This text incorporates gentle spoilers for “Tron: Ares.”
There are many “for the betterment of humanity” causes to need a time machine, however I’ve all the time secretly questioned how a gaggle of business goths would react to studying that, within the 2020s, Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor of 9 Inch Nails fame would in the future be a Tony away from the coveted EGOT distinction. The duo’s first enterprise in cinematic scoring got here with David Fincher’s 2010 drama “The Social Community,” which additionally earned them their first Academy Award for Greatest Authentic Rating. Within the years since, Reznor and Ross have develop into one of the crucial in-demand musical pairings for the massive display — a lot so that there is a large outcry once they aren’t appreciated on the highest ranges.
Reznor and Ross have scored a whopping three films for 2025 alone: Scott Derrickson’s “The Gorge” for Apple Studios, Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt,” and, launched on the very same day because the latter, “Tron: Ares” directed by Joachim Rønning. Curiously, nonetheless, is that “Tron: Ares” sees the duo credited particularly as 9 Inch Nails, making the soundtrack a brand new album so as to add to the band’s discography, not in contrast to Daft Punk’s music for “Tron: Legacy.”
However their participation even takes issues a step additional, as along with serving as govt producers on the movie, Reznor and Ross even have blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameos as F-35 pilots. Whereas their faces are hidden behind pilot helmets (Reznor is “Pilot #1” and Ross is “Pilot #2” per the credit), behind-the-scenes images of the pair in costume have begun circulating following the movie’s theatrical launch.
Tron: Ares is stuffed with Easter eggs
Talking with “Tron: Ares” screenwriter Jesse Wigutow in our unique interview, he credit the collaboration between the script and the manufacturing design crew to include parts and nods to the earlier “Tron” movies. “It was all the time a dialog, and a part of it was pushed by [knowing] that we’re leaving among the mythology out of this film or among the characters out, however how do we feature ahead the legacy?” he tells me. “How will we, no pun supposed. How do we feature ahead the spirit and the type of genetic, once more, DNA of this franchise ahead with out among the characters and mythology that we left behind in ‘Legacy?'”
For “Tron: Ares” it manifests in an organization referred to as “Dumont,” seen on recycling bins and a automotive that is stolen by Ares (Jared Leto) and ENCOM CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee), which is a reference to the Tower Guardian from the unique “Tron” performed by Barnard Hughes. The pair additionally steals a van with the corporate title “Shaddix” plastered on the facet, which appears to be a nod to franchise creator Steven Lisberger’s bartender cameo character from “Tron: Legacy.” There is a scene within the ENCOM constructing that’s stuffed with little moments as they’ve a reproduction of Flynn’s workplace constructed, virtually like a small museum to honor him.
After all, there are many references to be discovered through the mid-credits sequence, however the cameos from Reznor and Ross are certain to be fan favorites.
“Tron: Ares” is at present enjoying in theaters all over the place.
