In 1989, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), an innovative software engineer and the CEO of ENCOM International, disappears. Twenty years later, his son, Sam (Garrett Hedlund), who became ENCOM's controlling shareholder after his father's disappearance, takes little interest in the company besides an annual practical joke on the board of directors. Sam is visited by his father's friend and ENCOM executive Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner), who urges Sam to investigate a mysterious page originating from Flynn's old arcade. While exploring the shuttered arcade, Sam discovers a concealed computer laboratory and unintentionally transports himself to the Grid, a virtual world inside the computer.
