Plot Summary: A billionaire industrialist and genius inventor, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), is conducting weapons tests overseas, but terrorists kidnap him to force him to build a devastating weapon. Instead, he builds an armored suit and upends his captors. Returning to America, Stark refines the suit and uses it to combat crime and terrorism.
*Recognition: Nominated for Best Visual Effects and Sound Editing, AFI (since 2001) - One of the Ten Best of 2008.
What is this movie is about?: Former playboy billionaire finds new meaning for his life after a crucible moment, and vows to right the sins of his past.
Best Performance: Robert Downey, Jr (Tony Stark)
Best Secondary Performance: Jon Favreau/Jeff Bridges (Obadiah Stane)
Most Charismatic Award: Robert Downey, Jr/Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson)
Best Scene: First Flight/Stark Escapes
Favorite Scene: Iron Man Rescues Gulmira-Training Exercise/Stark Escapes
Most Indelible Moment: I am Iron Man/Roof-top Fight
Best Lines:
Obadiah Stane: When I ordered the hit on you, I was worried that I was killing the golden goose. But, you see, it was just fate that you survived it, leaving one last golden egg to give. You really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you? Your father, he helped give us the atomic bomb. Now what kind of world would it be today if he was as selfish as you?
Tony Stark: My father helped defeat the Nazis. He worked on the Manhattan Project. A lot of people, including your professors at Brown, would call that being a hero.
Christine Everhart: And a lot of people would also call that war profiteering.
Tony Stark: Tell me, do you plan to report on the millions we've saved by advancing medical technology or kept from starvation with our Intellicrops? All those breakthroughs: military funding, honey.
Tony Stark: Well, Miss Brown, it's an imperfect world but it's the only one we got. I guarantee you the day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I'll start making bricks and beams for baby hospitals.
Christine Everhart: You rehearse that much?
Tony Stark: Every night in front of the mirror before bedtime.
Christine Everhart: I can see that.
Tony Stark: I'd like to show you, first hand.
Christine Everhart: All I want is a serious answer.
Tony Stark: Okay, here's serious. My old man had a philosophy, "peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy."
Christine Everhart: That's a great line coming from the guy selling the sticks.
Tony Stark: Come on, you're going to go see your family. Get up.
Yinsen: My family is dead, Stark... and I'm going to see them now. It's okay, I want this... I want this. [Stark is silent for a moment]
Tony Stark: Thank you for saving me.
Yinsen: Don't waste it... don't waste your life, Stark.
Tony Stark: I never got to say goodbye to my father. There's questions I would've asked him. I would've asked him how he felt about what his company did, if he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch of man we remember from the newsreels. I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero-accountability.
Tony Stark: The truth is [pause] I am Iron Man.
Funniest Line:
Christine Everhart: You've been called the Da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?
Tony Stark: Absolutely ridiculous, I don't paint.
Christine Everhart: So you must be the famous Pepper Potts. Tony still has you doing his dry cleaning?
Virginia "Pepper" Potts: I do anything and everything Mr. Stark asks of me. Which includes, from time to time, taking out the trash. Will that be all?
The Stanley Rubric:
Legacy: 8.75
Impact/Significance: 9.5
Novelty: 6
Classic-ness: 6
Rewatchability: 7.25
Audience Score: 9.1
Total: 46.6
Remaining Questions:
Why would you reveal yourself?
Why would Obidiah want Tony dead?