Tron: Ares Features A Clever Nine Inch Nails Cameo (And Everyone Totally Missed It)

Tron: Ares is out in theaters, and while the reviews of the film may be mixed, there is one positive point of consensus: the soundtrack is pretty great. Nine Inch Nails created the sonic themes for Tron: Ares, delivering a haunting techno-industrial sound that only the band can create. However, did you know that NIN duo Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross did more than just make music for the film? They also jumped onscreen and actually played roles in a key action moment!

WARNING: SPOILERS For Tron: Ares Follow!

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The story of Tron: Ares chronicles the final stages of a race between ENCOM and its rival, Dillinger Systems. The CEOs of both companies, Eve Kim (Greta Lee) and Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), have cracked the code on reversing the digital laser process (which brought live people into Tron‘s digital world, the Grid), giving humanity the ability to (temporarily) transfer objects created in digital space into the physical world. The plot twists when Eve discovers Kevin Flynn’s (Jeff Bridges) long-lost “Permanence Code,” which is key to making the process of digital-to-physical manifestation a permanent and stable transition. Julian Dillinger sends his two most formidable AI programs, Ares (Jared Leto) and Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith), to retrieve the code from Eve, but Ares rebels, opting to secure his own permanence in the real world instead of serving Dillinger.

Ninch Inch Nails’ Cameo In Tron: Ares Revealed

In the third act of Tron: Ares, Athena leads her own revolution, invading the real world with her soldiers, to punish the rogue Ares. Naturally, when a giant Recognizer unit comes flying over the city, the government responds by scrambling fighter jets to blow it out of the sky. The pilots of those jets? None other than Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross!

Indeed, the aerial battle sequence in Tron: Ares is a highlight of both the film and its trailers. Athena’s forces have their own aerial unit, with soldiers manifesting their own personal aircraft harnesses. Using the same technology as the light cycles, these ‘light planes’ can attack by leaving streaks of hard light in their wake. The combat jets Ninch Inch Nails are piloting are cut to shreds before they ever really stand a chance in battle.

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Cameos are fun in any major blockbuster movie (when not overdone), and Disney has certainly gotten into the habit of sneaking in Easter egg appearances into its major blockbuster franchises. Whether that’s Daniel Craig sneaking in as a Stormtrooper in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, or Matt Damon popping in and out of different Marvel franchises (Thor: Ragnarok, Deadpool 2), you’ve always got to keep your eyes peeled. Well… in the case of Tron: Ares, it’s more like keeping your ears open; the fighter pilot helmets and visors made it pretty easy to conceal Reznor and Ross’s likenesses, leaving only their respective voices as clues. Still, the threequel is keeping up with franchise tradition: Tron: Legacy made sure to get in an appearance from that film’s composers, Daft Punk – albeit in a much more on-the-nose cameo, playing club DJs in the Grid world.

With Tron: Ares looking like a major box office failure for Disney (and a possible end to the Tron franchise), it’s hard to know if there is an actual fandom to even care about things like cameos and post-credits scenes. But like the original Tron, you never know when a resurgence may be possible.

Tron: Ares is now in theaters and IMAX.