I was a major fan of Tron: Legacy with the adventure of Sam Flynn and it made me love The Grid. I saw the Original, but it never clicked the way Legacy did, so when Ares was announced I was hyped. When I saw the trailer I had the impression that this was going to be Clu’s Vision from Legacy, the Programs would invade our world and take it over, and the apocalypse would ensue. Well the story did take a turn in directions I did not expect, and frankly I am glad it did. Rather than rehash what people already can read about the film, I am going to get into Biblical symbolism and messages of the film.
I want to start with the name Ares, God of War. There was a time in Bible when the Israelites called The LORD God their Baal, their war god, and the Lord tells them, “no longer call me Baal, call me Ishi, Husband.” (Hosea 2:16). This is exactly what becomes of Ares, he goes from a god of war program, to experiencing humanity, and acting like a caring husband to Eve Kim, the CEO of Encom, “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her,” (Ephesians 5:25), Ares does this for Eve, especially in a scene when he risks his own deletion to stop Athena from harming Eve.
Yes, Eve, the name choice is important, because that is the first woman and wife of Adam in our Bibles. Her search for permanence code, that would allow programs and anything you can fathom to come from the Grid and Computer world to last in ours, is the central focus of the story, but the fact the first thing she brings back is a Tree is symbolic, because Adam and Eve were in Garden of eden where Trees of Life are, “Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden,” (Genesis 3:22-23), and it is said in New Jerusalem we will have access to that tree again, “And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations,” (Revelation 22:1-2). In Moravian Christian Tradition the Orange at Christmas has significance, “In the Moravian Christmas tradition, the orange represents the world, with a candle placed in the center to symbolize Jesus Christ, the light of the world. This tradition, called the Christingle, is a children's service that includes a red ribbon around the orange (the blood of Christ) and toothpicks with sweets or fruits on them (the bounty of creation)” (Moravian Christingle, Google Search).
While in most Tron films the disc is used, Ares, Athena, and other uses triangles blades, which reminds me of the Trinity. Jared Leto who plays Ares really rocks the Jesus look and the way He eventually becomes a User, a Human, reminds me of The Incarnation, granted our Lord Jesus became a Baby, and Ares is a grown man, but the fact he wants permanence or as Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges puts it, impermanence, because life does not last. Another point about Ares’ journey is that what transforms him to want to help Eve Kim, who is good, is the memories of her Sister Tess Kim, and the hope and love they had as a family; it in this way I see echoed the scriptures, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another,” (1 John 4:7-11), and, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Ares discovers love and he gives up his position as Master Control, to become defender of the Users, reminds me when Athena says, “you had everything , all this power, you gave it up,” it remind me of Jesus, “ You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5-11).
One of the lines that gets repeated is “I am fearless and that makes me powerful,” which feels like sanitized version of, “God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7). In many ways Ares gets al three of these, true power to effect change by helping Eve Kim who uses the permanence to help cure cancers, oppose to Dillinger who is evil and loves money. Dillinger is very much the devil, even his persona when he peaks into Grid is a Skull Like Muscle face of red. Ares later when he changes from Red Program to the White of the User reminds me of the verse, “his blood washes us as white a snow,” which actually is the symbolism of the candy cane. I know finding Christmas easter eggs in this is kinda ironic at this time of year.
Finally, the main Song by Nine Inch Nails, with the course, “Give me Something to Believe in,” feels very biblical, that is believe in Jesus (John 3:16), and the fact the Band is named Nine Inch Nails, which are very nail size that pierced Jesus’ hands and feet. I do not know if band meant that for good or ill, but the symbolism on top of everything else is exquisite.
I highly recommend Tron Ares, and I want to preface, you need to watch it twice. The first viewing I was on the fence, and processing what I saw. On a second view, I caught all the Biblical references and messages. So I say give this film a chance, it is so rare something has made me really look at the digital frontier with discipleship and my faith in Jesus in this way. Especially now that we are living a lot of our lives online nowadays, it feels apt to helps us perhaps see hope ahead, maybe programs and AI will be interested in our Creator, Jesus, and that will lead to some intriguing discussions. Amen.
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