Tron Legacy: Countdown to Zero Hour

[Andy Chalk]

Tron Legacy: Countdown to Zero Hour

The Tron Legacy [http://disney.go.com/tron/?cmp=dcom_BAC_Tron_franchise_redirect_Extl#/movie] countdown is on, and it may just be the coolest damn countdown you've ever seen.

In 1982, Tron [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084827/] launched a nerd revolution. It was one of the first films to make heavy use of CGI and it inspired numerous arcade and home videogames, but even more importantly it spoke to a generation that knew there was something special to be found inside all those bits and bytes, even if people couldn't quite put their fingers on what it was. But critical reaction was all over the place and at the box office it was a moderate success at best, ensuring that nearly 30 years would pass before a sequel would surface.

That sequel is now in sight: Tron Legacy is coming and although it won't be released until the end of the year, Disney has launched a viral marketing campaign to build up interest among the geek cognoscenti. The latest step in that effort is a countdown hidden at Flynn Lives [http://www.flynnlives.com], a website uncovered during the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con that follows the life, times and disappearance of Kevin Flynn, the hero of the original movie.

What makes this interesting? The fact that there's no clue as to where the countdown is leading is typical; that it's done in a very flashy, Tron-like binary is most definitely not. I can't read binary so I'm taking the word of commenters at flynnlives.com/zerohour [http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=63342]. What happens at zero hour? Stay tuned: According to those who can read binary, the big revelation comes in just over eight days!


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[oliveira8]

Probably a new trailer. You heard it here first folks!

 

[wunderguy]

If Any could define pure awesome this is truely it

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Good thing I can read Binary.

You...Are... HEY! Potty mouth

 

[dududf]

Hmm...

I'm having problems reading this binary...
That picture could signify, (from left to right going down)
01000100000100000000100100111011 if the reds are 0 or it could be
10111011111011111111011011000100 if the reds are 1.

As far as I can tell, that translates to nothing.

I'ma dick around with how you look at it to see if I get a different result...

OK
So if you read it so it's down shift over right one at the top, then down, then separate each line with the gaps. I still get gibberish...
00001000
00010101
00111000
00010011

Assuming red = 0
Or assuming red = 1
11110111
11101010
11000111
11101100
From which still translates to nothing. =[

 

[Nerf Ninja]

http://www.wikihow.com/Read-a-Binary-Clock

I think I've figured it out as 8 days 15 hours and just under 27 minutes. (When I looked)

The red stars are zero by the way as it's Bits no configuration.

 

[Geoffrey42]

That picture could signify, (from left to right going down)
01000100000100000000100100111011 if the reds are 0 or it could be
10111011111011111111011011000100 if the reds are 1.

But if you actually watch it, instead of looking at a static image, you can see exactly what it is doing. The far left column is the 10's value of the days, with the 2^0 on the bottom, and the 2^3 on the top; the second from the left is the 1's value of the days, then the next pair are hours, the third pair are minutes, and the last pair are seconds.

So, from your image
08 15 38 13
DD HH MM SS

This is identical to [a href=http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/59e0/]these[/a] (like the one I have sitting next to me here on my desk), just with an added days counter.

If it WERE a static image, I would completely believe that there would be alternate ways to view or interpret the data, but the way that the countdown updates, the pattern is too regular to be anything else.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

My guess is a re-release of the original on DVD and/or Blu-Ray. I suspect something like that will happen, as I find most people who are excited about Tron are riding the hype of older geeks and haven't actually seen the movie.

 

[dududf]

That picture could signify, (from left to right going down)
01000100000100000000100100111011 if the reds are 0 or it could be
10111011111011111111011011000100 if the reds are 1.

But if you actually watch it, instead of looking at a static image, you can see exactly what it is doing. The far left column is the 10's value of the days, with the 2^0 on the bottom, and the 2^3 on the top; the second from the left is the 1's value of the days, then the next pair are hours, the third pair are minutes, and the last pair are seconds.

So, from your image
08 15 38 13
DD HH MM SS

This is identical to [a href=http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/59e0/]these[/a] (like the one I have sitting next to me here on my desk), just with an added days counter.

If it WERE a static image, I would completely believe that there would be alternate ways to view or interpret the data, but the way that the countdown updates, the pattern is too regular to be anything else.

I'm billing you to remove my brains from the ceiling, because you just blew my mind.

(I still don't get it. I was never good at computer codes.)

 

[LazerFX]

If it is a re-release of the original on Blu-Ray, I'll be putting my order in... I'm expecting another trailer, possibly something to do with the game. Damn - there's another thing I want to change, this is going to be a Tron game, of the film, and I want it to be good. Please be good. I don't care how much other film tie-ins suck, this has to be good.

I don't expect it to be though.

My guess - 20% blu-ray re-release, 50% new trailer, 20% something to do with the game (Release date? Demo? In-depth preview?) and 10% SomethingElse?.

Oh - and the whole Binary Clock thing... there are this one [http://www.firebox.com/product/1947/Designer-Binary-Clock], but with a binary clock, as opposed to a normal clock)

 

[Jared]

Cant wait for the new Tron! Shouyld be fun!

 

[AvsJoe]

I can't wait!

But first I have the daunting task of hunting down the first movie. Could be difficult...

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

My grandma has a VHS recording of the first movie..WOO! AS for this I'm sure be just like anyone else who enjoyed the first one and we'll all have one big simutaneous Nerdgasm

 

[CrysisMcGee]

This made me laugh quite hard.

2001 -- A $5,000 award is offered to anybody who can prove Kevin Flynn is alive. By December 31st, alas, nobody had satisfied our jury and the money was spent on a great party for all of the "Troniacs" we know and love!

So apparently nobody can prove Jeff Bridges is alive.

I'm looking forward to this movie. I loved the game Tron 2.0

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

Ok, let me lay out how cool this movie should be- it's a Tron movie that has its entire soundtrack composed by Daft Punk. This countdown better be good if it's leading up to something like that.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

My grandma has a VHS recording of the first movie..WOO!

Can i have it?

I can't wait for this. I love the original. The game looks awesome too.

 

[Sporky111]

Ok, let me lay out how cool this movie should be- it's a Tron movie that has its entire soundtrack composed by Daft Punk. This countdown better be good if it's leading up to something like that.

I didn't know that, but now I'm way more excited!

Indeed, the binary clock is beautiful. I just recently learned how to read them, and I feel the need to explain it in a more visual way.

You have the arrays of 8 symbols representing the digits of DD/HH/MM/SS

Top row = 8
Second = 4
Third = 2
Bottom = 1

So a 3 would be the bottom two, because 1 + 2 = 3.

Ex:
8 : oo o* oo oo
4 : oo oo ** o*
2 : o* *o o* *o
1 : *o *o ** oo
:::::12 38 57 24

 

[LordZ]

Squarish shape = 1
Star shape = 0

1_9_1_8_0_7_0_6_0_5_0_4_0_3_0_2_0_1_0_0
0___0___1___1___1___1___0___0___0___0
0___0___1___1___0___0___1___1___0___0
1___0___1___0___1___0___1___0___1___0

08:11:48:11
DD:HH:MM:SS

Time as of a few seconds ago.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I'm actually really disappointed by the countdown clock. It's really, really lame to have a "tens" column if you're counting in binary. Why be so silly as to make it half binary and half decimal? The right two columns should just be grouped and entirely binary (i.e. count down from 00111011 instead of 0101 1001). It kind of threw me off at first because of that. If you really want to get silly, you could do the entire thing in straight binary, just counting the number of seconds, but that's kind of impractical to read for people, even if that's how your computer does it when it timestamps stuff. It'd at least be better than having a binary representation of each decimal digit in the decimal representation of something that counts by 60s (and sometimes 12s/24s if you get into hours), which is just a ridiculous amount of base-crossing. Heh.

 

[scotth266]

8 days, 11 hours, and 44 minutes left as of time of this post. I'll edit in when the clock should stop...

EDIT: Ah, there we go. It should stop on the 24th, I think.

Honestly, this is pretty wicked. I like how it uses a binary clock: it got me interested in the devices in general. Maybe I'll pick one up now

I never saw the original Tron, but if this does turn out to be a Blu-Ray re-release, I'd be more than happy to remedy that situation.