Set Pieces: The making of ‘Tron: Legacy’s’ man cave

They had fans at the trailer.

For weeks, the previews for “Tron: Legacy” have offered a striking look at what digital-age décor could look like. Though the film, which opened Friday, unfolds in a virtual landscape known as the Grid, it also features the midcentury childhood home of hero Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) and a modern house made from shipping containers where Flynn’s son, Sam (Garrett Hedlund), lives. The most dazzling interior by far, however, is the Safehouse, a glowing hideout at the edge of the “Tron” universe.

Production designer Darren Gilford described the Safehouse by e-mail as “a hideout of Flynn’s own design. The vibe of the space is a clam, serene self-imposed prison where Flynn has resolved to spend the rest of his digital life.”

That is, of course, until Sam is Tron-sported into this digital world and uses the Safehouse as his secret lair.

The space is furnished with iconic designs, including the Barcelona chair by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, the 670 lounge and ottoman by Charles and Ray Eames and the Arco lamp by Achille Castiglioni, which are accented by updated versions of 18th century French antiques.

These recognizable design elements are inspired by Flynn’s distant memories of the real world, Gilford said.

“Because Flynn is originally human and he has the ability to create his own exiled environment, we chose these familiar furnishings to showcase his personal aesthetic.” Look closely, he added, and you’ll notice that these classic elements have been “tweaked into the ‘Tron’ design language.”

Almost everything in the Safehouse glows. The main floor is composed of 6-by-6-foot illuminated glass panels set on a massive steel structure conceived by supervising art director Kevin Ishioka and supervising construction coordinator Jan Kobylka. Each panel was rigged so its up-lighting could be controlled independently. The glass had to be thick enough to support the weight of actors, cameras, crew and furnishings.

“Knowing how dark the ‘Tron’ world was going to be and that our costumes were also predominantly black, the uplit floors allowed the contrast needed to frame the characters within a dark world,” Gilford said.

The Rococo style furniture by set decorator Lin MacDonald was constructed from acrylic that took weeks to make using computer-run milling machines.

“Lin also ingeniously incorporated thin rope lights into strategic troughs inside the acrylic parts which makes them to appear lit from within,” Gilford said.

A chandelier is a traditional crystal piece that has been retrofitted with dimmable LEDs to match the other light sources in the room, Gilford said. A custom dining room table is clear acrylic, and the dining room chairs are white lacquer with a silver-patterned upholstery. The ceiling is a thin, raw fiberglass material that comes in large rolls.

“I loved the natural look of this material right off the roll,” Gilford said, “so the finished product is virtually untouched.”

Before he enters the virtual world of “Tron,” which Gilford said is “an evolving digital simulation that takes place inside of a solitary isolated super-computer,” Sam lives in an industrial building on a derelict pier.

“Sam has clearly been shaped by the mysterious, unanswered absence of his famous computer-genius father and chooses a renegade ‘off the grid’ existence,” Gilford said. “The vibe was meant to be the ultimate man cave where Sam could park his Ducati next to his sofa.”

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