Ed Dillinger is the tertiary antagonist in Disney's 1982 film Tron. He is ENCOM's former President and the creator of the MCP.
Personality
Dillinger seems to only care about his position as ENCOM's president, as the MCP was always the one who kept this obsession possible. He acts harshly and strictly with his employees and the MCP, making sure that he's in command of every operation on the enterprise. His only concern was shown when the Master Control planned to use his hacking abilities to invade the Pentagon's system and gain control of the nuclear industry.
Skills
While regarded as "not too bright" by Flynn, Dillinger had more than enough programming skill to convert the MCP into the corporate raiding tool that facilitated his rise to power. And he clearly possessed enough skill and business acumen to raise ENCOM from its humble beginnings in a garage to the corporate giant it was at the start of the movie.
Appearances
Tron
Once a programmer when he started his job at ENCOM, he soon climbed the ranks until he reached Senior Executive, thanks to his MCP program. Little did everyone at ENCOM knew that Dillinger wrote the MCP to appropriate any program that was considered useful. One of these programs was the game "Space Paranoids" which was actually created by former employee Kevin Flynn.
After the termination of the MCP by Tron and Flynn, Dillinger was presumably exposed as a fraud and was sent to jail. Which co-incides with the scenario the MCP presented to Dillinger.
Tron: Legacy
Although he doesn't appear in the movie, He is mentioned as the father of Edward Dillinger, Jr.
Kingdom Hearts series
As Square Enix planned to have Warner reprise his role as both the MCP and Sark, Ed Dillinger would probably make a re-appearance. But he declined the offer because of other works in production, so Dillinger was excluded from making a direct appearance. His presence is felt, however, when Tron mentions that Ansem the Wise copied ENCOM's original program to his system, indirectly pointing out that Dillinger could still have programed the MCP's original data.
Trivia
- It is suggested that either Flynn or Dillinger is the CEO of FCon. Dillinger is more likely the true CEO, given the similarity of the names. Plus the voice heard had more of a British accent and the CEO's tactics had a decidedly ruthless methodology to them.
- Dillinger probably wouldn't have faced more than 5 years of jail time with a good lawyer, that would give him plenty of time to found FCon and develop it into a powerful corporation strong enough to be a contender to ENCOM.
