'Iron Man'
The Ringer's Bill Simmons and Van Lathan would rather be feared and respected after revisiting the Marvel movie that started it all, Jon Favreau's 'Iron Man' starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jeff Bridges.
Cast
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man
Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts
Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane / Iron Monger
Terrence Howard as James 'Rhodey' Rhodes
Leslie Bibb as Christine Everhart
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
Shaun Toub as Yinsen
Faran Tahir as Raza
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Categories
Quote from Rog's review:
“Iron Man is the first Marvel superhero who could plausibly be a character in a good movie that was not a superhero movie. You know what I'm saying?”
- Praised Downey's performance as what separates this from other superhero movies.
- Said Favreau 'found his movie and it's a good one.'
- The first 6 minutes – convoy attack, hitting on the driver, going backwards in time.
- The captivity sequence: building the Mark I suit and Yinsen's sacrifice.
- Pepper replacing Tony's arc reactor.
- 'I Am Iron Man' – ad-libbed by Downey, became the defining moment of the MCU.
- Bald bearded evil Jeff Bridges as Obadiah – one of the only times he's played a villain.
- The Nick Fury post-credits cameo and the Avengers Initiative tease.
- The MCU itself – 'aged amazingly until it didn't,' now a chore to get through.
- Tony Stark is 'pre-MeToo' – his behavior with women hasn't aged well.
- Being a billionaire was still cool in movies – 'one of the last movies where being a billionaire is cool'.
The ending/final fight between 'Iron Man' and Iron Monger – 'Nobody's like, oh, 20 minutes left in 'Iron Man', I can't wait'.
- After Terrence Howard, Marvel refused to cast a light-skinned Black man in a major role.
- George Clooney in the mid-2000s needed a movie like 'Iron Man' – 'It's basically Danny Ocean with toys'.
- Favreau initially wanted Sam Rockwell for Tony Stark; Downey killed the screen test.
- Rachel McAdams was Favreau's first choice for Pepper Potts (turned it down).
- Tom Cruise was interested in 1998; Quentin Tarantino explored directing it in 1999.
- Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane – 'I treated you like a son. You fucking stab me in the heart'.
- Faran Tahir as Raza dials it up.
Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson – became Clark Gregg because of this role.
- Replace Leslie Bibb with Scarlett Johansson for bigger star power.
- Jessica Chastain or Kelly Reilly as Pepper Potts.
- Budget $140 million, made $585.8 million – 8th highest in 2008.
- Robert Downey Jr. was paid $500K; DVD sales: 4 million first week, $160 million in revenue.
- Stan Winston's last film before his death; the first 'Iron Man' suit weighed 90 pounds.
- Robert Downey Jr. – definitively yes, after this and Tropic Thunder in the same year.
- Jon Favreau – yes, went from scrapping to A-plus list director.
- Discussion of biggest Hollywood comebacks: Downey vs. Travolta ('Pulp Fiction') vs. Rourke (The Wrestler).
- Why is Tony personally in Afghanistan demonstrating the Jericho missile? He's worth billions.
- The Ten Rings giving the greatest weapons engineer alive access to materials to build a weapon.
- Obadiah immediately knows how to use the Iron Monger suit despite Tony taking weeks to learn his.
Sam Jackson – his Nick Fury cameo in the post-credits scene makes the movie better.
'The Dark Knight' – the two 2008 movies that changed superhero cinema.
- The first arc reactor in the 'Proof That Tony Stark Has a Heart' frame.
- Obadiah's sonic paralysis device.
- Don't make weapons. But if you do, keep them to yourself.
- Figure out who your Pepper Potts is – recognize the person who has been there for you all along.
Downey or Marvel? Van says probably Marvel but also a tie. Craig says for where Downey started, it's probably Downey.
Craig Horlbeck.