CLU 2

"Out there is a new world! Out there is our victory! Out there... is our destiny."

- CLU 2

Clu 2 (also known as "CLU 2") was the primary antagonist of Tron Legacy and he has tie-ins in the Tron series.

History


CLU 2, named after the original program destroyed by Sark, was originally created by Kevin Flynn from his own being to monitor the growth of the Grid while he was absent with the all powering directive to make the world "perfect".

Unfortunately, Kevin had also spent a great deal of time away from the grid. Clu became angry and resentful due to the fact that a.) he needed Flynn's approval for many of his directives and b.) he felt that this task was overwhelmingly difficult. The final straw was the discovery of a new set of programs called the ISOs, programs born from nothing that just materialized.

While Flynn and Tron viewed these programs as miracles, Clu viewed them only as abominations that threatened the supposed perfection of the system. Using the Abraxes Virus to mask his attempts, Clu betrayed his two friends, siezed power, and supposedly killed Tron (but in reality repurposed him into his right hand enforcer Rinzler.) Clu then iniated an almost total genocide of the ISOs (thanks to the efforts of the program Anon, the final ISO named Quorra was able to escape Clu's wrath and fled into exile under Flynn's care).

21 years passed and the situation grew unstable, as Flynn's resistance only made Clu very stronger, and that the only way to destroy him was for Flynn to reintergrate with him; at the same time Clu made plans to make the Human world "perfect" as well in his own image. To do this, he would need Kevin Flynn's identity disk, as well as for a human to enter from the other side. When some hackers inadvertantly released a digital pulse, Clu used the opportunity to send a message to Flynn's old partner Alan Bradley. Though Bradley didn't come through, Flynn's son Sam did, which created an even greater opportunity.

After meeting Sam and forcing him to fight in the Game Grid (a series of gladitorial battles) Sam was rescued by Quorra, who evaded capture. Sam's efforts to find help inadvertantly led Clu to Flynn's hideout, but Flynn and Quorra had already departed to help Sam. During the raid he was overwhelmed with memories and lashed out in rage at the objects on Flynn's desk. He then stole the disk from another program Castor (who had stolen it from Flynn) before betraying Castor and blowing up his bar. Clu and his army then prepared to use the disk to cross over. Sam, the elder Flynn, and Quorra were already en route to the portal and they were able to arrive at the army's staging point. Sam was able to overpower Rinzler and easily reclaimed the disk due to the cowardice of Clu's assistant Jarvis.

After executing Jarvis, Clu pursued his foes to the portal, fending off Rinzler (whom had been freed from Clu's mind control after catching gaze of Flynn during the light jet battle). At the Portal Clu confronted his creator for the first time in more than two decades, arguing about how much he had "done everything that you asked" for an impossible task. Flynn accepted the arguments and apologized for giving Clu an impossible task, explaining that he had been wrong to try and pursue perfection, stating that he didn't know that before when he created Clu.

Rather than forgiving Flynn, Clu loses his temper completely and attacks Flynn. Outraged, Sam angrily assaults Clu for hurting his father, but Clu takes advantage of Sam's wrath against him until Flynn tells him to stop. Clu then made a desperate effort to attack Sam and Quorra as they fled to the portal after being tricked into taking Quorra's disk from Flynn when Flynn's actual disk is on Quorra. In an effort to save his son and the ISO, Flynn sacrifices himself by reintegrating Clu into himself, causing a massive explosion that not only killed both the elder Flynn and the raging Clu, but also destroyed Clu's ship, sending thousands of programs loyal to Clu to their deaths as well.

Trivia

 * While played by Jeff Bridges in the movie, CLU 2 is voiced in games and Tron: Uprising by Fred Tatasciore.