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RELEASED:
2008
DIRECTOR(s):
Jon Favreau
PERSONAL RATING:
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Tony Stark, who has
inherited the defence contractor Stark Industries from his late father
Howard Stark, is in war-torn Afghanistan with his friend and military
liaison, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes, to demonstrate the new "Jericho"
missile. After the demonstration, his convoy is ambushed and Stark is
critically wounded by a missile used by the attackers—one of his company's
own. He is captured and imprisoned in a cave by a terrorist group called
the Ten Rings. Yinsen, a fellow captive and doctor, implants an
electromagnet into Stark's chest to keep the shrapnel shards that wounded
him from reaching his heart and killing him. Ten Rings leader Raza offers
Stark freedom in exchange for building a Jericho missile for the group,
but he and Yinsen believe that Raza will not keep his word.
Stark and Yinsen secretly build a small, powerful electric generator
called an arc reactor to power Stark's electromagnet and a prototype suit
of powered armour to aid in their escape. Although they keep the suit
hidden almost to completion, the Ten Rings discover their hostages'
intentions and attack the workshop. Yinsen sacrifices himself to divert
them while the suit powers up. The armoured Stark battles his way out of
the cave to find the dying Yinsen, then burns the Ten Rings' weapons and
flies away, crashing in the desert and destroying the suit. After being
rescued by Rhodes, Stark returns home and announces that his company will
cease manufacturing weapons. Obadiah Stane, his father's old partner and
the company's manager, advises Stark that this may bankrupt Stark
Industries and ruin his father's legacy. In his home workshop, Stark
builds a sleeker, more powerful version of his improvised armour suit as
well as a more powerful arc reactor for it and his chest. Personal
assistant Pepper Potts places the original reactor inside a small glass
showcase. Though Stane requests details, a suspicious Stark decides to
keep his work to himself.
At a charity event held by Stark Industries, reporter Christine Everhart
informs Stark that his company's weapons were recently delivered to the
Ten Rings and are being used to attack Yinsen's home village, Gulmira.
Stark dons his new armour and flies to Afghanistan, where he saves the
villagers. While flying home, Stark is intercepted by F-22 Raptors. He
reveals his secret identity to Rhodes over the phone in an attempt to end
the attack. Meanwhile, the Ten Rings gather the pieces of Stark's
prototype suit and meet with Stane, who has been trafficking arms to the
Ten Rings and has staged a coup to replace Stark as Stark Industries' CEO
by hiring the Ten Rings to kill him. He subdues Raza and has him and the
rest of the group killed. Stane has a massive new suit reverse-engineered
from the wreckage. Seeking to track his company's illegal shipments, Stark
sends Potts to hack into its database. She discovers that Stane hired the
Ten Rings to kill Stark, but the group reneged when they realized they had
a direct route to Stark's weapons. Potts meets with Agent Phil Coulson of
S.H.I.E.L.D., an intelligence agency, to inform him of Stane's activities.
Stane's scientists cannot duplicate Stark's miniaturized arc reactor, so
Stane ambushes Stark at his home and steals the one from his chest. Stark
manages to replace it with his original reactor. Potts and several
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents attempt to arrest Stane, but he dons his suit and
attacks them. Stark fights Stane but is outmatched without his new reactor
to run his suit at full capacity. The fight carries Stark and Stane to the
top of the Stark Industries building, where Stark instructs Potts to
overload the large arc reactor powering the building. This unleashes a
massive electrical surge that causes Stane and his armour to fall into the
exploding reactor, killing him. The next day, at a press conference, Stark
publicly admits to being the superhero the press has dubbed "Iron Man".
In a post-credits scene, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury visits Stark at
home, telling him that Iron Man is not "the only superhero in the world",
and that he wants to discuss the "Avenger Initiative". |