Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
IRON MAN
Starring Robert Downey Jr (Tony Stark / Iron Man), Terrence Howard (James Rhodes), Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts), Jeff Bridges (Obadiah Stane), Jon Favreau (Happy Hogan), Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson), Shaun Toub (Ho Yinsen), Leslie Bibb (Christine Everhart), and Paul Bettany (as the voice JARVIS) with a special appearance by Stan Lee and a post-credits appearance by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Directed by Jon Favreau
Produced by Kevin Feige with Avi Arad
Written by Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway
Music By Ramin Djawadi
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Run Time: 2 hours and 6 minutes
World Premier: April 14, 2008, in Sydney Australia
Opening Weekend Box Office: $102 million (North America)
Worldwide Box Office: $585 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Memorable Iron Man Quotes
“[Robert Downey Jr] was born to play Iron Man …” – Stan Lee
“The best and worst moments of Robert’s life have been in the public eye. He had to find an inner balance to overcome obstacles that went far beyond his career. That’s Tony Stark.” – Jon Favreau
“I think casting Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark was probably our most important casting decision because it informed everything else. It solidified us as wanting to tell good stories with good actors, and that we really care about our characters” – Louis D’Esposito
“I’m not sure that Iron Man is a superhero movie. I think towards the end of the movie, Iron Man pretends to be a superhero. He’s entertained by that notion.” – Kevin Feige
“Being in the Iron Man suit is like being in the coolest Halloween costume ever. You’re putting the suit on, and you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and go, ‘That’s right, Grandma would be proud.’” – Robert Downey Jr.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Fun Iron Man Facts
Iron Man was created by the combination of Stan Lee, Larry Leiber, Don Heck, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko for Marvel Comics, debuting in Tales of Suspense # 39 in March of 1963. Stan Lee said that he created the Tony Stark character in an effort to try and make an unlikable character likable.
In 2005, Marvel Studios (led by David Maisel) negotiated a deal with Merrill Lynch that secured them a $525-million loan with which to produce a series of independently produced self-financed films. Iron Man ended up being the first production on Marvel Studios’ MCU slate. Though the Merrill Lynch deal is often pointed to as the origin of Marvel Studios, the Studio had existed since 1996 when it was born out of the short-lived Marvel Films division of Marvel Entertainment Group. Marvel Studios was first founded in an effort by Marvel Entertainment Group to avoid bankruptcy, with Avi Arad and Jerry Calabrese overseeing the upstart division and licensing out various Marvel characters to other Hollywood Studios while being hands-on during the pre-production process, commissioning scripts, hiring directors, and casting characters. From 1998-2005, thirteen live-action films were released based on Marvel characters: Blade, X-Men (the first Marvel film that Kevin Feige worked on), Blade 2, Spider Man, Daredevil, X2: X-Men United, Hulk, The Punisher, Spider-Man 2, Blade: Trinity, Elektra, Man-Thing, and Fantastic Four with another five (X-Men: The Last Stand, Ghost Rider, Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Punisher: War Zone) released from 2006-2007, while the Marvel Studios team were hard at work on their first two independently produced films: Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. A better wording when looking at the history of Marvel Studios would be to suggest that the Merril Lynch deal was the behind-the-scenes origin of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as 2008’s Iron Man kicked off the Shared Cinematic Universe that would later become known as the MCU. It should also be noted that Marvel Enterprises became known as Marvel Entertainment upon the deal in 2005.
Jon Favreau was hired to direct Iron Man in April-2006. Favreau had previously worked with Marvel on 2003’s Daredevil in which he portrayed Foggy Nelson.
On May 31, 2006, Avi Arad announced his intended resignation from Marvel Studios. Avi would stay on long enough to see through the releases of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, after which he would continue to assist other Film Studios on their productions of Marvel movies, independent of Marvel Studios and outside of the Shared Universe that Iron Man was launching. Meanwhile, Kevin Feige would assume all of Avi Arad’s previous responsibilities within Marvel Studios.
In September-2006, Robert Downey Jr was cast to portray Tony Stark / Iron Man. Favreau felt Downey’s real-life similarities to the Tony Stark character made him perfect for the role, believing RDJ could successfully pull off the task of being a “likable asshole.” Favreau had previously considered Sam Rockwell for the part, and Timothy Olyphant was considered late in the casting process. Sam Rockwell would go on to portray antagonist Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2.
Rachel McAdams reportedly turned down the role of Pepper Potts. She would go on to appear as Christine Palmer in 2016’s Doctor Strange.
To prepare for his role as Tony Stark / Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr spent five days a week weight-training and practiced martial arts to get himself into superhero shape.
Marvel Studios reportedly met with 30 different writers to take the reins of Iron Man, but they all passed, with most of them feeling that Iron Man was too obscure of a character to connect with audiences.
On July 22, 2006, Marvel Studios held its inaugural panel at San Diego Comic Con as an independent production company with Kevin Feige, Avi Arad, Ari Arad, and Director Jon Favreau appearing to promote Iron Man. Concept art of the design of Iron Man’s armor was showcased during the Marvel Studios presentation. It was during this presentation that Kevin Feige publicly mentioned his desire to see The Avengers assemble on-screen, hinting that the first slate of Marvel Studios films revolving around core members of that team was no coincidence.
Stan Winston Studios assisted in the physical construction of the Iron Man suits seen in Iron Man. This would be the final motion picture that Winston worked on before his death on June 15, 2008. Industrial Light & Magic oversaw the majority of Special Effects.
Filming on Iron Man began on March 12, 2007, in Los Angeles, California, appropriately at the former [Howard] Hughes Company soundstages. The first filming sessions were spent focusing on Tony Stark’s captivity in Afghanistan. Kevin Feige was promoted to Marvel Studios President of Physical Production on this same date.
On April 11, 2007, the first image of the Mark I Iron Man armor was released, to a great deal of fanfare. Just over two weeks later, USA Today published the first public photo of Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark on the set of Iron Man.
Filming on Iron Man moved to Edwards Air Force Base in mid-April of 2007. Filming concluded on June 25, 2007, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Dialogue was mostly ad-libbed throughout the filming of Iron Man. The script was not completely prepared when filming began, as the filmmakers were primarily focused on story and action. Some scenes were shot with two cameras to capture lines that were improvised on the spot.
A reported 45 separate pieces make up the Iron Man suit. The suits seen in the film were created with a mix of practical and digital effects to achieve the best visual results.
In Iron Man, Rhodey’s ringtone for Tony Stark is the theme music to the 1966 Iron Man cartoon.
In Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark attends an event at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The Walt Disney Company would acquire Marvel Entertainment (and Marvel Studios with it) at the end of 2009.
In Iron Man, Terrence Howard’s James Rhodes looks at the Mark II Iron Man armor and utters the words “Next time, baby”, hinting at the character’s future as War Machine. Rhodes would be recast for the sequel to this film with Don Cheadle cast in the role and ultimately suiting-up as War Machine.
Samuel L. Jackson made his MCU debut as Nick Fury during the post-credits scene of Iron Man. Fury was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963, as a Caucasian war veteran. In 2001, in Marvel’s Ultimate Comics line, Fury was re-imagined as an African-American character by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Allred. The character’s design was heavily based on the appearance of Samuel L. Jackson, and it is this version of the character that Marvel Studios adapted in Iron Man, complete with Jackson portraying the role.
One month after physical production on Iron Man wrapped, Marvel Studios presented its second San Diego Comic Con presentation at the 2007 Event. Two days earlier, on July 26, 2007, Iron Man Director Jon Favreau presented the first footage from Iron Man released publicly, as part of the Paramount Pictures panel. Two days later, Marvel Studios presented its first-ever panel in the notorious Hall H with an Iron Man panel that consisted of Kevin Feige, Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Avi Arad, and Iron Man co-creator Stan Lee. Exclusive footage from Iron Man was shown to the SDCC crowd and was very well received.
The first trailer for Iron Man was released by Paramount Pictures in September of 2007.
On February 3, 2008, a 30-second teaser trailer for Iron Man aired during the NFL’s Super Bowl XLII.
On Tuesday, May 6, 2008, four days after the worldwide release of Iron Man and coming off the film’s successful opening weekend, Marvel Studios announced that a sequel would be released on April 30, 2010, in addition to release dates for three other films that were in active development: Thor (June 4, 1010), Captain America (May 6, 2011), and The Avengers (July-2007).
In the Summer of 2008, Marvel Studios hired Louis D’Esposito as President of Physical Production and Victoria Alonso as Executive Vice President of Visual Effects and Post-Production as full-time members of the Marvel Studios staff following their work on Iron Man.
Iron Man was the eighth highest-grossing film of 2008.
Burger King and Audi formed a promotional partnership with Marvel Studios to promote Iron Man.
Iron Man received two nominations at the 81st Academy Awards on February 22, 2009, in the categories of Best Sound Editing and Best Visual effects.
Iron Man won three Saturn Awards on June 25, 2009: Best Science Fiction Film (Iron Man), Best Director (Jon Favreau), and Best Actor (Robert Downey Jr).
As the Marvel Cinematic Universe evolved over the years, debates over when various events actually occurred began to plague the fandom. Originally, most everyone viewed the MCU Timeline as existing concurrently with our real-life timeline, i.e., Iron Man was released in 2008, therefore, the events of Iron Man primarily take place in 2008. This became complicated however due to a mix of fan theories and contradictions, but during 2023, Marvel Studios endorsed the release of a book that was intended to settle all of the debates, titled Marvel Studios – The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline. This book confirmed that the events seen in Iron Man do in fact occur in the year 2008, with Tony getting abducted in early-2008, escaping captivity in the Spring of 2008, and declaring to the world that he was Iron Man in the Spring of 2008, after which he was confronted by Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury, hearing of the “Avenger Initiative” for the first time.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
My Iron Man Review
Iron Man was the foundation upon which the Marvel Cinematic Universe was built; an incredible motion picture that provided the perfect launching pad for Marvel Studios to soar to unprecedented heights in Hollywood.
Iron Man as a film told an amazing origin story that stayed true to the spirit of the comics. The man behind the armor in the Marvel Comics is traditionally genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist Tony Stark; a character that was originally based on iconic business magnate Howard Hughes. Stark’s basic origin story has been retold over the years, but the gist of it sees the wealthy and inventive American get critically injured during wartime in enemy territory, imprisoned, and nursed back to health by a fellow fugitive. Using the materials his own captors provide for him amidst their hopes that the capable engineer and weapons designer will build for them a Weapon of Mass Destruction, Stark creates a suit of armor with which to escape captivity and becomes the Iron Man!
In the years leading up to the release of Iron Man, Stark’s character began to be positioned as a centerpiece of the Marvel Universe. Stark briefly served as the United States Secretary of Defense in the comics before becoming the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man had his origin re-imagined, and his armor significantly upgraded in Warren Ellis’ Extremis arc. And Stark was a key player in some of Marvel’s biggest Event Series of the mid-2000’s, most notably Civil War, which saw him stand on opposite sides of the law from Captain America. Iron Man also co-formed a New Avengers team with Captain America and was also re-imagined as a founding member of Marvel’s mysterious Illuminati; a group comprised of the greatest minds in the Marvel Universe that works from the shadows. With Tony Stark as a member of The New Avengers, The Illuminati, and in the position of Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., he was suddenly one of the most important characters in the entire Marvel Universe and from a marketing standpoint, this was a wise move with all that Marvel Entertainment had riding on this film.
In portraying Tony Stark, to say that Robert Downey Jr knocked it out of the park would be a gross understatement. Robert Downey Jr WAS Tony Stark. He didn’t just play the character, he brought it to life! The way Downey carried himself, the way he delivered his dialogue, the way he played off the rest of his cast and injected confidence and dark humor into his role; it was all brilliant, and the rest of the cast were superb as well! I loved Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, and I loved Terrence Howard as James Rhodes. Shaun Toub was tremendous as Yinsen; I just adored him, and Jeff Bridges was wonderful as the diabolical Obadiah Stane.
Along with this awesome cast came some absolutely amazing special effects! Iron Man simply looked cool! Watching him fly, watching him shoot off his repulsor blasts, and witnessing his JARVIS program guide him were all spectacular things to behold! Just watching the process of Tony Stark suiting up into his armor was pure entertainment!
With the quality acting and action and effects for me, just about every single sequence in Iron Man was a favorite scene! The film started with a bang and just never let go! I loved the way Tony’s abduction by The Ten Rings was filmed and his scenes in the cave with Yinsen were mesmerizing. The look and execution of the Mark I was flawless, and everything from Yinsen’s death to Tony’s escape from the cave in Afghanistan had me completely hooked as a viewer. From there, we got to see Tony take his first steps toward becoming a hero. All the things that had been so important to him prior to his abduction suddenly no longer meant anything. Tony Stark was a changed man. Then, we got to see Tony become Iron Man through trial and error en route to monumental success. All of this was of course leading to Tony Stark vs Obadiah Stane, who, after covertly arranging Stark’s abduction in Afghanistan, used the scraps of Tony’s Mark I suit to create the Iron Monger armor, and how appropriate it was for the often-over-looked Pepper Potts to provide the assist in Iron Man’s conquering of Iron Monger!
Speaking of Pepper, she was a critical part of this film and Gwyneth Paltrow’s chemistry with Robert Downey Jr really sold the unique attributes of their relationship. In their own individual ways, each of these characters don’t quite believe that they deserve the other, and over the course of this film, they begin to realize that despite their trepidation, neither one can live without the other. Then, the fact that the obligatory kiss between the two at the end of the film was decided against, really brought their romance to another level for me, as the absence of that moment, and Pepper’s increased self-confidence made me want to root for this couple to get together all the more.
There were also many little things that I loved about Iron Man. I loved the look on Tony’s face when he notices that the bomb that was about to blow up right in front of him in Afghanistan was built by his own company Stark Industries. I loved how Tony designed his initial suit on separate sheets of paper that could only be read when they were all stacked together in order on top of each other. And, being a huge Captain America fan, I loved the blink-and-you-miss-it appearance of Captain America’s shield in Tony’s workshop. It seemed every single thing that was seen or done throughout this motion picture served a purpose, be it to tell a thorough and interesting story, or to give a nod to comic book readers and superhero fans! I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention Tony’s robots and his interactions with them. Dum-E was just awesome!
As for my favorite scene in Iron Man, I’d have to go with the Gulmira scene in which Iron Man goes on a one-man rescue mission to the late Yinsen’s town where he unleashes absolute hell on the Ten Rings and frees several hostages that they were attempting to abduct. Watching Iron Man blow all of these evil men away was amazing, and this scene led right into the raptor chase in the skies, which was also a great sequence in terms of action, humor, and suspense.
As great as Iron Man was as its own movie and as an individual story, the things that had most fans talking after seeing the film were its deep dives into Marvel lore (such as introducing S.H.I.E.L.D.) and the revolutionary post-credits scene which featured the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury (portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson) making a cameo appearance and announcing his intentions to recruit Tony Stark to serve on a proposed team of superheroes! This one single scene verified that Marvel Studios – as Kevin Feige had previously alluded to – would indeed be working under the umbrella of a Shared Universe, which excited fans of Marvel to no end!
Iron Man was a critical and financial success for Marvel Studios and its importance in terms of the development of the Marvel Cinematic Universe cannot be overstated.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Highlights of Iron Man:
Robert Downey Jr is Tony Stark / Iron Man
Shaun Toub as Yinsen
JARVIS
Chemistry between Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow
Flawless comics-to-film adaptation
Perfect Blend of practical and digital effects
Post-Credits scene introducing Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Notable MCU Concepts and Characters Introduced:
Tony Stark / Iron Man. Pepper Potts. James Rhodes. Happy Hogan. Obadiah Stane / Iron Monger. Howard Stark. Christine Everhart. S.H.I.E.L.D. Phil Coulson. Nick Fury. Stark Industries. The Ten Rings. the Arc Reactor. JARVIS. Iron Man armors Mark 1-3. The Avenger Initiative.
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