The Tron tie-in videogame actually made more money than the film
Though the film went on to find a lot of love after being released on video, Tron was a huge flop at the box office. But the concept was tailor-made for videogame tie-ins, and the arcade game created to promote the movie was a hit. The gaming side was so successful that revenue actually surpassed the film’s initial box-office haul.

The film was inspired by Atari’s Pong
Tron’s creator, animator Steven Lisberger, was inspired to make the film after seeing Atari’s hit videogame Pong, as well as a demo reel from a tech company showing off the potential of CGI graphics.

The shoot used so much electricity that it (literally) blew the power grid
Considering the effects involved with Tron, as rudimentary as they may seem now, it took a lot of juice to keep all that tech running. So much, in fact, that filming at one point blew out a portion of the Burbank power grid.

Tron didn't win an Academy Award for FX because computers are ‘cheating’
To this day, the film’s aesthetic stands out as one of the coolest ever put to screen. But looking back at the award winners at the time, you wouldn’t know it. Because the film used CGI to achieve some of its effects, the Academy felt it wasn’t fair to include, because they felt the filmmakers “cheated” by using CGI.

All the scenes in the grid were shot in black and white
All of those awesome scenes in the Grid were actually shot in black and white, and the filmmakers went back and added rotoscopic effects and color after the fact.

The film’s original opening was a Star Wars-style text crawl
Considering the high concept at the time, the filmmakers were originally eyeing a Star Wars-type text crawl to introduce the concept.

Evil programs were originally yellow—not red
The stark color scheme made the film instantly stand out, as well as easy to follow, once viewers realized good programs were accented in blue and bad programs had red accents. But in the original concept, evil programs were colored yellow. A few of those yellow effects even made it into the final version, as the effects team wasn’t able to completely scrub it at the time.

There was a radioactive spill during the shoot
To give it that cutting-edge look on a tight budget, parts of the film were shot at the Lawrence Livermore Lab research site. During filming, there was actually a radioactive spill at the site, and Cindy Morgan (Yori) stepped in the spill and had to have her shoes decontaminated.

Mickey Mouse makes a brief cameo
Considering the film was made at Disney, the graphics team snuck in a very discreet Mickey Mouse cameo. During the scene where the Solar Sailor is flying, a Mickey Mouse head can be found in the grid landscape.

Peter O’Toole nearly played the Master Control Program (MCP)
At the time of its development, the film’s concept was very unique. So unique that it attracted the attention of legendary actor Peter O’Toole (Lawrence of Arabia), who wanted to play Sark/Ed Dillinger/Master Control Program. Rumor has it O’Toole dropped out after visiting the relatively low-budget set, and the role went to David Warner.