This IS an interesting topic. I'm sure it's been debated before, but this site needs some activity, so WHY NOT?

I'm not sure what I think about this one. There's really two options.

Option 1: "Death" for Users on the Grid just kicks them out of the system. Instant fail-safe, no User dies on the Grid.

Option 2: Because of his special abilities as a User, jumping into the beam of the MCP did NOT kill Flynn, it simply enabled him to distract the MCP long enough for Tron to destroy it, and use the MCP's functions to get home.

In Tron 2.0, it seems to establish that there is a failsafe in the laser system, because every time you kill a DataWraith (digitized user sent by FCon to hack servers) it just pops back out in the Real World. But then, by that estimation, Flynn should have popped out of the computer at the end of Legacy, theoretically.

As for the Master Key, my thought ties in to how I connect Tron 2.0 and Tron: Legacy. I think that the correction algorithms that were a part of the MCP and had to be recreated by Alan and Lora to restore the digitizing system were integrated into Flynn's DNA when he jumped into the MCP. This meant that HE could digitize whenever he wanted, but no one else could digitize unless he was somewhere in the system. It also worked in reverse: no program (or ISO) could realize (reverse of digitize) without the correction algorithms physically (digitally?) present at the portal.

I don't think he died, no.  I mean, we never really see anything *bad* happening to him after he jumps in. So I think it would be a bit extreme to say he died.  Sure, Yori says "you'll be de-rezzed!"  But there are a lot of reasons she could be wrong:
1. Flynn's a user.  Maybe it works differently for us.  How would she know that?
2. Flynn goes voluntarily... other programs absorbed by the MCP don't.  This may not make a difference, but it might.  The MCP isn't the one doing the invading, but is the one being invaded.  And again, by a user, not a program.
3. Flynn himself says "don't worry."  Maybe he's just being brave and he really hasn't a clue.  But maybe, being a user who understands the code, he knows he's not going to die.

I mean, as you know, I've speculated in fic that in the end of both films, because he's combined with a program that then ceases to exist, he gets kicked back into the user world by an error generated by the program's demise.  It would make sense.  But, again, this would have assumed he got thrown back into the user world at the end of T:L.

Of course, we could also argue that there are reasons this premise doesn't hold true at the end of T:L.  Like, destroying Clu destroys him because unlike the MCP, Clu's actually created from a part of him.  Or, it was a mentality thing-- he was getting old and was ready to go.  Or, more likely, an out-of-universe reason: the writers wanted to bump him off, full stop.

I could come up with arguments for either outcome.

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The same wiki implies that Sam couldn't have gone through the portal without the master key, which he tried doing leaving Kevin's hide out by himself.

That is a bandwagon I have never ridden and never will.  I don't know what the significance of Flynn's disc is-- yet another of those things they don't bother explaining fully/clearly-- but I'm fairly certain it's NOT the key to exiting the system.  Maybe for a program it is-- hence why Clu needed it-- but for a user, no, that makes little sense.  I'm not even entirely convinced Clu needs it for that, but that would take us into the argument of whether Clu can even get out as a program, let alone with his whole entourage, and let's not do that discussion again.  It may have value for Clu for the same reason it does for Sam: "everything you do or learn will be imprinted on this disc."  There's probably a lot you can learn about Flynn, and the system he built, if you have it.

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I'm also not big on the idea that a user simply can't die on-Grid.  I mean, I can see the arguments for it, but it sort of lowers the stakes, doesn't it?  It's no big sacrifice for a user to put her/himself in danger if s/he knows there are no real consequences... and IMO, we've had enough of users not taking the Grid seriously.

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(What happened to our "quote" formatting button???)

CardioFunk Wrote:I would have thought Flynn's new grid would be safer for users than the Encom system by design. I could be wrong, but I thought the original games Flynn designed for the new grid didn't derez or kill. I'm not aware of any other safeguards in place over the old system.

I would think so, too, but it looks like Clu changed that.

CardioFunk Wrote:Another theory I have is that users might age at a normal rate in the grid, but Flynn was kept alive as long as Clu was alive and symbiotically connected to him. But I see nothing in the plot encouraging that.

It would have been interesting to let it go another 40 years and find out if Flynn dies of old age in there... and if he does, what happens to Clu...