Kevin Flynn

Yes, the untapped power that lies within you. Now, child, it's time you awakened that power and realized your full potential.
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"The thing about perfection is that it's unknowable. But it's right in front of us all the time!"

—Kevin Flynn telling CLU the realization of his mistakes

Kevin Flynn is a character who appears in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. He originated from the Disney film, Tron, and its sequel, Tron: Legacy. He is the father of Sam Flynn and the creator of The Grid.

Development

Although The Grid was first revealed in Jump Festa 2012, Flynn himself was not revealed until a special trailer in February 2012. In the trailer, he appears mostly to play out the same role as in Tron: Legacy, except for his interactions with Sora and Riku.

Appearance

Flynn's appearance is based on his attire in Tron: Legacy, in which he is shown with long, grey hair and a bushy moustache and beard on his face. He is clad in long, charcoal robes, the inside of which glows white. An Identity Disc is on his back, as with all programs.

In his hideout, Kevin's attire is pure white.

Origin

Top: Kevin Flynn in the original film.
Middle: Flynn on ENCOM's server
Bottom: Kevin Flynn in Tron: Legacy

"The Grid. A digital frontier. I tried to picture clusters of information as they moved through the computer. What did they look like? Ships? Motorcycles? Were the circuits like freeways? I kept dreaming of a world I thought I'd never see. And then one day... I got in."

—Kevin Flynn's musings

Kevin Flynn first appears in the 1982 film, Tron, in which he is portrayed as a former ENCOM game designer whose games were swindled from him by rival programmer, Ed Dillinger, who acquired a series of promotions and made it to CEO of ENCOM. Flynn tries numerous times to hack into the system and obtain evidence of Dillinger's crimes, and one particular attempt gets him sent into the datascape, where he joins forces with Tron, Ram, Yori and Dumont to battle Sark and the Master Control Program and win his freedom. Flynn succeeds and gains his rightful position as CEO of ENCOM.

Following his promotion, Flynn creates an isolated server - his digital frontier - called "the Grid", intended as a playground where he could experiment to his heart's content, and it slowly took on a life of its own as it teemed with programs of all sorts. Kevin copied and upgraded Tron from ENCOM servers in order to protect the Grid, naming a city in his honor. Years later, while escorting Flynn to the portal to the real world, they are ambushed by CLU 2 and four Black Guards. Tron tells Kevin to run as he fends them off, leaving him to fight and ultimately lose to CLU 2 as Kevin makes a run for it.

In the 2010 sequel, Tron: Legacy, Flynn has been missing for twenty years. His son, Sam, ventures into the Grid to find him, only to discover that it has been taken over by CLU 2, and Flynn has been living in exile all this time with an ISO, Quorra. Eventually, when Flynn learns of CLU 2's plans to attack and take over the real world, which he sees as "imperfect", he joins forces with Sam and Quorra to escape back to the real world and trap CLU 2 inside the Grid forever. CLU 2 pursues them, ending in a confrontation outside the Portal. Flynn taps into his power and draws CLU 2 back into himself by force of will, allowing Sam and Quorra to escape before releasing a huge blast from the reintegration.

In both appearances, Flynn was portrayed by Academy Award-winning actor Jeff Bridges.