I’m awake in the middle of the night still thinking about how Unusual the romantic subplot is in Tron 1982.

So, when I was growing up there was a formula most movies followed. If there was a romance, it would usually go like this:

• Main character is single at the beginning. He’s a regular guy, not particularly book-smart or serious or responsible, just a relatable dude. He likes women but doesn’t currently have one in his life.
• He meets the love interest. She’s conventionally attractive, not particularly interesting personality-wise, and in most cases she’s single too. If she has a guy of her own, he’s clearly shown to be a Bad Guy.
• Main Character and Love Interest fall in love. This follows one of a few common tropes. Usually either Instant-Mutual-Attraction-then-Fight-then-Makeup, or He-Likes-Her-She-Hates-Him-and-he-Persistently-Wins-Her-Over. If she has a boyfriend, this will involve a breakup and probably a fight where Main Character triumphs over him.
• Then they live happily ever after, and the movie closes with the satisfaction of having shown the Relatable Regular Guy Getting The Girl because he’s the Main Character and deserves it.

Now, contrast this with the love story in Tron, and see how I’m blown away:

Main Character is (sorta) the Regular Guy trope: he’s said to be a computer genius, but too fun-loving and irresponsible to get very far in life with it.

Love Interest is conventionally attractive, yes, but more personality and intellect than you usually see, and also… she’s NOT HIS love interest. She’s his ex. And without any real animosity on either side! They’re still friendly with each other, and she and her new boyfriend start events in motion by going to visit him and offer help.

New BF is an absolute NERD. He spends his leisure time at home balancing his checkbook with an abacus. The angriest we ever see him is when he gets told he can’t go to WORK for a couple of days. Love Interest experienced Main Character’s fun-loving immaturity and then picked someone on the absolute other end of the intellect and responsibility spectrum.

And they clearly are happy together! There is definite friendliness and flirtation between the exes, but her commitment is 100% to her new guy.

New Guy is the ONLY one who shows some real resentment about that previous relationship. And that evaporates in the course of that one visit to Main Character’s place.

Now, even if you manage to ignore the rainbow flags decorating Main Character’s apartment all over, and the seductive striptease that TOTALLY appears to be WORKING on New Boyfriend…

…even then, you’re STILL left with a very unconventional scenario at this point, where Main Character has made ZERO progress toward breaking Love Interest up with her current guy– and in fact has bonded with him to the point of getting him to agree to help with a crazy scheme that’s gonna kickstart the main plot.

Which, of course, takes place in a world inside the computer system where the Programs written by people on the outside are living entities who share their faces and personality traits, and… this, too, messes with the usual course of the Romantic Subplot, in amazing ways.

Ex Love Interest and her New Guy have programs living inside the computer, and those two programs are also in an established relationship, although they’ve been separated by Guy Program getting captured, locked up and made to fight as a gladiator. When he escapes, with Main Character and another friend, he gets separated from them and thinks they’ve been killed and the first thing he does is find Her– because 1. he is overwhelmingly in love with her and 2. she is the only one who knows the route and all the devices he’ll need in order to get where he’s trying to go.

Main Character is the only one who’s entered this computer world. Ex and New Guy’s real-world selves are on the outside, and from this point on, their part in the plot consists of New Guy having to be there to receive a communication from his Program. Which he does, like the best and most loyal friend, enabling a happy ending for the whole team.

Meanwhile, Main Character’s involvement in any “love story” consists of one moment when he’s in the computer system, alone with his Ex’s Program and about to pull a stunt that might get him killed, and they kiss.

Now, she meets him at least halfway, and seems to be very much INTO this kiss, although it also seems that kissing is not a thing Programs usually do and she may not have any idea what it means to him.

So, I wouldn’t say Main Character has noble intentions here. He’s not sure he’s going to survive, he’s with someone who closely resembles his Ex that he still has Feelings for, he WANTS one last kiss from her and he can easily take advantage of the fact that she doesn’t know what kissing even means. Definitely not his most ethical moment.

But her response shows just how free she is– perhaps how free her entire world is– from human hangups and taboos involving romance.

After clearly enjoying the kiss, she also clearly realizes that it’s an expression of affection. Later, when she’s reunited with her own partner, she immediately tries it out on him, to their mutual delight– and with no sign of anger or guilt about how she learned it! She is ecstatic to be together with her soulmate again, but she also has only good things to say about Main Character’s last moments in the system. From her perspective, all that happened with the kiss was “This weird awesome stranger showed me a new way to touch someone I love, and now we’re gonna have so much fun with that!”

Back on the outside, Main Character doesn’t “get the girl,” or fight and triumph over the Other Man. Instead, he gets a scene reuniting with BOTH of them, in one big group hug.

Just IMAGINE if this had been the norm. If it’d been the sort of romantic subplot we all saw most commonly in our formative years, shaping our whole idea of how love works.

Just freaking IMAGINE.