MCU Retrospective #2: Iron Man
This article contains spoilers for Iron Man and other MCU projects.
Iron Man began a universe. The opening scene is cinematic gold, despite feeling its 14-year-old age. Back in Black, a classic-rock AC/DC song, bursts to life as Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) speaks chauvinistic nonsense. He’s drinking, quipping misogynistic things towards a female soldier, self-praising himself, bragging about sleeping with women, etc.
The opening is iconic for two reasons: every MCU starts here, and it’s a masterclass at letting audiences know who a character is. Tony Stark is crude and unlikeable; deserving of the attack that befalls him. There is good irony, too: “I’d be out of a job with peace,” Tony states before his very own weapons nearly kill him.
Iron Man is a post-9/11 movie: America wasn’t sure how to grapple with Afghanistan. Jon Favreau (the director) centering us around terrorism is contrived now, but that association to reality made this relevant in 2008. 36 hours earlier, at an awards ceremony, Tony is described as a “patriot” for his innovations in weaponry. Propaganda?
This flashback is so-so, because the characters it’s establishing are one-dimension. Tony being at the casino, with beautiful women, is unsurprising; we already know he sleeps around. Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) just looks untrustworthy, the first shot of him being a magazine cover where he’s looking down on Earth. Colonel Rhodes (Terrence Howard) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) work alongside Tony and are complicit in his behavior.
Pepper and Rhodes have surprisingly complex arcs within the MCU, becoming his lover and strongest ally, and as the series progresses, they become better. Their one-dimensional appearance here feels odd in retrospect, but stems from the uncertainty of the success of a cinematic universe. Pepper and Tony don’t kiss, and Rhodes doesn’t become War Machine, because that would mean affording them a bigger presence. If Iron Man never got a sequel, those plots would’ve made this overstuffed.
Christine Everheart (Leslie Bibb) is the most compelling character we meet: she calls Tony the “Merchant of Death,” accuses him of “war profiteering,” and questions his pro-weapon stance. No one is allowed to be too interesting though, because Christine is reduced to a trope: she sleeps with Tony. Are we actually supposed to believe this would happen?
There are good moments in the flashback: the newspaper clip about Howard and Maria’s death is set-up for Captain America: Civil War; Tony and Pepper have good chemistry, hinting at their future relationship. Tony’s presentation of The Jericho is very iconic, but how is it not illegal? Considering the short-term paralysis device is? Our opening scene established Tony so well that the flashback could’ve been consolidated throughout the movie.
Tony awakes in a cave, post-explosion, and has a car battery attached to him. Yinsen (Shaun Toub) is a caring person, also trapped, who built the device in Tony’s chest. This cave sequence, the best in the movie, focuses on realism. The implanted device and the threat of shrapnel looks and is too real. It’s hard not to squirm in discomfort, especially when Tony yanks on his nasogastric tube.
Abu Bakaar (Sayed Badreya) and Raza (Faran Tahir) are the two in-charge terrorists. Abu is positioned interestingly, because he echoes Christine in calling Tony “the most famous mass murderer.” This time, the sentiment isn’t diminished, which makes it a fascinating exploration of the military industrial complex.
Abu wants a recreation of The Jericho; Tony disagrees. How can Abu expect this when Tony is not in his laboratory? The Ten Rings have weapons, sure, but they aren’t as advanced. Iron Man is weakened by the refusal to outwardly explain the technology it’s using. Tony’s chest-piece, for example, can be submerged in water without damage but a more-advanced version cannot survive altitude?
Raza is more menacing: his silent presence looming. Iron Man is magical because it spends so much time with the suits. Mark I being built is fascinating, showcasing Tony’s casual genius, how his ego is earned and his cleverness under pressure; all core motifs of his arc within the MCU. Tony is most compelling here, because his personality is refined. He’s witty, but not at the expense of others. When Yinsen states Tony could run his heart for “50 lifetimes,” with his arc reactor, Tony chooses to focus on ridding the world of terrorism instead.
Iron Man has a terrorist problem: they’re smart enough to speak numerous languages, but none of them are capable of seeing Tony’s deceit? Raza, who does see the deceit (and gives quite a good monologue about Stark weapons owning land) doesn’t see the deceit coming from Obadiah? Raza’s confrontation is tense: Yinsen could be realistically injured, he’s one-dimensional, but the flaming stone in his mouth is brutal. Why does Raza expect a factory-made model?
Yinsen and Tony have a heart-to-heart about family, where Tony realizes that his only friends are under payroll. This instills Tony’s newfound desire for peace, which makes it more perplexing that he never made protective gear for Yinsen. When Tony is ready to escape, Yinsen makes the ultimate sacrifice. This sacrifice pushed Tony into who he became, and despite the cheapness of Yinsen’s death, it’s heart-wrenching that his family is dead and he is ready to be with them.
“Don’t waste your life,” is goosebump-worthy because Tony doesn’t. Tony used this gift of life to save the entire universe in Avengers:Endgame. Tony’s escape from the cave is perfect: both thrilling and metal. There are several incredible shots, particularly with flames. Tony (in an explosion of his own doing) ricochets away, landing in a desert. His suit shattered, but he lives. Colonel Rhodes saves him, but how did they never see the Ten Rings’ large arsenal prior?
Iron Man pivots into feeling like a new movie. Tony delivers a phenomenal monologue at the press conference. He questions Howard Stark’s (his father) regrets, mourns the soldiers who died, admitting his lack of accountability and, because of what Yinsen taught him, the bombshell: Stark Industries won’t make more weapons; they’re aligning with peace. Tony’s ideology is Chrstine and Abu’s; “I just don’t want a body count to be my only legacy.” Obadiah fearfully jumping in to save the weapons was incredible.
Iron Man’s pivot reverts back to exposition: Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) teases S.H.I.E.L.D, there is media frenzy about the conference, Tony and Pepper’s relationship deepens and Colonel Rhodes’ government position is further established. Jarvis (Paul Bettany) is interesting here, because his journey from this to WandaVision is captivating and this introduction holds up.
The MCU’s humor can be overdone and corny, but this movie serves as a roadmap and warning for its implementation: Pepper reaching into Tony’s chest (albeit making you squeamish) and Rhodes’ “training exercise” quips are funny, without a setup and punchline. The humor is also dated, with multiple transphobic remarks, which is why Marvel Studios’ seems to embrace basic laughs.
Tony builds Mark II, another silver suit, and his test flights are delightful. It’s fun to see someone not immediately own their powers, and struggle with balance and speed. Regardless, it’s hard to ignore how dumb they make Tony. He insists to Obadiah his responsibility, but this top-secret device is shown at a carnival, he attempts to break a record, nor does he see the ice forming. He survives, and we get an Avengers: Infinity War nugget when Jarvis states “If you want to visit other planets, you’ll reconfigure the exoskeleton system.” Cue NanoTech.
Tony’s conflict with Obadiah is clear: Tony disobeys orders and attends a public event. This scene is masterful in layering narrative threads: Coulson, who has no reason to be there, is teasing the post-credit scene; his relationship to Pepper is on-the-brink, Stan Lee has a shallow cameo and, at the climax, Gulmira.
Christine informs Tony that Stark Weapons are in Gulmira, and it clicks: Obadiah filed the injunction, locked him out and is double-dealing. This turn was painfully obvious, but the result is effective. You feel Tony’s heart drop, which is why he takes action. Taking on the iconic red-and-gold suit, which was impressive to watch, he jets off to Gulmira.
This scene is awesome; you feel his heroic presence and might. It’s gratifying to see Abu taken out quickly, that he blew up the Jericho Missiles. The shots are cinematic. Interestingly, the following scene, when Tony evades the United States is even more fun. It holds less weight, but Rhodes’ confusion-to-epiphany is phenomenal acting and it’s a sleek way of building on Tony’s cleverness.
This exacerbates that Iron Man doesn’t know how to portray the Ten Rings: Abu is supposedly killed off-screen, we get no context to the organization except brief history and Raza even becomes ineffective. His discovery and desire to build Mark I is redundant. Raza isn’t even the leader, Obadiah is above him. This is an engaging twist, but Raza being fooled discredits the Ten Rings even further. This is a complaint extended into Iron Man 3, which explains the organization as a joke, which further plays into Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ explanation. Outside of the flag design, nothing about the Ten Rings here matters, and that sucks.
With Raza (assumedly dead off-screen), the Ten Rings are gone. The first act is disregarded and the impending Obadiah and Tony showdown looms large. Logic doesn’t matter anymore: Pepper, who is fine with weapons manufacturing that kills thousands, attempts to quit because Tony might harm himself. It doesn’t matter: moments later, she finds that the Ten Rings were upset with Obadiah for not informing them of who they were capturing. This doesn’t add up, because Obadiah ordered the hit and they wanted rebuilt weapons?
Obadiah’s descent into madness is quick: filled with desperation, he screams at an unnamed intern. This micro-moment is magically expanded on in Spider-Man: Far From Home, which proves how clever the MCU can be. His mania is best-explained by his possession of an inexplicable device that manipulates veins, changes the color of blood and causes short-term paralysis. What is this? How does it work? Why don’t we get an explanation?
He uses this to remove Tony’s miniature arc reactor, leaving him for dead. “Do you really think just because you had an idea it belongs to you?” is incredible delivery; even more-so to compare it to the atomic bomb and Howard Stark’s involvement in that. Tony’s struggle to get the arc reactor is dreadful. Tony looks awful, and given the unfamiliarity to the MCU formula, he could’ve died. This scene is pitch-perfect in performance, especially when the robot ends up handing him the arc reactor.
An MCU’s final act has to tease future installments. It’s frustrating and exciting. Coulson name-drops S.H.I.E.L.D. Rhodes looking at Mark III and saying “Next time, baby,” is about as meta of a tease for Iron Man 2 as they could get. Luckily, this doesn’t overshadow the final act.
Obadiah, in an upgraded Mark I, terrorize Pepper and Coulson at Stark Industries. We see really creative uses of iron suits, and the CGI holds up today, despite every shot of the two iron suits being so-so. It’s a bit confusing how Obadiah, a man consumed by greed and jealousy, is suddenly willing to kill an innocent single mom and her four children.
Tony flying into the sky and freezing Obadiah was a better thematic (and cinematic) death than what happened. Obadiah was blinded by his greed to assume Tony was less-than, and being defeated by his intellect (stemming from a moment of Tony’s stupidity) would’ve been a stroke of brilliance.
Instead, Obadiah inexplicably survives the fall. Pepper is asked to blow up the arc reactor, which Tony accepts could kill him too. This would’ve landed better if Tony hadn’t already proven his selflessness. Tony confusingly survives both being shocked and the massive explosion. Obadiah, in his final moments, remarks that Tony has given the world the best war weapon ever in search of peace. It’s a haunting echo into the future.
Our movie closes as strongly as it opens: Coulson gives Tony a pre-prepared speech about his whereabouts when Stark Industries exploded and where Obadiah is. You can feel his internal struggle about lying, especially learning that Obadiah will have “died in a plane crash”. His final interaction with Pepper, when he remembers he left her at the event, was well-done and cohesive.
His final monologue shines: recognizing his “laundry list of defects,” he embraces the speech before haphazardly tossing it aside and saying “I am Iron Man.” 14 years later, this moment feels as revelatory, exciting and massive as it did in 2008.
***
The MCU popularized the post-credit scene. A snippet, sometimes hugely important, sometimes funny, that teases the future or ties the movie together. In the MCU, they are hit-or-miss, but Iron Man hits a home-run. It had to not only tease the future, but ensure audiences would invest in non-Iron Man projects, such as The Incredible Hulk.
This scene is the pay-off of Coulson’s desire for a meeting. Tony meets Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the crass Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick’s line delivery is killer: “You think you’re the only superhero in the world?” is vague; an unexplored past (Captain America: The First Avenger) needs to be answered. “You just became part of a bigger universe,” is meta and the line about The Avengers initiative is mind-blowing.
It was a gamble to ask audiences to be patient and wait for six heroes to be introduced for The Avengers. It was ambitious. They couldn’t know if everyone would get behind them all. We still feel the excitement of this scene because Phase 4 is more ambitious, even more exciting and we adore meeting new characters, such as Steven Grant and Kamala Khan.
Stray Observations:
- Do you think Terrence Howard regrets leaving the role? He couldn’t have known how massive the MCU would become.
- Avengers: Endgame is a sentimental, nostalgic movie. We hear Tony’s hammering from the cave sequence, but why wasn’t Yinsen honored? He’s the reason Tony became a hero.
- In Gulmira, when Tony blows up The Jericho with fire, shouldn’t it be more damaging?
- Why did both Abu and Raza die off-screen? Were there plans to bring them back?
- In the era of Disney+, the Ten Rings could’ve been utilized better in that format.
- In the final battle, Tony is thrown into a “Hydrogen Powered” bus, and that feels pointed.
- Was it intentional for the arc reactor explosion to look like the bifrost?
- Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) is in this movie, as an assistant to Tony. His role is insignificant, but considering he’s the longest-running character that started in this movie, it’s worth noting.
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