#674) Iron Man (2008)

The Plot: Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a billionaire weapons manufacturer for the US military, equally famous for his genius inventions and playboy lifestyle. While in Afghanistan to demonstrate his latest missiles with his friend Lt. Col. James Rhodes (Terrence Howard, for now), Stark is injured in an attack and captured by a terrorist group that wants him to build one of his missiles for them. Supported by fellow captive Dr. Ho Yinsen (Shaun Toub), Stark instead designs a technologically advanced suit of armor to escape. The experience is a life-changer for Stark, who vows that Stark Industries will cease making weapons, much to the dismay of company manager Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges). With the help of his assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), Stark continues to refine the suit, with an aim at using it to help civilians. The press dubs this mysterious new superhero Iron Man, a name – and a franchise – that sticks.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film “a superhero film that transcends and elevates the genre”, praising the work of Favreau, Downey, and the effects and production design teams. The write-up also includes a quote from Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who declares that the movie’s NFR standing proves that “it has stood the test of time”. Dude, it’s only been 15 years. Cool your jets.

But Does It Really?: It was only a matter of time before the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) made the National Film Registry (NFR), and as the one that started it all, “Iron Man” is a natural choice. I saw “Iron Man” for the first time in 2012, and it was odd all these years later re-watching this movie under the lens of “significant American film”, and equally weird trying to treat this as the stand-alone movie it would have been in 2008, rather than as a small part of a larger movie experience. That is, however, a point in favor of this film’s legacy: It changed how we watch movies, especially big potential franchises. On its own, “Iron Man” is a fun outing boosted by Robert Downey Jr.’s immediately likable performance. The film can be a bit slow-going at times, but ultimately its emphasis on Tony Stark rather than excessive world-building makes it more palatable for a wider audience (including this one with only a passing knowledge of Marvel). “Iron Man” succeeds at being a superhero origins movie that puts its characters first, and its inclusion in the NFR is – to quote another undying franchise – the first step into a larger world.

Shout Outs: Look closely when Pepper downloads the files from Tony’s computer: a document pertaining to Obadiah Stane is labeled “MSC Lebowski“.

Everybody Gets One: A USC film graduate and a lifelong Marvel fan, Kevin Feige joined Marvel Studios in 2000 and quickly rose in rank from associate producer to co-producer to President of production in 2007. During the early to mid-2000s Marvel had licensed out the film rights to its various characters to other studios (X-Men to Fox, Spider-Man to Sony, etc.) and wanted to make its own movies. Recognizing that Marvel still owned the film rights to its Avengers characters, Feige pitched an ambitious film project: multiple stand-alone films starring individual characters that would culminate in an Avengers film with everyone, creating a shared universe akin to the Marvel comics of the ’60s. Iron Man was selected first because Marvel had just gotten the film rights back from New Line Cinema. Also making their NFR debuts are director Jon Favreau (another self-professed Marvel geek), and actors Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Terrence Howard.

Wow, That’s Dated: All of Iron Man’s Vietnam origins of the 1960s were transplanted to 2000s Afghanistan. Plus a reference to MySpace and a cameo by Jim Cramer of “Mad Money”.

Title Track: The Black Sabbath metal classic “Iron Man” plays during the end credits of this movie. For the record, the song had nothing to do with the character, as no one in the band had any knowledge of American comic books. Plus keep an ear out for the “Iron Man” animated series theme song a few times in the film.

Seriously, Oscars?: Second only to “The Dark Knight” at the box office, “Iron Man” received two Oscar nominations: Sound Editing and Visual Effects, losing to, respectively, “Dark Knight” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. Also worth noting that Robert Downey Jr. received an Oscar nomination that year not as Tony Stark, but rather for his supporting turn in “Tropic Thunder”; a performance that I assume hasn’t aged well at all.

• A reminder that Jon Favreau also directed “Elf”, and cast himself here in the supporting role of Tony’s bodyguard Happy Hogan.
• It’s so weird seeing Gwyneth Paltrow in this movie. Known for awards-bait period pieces in the ’90s, Paltrow seems out of her element playing a less-dimensional character in a modern superhero movie and being forced to keep up with Downey’s ad-libbing. On the plus side, Paltrow reportedly took the role because it filmed 15 minutes from her home, meaning she could be with her kids during the shoot. And I’m sure those paychecks helped get Goop off the ground.
• Shaun Toub doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his performance as Yinsen, the man that helps Tony Stark create the Iron Man suit and basically motivates Stark’s 180 towards good. In a movie with flashy effects and a big movie star at its core, Yinsen/Toub injects some much needed calmness into the proceedings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwYEjl_swNM

• Funny to think of Tony Stark as essentially a modern-day Scrooge; the heartless businessman who has a revelation that leads to a life of do-gooding. I’m sure if Dickins had lived long enough he would have turned Scrooge into some sort of superhero with an expanded universe and a cool suit.
• This character evolution/denouncement of war profiteering brought to you by Burger King: Have It Your Way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09KTGVpKN2U

• Jeff Bridges’ overall filmography tends to get overshadowed by The Dude, but you forget what range the man has. As Obadiah Stane, Bridges reminds us he can play both the warm father figure and the ruthless villain just as well as a stoner detective. I also love that the photo of younger Stane during the opening montage is Bridges from “Tucker: The Man and His Dream“; the closest that movie is ever getting to the NFR.
• Here’s how good Downey is: the man has great chemistry with robots. Watching Tony Stark have endearing banter with a silent mechanical arm is like watching Fred Astaire dance with a hat rack. His talent elevates everyone (and everything) around him.

• Shoutout to Paul Bettany as the voice of JARVIS, Tony’s AI butler. I don’t think anyone could have predicted that a two-hour recording session Bettany did as a favor for Jon Favreau would one day lead to his performance in Marvel’s surprisingly touching meditation on grief.
• Of course it isn’t a Marvel movie without a Stan Lee cameo. Marvel’s creator and public figurehead makes his NFR debut being mistaken for Hugh Hefner at a Stark Industries function.

• Everyone’s favorite ironic-in-hindsight line: Rhodes, upon seeing that Tony made an extra suit; “Next time, baby.” No offense to Terrence Howard, who I respect for stepping away from the sequels when offered a pay cut, but any role gets an upgrade when played by Don Cheadle.
• Stane’s Iron Monger is basically an evil version of The Iron Giant. Fun Fact: For most of the climactic fight sequence the Iron Monger suit is an actual suit! The legendary Stan Winston helped create the physical Iron Monger suit, one of his final film projects before his death in June 2008.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU4ho2se0xo

• In the end, “Iron Man” is basically the pilot episode for all that will come later. They’re still working out the kinks of a “Marvel movie”, but you see the potential. Oh, and there’s a S.H.I.E.L.D. reference at the end for anyone who cares about that.

Legacy

• “Iron Man” marked the beginning of what is now called Phase One of the MCU. Over the next four years audiences got “The Incredible Hulk”, “Iron Man 2”, “Thor”, and “Captain America: The First Avenger”, with all of them (plus Black Widow and Hawkeye) teaming up to fight evil in 2012’s “The Avengers”. While the MCU is still going strong over a decade later, it’s maybe going a little too strong, as the increasingly complicated mythology and abundance of media has caused a bit of viewer fatigue. Personally I tapped out sometime after “Civil War”, though I remember liking “Black Panther”.

Further Viewing: The other 2008 Marvel movie: “The Incredible Hulk”…the Edward Norton one, not the Ang Lee one. Released one month after “Iron Man”, the film features a cameo by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, the first bit of connective tissue to the MCU. It’s never explained, however, why Edward Norton turns into Mark Ruffalo after this movie. 

And with that unnecessarily condescending Edward Norton reference (déjà vu), we round out Year Seven of The Horse’s Head. We’ll be taking a breather for the holidays, but there will be an update once the Class of 2023 is announced, with new posts resuming in January. As always, thank you for continuing to check out this blog and- wait there’s another scene after the credits? Is that Samuel L. Jackson? OH MY GOD HE’S NICK FURY THEY’RE DOING THE AVENGERS THEY’RE DOING THE AVENGERS AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!