In 1989, Kevin Flynn, the software engineer and CEO of ENCOM International, mysteriously disappears four years after the death of his wife Jordan. Twenty years later, his son, Sam, now ENCOM's primary shareholder, takes little interest in the company beyond playing an annual practical joke on the board of directors. Sam is visited by his father's friend, ENCOM executive Alan Bradley, urging Sam to investigate a message originating from Flynn's abandoned arcade. There, Sam unintentionally teleports himself to the Grid, a virtual reality created by his father.
