End of Line

Part of what made Jeff Bridges’ turn as villain Obadiah Stane in last year’s Iron Man so satisfying was remembering him in 1982’s Tron. Titan of industry Stane reads as a dark response to the actor’s role in that earlier movie: cocky, loose-limbed programmer Flynn, an anti-establishment type who finds himself beamed into a fascistic video-game landscape in cinema’s first depiction of virtual reality. (The bad guy in Tron is played by David Warner, who intones the film’s signature kiss-off in his refined-thug voice: “End of line.”) At the time, Roger Ebert called the movie “brainy, stylish and fun.” Today it remains, well, fun. For highfalutin reasons related to art and technology, Tron screens at 2 p.m. today at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (4420 Warwick, 816-753-5784). It’s free.

Sun., March 22, 2-4 p.m., 2009