Uprising Script Pages Analysis/Theories
Ok, so I don’t know about you guys, but those Uprising TV movie script pages Bill Wolkoff dropped have haunted me since they were posted. Since I have Many Thoughts I figured I would share them, and Tron’s 40th anniversary seemed like the perfect time! I’m going to analyze all five of the pages we have so far, so this will be a long post, and I’m not gonna put it under the cut in case anything ever happens to my blog. Sorry in advance lol.
Analysis
The new batch of four pages starts on page 39.
We see that Quorra and Beck have just escaped from Clu’s ship. The page opens with them falling through the air (fighting as they go), and when the scene shifts Clu is looking at the hatch they just jumped out of. I know this is redundant but Quorra and Beck were in a room with Clu and Dyson and they managed to escape (it appears) unharmed. That’s pretty impressive.
Dyson says, “I… seem to have made a mistake,” and then talks about bringing Clu the real Tron. Which means that Clu and Dyson almost certainly know Beck’s identity. Or at least his face! Depending on how they learned he wasn’t actually Tron, maybe they didn’t get Beck’s name. I kind of doubt he’s that lucky, though.
Based on Clu’s conversation with Dyson here, it sounds like Dyson captured Beck thinking he was Tron and brought him to Clu without actually checking. (Either Beck kept quiet or he does a good enough imitation to fool someone who knows the real deal.) That makes sense, because Dyson saw the real Tron in Argon in “Scars.” I guess he had no reason to think the Renegade and Tron weren’t the same person. However, this mistake costs Dyson with Clu. I have to wonder if this is maybe the latest in a string of mistakes from Dyson, since there were supposed to be a few more episodes of Uprising before this movie aired where he may have been placed in charge of Argon (a theory based on this storyboarded scene), and the situation there appears to have escalated.
When Quorra and Beck land below we see that Argon is under attack from the occupation, to the point that it is a “war zone.” Again, there were supposed to be two or three more episodes of Uprising after “Terminal,” so it’s hard to know whether or not this is a new development. We don’t know how long Clu’s armada waited before attacking Argon.
Beck says “Thanks for the rescue,” indicating that Quorra saved him from Clu and Dyson. (And she appeared to be doing most of the fighting at the top of the page lol.)
Beck references a “Network” that Quorra is working for. I’m not sure if that would include Flynn, other ISOs, or someone else, but in order for Beck to be aware of that network she would had to have brought it up in one of the scenes we don’t have. That, or maybe Clu or Dyson mentioned/accused her of being part of a larger network while they were onboard Clu’s ship.
Quorra says, “I risked my life to save Tron. Not some kid playing dress-up.” She only rescued Beck because (initially) she also thought he was the real Tron. Beck counters that “Argon’s standing up to Clu,” because of him. This makes it sound like the programs of Argon are actively fighting back against the occupation at this point, which is what season one was clearly building up to. It seems like and Tron made some significant progress in the episodes we don’t have.
Quorra still doesn’t sound interested in working with Beck, but she does say “I am impressed you’re operating outside your programming.” To me, this confirms that Clu and Dyson learned Beck’s actual identity. How could Quorra know that Beck is operating outside of his programming unless she knows what his programming is? If she knows that Beck is a mechanic, it’s likely because she was on Clu’s ship when he learned that Beck was a mechanic.
Quorra knows that Tron is alive because Beck is terrible at keeping secrets.
Wow Beck is terrible at keeping secrets.
(Quorra uses the word “minute,” why.)
Quorra knows that Clu is after Tron, though she seems to think that this is for different reasons than we learned in the “Scars” arc.
Here we also get a look at some of the tech that’s being used to attack Argon. These “spheres” were also mentioned on page 39, so we can assume that these are being dropped all over the city, and we see that they’re incredibly destructive. At this point it seems like Clu is willing to wipe out the entire city and all the programs in it in order to put down the rebellion.
Quorra is leaving Beck to go somewhere–maybe to get more help (or to check in with someone)? I don’t think she’s leaving Argon (unless she has a change of heart) because she’s back again on page 63.
Quorra asks Beck to stop being the Renegade, which is interesting considering the brief scene in Legacy where she talks about how Flynn fought back against Clu. Even if she has her reasons, she’s attempting to quash a rebellion here. Beck also seems to have no idea why Clu would be after Tron. Either he and Tron just haven’t talked about this (that tracks) or he tried to ask Tron and he wouldn’t provide any answers (which also tracks).
And then Quorra says THIS: “He’ll hunt you next–because you think you’re like us. He hates anyone who defies their programming. He wants that power for himself. That’s why he’s hunting Tron. Tron is the key to Clu finally being able to create his own programs. So if you really want to help Tron… you’ll stay far away from him.”
There’s so much to unpack here.
FIRST, it was common knowledge that Tron was from another system! Programs on the Grid knew about the ENCOM system. I never expected this show to address that, and it might be my favorite piece of information from these pages. It also makes sense considering that the events that took place there made Tron a legendary hero in the first place.
Next, Clu is hunting Tron specifically because he’s from another system. Maybe Flynn did place some restrictions on what Clu can and can’t do, and having access to code from a different system would allow him to break/work around those? That still doesn’t make a ton of sense though because in Legacy Clu has Rinzler and no one says anything about him making his own programs, just repurposing ones that already exist. Dyson said the repurposing process was crude directly after the coup, so maybe something about Tron’s code could make it better? I also have no idea how Quorra could know any of this unless she’s already been talking with Flynn and he thinks it’s a concern. (Which would mean he suspects that Tron is alive… which didn’t seem to be the case in Legacy…)
Finally–and this is actually the part I find most interesting–is the line about “You think you’re like us. He hates anyone who defies their programming.” From Clu’s perspective, this could be the actual conflict of this show. Not dealing with/capturing Tron. Not finding Flynn. Not defeating the Renegade. Just keeping this one piece of information under wraps. We know that Clu hates the ISOs because they don’t have directives. He sees them as chaotic and without purpose. More specifically, he sees them as a threat because they can make their own decisions. They can act for themselves, however they want. They’re free, as Quorra explains in “Isolated.” BUT this line, and the one about Beck “operating outside of [his] programming,” indicate that ISOs aren’t the only programs who can do that. ISOs don’t have directives, but Beck is proof that basics can ignore theirs. If Argon at large is rebelling, he led an entire city of programs to ignore their directives in favor of fighting against Clu. This is what Clu is going to want to keep from spreading beyond Argon. Not just the rebellion itself, but the realization that every program on the Grid can decide for themselves what they want to do–that they don’t have to listen to him just because he’s the administrator. It’s possible that this is another reason he targeted the ISOs and made such a spectacle of it. He wanted basics to think that ISOs were the only programs who were capable of deciding their own fate, so that no one else would try to fight back against him.
Considering what happened to every place the ISOs went, and the attacks that are already happening here, that spells big trouble for Argon.
The next page we have is number 63 (so clearly there’s a bit of a skip here).
I assume Quorra is talking to Beck at the beginning of this page. I can’t help but wonder if he’s done something new here when she refers to “your job” or if she just means… starting the Uprising in general. “Let us take over from here” again implies that she isn’t working alone.
Beck was restrained here (?), but he breaks free. I’m guessing Quorra tied him up in an attempt to keep him from following her. No such luck. Once free, Beck notes that “the ship is nowhere in sight.” I’m guessing that they’re waiting on a ship here (since one shows up soon after), but there’s also a chance that one just left. If that’s true, I wonder if they sent someone else away.
DAFT PUNK IS PART OF QUORRA’S NETWORK.
(I know Wolkoff said this almost certainly wouldn’t have made it into the movie but just. Let me have this lmao.)
Quorra says “They’ll get us there. Trust me.” She and Beck are going somewhere, and I’m guessing it’s outside of Argon if they need a giant ship to get there. I highly doubt they would be going to Tron in that thing after Quorra spent like three pages talking about how no one can find him.
We also see here that Beck still doesn’t trust Quorra very much. These two seem to be off to a bit of a rocky start.
Annnnnnd those are all the pages we have (for now).
Theories
In no particular order, here’s some speculation prompted by these pages.
So, based on everything we saw in “Scars,” I get the sense that Dyson isn’t an especially loyal program. Tron is loyal to a fault, but Dyson seems more interested in serving whoever can best help him and his own interests. Maybe this is far fetched (some of these theories will be), but part of me wonders if there’s any chance Dyson would have attempted to change sides if Clu continued to treat him like he was disposable. In one of these scenes, Clu literally kicked him out an air lock. He could have died. (I’m assuming he doesn’t.) I think it would have been an interesting development if at some point Dyson became sick of this treatment and attempted to win the Renegade/Tron’s trust (again). Or maybe the writers could have done something less drawn out and had Dyson change sides unexpectedly during a key moment like a fight. I sort of doubt that Dyson would have lasted long one way or the other, but seeing more of Tron’s backstory with Dyson and forcing Tron to deal with some actual emotions (other than anger) would have been really fun to see. And if they somehow reconciled and Tron lost him again? Permanently? Mm angst.
Who is Quorra’s network? / Where were she and Beck going?
So who was Quorra working with (besides Daft Punk lol)? Of course I want to say Flynn, because *gestures at Legacy*. However, I seriously question whether or not Flynn would have shown up in Uprising at all (in the “present” timeline). I highly doubt he would have had a major role in the movie, and I don’t think it makes sense for Quorra to take Beck to Flynn when his location needs to remain secret and she’s already made comments about how Beck can’t keep a secret. I’m not saying that Flynn and Quorra had no connection at this point (cause Evolution), but I doubt he would be very involved here, beyond maybe sending her out in the first place. Maybe there could have been a scene with just those two at some point, but I’m skeptical of anything beyond that.
I think the most logical answer to this question is Castor/Zeus. Legacy references how he helped Quorra in the past, and we see other resistance members asking him for help at the End of Line. We also see Daft Punk at the End of Line, so that could be part of why they’re here in this scene! Since Uprising took place earlier in the timeline, this may be a point where Zeus was more involved in the fight against Clu. Maybe whatever was about to transpire was actually what Quorra referenced in Legacy.
(There’s one more program I can think of who might have been part of Quorra’s network, but I’ll get to that in a minute.)
Point is, I think Quorra was taking Beck to Tron City/the End of Line to meet her rebel friends and maybe get some back up… or at least come up with an actual plan on how to proceed with the fight.
Who knew Beck’s identity? / Paige changing sides?
Again, based on the pages we have, I think the occupation learned Beck’s identity while he was captured. If this were true, it could be the catalyst for a lot of other things–depending on what the occupation did with that information.
If they only spread that information internally, Paige would learn that Beck was the Renegade. There’s no mention of her in any of the pages we have, so we don’t know what she’s doing or thinking at this point. We also don’t know when this all out attack on Argon started. But (unless she was in some very real denial) I doubt that Paige would be onboard with attacking civilians considering her backstory. Taking this into account along with the fact that Tesler (who she was most loyal to) may be gone, I think that Paige would already be on the fence about her loyalties to the occupation. In my opinion, learning Beck’s identity on top of that would either make her change sides completely–or become more loyal to Clu than ever.
Paige knows Beck. She seems to trust him, and maybe even like him. But I feel like Paige would hate being lied to, and when Beck escaped from Clu, Quorra was the one who saved him. If she learned that Beck lied to her about being the Renegade and that he was working with Quorra, who she doesn’t trust at all, her opinion of him might become completely tainted. So I don’t think that Paige learning Beck’s identity means she would automatically change sides. She’s way more complex than that.
If the occupation learned Beck’s identity and decided to share it with the public at large, hoping a civilian would turn him in (a la “The Reward”), all of his friends would know his identity. Have fun dealing with that, Beck. Mara in particular would have some interesting things to say, I’m sure.
We always come back to this question, don’t we? In true Tron fashion, none of these pages actually include our title character. I will say, when we only had page 63, I was concerned that Tron had maybe already been captured or Rinzlered since Beck seemed to be on his own. I don’t think that’s the case anymore, because we see Clu demanding the real Tron and Quorra talking about how Beck needs to stay away from him to make sure he doesn’t get captured. I still have to wonder what Tron was doing during all of this. Though that might be the smart thing to do, I find it hard to believe that Tron would just be… in hiding while Argon was under attack. Or that he wouldn’t go after Beck if he knew he’d been captured by Dyson. But maybe he doesn’t know, because a lot seems to be happening here, and Beck appears to have escaped from that situation really quickly. Clearly there are lots of possibilities here and I can only speculate. Maybe Tron was fighting on the ground. We know he has disguises. He isn’t injured anymore, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Maybe he’s even with Beck’s friends, working with them and keeping them safe. Maybe he’s trying to find a way to get to Clu, because I kind of doubt that an Uprising movie wouldn’t have some kind of confrontation between those two, especially when they’re basically in the same place. Maybe he’s waiting at the coliseum where Clu’s ship landed. (That’d be some Rinzler foreshadowing, hm?) If Beck is referencing a different ship in the scene at the docks, maybe Tron also left Argon. Maybe he and Beck met up/talked in the 20 page gap here and he’s sending Beck off with (a begrudging) Quorra to get help. Who knows!
And here’s the question that I always come back to. I have long hoped that Yori would have appeared in Uprising had the show continued, especially because her suit occasionally appears as an easter egg in Able’s office. I’m not saying that the writers would have taken this direction, but there are a few things in these pages that I think Yori could have fit with.
If Clu was looking for Tron specifically because he was from another system… Yori was from that same system. It makes sense that he would be looking for her too. Beyond that, if Clu needed code from the ENCOM system to create something, Yori worked with the digitizing laser. Creation is her specialty. She would probably be a better candidate than Tron for whatever Clu has in mind.
I also love the idea of Yori working as a rebel leader (we already know she came up with most of the actual plans in the original Tron movie), so the fact that Quorra has a network of rebel friends makes me wonder if she could have been one of them. It seems like Quorra was sent to Argon by someone who knew about the ENCOM system and believed that Tron was alive. Yori might fit that bill better than Flynn. As far as we know, Flynn always thought Tron was dead, but I doubt she would have given up hope so easily.
Possible setup for season two?
This movie was specifically supposed to bridge seasons one and two, so what would it have set up for the next season of Uprising? At the very least, I think Paige would have known about Beck’s identity, and that this would either make her want to change sides or be more dedicated to the occupation than ever. Zed and Mara may have also learned Beck’s identity. I’ve always thought it would be cool if Uprising had a kind of Minas Tirith moment, where the rebels were horribly outnumbered and it looked like they were all doomed, and then help arrived from outside of Argon. If we assume that Tron is fighting somewhere on the ground here and we know that Beck left Argon to get help, maybe we could have gotten a moment like that in the movie. Also, if Beck brought some characters back to Argon from Tron City (say, Quorra and/or Yori), it would have been really cool if they stuck around for the next season. I could see Quorra trying to get Tron to leave with her to help with the larger rebellion and both of them staying in Argon until the fight was finished there. If Quorra stuck around, I’m sure we would have eventually seen a reunion between her and Paige. And if Yori joined the cast (not only would we get a reunion between her and Tron) we could expect Actual Plans from the Uprising in season two. Imagine.
Unless the set up for the next season was gonna be bleak (which is also a possibility), I think Clu probably would have lost this particular fight. We may have seen the rebellion grow into something larger and more organized before the next stage of the fight. But, at least if you’re Clu, the bright side to having more rebels around is that there are more people who can slip up and reveal some fatal information.
Rinzler / Uprising’s Ending?
The more I look at Quorra’s warnings in these pages and how they don’t line up with canon, the more I wonder if Rinzler’s creation could be really different from what we’ve come to assume. I can’t help but wonder if, to some extent, Tron turned himself into Rinzler. The biggest reason I say this is because Rinzler is damaged and Tron isn’t. The damage Tron sustained in the coup had already been repaired at this point in Uprising. And while he could obviously just… fight Clu and get hurt again, Clu is obsessed with perfection. I’ve always thought it was odd that Rinzler makes that damaged purring noise, but maybe it’s because Clu can’t fix whatever’s wrong with Rinzler that causes him to make that sound. This could also be why we also don’t see Clu making his own programs in Legacy like Quorra fears even though he does have access to Tron. Maybe towards the end of the series Tron would have been captured again, and he somehow damaged or corrupted himself so that Clu couldn’t use or replicate his code. Though that would be a grim ending (and I’m sure this show would have had one), in some ways it would be an almost satisfying stalemate between the two. Clu could rectify what’s left of Tron to get Rinzler, but one Rinzler would be a poor prize compared to an army of them. It could also further explain why Clu wanted Alan specifically when he tried to bring a user to the Grid in Legacy. He could have fixed Tron’s code (in theory) and then Clu could make the perfect army he wanted to conquer the user world.
