‘TRON’ Stars Enter Grid 40 Years Later on Disney’s TRON Ride

Originally published at Disney Parks News

During our celebration of the upcoming opening of TRON Lightcycle / Run presented by Enterprise, we’ve shared many special moments at Magic Kingdom Park but few may be as extraordinary as the reunion of two original actors from Disney’s 1982 film “TRON” – 40 years later!

Actors Bruce Boxleitner (who played Alan Bradley and TRON in the films) and Cindy Morgan (who played Lora Baines) reunited for the first time since 1982 for some Disney thrills on TRON Lightcycle / Run at the Most Magical Place on Earth.  Bruce couldn’t resist jumping on a Lightcycle and sharing a first-hand look at an “amazing” ride with his family.

After a thrilling ride, Bruce said “everyone is going to love going on (TRON Lightcycle / Run) – TRON fans certainly will.”  During the visit, Cindy was also overwhelmed by her first glimpse of the attraction, simply describing the attraction as “jaw-dropping!”

At TRON Lightcycle / Run, I also had a chance to talk with Bruce and Cindy about their special memories of a film that would inspire Disney’s newest thrill attraction.

Bruce and Cindy shared how they used their imagination when filming scenes for “TRON.”

Bruce held onto a stick while a computer-generated Lightcycle was animated around him. Cindy shot her Solar Sailer scenes against a black background in a big warehouse. Digital details were added later, a big difference they both remarked from the three-dimensional world created by Walt Disney Imagineering at TRON Lightcycle / Run.

For our interviews, I wore my “TRON” 40^th Anniversary jacket released at the D23 Expo 2022 held in Anaheim, California last September. As the stars approached, the first thing Bruce jokingly said was, “You and I must go to the same tailor.” He was wearing the same jacket!

I even brought my “TRON” activity and puzzle book I colored as a child in the 1980s. It was a thrilling (and surreal) moment for someone like me who has loved “TRON” all his life.

If you’re a lifelong “TRON” fan like me, you know Bruce’s character Alan was an ENCOM computer programmer who wrote a security program named TRON to watchdog the Master Control Program (MCP). An artificial intelligent computer determined to take over the world. He would later reprise his role of Alan in the 2010 sequel “TRON: Legacy,” and provided the voice of TRON in the dynamic animated series “TRON Uprising.”

Cindy, of course, played Lora, a computer scientist at ENCOM researching digitization. And her program Yori who specialized in game simulations. A strong female character in an early 1980s film, she helped Kevin Flynn, the brilliant video game programmer and father of the Grid, break into ENCOM’s computer mainframe, and as the Program Yori, she helped TRON and Flynn defeat the MCP on the Grid.

Twenty-five years ago this month, I began my Disney career as a professional intern at the Walt Disney World Casting Center.

Driving my Disney-decorated van from Columbus, Ohio, I arrived in Central Florida with dreams of things to come. If you would have told me then that two decades later, I would be speaking with stars from Disney’s 1982 film “TRON” under the shadow of TRON Lightcycle / Run at Magic Kingdom Park, I would not have believed you.

Thank you to Bruce and Cindy for their time, and thank you to my fellow cast members who created this core memory for me. If I could send a letter through time to intern Steven in March 1998, I would tell him to keep believing in his dreams as they really do come true at Disney.