| “ | If you've seen one Consumer Electronics Show, you've seen them all. | ” |
| |
| Ed Dillinger, Sr. | |
| Biographical information | |
| Username | 00 - Dillinger |
| Status | Alive |
| Physical description | |
| Gender | Male |
| Hair Color | Blond |
| Eye Color | Blue |
| Other information | |
| Functions | Senior Executive at ENCOM (former ENCOM Programmer) |
| Programs | MCP Sark |
| Vehicles | Helicopter |
| Allies | Peter Edward Dillinger, Jr. MCP |
| Out of universe information | |
| Actor | David Warner |
| Appearances | TRON TRON: Legacy (mentioned) TRON: Identity (mentioned) |
Edward "Ed" Dillinger, Sr. is the overarching antagonist of TRON.
History[]
Dillinger was a programmer at ENCOM who wrote both Sark and the Master Control Program sometime prior or during 1979. Dillinger soon climbed the ranks until he reached Senior Executive, thanks to the abilities of MCP, who helped Dillinger steal the games of Kevin Flynn. Dillinger presented these games as his own, thus promoting him and allowing him to fire Flynn. Little did everyone at ENCOM know that Dillinger wrote the MCP to appropriate any program that was considered useful. One of these programs was the game "Space Paranoids" which was actually created by former employee Kevin Flynn. He later used the MCP to keep Flynn from hacking in to find the evidence of the theft.
By 1982, Dillinger had been known to be a corrupt CEO at ENCOM by it's employees, who often confronted Dillinger over his maintenance of the company's system. Most notable of these critics of Dillinger's management was Alan Bradley and Walter Gibbs, the founder of ENCOM. Dillinger let go the latter after his final complaint over his strategy whereas the former, Alan, was lied to about releasing his program Tron. Eventually however Dillinger began to fear his own creation when the MCP intended to hack into the Pentagon and the Kremlin, threatening to expose Dillinger's theft of Flynn's video games unless he cooperated.
After the termination of the MCP by Tron and Flynn, Dillinger was presumably exposed as a fraud and was sent to prison, which coincides with the scenario the MCP presented to Dillinger in the film.[1]
Sometime after being outed as a fraud, Dillinger had a son, Edward Dillinger, Jr.. who inherited his father's intellectual traits.[2] Dillinger is implied to have founded the company of Dillinger Systems, a rival to ENCOM after Kevin Flynn's disappearance.[3] Prior to Flynn's disappearance in 1989, Dillinger was interviewed by reporter, Ethan Romero.[4]
Skills[]
Flynn describes Dillinger as "not so bright [as himself] but very, very sneaky" due to his success at stealing Flynn's video game designs. Dillinger did, however, demonstrate more than enough programming skill to convert the MCP from a simple chess program into the corporate raiding tool that facilitated his rise to power. He also clearly possessed enough skill and business acumen to raise ENCOM from its humble beginnings in a garage to the corporate giant it was at the beginning of the movie.
Trivia[]
- It is suggested that either Flynn or Dillinger is the CEO of fCon in the game TRON 2.0. Dillinger is more likely the true CEO, given the similarity of the names. Plus the voice heard had more of a British accent and the CEO's tactics had a decidedly ruthless methodology to them. Dillinger probably wouldn't have faced more than 5 years of jail time with a good lawyer, and that would have given him plenty of time to found fCon and develop it into a powerful corporation strong enough to be a contender to ENCOM. If indeed he is the true CEO, that is.
- In TRON: Legacy, Dillinger's son Edward Dillinger, Jr. is an employee at ENCOM who designed ENCOM OS-12, formerly known as Flynn OS, which was stolen by Sam Flynn. Irish Actor Cillian Murphy portrays him in an uncredited cameo.
- Also in Tron: Legacy, the Blu-ray easter egg has a computer chat session with Dillinger Jr. conversing with someone behind the name of MCTRL. This could mean that this is Dillinger, Sr. (because Jr. calls MCTRL Dad) or the MCP was originally set to return in Tron 3, although its stalled pre-production and subsequent re-working as Tron: Ares leaves these plans uncertain.