Appearances
Featured Characters:
- Iron Man (Tony Stark) ⏵ (First appearance) Template:Flash
Supporting Characters:
- Lt. Col. James "Rhodey" Rhodes ⏵ (First appearance) Template:Flash
- Stark Industries (First appearance)
- Happy Hogan ⏵ (First appearance) Template:Flash
- Pepper Potts ⏵ (First appearance)
- J.A.R.V.I.S. (First appearance)
- ⏴ Ho Yinsen (First appearance historically) (Death)
Antagonists:
- Ten Rings (First appearance) Template:Flash
- Obadiah Stane (First appearance) Template:Flash (Death)
Other Characters:
- United States Air Force (First appearance) Template:Flash
- Jimmy (First appearance; dies)
- Pratt (First appearance; dies)
- Ramirez (First appearance; dies)
- Maj. Gen. William Gabriel (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
- Maj. Allen (First appearance)
- Lt. Lacy (First appearance)
- Stark Industries (First appearance) Template:Flash
- Howard Stark (First appearance historically) (Photo)
- William Ginter Riva ⏵ (First appearance)
- Christine Everhart (First appearance) Template:Flash
- Manhattan Project (Mentioned)
- Afghan National Army (Only in flashback)
- S.H.I.E.L.D. (First appearance)
- ⏴ Agent Phil Coulson ⏵ (First appearance historically)
- ⏴ Director Nick Fury ⏵ (First appearance historically) (Cameo)
- F.B.I. (Mentioned)
- C.I.A. (Mentioned)
- Jim Cramer (First appearance)
- Zorianna Kit (First appearance)
- Amira Ahmed (First appearance)
- Stan Lee (First appearance) (Impersonates Hugh Hefner)
- Roxxon Corporation (First appearance) (Named only) (Cameo)
Races and species:
- Humans (First appearance)
Locations:
- Earth-199999 (First appearance)
- Earth
- Afghanistan
- United States of America
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Mentioned)
- Brown University (Mentioned)
- Berkeley (Mentioned)
- Nevada
- California
- Los Angeles
- Malibu
- Tony Stark's Malibu Mansion
- Edwards Air Force Base
- Switzerland (Mentioned)
- Bern (Mentioned)
- Earth
Items:
- Iron Man Armor (First appearance)
- Arc Reactor (First appearance)
- Palladium (First appearance)
- Iron Monger Armor (First appearance) (Destruction)
- Dum-E (First appearance)
- Jericho Missile (First appearance)
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.
Thirty-six 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 craps at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, NV. Stark's business partner, Obadiah Stane, accepted the award on his 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 end up having sex that night together. Afterwards, Tony called upon his assistant, Pepper Potts, to prompt Everhart to leave.
Several hours later, Tony demonstrated the "Jericho", his revolutionary multi-warhead cluster bomb missile, to the US Air Force. Shortly thereafter, the kidnapping occurred 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 and protective 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 shot and killed during the escape, although Stark himself managed to get 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, Raza, the leader of the Ten Rings terrorist group, dispatched his men to recover the Mark I armor from the desert where Stark had abandoned it. After finding the armor, Raza ordered his men to rebuild it once 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. Raza 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. Raza reported that Stark had perfected his armor design into the Mark III armor leading the conspirators to broker a deal: The Mark I armor designs for Stane and in exchange "the gift of iron soldiers" to Raza and his terrorist followers. Stane ultimately betrayed Raza by incapacitating him with an amplified sound paralyzer and ordered his guards to kill all of Raza'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.
Rhodes went to Tony's house after being told of Obadiah's machinations by Pepper. There he found Stark putting on the Mark III 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 II 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 to hide his identity, 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
- Shaun Toub as Yinsen
- Faran Tahir as Raza
Notes
- In its opening weekend, Iron Man grossed $98,618,668 in 4,105 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #1 at the box office.
- Iron Man grossed $585,174,222 worldwide; $318,412,101 in the U.S. and Canada and $266,762,121 in other territories.
Trivia
- In the comics, Iron Man usually operates out of New York on the East Coast, but director Jon Favreau wanted to relocate him to the West Coast for the film to differentiate it from other superhero films like Spider-Man and Fantastic Four.[1]
- This is not Jon Favreau's first appearance as a supporting character in a comic book movie. He previously appeared as Franklin "Foggy" Nelson in the 2003 film Daredevil.
- When shown on FX, the water torture scene is removed and replaced with a scene that was originally deleted.
- The theme song from the 1966 Iron Man animated series appears in different variations throughout the film.
- An earlier version of the scene in which Tony replaces his arc reactor at his lab didn't feature Pepper. Instead, Tony operated a machine on his own to replace the reactor.[2]
- The basic concept of showing Tony's face from inside his armor helmet with the suit's HUD displayed in front of him was inspired by the film 2001: Space Odyssey, namely the shots in which the lights on a computer are reflected in the helmet of the astronaut David Bowman.[3]
- One of the guiding principles for the use of the HUD shots was that every one of them had to show the HUD performing a task which reflected what Tony Stark was doing in the scene.[3]
- An early cut of the film included a sequence that explained how the Iron Man helmet worked and the purpose of the HUD. The sequence was scrapped after test audiences managed to grasp the concept of the HUD immediately and were actually more confused by the attempts to explain it.[3]
- During the scene of Tony's first flight, the character of Fin Fang Foom appears on a poster of a movie titled "Golden Dragon Casino."
- The fighter jets that pursue Tony after he intervenes in Gulmira have the callsign "Whiplash," which could be a reference to the Iron Man villain Whiplash from the comics, who was later adapted to become a main antagonist in Iron Man 2.
- The chessboard in Obadiah Stane's living room could be a subtle reference to the Chessmen, from the comics, who were created by Obadiah Stane.
- A replica of Captain America's shield is seen in Tony's workshop.
- Tony Stark's reveal that he was Iron Man at the end of the movie was originally ad-libbed by Robert Downey Jr.[4]
See Also
Links and References
References
- ↑ Quint (9 February 2007) Quint visits the IRON MAN production offices! Art! Favreau speaks about sequels (?!?), casting and more!!! Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved on 3 March 2018.
- ↑ Meinerding, Ryan (21 May 2018) Ryan Meinerding on Instagram: "Another look back at the first Iron Man. This was an idea that @jonfavreau had for when Tony is working on his RT. Instead this moment in…" Instagram. Retrieved on 22 May 2018.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Barsanti, Sam (2 May 2018) Nerd out like Tony Stark with this breakdown of how the Iron Man HUD was created AV News. Retrieved on 13 August 2018.
- ↑ Boucher, Geoff (19 July 2018) ‘Iron Man’ At 10: How One Film Set A Dominant Path For Marvel, Kevin Feige, Robert Downey Jr. & Jon Favreau Deadline. Retrieved on 24 July 2018.