Tron: Ares hits cinema on October 10th, marking the second sequel to 1982’s seminal Tron.
We’re not hearing... brilliant things about this latest one, if we’re being honest, but that’s no shade on the original. Steven Lisberger’s first Tron movie was one of the first to actively acknowledge the profound cultural impact of video games, then in their nascent arcade form.
It also kickstarted a unique sub-(sub-)genre of films that concern themselves with video games. To be clear, we’re not talking about cinematic video game adaptations like The Super Mario Bros. Movie or Gran Turismo here, but rather films that are explicitly about the medium and culture of games.
The Tron series itself is predominantly set within a video game universe, and these aren’t the only movies to boast such a conceit, as the following list will go to show. Other films we’ve featured here take a look at the creation of games, or reflect on the effect they’re having on the world around us.
What they all share in common is a certain wonder with (and fear of) the potential for interactive entertainment. If you’re ready, then we’ll press start to continue.
11. Tron Legacy
This first sequel to the original Tron brought us the odd sight of a digitally de-aged Jeff Bridges interacting with the gracefully wizened real thing.
We still haven’t quite recovered from that particular tumble down the uncanny valley, but there’s plenty to enjoy in Joseph Kosinski’s 2010 effort, not least its breathtaking evolution of Tron’s distinctive visual style. Also, how many other films can claim to have both a banging soundtrack from Daft Punk and a cameo from said funky French robots?
10. Tetris
Tetris is unique in the way it applies the glossy ‘based on a true story’ biopic treatment, not to a real-life rock star or a scientist, but to the man (or rather men) behind one of the most famous video games of all time.
In fairness, the story of Tetris isn’t quite like any other game, incorporating as it does Cold War intrigue, labyrinthine legal wrangling, and a bold gambit from intrepid video game designer Henk Rogers (played by Taron Egerton).
9. The Last Starfighter
In Nick Castle’s 1984 film, a young gamer gets conscripted into an intergalactic war following an impressive showing on a popular arcade shoot-‘em-up. It might sound like the film was conceived by a 12-year-old, but the execution turns out to be both great fun and technologically impressive.
Following hot on the heels of the original Tron (released just two years prior), it’s another trailblazer in the use of computer-generated special effects. The film employed 3D-rendered starships in place of the kind of physical models that had been used just a few years earlier on Star Wars.
8. eXistenZ
Not every video game movie is a wholesome adventure laced with childhood wish fulfilment. David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ sees the creator of Videodrome and The Fly giving his own singularly icky take on the ‘90s video game era.
In Cronenberg’s hands, the interface between humanity and the titular virtual reality game has a queasily biological element, as players physically jack the game into their spines. It makes for a memorably twisted thriller, driven by a top-tier cast that includes Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Willem Dafoe.
7. WarGames
Just a year on from Tron, John Badham’s WarGames offered a more grounded take on the emerging video game phenomenon. It proved to be even more prescient and infinitely more terrifying.
Stirring together equal parts Cold War paranoia and technophobia, it tells the story of a young hacker (one of the first notable depictions of such a figure in cinema) accidentally tapping into an AI-driven US military war simulator, mistaking it for a game, and almost triggering World War III. It’s a film that feels all too relevant in 2025.
6. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
The first Jumanji was a ‘90s Robin Williams vehicle that riffed off the dusty wonder of board games, but the sequel updates the formula for the PlayStation generation.
This time, the mystical game of the title has taken on a digital form, pulling four unwitting students into a dangerous virtual world and forcing them to take on various amusingly archetypal gaming roles. It makes for a surprisingly entertaining romp that also expertly sends up decades of entrenched gaming culture.
5. Ready Player One
![READY PLAYER ONE - Official Trailer 1 [HD] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/cSp1dM2Vj48/maxresdefault.jpg)
Ready Player One isn’t so much set within a game as it is within a world utterly obsessed by games. As such, it plays into an old gamer fantasy from a time when games were a niche and oft-derided pastime.
In this futuristic world, adapted from Ernest Cline's 2011 novel by Steven Spielberg, winning an immersive virtual reality game could give you fame and riches beyond your wildest dreams. Isn’t that what we all secretly hope for every time we let another afternoon slip away on Balatro?
4. Free Guy
What if the hapless NPCs running around in your favourite GTA-style open world game were sentient entities, living and dying according to the player’s whim? OK, it’s not exactly an original concept – Tron essentially came up with the same idea (minus the GTA-inspired open world stuff) some 40 years before Free Guy hit our screens.
But Shawn Levy’s entertaining action-comedy updates the idea for modern times, swapping out Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner for Jodie Comer and Ryan Reynolds, and adding a whole bunch of slapstick laughs to the formula.
3. Wreck-It Ralph
Wreck-It Ralph is another spin on the old Tron ‘what if games were real universes?’ concept, but it arguably takes the idea to its extreme – not least because it’s a 100% computer-generated production itself. Many of the games featured here are officially licensed, with characters from recognisable franchises like Mario and Sonic rubbing shoulders and swapping wisecracks with one another. For any millennial/Gen X gamer, it’s several childhood dreams come true at once.
2. Scott Pilgrim vs the World
Scott Pilgrim isn’t set within a video game, nor is it directly even about video games. However, it’s as soaked in video game culture as any other movie on this list. Based on Bryan Lee O'Malley’s graphic novel, Edgar Wright's movie sees a young slacker musician (played by Michael Cera) taking on the seven imposing ex-boyfriends of his current squeeze in the way any nerdy Millennial would fantasise about – a series of video game-inspired boss fights.
1. Tron
The original Tron arguably kicked off cinema’s fascination with the esoteric language of video games, and arguably understood it better than most subsequent efforts.
Steven Lisberger’s cult classic didn’t just make a hero out of a game programmer (played by a decidedly un-nerdy Jeff Bridges), it also used then-cutting-edge rotoscopic effects and rudimentary CGI to create a signature look, essentially transporting us within the circuits and nodes of an early ‘80s arcade machine. The idea that virtual entities might have some semblance of consciousness was pretty ahead of its time, too.
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