In 1989, Kevin Flynn, the innovative software engineer and the CEO of ENCOM International, disappears. Twenty years later, his son, Sam, now ENCOM's controlling shareholder, takes little interest in the company besides 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 mysterious page originating from Flynn's abandoned arcade. There, Sam discovers a concealed computer laboratory and unintentionally teleports himself to the Grid, a virtual reality created by his father.

In 1989, Kevin Flynn, the innovative software engineer and the CEO of ENCOM International, disappears. Twenty years later, his son, Sam, now ENCOM's controlling shareholder, takes little interest in the company besides 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 mysterious page originating from Flynn's abandoned arcade. There, Sam discovers a concealed computer laboratory and unintentionally teleports himself to the Grid, a virtual reality created by his father.