They say that the best weapon is the one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That's how Dad did it, that's how America does it... and it's worked out pretty well so far.

--Tony Stark

Iron Man

Title

Iron Man

Aliases

Ironman

Universe

Earth-199999

Film Details

Directors

John Favreau

Producers

Avi Arad, Kevin Feige
Executive Producer:
Stan Lee, David Maisel, Louis D'Esposito, Peter Billingsley, John Favreau, Avi Arad
Marvel Studios

Writers

Screenplay:
Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway
Comic Book:
Stan Lee
Don Heck
Larry Lieber
Jack Kirby

Musicians

Ramin Djawadi

Distributors

Paramount Pictures, Marvel Entertainment

Running Time

126 mins

Rating

PG-13^[1]

Budget

$135 million

Release Date

May 2, 2008

Associated Websites

On Marvel Movies

Iron Man (film)

On the Internet Movie Database

imdb.com

Previous Film

Next Film

—

Iron Man 2
(May 7, 2010)

Appearances

Featured Characters:

• Anthony "Tony" Stark (Iron Man) (First appearance)

Supporting Characters:

• Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes (First appearance)
• Virginia "Pepper" Potts (First appearance)
• Happy Hogan (First appearance)

Villains:

• Iron Monger (Obadiah Stane) (First appearance) (Death)
• Ten Rings (First appearance)
  • Raza (First appearance) (Apparent Death)
  • Abu Bakar (First appearance) (Death)

Other Characters:

• S.H.I.E.L.D. (First appearance)
  • Phil Coulson (First appearance)
  • Nick Fury (First appearance)
• Yinsen (First appearance) (Death)
• Christine Everhart (First appearance)
• Howard Stark (First appearance)
• J.A.R.V.I.S. (First appearance)

Locations:

• Earth-199999 (First appearance)
  • Afghanistan

Items:

• Iron Man Armors
  • MK I
  • MK II
  • MK III

Vehicles:

Plot

During a trip to Afghanistan to demonstrate his company's new weapon system, Tony Stark was attacked and kidnapped by a terrorist group called the Ten Rings.

36 hours earlier, at an award ceremony, US Air Force officer James Rhodes had prepared to give an award to Tony, but Stark was absent playing poker at a casino. Stark's business partner accepted the award on Stark's behalf. Rhodes later found Stark and expressed his disappointment at the absence. Preparing to leave, Stark was approached by a reporter, Christine Everhart. Stark and Everhart ended up having a one-night stand. Afterwards, Tony's assistant prompted Everhart to leave.

Several hours later, Tony demonstrated "Jericho", his revolutionary multi-warhead cluster bomb missile, to the US Air Force. Shortly thereafter, the kidnapping occured and the terrorists revealed that they wanted Stark to build them a version of the Jericho weapon. Stark was forced to comply, although over the next three months he built a crude but very strong power armor instead.

Stark gained the aid of fellow captive Dr. Yinsen during his time working on the secret project. Together they married a miniature arc reactor of Stark's design to an electromagnetic pacemaker protecting Stark's heart from the embedded shrapnel in his chest. Once he was free from the immediate threat of his heart injury Stark proceeded to construct a weapon system for himself under the guise of the missile system that his captors thought he was making. When the armored suit was completed, Stark then made his bid for escape.

Dr. Yinsen was killed during the escape, although Stark himself managed to away, later to be picked up by the U.S. Air Force in the desert. Upon returning to the United States, Stark declared that Stark Industries would no longer manufacture weapons, a move which his business partner and second-in-command CEO Obadiah Stane informed him was blocked by the board members shortly after.

During his self-imposed sabbatical from public life, Stark tinkered with the design of his power suit, refining it for flight capability, and built a more powerful and reliable arc reactor, both to power his pacemaker and power the suit. Meanwhile, Reza, the leader of the Ten Rings terrorist group, dispatched his men to recover the Mark 1 Armor from the desert where Stark had abandoned it. After finding the Armor, Reza ordered his men to rebuild it again.

During Stark's first public appearance since his kidnapping Everhart showed him pictures of Stark Industries weapons in the hands of terrorist groups (particularly the Ten Rings), including the system he refused to build for them. He also discovered that Stane had been "dealing under the table" to both sides in the conflict, as well as being the one to shut Stark out of the board while he recovered. Faced with the realization of what his company had done, Stark donned the power suit and flew to Yinsen's village of Gulmira in Afghanistan; rescuing the villagers from the terrorists by employing his armor's weapon systems. Iron Man also grabbed one of the terrorists' leaders and left him at the mercy of the villagers. Reza watched Iron Man flee to the weapon stockpiles.

After a brief battle with an enemy tank, Iron Man destroyed their weapon stockpiles, but accidentally drew the attention of two patrolling jet pilots of the United States Air Force. After a supersonic dogfight between Stark and two F-22s, one jet was damaged in Stark's attempt to hide, forcing the the pilot to eject. The pilot's ejection seat malfunctioned but Stark managed to save the pilot's life. After this ordeal, Stark revealed his Iron Man identity to Rhodes and Rhodes covered it up by stating that the incident was "a training exercise".

After viewing the news of the Gulmira F-22 incident, Stane went on a business trip to the Ten Rings' encampment in Afghanistan, where it became apparent that Stane had paid and ordered the Ten Rings to kill Stark. Reza reported that Stark had perfected his armor design into the Mark 3 Armor leading the conspirators to broker a deal: The Mark 1 Armor designs for Stane and in exchange "the gift of iron soldiers" to Reza and his terrorist followers. Stane ultimately betrayed Reza by incapacitating him with an amplified sound paralyzer and ordered his guards to kill all of Reza's men. Stane then secretly contracted Sector 16 at Stark Industries to use the armor designs.

Determined to make amends for his mistakes, Stark sent his assistant Virginia Potts to find the shipping records of Stark Industries in order to track down the illicit weapons shipments and destroy them. While hacking into the system she discovered that it was Stane who had hired the Ten Rings to kill Stark, but they had reneged on the deal when they realized who the target was. She also discovered that Stane had recovered the power suit prototype, and had reverse engineered his own version.

Stane took Stark's arc reactor to power his suit after learning that his scientists in Sector 16 were unable to copy Tony's ingenious miniaturization of the company's larger design. Neutralizing Stark with the sonic paralyzer, Stane revealed his involvement in the kidnapping while Stark was immobile and unable to stop the theft. After briefly expounding upon his agenda of world domination and the ideals of power in the corporate business, (particularly stating that ark, Tony's father, helped the atomic bomb become a reality), Stane left Stark for dead.

Jim Rhodes went to Tony's house after being told of Obadiah's machinations by Pepper. There he found Stark putting on the Mark 3 armor after Stark had retrieved his first arc reactor with the assistance of a robotic arm. He asked Stark if there was anything he could do to help, and Tony simply responded by asking him to keep the skies clear. After Stark left, Rhodes gazed on the Mark 2 armor and said, "Next time, baby!" (a nod to War Machine).

Meanwhile, Pepper and several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents attempted to arrest Obadiah at Stark Industries headquarters, but Stane had put on his Iron Monger armor and ambushed them. Just before Iron Monger could kill Pepper, Stark (as Iron Man) intervened and fought him out onto the streets. Their epic battle soon took them to the skies where Iron Man seemingly defeated Iron Monger when Stane's armor iced up at high altitude.

Both combatants then fell, each managing to re-engage critical systems to slow their descent and land atop the Stark Industries building. Iron Monger proceeded to beat Iron Man but in a last ditch effort, Stark ordered Pepper to overload the large arc reactor powering the building. The resulting blast killed Obadiah and incapacitated Tony.

The film ended with a press conference about the battle. Although advised by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Coulson to claim Iron Man is his personal body guard and corporate mascot, Tony instead announced that he was Iron Man. After the closing credits, Stark was greeted by General Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who informed him of the Avenger Initiative.

Cast

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man: Favreau had planned to cast a newcomer in the role,^[1] but ultimately chose Downey (a fan of the comic) because he felt the actor's past, including cocaine abuse, made him an appropriate choice for the part. "The best and worst moments of Robert's life have been in the public eye," the director explained. "He had to find an inner balance to overcome obstacles that went far beyond his career. That's Tony Stark. Robert brings a depth that goes beyond a comic-book character who is having trouble in high school, or can't get the girl."^[2] Favreau also felt Downey could make Stark a "likable asshole", but also depict an authentic emotional journey once he won over the audience.

Downey had an office next to Favreau during pre-production, which allowed him greater involvement in the screenwriting process. He brought a deeper sense of humor to the film not present in previous drafts of the script. He explained, "What I usually hate about these [superhero] movies [is] when suddenly the guy that you were digging turns into Dudley Do-Right and then you're supposed to buy into all his 'Let's go do some good!' That Eliot Ness-in-a-cape-type thing. What was really important to me was to not have him change so much that he's unrecognizable. When someone used to be a schmuck and they're not anymore, hopefully they still have a sense of humor."^[3] To prepare, Downey spent five days a week weight training and practiced martial arts to get into shape, which benefitted him because "it's hard not to have a personality meltdown [...] after about several hours in that suit. I'm calling up every therapeutic moment I can think of to just get through the day."

Terrence Howard as Lt. Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes: A pilot friend of Stark, and the liaison between Stark Industries and the military in the department of acquisitions. Favreau cast Howard because he felt he could play War Machine in a sequel.^[4] Howard and his father are Iron Man fans, partly because Rhodes was one of the few black superheroes when he was a child.^[5] While Rhodes is roguish in the comics after he met Stark, his earlier disciplinarian character forms double act a dynamic with Stark, and he is unsure whether Stark's actions are acceptable. "Rhodey is completely disgusted with the way Tony has lived his life, but at a certain point he realizes that perhaps there is a different way," Howard said. "Whose life is the right way; is it the strict military life, or the life of an independent?"

Howard prepared for the role by visiting Nellis Air Force Base on March 16, 2007, where he ate with the pilots and observed HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopters and F-22 Raptors.^[6] He was a Downey fan since he saw him in Weird Science (film)

Notes

Iron Man is a super-hero film released in theaters on May 2, 2008. The film was produced by Marvel Entertainment, New Line Cinema, and Paramount Pictures and was directed by John Favreau. The film covers Tony Stark's back story about how he was captured by terrorists in Afghanistan as well as how he uses his resources to build Iron Man Mark I and escape. When he gets back to America, he sets to improve his armor, thus becoming Iron Man. As Iron Man, Stark thwarts a nefarious plot with global implications surrounding his business rival, Obadiah Stane, who becomes Iron Monger and sets out to destroy Iron Man.

Trivia

• No trivia.

See Also

• Characters from Iron Man (film)
• Other things related to Iron Man (film)
• Film Gallery: Iron Man (film)
• Images from the film

Links and References

• News:Iron_Man_Feature