Tron (1982)
Hacker and game designer Kevin Flynn is trying to prove that Ed Dillinger, a senior executive at Encom stole his software. When he gets access to Encom computers, the Master Control Program, which appears to be artificially intelligent, takes control of a "digitizing laser" and shoots Flynn. Flynn isn't killed, but is instead transported into the world of the computer, the Grid.
Flynn discovers that the Grid is inhabited by humanlike Programs, who speak of their creators, the Users, as gods. The Grid is under the control of the MCP and his right-hand Program, Sark. Flynn helps Tron, a security program created by his friend Alan Bradley, and Yori, created by his friend Lora Baines, overthrow the MCP. Flynn discovers that as a User in the Grid, he can create things by imagining them.
Flynn eventually gets out, using an Input/Output tower to beam himself back into the real world, exposes Dillinger, and becomes the new CEO of Encom.
Tron: Legacy (2010)
Set twenty-seven years after the original film, Tron: Legacy finds Kevin Flynn's son Sam as the majority shareholder of Encom. Encom, however, seems to be in the hands of the Dillinger family again, as Kevin Flynn disappeared twenty years previously. Alan Bradley is an executive at this new Encom. Sam contents himself with living off of his dividends and playing an annual practical joke on the board (for instance, releasing the code for Encom's new operating system to the world for free).
Alan gets a page from Kevin's old arcade, which has been shut down since Kevin went missing. Sam investigates and finds himself zapped by a digitizing laser and sent into the Grid. This is a new Grid, though, Grid 2.0, which has better graphics than the old Grid, but still the same problem: a tyrannical program has taken control of things. This time it's Kevin Flynn's program, Clu. Sam gets drafted into "the games," and is revealed to be a User. He's facing death at the hands of Rinzler, the champion of the games, but he's rescued by another Program, Quorra.
Quorra takes him outside the programmed confines of the Grid, where Sam is reunited with his father, who has been trapped in the Grid for the past two decades. The plot is revealed: after his experiences with the first Grid, Kevin Flynn created a new Grid, and used the digitizing laser to travel inside it. He took his Program, Clu, along with him as well as Tron. Curiously, new Programs started appearing which had not been written by anyone. Called Isos, these new Programs were a spontaneously-created form of life. Clu, having been programmed to make a perfect Grid, saw the Isos as an imperfection and waged a war of extermination. Kevin Flynn went into hiding inside the Grid because Clu was attempting to obtain his "identity disc," which would enable him to use an I/O tower to go into the real world.
Kevin, Sam, and Quorra go back into the Grid to escape and bring down Clu and prevent him from taking an army of programs into the real world. It's revealed that Quorra is the last Iso, and that Clu rewrote Tron, creating Rinzler. Kevin Flynn sacrifices himself to defeat Clu, and Sam and Quorra escape into the real world.
Fitting it into the WW4C
In the first movie, the MCP was attempting to take control of the world by taking over other computer systems. This implies that, even if the Grid originally started on one computer, it could expand into other computers. In the second, Clu was attempting to take over the world not by expanding into other computers but by actually sending an army of programs into the real world.
Tron: Legacy answered the question I'd been wondering for quite a while, whether travel between the real world and the Grid was only possible for Users, or whether Programs could do it, too. Programs seem to need the special code that only Users possess to make the transfer, but it is possible.
At the end of Tron: Legacy, Sam and Quorra have come into the real world, and Quorra appears to be a real, live flesh-and-blood woman. Kevin Flynn said that the Isos could revolutionize the real world, so the question is whether there's something special about the Isos themselves, or just their existence.
Since this is a superhero setting, I'm imagining there's something special about Quorra herself. I'm imagining she's something like a human-form Cylon, but with heightened strength, speed, agility, etc. She can probably also interface with computers. (Note: there's nothing in the movie to support any of this, where from what we see, her only abilities in the real world are riding tandem on a motorcycle and enjoying the feeling of sunlight on her face.)
There's also the question of how much Clu could have brought through into the real world. Could non-Iso programs have made the transition? Could the vehicles and weaponry make the transition, and would they work in the real world? Obviously the more fun answer is "yes," so that's what I'm going with.
Encom (which seems to be the Microsoft of the WW4C) could use the Grid and digitzing laser not just to travel to and from the Grid, but to create new things in the Grid and then bring them into the real world. Perhaps more importantly, since Encom seems to be a benevolent corporation with Sam Flynn and Alan Bradley in charge, an evil genius could steal the technology and use it to make anything he or she wanted.
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