July 9 in Sci-fi History: TRON turns 35

Let’s all celebrate yet another 35th anniversary of a major sci-fi milestone -- because the summer of 1982 packed in a pretty serious amount of these. On this day in 1982, Tron premiered.

If you were a pre-teen in 1982 (and you easily could have been, demographics-wise), you were pumped for this. E.T. had just come out a few weeks earlier, then Blade Runner. And now a movie about fast things in a computer grid being awesome. Tron blew some minds back then:

The plot’s a little “wait, what?” in places, but it turned out pretty well.  There was also the reboot/sequel, Tron:Legacy, in 2010 and while it wasn’t bad and ALSO HAD JEFF BRIDGES, the original Tron is the one that mostly holds up. Because light bikes. 

Then again: 

Also on this day in 2010, Predators premiered. And like, not to bag on a reboot/sequel/story in an established universe (any more than we already do) but when-oh-when can we have original stories again, y’know? 

Tomorrow: Escape from both New York and Thunderdome.