CLU 2 (shortened to Clu or CLU which stands for Codified Likeness Utility[1]2.0) is an artificial intelligence program that was written in 1983 by Kevin Flynn.[2][3] Clu is the main antagonist of TRON: Legacy, the secondary antagonist of TRON: Evolution and the overarching antagonist ofTRON: Uprising. As with most programs, Clu appears visually identical - albeit at a younger age - to his creator. He represents an evil digital doppelgänger of Kevin Flynn and a twisted embodiment of Flynn's youth. He is addressed as "Your Excellency" by various characters.
Contents
1 History
1.1 Creation
1.2 Maintenance of the Grid
1.3 TRON: Evolution
1.4 TRON: Uprising
1.4.1 Beck's Beginning
1.4.2 The Renegade, Part 2
1.4.3 Scars, Part 1
1.4.4 Scars, Part 2
1.4.5 Grounded
1.4.6 The Stranger
1.4.7 Terminal
1.5 TRON: Legacy
2 General information
2.1 Personality
2.2 Abilities and powers
3 Other Appearances
3.1 LittleBigPlanet 2
3.2 Xbox Live Marketplace
3.3 Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
4 Notes
5 References
History[]
Creation[]
"He built a digital copy of himself, named Clu, to help create the perfect system."
Clu is based on an earlier hacker program Flynn wrote, which was derezzed by the MCPone year prior. In 1983, Flynn created Clu in his own image and designed him as the architect for the Grid,[4] evidently being created in one day.[5] After being created, Flynn explicitly said to Clu he was to create the perfect system before walking off into the distance, something that Clu would later take literally when designing the Tron system. Flynn also brought the System Monitor, Tron, to help with the Grid. The three apparently creating the Grid.[6][3]
Maintenance of the Grid[]
Accompanied to design the Grid was Shaddox, a program who Clu conversed with when overlooking the currently constructed, Tron City. In 1984, Flynn and Clu witnessed the birth of Ophelia as she emerged from the Sea of Simulation. Flynn and Clu reported this to Tron, though Clu wasn't as fond about the emergence of a new life form as Flynn himself was.[5] Flynn and Clu later witnessed more of Ophelia's kind being created, Flynn being astonished by them and calling them ISOs (short for Isomorphic Algorithms), while Clu viewed them as an imperfection.[6][3] After numeral Gridbug attacks in Tron City, Tron went to question Clu about the attacks, to which Clu blamed the ISOs for the attacks due to their uncertainty.
Clu had also became visibly annoyed by Flynn's long absence from the Grid, and once Flynn returned to the system, unaware of the time that had passed, Clu released his anger to Flynn, the two both arguing before Flynn eventually left for his wife Jordan Canas, outside. After Flynn left, Clu brought up the fact that Flynn wasn't able to contact anyone from outside to Tron. Clu, acting skeptical of this truth as well as mentioning his main concern being the Grid to Tron, who asked Clu if he believed himself to be better than Flynn, to which Clu pridefully stated the he was the creator.[5]
Flynn later returned to the Grid where he was rescued by Tron from a massive explosion. After the explosion, Clu arrived on a Light Cycle and asked if the explosion was another attack by the ISOs, to which Tron denied, prompting Clu to call out his supposed foolishness. The two argued until Flynn and Tron decided to go to an ISO city, presumably Arjia City, and questioned Ophelia and Giles about the bombings. Clu later commanded System Monitors to Derez failed game combatants, provoking Tron to talk to Clu about the issue. The two once again argued, though Clu was more bent on keeping the system perfect by eliminating any failing game combatants.[7] In 1985, Clu competed in the Game Arena tournament, he eventually fought against the tournament's primary winner, Beta, in a tank match. Clu fought Beta in his personal Light Tank before losing to him.[8] When Clu commanded some System Monitors to escort Flynn to Clu's location, the two argued about his own purpose and the ISOs.
Clu's growing uncertainty towards the ISOs, coupled with his anger towards Flynn's constant absences, led him to berate Flynn for supposedly setting him up to fail in his task. To further discredit the ISOs, Clu created the Abraxasvirus out of Jalen, one of the ISO leaders. Jalen was reported by Clu to have been derezzed. Abraxas's new programming, set up by Clu, was to eliminate the ISO faction. But there was one more purpose for Abraxas. Clu pointed out that he was once an ISO, and then accused the ISOs of being unpredictable, dangerous and flaws to the system. After Abraxas's attack on the ceremony of peace between ISOs and Basics, Kevin and Tron met up with Clu and Anon, who had apparently saved Clu when the virus attempted to derezz him. When Clu's last attempt to show Kevin the imperfections of ISOs had failed, he decided to kill the user. Flynn was, in Clu's eyes, blocking his path to fulfilling his directive of a perfect system.
Clu brought four of his Black Guard to ambush Tron and Flynn as the latter sought to leave the Grid. As Tron fought his guards, Clu dealt with Flynn, claiming that the user was 'corrupted'. His attempt to kill Kevin failed, however, when Tron attacked him. By the time Clu had defeated Tron, Kevin had already fled the scene. With Flynn nowhere to be found, Clu focused his efforts on destroying the ISOs, an act of genocide that came to be known as the Purge.
Clu had later gone to Arjia City to falsely inform Radia of Tron and Flynn's "deaths", even blaming the newly written System Monitor, Anon, as responsible for their deaths before departing. Clu gave a speech about the Abraxes virus as Anon battled in a game of Disc Wars and later returned to Radia with Abraxas. Abraxes was thought of negatively by Radia, disappointing Clu. Abraxes killed Radia, stunning Clu before he decided to move on.
Quorra, a friend of Radia, attempted to kill Clu and ended up on his ship. Quorra was unfortunately captured by the Black Guard and brought to Clu, who was about to derez Quorra as they conversed until Anon showed up and knocked his disc out of his hands.
Abraxes unexpectedly arrived while Clu held Quorra, when Abraxes expressed his longing for death, Clu sarcastically responded "He's got some rage in there no?" before pushing Quorra to the ground.
Clu proceeded to send out his generals and armies to capture every city on the Grid, believing that, with Tron derezzed, no one could oppose him. Following the capture of Argon City, General Tesler had a large statue of Clu himself placed in the middle of the populated area. However, it wasn't long before a renegade program blew the statue up. The guards suspected that the program was Tron since the circuitry was a match. This baffled Tesler when the report was made. Just then, Clu arrived on the scene, confidently stating, "Tron's dead, Tesler. I killed him myself." However, contrary to Clu's statement, Tron had in fact survived their battle and was actually living in seclusion.
A billboard of Clu was placed on top of a building in Argon, though this billboard was destroyed by an out of control Recognizer piloted by the Renegade and Cutler.
It is later revealed that Clu had ambushed Tron and Flynn with the sole intention of derezzing only Tron. Clu wanted Tron out of the picture so that there would be no one to oppose his rise to rule. With the help of Dyson, who betrayed Tron, Clu was able to subdue the System Monitor and begin his annihilation of the ISOs.
When news of the same renegade program began to spread, Clu sent Dyson to Argon City to neutralize the supposed threat.
Dyson later returned to Clu with a message, "Tron lives", claiming that he saw Tron with his own eyes. Making an amused remark about this revelation, Clu ordered Dyson to ensure that no one knew of Tron's true status, provoking Dyson to derez a nearby Sentry and notifying him afterwards, to which Clu responded "Good, lets keep it that way."
Clu commissioned the use of an enormous Recognizer as a mobile re-purposing facility. While this Recognizer was currently being constructed in Purgos, Beck had a vision of Clu shouting to him when he was strapped to Cyrus' device that would destroy the Grid.
After the Recognizer was complete, Clu sent a repurposedCutler to bring Tron to it. With the plan having failed, he and Dyson later led an armada of vessels to Argon City.
By 2010, Clu had taken complete control of the Grid, fashioning the digital frontier into his own interpretation of perfection. However, he felt trapped inside the electronic reality, and desired to break out into the physical world so he could perfect it as well. For that, he needed to acquire Flynn's identity disc, and have someone open the portal from the outside.
Clu sent a message to Alan Bradley, attempting to lure a new user into the Grid. While the arrival of Sam Flynn was unexpected, it proved more fortuitous, allowing Clu to exploit Kevin Flynn's love for his son more effectively than the friendship towards Bradley might have been. When Sam was caught attempting to escape the Disc Warsarena, he was brought before Clu, whom Sam at first assumed was his father. The program interrogated the user, examined his identity disc, then revealed his true identity before dismissing him.
In order to draw Kevin Flynn's attention, Clu had Sam placed in the Light Cycle Grid, pitted against four sentries and Clu himself. After a brutal battle which derezzed all of Sam's team, Clu was set to deliver the final blow when Flynn's confidante Quorra broke into the Light Cycle Grid in the Light Runner and rescued Sam instead. Clu returned to his Command Ship to await Sam's, or Kevin's, next move.
Some time later, Jarvis reported that the location of Flynn's Safehouse had been traced from Kevin's light cycle found abandoned in the city. Clu investigated the safehouse personally, but found the area deserted and returned to the city in pursuit of the Flynns. After a tip-off was received, Clu's forces were sent to capture them at the End of Line Club. The assault failed to catch the users, although it did prove successful in causing Kevin's identity disc to fall into the hands of Castor, the club's enigmatic proprietor. Clu claimed the disc, and with his prize in hand, set off to the portal to complete his plan.
While Clu addressed his assembled forces and told of his plan to invade the physical world outside the system, the heroes infiltrated his Command Ship and retrieved Kevin's disc. When they escaped in a Light Jet, Clu, with Rinzler and four Black Guards, set off after them in small personal light jets of their own. The smaller craft were whittled away by the superior firepower of the escapees' larger light jet, however their strength in numbers eventually wore it down. Clu would have emerged victorious had it not been for a sudden betrayal by Rinzler. He was unsuccessful at shooting them down, but ultimately reached the portal first after stealing Rinzler's spare light jet baton and leaving Rinzler to plummet into the Sea of Simulation.
Confronting the trio when they arrived, Clu justified his actions by saying that he had done simply as Kevin programmed him to do, venting his frustration at being abandoned and forced to run the Grid on his own. Flynn accepted Clu's arguments, but explained that the perfect world does not exist. Furious with this revelation, Clu attacked Kevin as Sam and Quorra headed for the portal. When Clu attempted to follow them, Flynn prevented his escape and Reintegrated the program into himself. Clu was derezzed as the pair reintegrated.
General information[]
Personality[]
Being created as an exact copy of his user, Kevin Flynn, Clu displays all the qualities that Kevin had at the time of his creation. Clu is highly ambitious, intelligent and has a commanding presence. Unfortunately, Clu also displays the hubris that the young Flynn had at the time which was combined with his command to create the "perfect system", something that Clu believed could not be achieved after the birth of the ISOs, who lacked purpose and thus were incapable of working on his system.
While Kevin grew to have a new idea and understanding of what perfection was, Clu, by virtue of being a program, never had such luxury and stayed stuck to his original idea, making him harbor a deep hatred for the ISOs while Flynn started spending more and more time with them. This coupled with the fact that Kevin started spending a lot of time away from the Grid following the birth of Sam, made Clu feel betrayed by his creator, which prompted him to conspire against him and take control of the Grid.
Abilities and powers[]
Clu, like all programs, is an exact copy of his user and appears to never age. Although his subordinates and guards have orange circuitry, Clu's is a bright yellow.
Clu has demonstrated having inhuman physical abilities, such as enhanced strength, as shown when he sent Kevin Flynn flying backwards with his attacks, threw Sam Flynn several yards and jumped even further. In addition, he single-handedly succeeded where four of his elite Black Guard failed; defeating Tron, the Grid's primary system monitor, in combat. However, the canonocity of this observation is debatable.
Clu also manages to have an excellency in various games on the Grid, as he managed to continue to compete in the Game Arena tournament when faced with Beta, an opponent who did nearly as well as Tron and Clu himself.
Other Appearances[]
" I'll be back for them before the end of your shift. And if they're not completed by the time I return... Well there are far worse punishments than the games I can assure you ."
This section of the article is incomplete, please help the Tron Wiki by expanding it.
LittleBigPlanet 2[]
A TRON: Legacy Clu Costume was bundled with the Collector's Edition of LittleBigPlanet 2. it contains Clu's full armor with his helmet, as well as his identity disc.
Xbox Live Marketplace[]
Clu's helmet is available for purchase on Xbox Live Marketplace. One notable difference though is the difference in the circuit color from the yellow to blue.
Clu appears in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.
Notes[]
The teaser trailer for TRON: Legacy notably depicts Clu's circuitry, as well as his Light Cycle, as being green, whereas in the final cut in the film, he is depicted with yellow circuity.
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