The original Tron film from 1982 is seminal in part for its story about digitizing and downloading the Dude-err Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) from reality into the world of the Grid, where people are programs and the MCP does not mess around. But sometimes ideas flow the other way—from out of the digital frontier into reality (which may or may not be a simulation anyway). Mike Gamble and Thomas Wood’s “Light Cycles” for example, takes the iconic light cycles from the film and brings them to life with the below video of mountain bikers putting on a wickedly cool light show.
The video of the real-life light cycles comes via Laughing Squid, and really kicks into gear visually at around 1:41. According to Gamble, “[Light Cycles] began as a dream, developed into a problem and spawned into a burning desire to create something that had never been done before.”
The aim was to mimic the “jetwalls” of Tron’s light cycles using mountain bikes, although it’s unclear from Gamble’s video description if the inspiration comes more from the original Tron or from 2010’s Tron: Legacy. The result definitely looks more like the latter, although regardless it’s a stunning visual effect. Plus, if those riders were listening to a Tron-related soundtrack, it was probably from Legacy, ’cause no matter how you felt about that film, you have to admit that Daft Punk knocked that score out of the mainframe.
What do you think about this real-life Tron light cycle race? Does it look just about as dangerous as the “real” fictional thing or do you want Gamble to figure out a way to make those jetwalls solid? Take us into the maze of your thoughts in the comments below!
Images: Mike Gamble Media
