I’m passing the time in a stupid airport, reading the Tron 1982 novelization
It occurs to me: In the novel, things are a little different with the Clu scene.
He’s not talking back and forth constantly with Flynn. He’s just doing his thing, and thinking about what he’ll tell Flynn later if he can get to the I/O Tower to report.
Novel version makes more sense, in keeping with the canon implication that programs have to go there to contact the user.
But if one wanted to accept the movie version as the true canon instead…. how would one explain this constant contact Flynn seems to manage?
Most programs, if they’re not in the I/O Tower, just get that tingly itch telling them, “User is calling, the urge isn’t gonna be satisfied until you get yourself to the Tower for some real contact”
But, movie-version Flynn wrote the best program ever. Dogged and relentless… and with a personal “I/O Tower” big enough to contact the User all on its own