in Tron.

At 46:39 on the Blu-ray, shipping containers for Yang Ming and Maersk are seen stacked at the docks.

At 51:49 on the Blu-ray, Julian is furious that Ares is questioning his orders and tells the program, "Now, whatever PEBCAK error is behind these feelings? I'm going to find it and rip it out of you. Do I make myself clear?" PEBCAK is an acronym for "problem exists between keyboard and chair". This is usually a way that computer practitioners or technical service personnel say that the user is the one in error, not the computer; it's a derogatory term. Presumably, Julian knows what PEBCAK stands for, but ironically, it applies more to he himself than to his program (Ares) because he is the one using a keyboard to interact with the computer world. Ares just uses his voice in the computer world.

After his conversation with Julian, Ares remarks to himself, "The creature also said, 'I am fearless, and therefore powerful.'" He is quoting from Frankenstein.

Going against his creator's orders to extract the Permanence Code from Eve, Ares tells Athena that the user is indisposed and when Athena asks him to define "indisposed" he retorts, "He's stuck in traffic. No. He's at the opera. He's standing on the top of Mount Fuji in a pair of green socks playing "Pistol Packin' Mama" on the mandolin. I gave you an order. The creator is indisposed. Hold extraction until we receive further directive. Do I make myself clear?" Mount Fuji is a still active volcano on the Japanese island of Honshu and is the highest mountain of Japan. "Pistol Packin' Mama" is a 1942 song by Al Dexter which has been covered in numerous recordings over the decades.

When Julian realizes that Ares has betrayed him for the code, he angrily says to Eve, "Well, well, well. Just got double-crossed by my program. It wants the Permanence Code for itself! Eve, is that the deal? He gets you out of the Grid, you turn Pinocchio into a real boy?" Pinocchio is a character in Carlo Collodi's 1883 children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, a wooden puppet who wants to become a real boy.

At 58:05 on the Blu-ray, during the water chase in the Grid, the splash marks that hit the camera lens cause square shaped lens flare instead of round to indicate this is the digital world.

At the Dillinger Systems plant, Eve and Ares steal a van belonging to Shaddix Industrial Cleaning Services. This is a fictitious company. The van is a 2015 Ford Transit XL EL High Roof. "Shaddix" is also the name of a background character in Legacy, a bartender at the End of Line club portrayed by Tron creator Steven Lisberger. In a scene cut from our current film, Lisberger played the driver of the Shaddix Even and Ares steal it from.

Fleeing with Ares in the van, Eve stops at Hawk Mountain Market at an Orenco gas station to use a phone. These appear to be a fictitious businesses.

Eve finds a copy of Modern Gamer magazine with a photo of her on the cover on the rack at the store. This is a fictitious magazine.

The clerk at the store, Dan, wears a vest over his t-shirt, making it hard to make out the logo on the shirt, but it might be for the heavy metal band Metallica with an image that was used for the single release of their 1988 song "Harvester of Sorrow".

    At 1:05:10 on the Blu-ray, notice that the Dumont logo is on the lower right corner of the passenger door of Dan's stolen car. Dumont sure gets around! The car is a 2011 Honda Civic Coupe SE.

    Also in this shot, a Coca-Cola sign is seen in the background. 

Ares seems to be a fan of classic items in the material world. He comments that their stolen car (Dan's Honda) is a classic and is a fan of the electropop band Depeche Mode, including their song "Just Can't Get Enough" from 1981.

    At 1:06:26 on the Blu-ray, a sticker reading MARS is seen on the passenger side rear window of Dan's car. It may be a reference to the 1986 heavy metal band M.A.R.S. The driver's side rear window has a number of other heavy metal or rock'n'roll related stickers: Iron Maiden, KISS, Metallica, and Rolling Stones are evidenced.

    The windshield has a Hoonigan sticker along the top. 

It's hard to see unless the light hits it just right, but there are circuit imprints on Ares' armor. Presumably all armor from the Dillinger Grid (and maybe others) has this feature.

The shot of the car hitting the trash can as it comes to a stop shows the street signs Dunsmuir and Burrard, revealing it was shot in Vancouver, Canada.

Eve and Seth take Ares into a replica of Kevin Flynn's old office inside the ENCOM building. A plaque on the outside says it was dedicated by Sam Flynn and features items loaned by the Sam Flynn Foundation.

In Flynn's office is a copy of his book The Digital Frontier: Mapping the Other Universe. This book was previously glimpsed in Legacy. Another book seen is the 1981 science-fiction novel Status Quotient: The Carrier by Ralph A. Sperry.

At 1:10:05 on the Blu-ray, a Pac-Man hand held video game unit is seen in Flynn's office.

At 1:14:18 on the Blu-ray, an award certificate for 1985 Best Game of the Year is seen for Space Paranoids. It seems a bit odd that the award is for 1985 since the game is known to exist in Tron, which takes place in 1982.

At 1:13:24 on the Blu-ray, a number of arcade console games are seen in Flynn's office, including some not previously mentioned: Yori's Quest (did Flynn write this game after meeting Yori in Tron?), Seven Seas Trove, Comet Collider, M!MTOWN, <something> Push, and <something> Bot.

At 1:14:35 on the Blu-ray, a number of pinball machines are seen in Flynn's office: Avenging Alien, Road Rally, Mars, Dragenna, and Big Top. Although there have been pinball machines called Mars and Big Top, the cabinets seen here appear to be for fictitious versions. The other games are also fictitious.

In the original Grid, the large crack in the wall of the light cycle arena Ares sees and escapes through appears to be identical to the one formed during the light cycle match played by Flynn, Tron, and Ram against Sark's combatants in Tron. You'd think the crack would have been repaired by the ruling programs of the grid by now, although the grid is soon seen to be seemingly almost devoid of life, with only a Bit and a residue copy of Flynn seen. What happened to all the programs that lived there?

At 1:17:49 on the Blu-ray, a reporter for KVKC delivers a report on the attack on ENCOM on television. This appears to be a fictitious station. At 1:22:01, another fictitious station, KJPX, is seen on a television in the background.

Dell monitors are seen in use at Dillinger Systems at 1:18:29 on the Blu-ray.

The producers cite the film as taking place 14 years after the December 2010 events of Legacy, placing it in 2025. While indirect references in the film has the Tron Wiki placing the events at the end of October 2025, a monitor screen at Dillinger Systems when Julian is seeking to shut down the assembly of a Recognizer shows a November 26 date.

Ares meets some kind of remnant of Flynn in the original Grid. Ares asks if he, Flynn, is alive and Flynn responds only, "I exist in this moment because you do. A reflection of your presence."

Flynn has the same delta symbol on his clothing here as was seen on his digital armor in Tron.

At 1:25:58 on the Blu-ray, three solar sailers are seen flying in the sky inside the original grid. Are there actual programs flying them, indicating the grid is not entirely uninhabited?

The night shots of a bay in the Center City are of Vancouver Harbor.

At 1:30:04 on the Blu-ray, Eve runs past the St. Regis Hotel, another Vancouver landmark on the aforementioned Dunsmuir Street.

At 1:30:36 on the Blu-ray, a People's Group building is seen. This is a Canadian financial services company based in Vancouver.

The fighter jets that engage Athena's Recognizer over the city are Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II models. The pilots are portrayed by the music composers of the film, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, collectively known as Nine Inch Nails.

1:34:42 on the Blu-ray, the ARQ XO711 computer that holds the Arq Grid seen in Arq Grid and Catalyst is seen in the basement of Flynn's Arcade.

When Ares returns to the real world from his visit with Flynn in the original Grid and now imbued with the Permanence Code, he is now wearing armor with white highlights instead of red.

1:43:12 on the Blu-ray, Julian receives an alert on his computer that implies the Dillinger mainframe is being restarted/restored automatically by SARK-ES-1117821 (Systems Analytics and Reporting Kernal). "Sark", of course, was the name of the merciless program who served as the MCP's enforcer in the original grid in Tron. In the novelization of that film, Sark's full name is given as "Sark, ES--1117821".

At 1:46:25 on the Blu-ray, on the left side of Eve's "Flynn shrine" wall, there is an article clipping about Julian Dillinger featuring a black-and-white photo of him. The photo has been defaced with black ink by Eve, with Julian now sporting a mustache, his tongue hanging out, slanted eyebrows, and devil horns.

It's not clear how much time has passed in the denouement of the movie, but a news report has a broadcaster saying that ENCOM is transforming the industry thanks to the discovery of the Permanence Code, growing crops in inhospitable regions, and developing drugs for the treatment of different cancers.

The address on Ares' postcard to Eve has her at "1 Encom Plaza, PNW, 01982". Does PNW simply stand for Pacific Northwest? The zip code 01982 is in South Hamilton, MA, the opposite side of the country.

The writing on the postcard Eve is seen reading is different than the writing style of Ares as we see him writing it. The message is also different (although too blurry too read exactly on screen).

Ares looks at an article clipping about Sam Flynn and his "mystery companion", the accompanying photo showing Sam and Quorra together. From behind the clipping, he then slides out a photo that appears to be of Quorra, but her hair appears to be receding from her forehead, rather like male pattern baldness. Is this meant to indicate that her body has been deteriorating during her time in the real world? When Quorra was brought into the real world at the end of Legacy, there was no talk of a "Permanence Code", yet she certainly was seen to have reamined instact in the world for more than 29 minutes. Her status as an ISO, a race that spontaneously evolved on the Grid rather than having been created by users, may account for her longevity there. The photo seen here may indicated that she is degrading, just much, much more slowly than a user program. Perhaps the Permanence Code can rejuvenate her. Is that what Ares has made his new mission?

The Quorra photo has writing on it, "LAST SEEN, 19.2955˚N, 99.3158˚W". These are coordinates in the jungle of the state of Puebla, Mexico.

Ares' motorcycle is a Ducati 900 SS with what appears to be a foreign license plate (likely a Mexican state), M-4743. The word "DESMO" on the motorcycle is short for "Desmodromic valve system", an engine valvetrain design used in Ducati's racing bikes.

At the end of the movie, the Quonset hut research station from Alaska has been moved to the top of the ENCOM skyscraper as a museum piece and now has a plaque in front of it reading, "The Quonset Hut, Tess Kim's Field Laboratory. Within this building the Permanence Code was discovered by Eve Kim, finishing the work of her sister, Tess Kim. Their breakthrough work unlocked the secrets of stable digital life and continues to inspire world-changing innovation everywhere."

In a mid-credits sequence, Julian has arrived into the Dillinger Grid and picks up what appears to be Sark's identity disc and is immediately enmeshed in a modern version of the Sark armor.

Unanswered Questions

Is Ares actually a program based on coding written by Kevin Flynn? Although supposedly written by Julian, Ares is a fan of 1980s culture and Flynn was last seen in the real world in the late '80s. Also, when Ares visits the original Grid to seek the Permanence Code, he meets with a residual copy of Flynn who tells him, "I exist in this moment because you do. A reflection of your presence." Why would Ares' presence trigger a remnant of Flynn unless Ares is made up at least partly of Flynn's coding? This would imply that Julian is a much a thief of Flynn's work as his grandfather was in Tron.

Has Quorra slowly been deteriorating over the 14 years she's been in the real world?

Memorable Dialog

you are Master Control.mp3

Ares is the ultimate soldier.mp3

in deep shit.mp3

a big smile on his face.mp3

transfer of biological lifeform in progress.mp3

the user is indisposed.mp3

is this for the Christmas video?.mp3

think 80s.mp3

leave you in a Grid less complex than my smartphone for all eternity.mp3

very persistent.mp3

did we win?.mp3

you're a Bit.mp3

greetings, program.mp3

a super nice guy.mp3

I can't put my love of Depeche Mode into words.mp3

living off-grid.mp3