Iron Man (2008)

After being held captive in an Afghan cave, billionaire engineer Tony Stark creates a unique weaponized suit of armor to fight evil.

Director:

Jon Favreau

Writers:

Mark Fergus (screenplay), Hawk Ostby (screenplay)

Stars:

Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 20 wins & 65 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert Downey Jr.	...	Tony Stark
Terrence Howard	...	Rhodey
Jeff Bridges	...	Obadiah Stane
Gwyneth Paltrow	...	Pepper Potts
Leslie Bibb	...	Christine Everhart
Shaun Toub	...	Yinsen
Faran Tahir	...	Raza
Clark Gregg	...	Agent Coulson
Bill Smitrovich	...	General Gabriel
Sayed Badreya	...	Abu Bakaar
Paul Bettany	...	JARVIS (voice)
Jon Favreau	...	Hogan
Peter Billingsley	...	William Ginter Riva
Tim Guinee	...	Major Allen
Will Lyman	...	Award Ceremony Narrator (voice)

Storyline

Tony Stark. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Son of legendary inventor and weapons contractor Howard Stark. When Tony Stark is assigned to give a weapons presentation to an Iraqi unit led by Lt. Col. James Rhodes, he's given a ride on enemy lines. That ride ends badly when Stark's Humvee that he's riding in is attacked by enemy combatants. He survives - barely - with a chest full of shrapnel and a car battery attached to his heart. In order to survive he comes up with a way to miniaturize the battery and figures out that the battery can power something else. Thus Iron Man is born. He uses the primitive device to escape from the cave in Iraq. Once back home, he then begins work on perfecting the Iron Man suit. But the man who was put in charge of Stark Industries has plans of his own to take over Tony's technology for other matters.

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Plot Keywords:

billionaire | inventor | robot suit | based on comic | marvel cinematic universe | 

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Taglines:

Get ready for a different breed of heavy metal hero.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

Hungarian Kurdish Hindi English Persian Urdu Arabic

Release Date:

2 May 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ironman

Filming Locations:

Palmdale Regional Airport, Palmdale, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$140,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$98,618,668, 4 May 2008

Gross USA:

$318,604,126

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$585,366,247

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Marvel Enterprises, Marvel Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

126 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

(At around forty-nine minutes) During the Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer (2005) segment, the upper (NYSE) and lower (NASDAQ) tickers are filled with quotes of fictional companies named after various Mad Money production staff such as George Manessis (Segment Producer) and Regina Gilgan (Executive Producer).

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Goofs

(at around 50 mins) When Stark is lying on the table and asking Pepper to remove the power cell from his chest, the prosthetic chest used for the effect is moving up and down to simulate his breathing. Tony's actual breathing is out of sync with that of the prosthetic chest.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Tony Stark: I feel like you're driving me to court martial. This is crazy. What did I do? I feel like you're gonna pull over and snuff me. What, you're not allowed to talk? Hey, Forrest!
Jimmy: We can talk, sir.
Tony Stark: Oh, I see. So it's personal.
Ramirez: No, you intimidate them.
Tony Stark: Good God, you're a woman! I honestly, I couldn't have called that. I mean, I would apologize, but isn't that what we're going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first.
Ramirez: I'm an airman.
Tony Stark: Well, you have actually excellent bone structure ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

This is Marvel Studio's first self-produced film (and the first film to set up the Marvel Cinematic Universe), so the Marvel logo is slightly adjusted: it fully appears, and then is accompanied by the title "Marvel Studios."

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Alternate Versions

The version of the film shows in AMC Theaters as part of a pre-Avengers Marvel Phase One marathon features an exclusive intro from Agent Coulson, talking about the film and the character. These Coulson intros were later includes as bonuses in the Avengers Phase One box set.

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Connections

Featured in Nostalgia Critic: How Right Are Trailers? (2016)

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Soundtracks

Institutionalized
Written by Louiche Mayorga and Mike Muir
Performed by Suicidal Tendencies
Courtesy of Frontier Records

User Reviews

Don't waste your life, Stark

With a B-list superhero, a risky lead actor, a genre that hasn't really done much other than say Nolan's Batman, this movie had a lot to prove. Wow, did it ever. It proved that superhero movies can be realistic, emotional, funny and have highly entertaining action. This is the movie to launch the MCU, and started the shared universe that DC comics and other franchises are following.

Let's start with the number one reason why this movie is so good: Robert Downey Jr. I am so glad that Jon Favreau kept pressing the studio to make sure RDJ had this role because he completely nails it. He effortlessly portrays the cool, sarcastic, alcoholic, playboy that I don't even think he's acting. He's clearly not perfect as he is the guy we think is awesome but don't necessarily want to be. This role is basically synonymous with RDJ now because you can't think of Tony Stark without immediately thinking of RDJ. Iron Man wasn't a househeld name before but thanks to RDJ's performance, it is now.

The action in this movie is incredible as you get to see him fly around, take on terrorist cells and fight the main villain. What I even found to more intriguing is Stark's entire time building his suit, both in the Afghan cave and in his garage because it is amazing to see his genius at work, while still being snarky and basically a tool.

The writing and humor is also very good in this movie. I read that a lot of the lines, especially RDJ's were improv, which is able to keep this movie very fresh, not Rotten Tomatoes style, but it helps a lot by breaking the molds of superhero movies.

A couple complaints in this film is the pacing and the final villain. The pacing starts off very well, not really rushing into him being Iron Man, establishing his character very well before his abilities. Then the final battle comes around and it's basically just an evil version of his character, which sort of works with the problem of his technology getting into wrong hands, but the fact that it's just fighting a mirror is kind of boring. The final battle comes around pretty quick and it resolved fairly quick as if they are trying to wrap it up really quickly. I did like Bridges' Obadiah Stane with his intimidating yet charming persona but in the end he was just a reverse of Iron Man, not that interesting.

+ Robert Downey Jr + Fresh, new start for superhero movies + Writing and pacing (mostly) + Action and Humor - Final Villain

Final Score: 9.3/10