The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Kevin Flynn is a young and gifted programmer who once worked for the software mega-corporation, ENCOM. Flynn created several video games on the ENCOM mainframe while working after hours with the aim of eventually creating his own games company. Before he was ready to present his projects to senior management, his work was stolen by another programmer, Ed Dillinger. Dillinger locked Flynn out of the system and went on to present the games as his own work, thus earning himself a series of promotions.

Three years later, Dillinger is now a senior executive of ENCOM, and the company is run mainly by the Master Control Program (MCP), a self-evolving artificial intelligence originally written by Dillinger. Flynn, meanwhile, has been reduced to running his own video game arcade, featuring several new games he created. As a result, he regularly attempts to break into the ENCOM mainframe and find the evidence he needs to prove Dillinger's wrongdoing. The MCP catches one of Flynn's computer programs, Clu, poking around in sensitive memory and "de-rezzes" (erases) the program. The MCP then summons Dillinger to discuss the matter, and Dillinger authorizes it to shut down access to all personnel in Flynn's former security group (Group-7). This inadvertently locks out a current ENCOM employee, Alan Bradley.