The Master Control Program (usually abbreviated as MCP) is the main antagonist of the 1982 Disney film, Tron. It was a computer program created by Ed Dillinger that ruled inside ENCOM's mainframe computer to overview the game system, but rebelled itself and decided to get rid of the humans (users, as it usually refers to them). During the rule of the MCP, many programs were enslaved and pitted against the program's henchmen, led by Sark.
Tron[]
Originally created by ENCOM founder Walter Gibbs, the MCP was at first only a chess program which was left embedded in the company's computer systems.
Years later, Dillinger wrote the MCP to administer the company's computer network; however, the MCP had the capacity to learn and grew beyond the confines of its original programming. It began to steal data from other systems, and took control of several companies and institutions. Its intelligence - and ambition - grew nearly out of control, and the MCP grew to desire nothing less than world domination. In its own words, it said it could run things 900-1200 times better than any human. Dillinger once stated to it that he had made it too greedy, and was surprised that the MCP had made it into the Kremlin's computer system. Dillinger appeared to begin having reservations about letting the MCP get so powerful, which are realized when it threatens to expose his unsavory deeds to the Wall Street Journal if he tries to move against it. It then asks him (although in a tone that makes it sound more like an order) about a Chinese language program it had requested.
Eventually, however, the MCP caused its own downfall. It digitized former ENCOM programmer Flynn, who had come dangerously close to uncovering Dillinger's schemes. Flynn, in the computer world, allied himself with Tron, a security program; their combined efforts resulted in the de-resolution of the MCP by throwing a disc into the base of the MCP. The MCP then reverted back to its original chess program appearance (which, in the digital universe, appeared as an old man in a control chair) followed by this program vanishing as it was deleted.