Iron Man

Question: What music is being played in the end credits?

Answer: Iron Man by Black Sabbath (minus the lyrics).

Rydersriot87

Question: How come Tony doesn't die when Pepper hits the button that blows up the roof? He never cleared the roof as intended and it must have been really powerful if it killed Obediah. Tony's chest piece flickers on and off and then the scene fades. They never give an explanation for this.

Answer: Tony, even wearing the Iron Man armour, is light enough that the shockwave of the blast throws him out of the way, so he escapes the majority of the explosion's effects. Stane, in his much heavier suit, isn't so lucky and so gets the full impact, which kills him. The flickering of the chest piece is merely a device to show that Tony is still in one piece, even if injured.

Tailkinker

Question: If Tony's suit (Mark II) is powered by the miniature arc reactor in his chest, what powers War Machine?

Answer: Stark has constructed independent power sources for his older suits, presumably on the off-chance that he might need to use Rhodes, who he has given voice access, as backup, or possibly because, as he believes himself to be dying, he would want somebody he trusts to be able to access the suits after his passing. That power source is used when Rhodes takes the suit to battle Stark at his birthday party, and is subsequently used to power the upgraded War Machine armour.

Tailkinker

Question: After Obadiah Stane steals Stark's new reactor, how does the old one he reinstalled run out of power? It's a reactor: it generates power.

Serpentor

Chosen answer: It was basically a prototype made from, to quote Stane, "a box of scraps." It was not strong enough to last, especially when it came to powering Tony's high tech armor armor upgrades.

Rydersriot87

Answer: Yes it does create electric energy, but because of the laws of physics, energy can't just be created, it must be converted from another type of energy (chemical in this case, I assume), so Tony added a ring of palladium to the reactor while building it, which causes a chemical reaction inside to generate electric energy, so anyways, if the chemical energy inside the reactor is taken way so is the ability of the reactor to produce electric energy. Tony solves this in pt. 2 with switchable cores.

Question: What is the name of the American flag artwork at the base of the stairs going into Tony Stark's garage/workshop? It looks like a puzzle with the pieces intentionally rearranged, and it looks cool.

Answer: It's John Higgins' Stars and Stripes series.

Answer: Yes. He loves messing around with customised cars like that - throwing in some of the red colour is a nod to that. Plus it stops him flying around in a gold-coloured suit, which even he considers a bit over the top.

Tailkinker

Question: What was the type of jet that Tony Stark used to travel to Afghanistan in? Is this an actual jet or a movie mock-up?

Answer: It's a CGI mockup. Originally a Boeing 737 Business Jet, it was decided during production that a regular jet wasn't nearly sexy enough for Stark, leading to everything from the wings back being replaced with a digital model that looked cooler.

Tailkinker

Question: A trivia entry says Captain America's shield can be seen in Tony's workshop. Why is it there and how did it get there?

Answer: The shield can be seen when Tony is having trouble removing the Iron Man armour (when Pepper Potts walks in). No explanation is given for why it is there.

Question: What is the song playing when Tony is working on his hotrod and then Pepper walks in and turns it off?

Answer: It's called "Institutionalized" by The Suicidal Tendecies.

dablues7

Question: Why did Stark reveal he is Iron Man at the press conference? This makes no sense at all to me.

Answer: Tony underwent a dramatic metamorphosis during his captivity at the beginning of the film: In just a matter of screen-minutes, he transformed from a vulgar, egotistical merchant of death into a superhero fighting for life and freedom. As soon as he was rescued, he even held an impromptu press conference to announce a whole new mission statement for Stark Industries. Everyone thought Stark had lost his mind. Even the U.S. military and S.H.I.E.L.D. were still making up stories to cover for Tony's erratic behavior, right up to the end, at which point he puts all of the coverup and rumor and disinformation away once and for all: He is Iron Man, and this is his company, and this is how it will be run. It's not as if Tony Stark needs a secret identity, and his open admission wiped the slate clean for everything that follows.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Short version, he has a big ego and wanted the recognition. Also, in recent Marvel comics continuity there's been a superhero registration act, forcing superheroes to reveal their identities to the public. Tony Stark has been championing this cause "to tie the knots of friendship between ordinary humans and superheroes". His revelation in the movie could be laying the groundwork to tie into that in some way.

Disney-Freak

Answer: He's a womanizing multibillionaire with a power supply where his sternum should be. Of course he gave up his secret. It doesn't take a genius (and Stark is one with all caps) to figure out that he had a choice between intimacy or his secret identity.

Question: How did the terrorists find Tony's mark 1 suit?

Answer: Most probably they searched for it in the desert, based on the direction Tony flew during his escape.

Question: If terrorists just wanted a Jericho missile why not just buy one from Stark industries, instead of trying to force Stark to build one? We learn they have the connection to Obadiah, so they can buy Stark weapons under the table.

Answer: Buying one would cost them millions, if not billions of dollars. Forcing Stark to build one for them would certainly save them a fortune. Plus, we don't know if they intended to purchase one before kidnapping Stark. They were paid to kill Stark, but once they found out Stark was the one that Obadiah paid them to kill, they scoffed at the amount they were paid and demanded a higher fee. Once they had Stark, they might have decided then and there to take advantage of the situation and get a free missile out of it.

Phaneron

Answer: No, it's digitally added to a rocky outcrop just outside Malibu in California.

Tailkinker

Question: The guy who put the magnet in Tony's chest in the cave, who was he and why was he being held captive by the soldiers?

dan coakley..

Chosen answer: His name is Ho Yinsen and he's a skilled engineer and medic. The details behind his capture are never revealed, but most likely he was kidnapped so that the terrorist group could utilise his skills, coercing him into helping by threatening to destroy his home village, exactly as we see then doing later in the movie after Stark's escape and Yinsen's death.

Tailkinker

Question: Is Tony really in danger when Pepper pulls out the copper ring? The screens behind him light up, and he acts like he is in danger, but his reaction once the process is complete leads one to believe that he may have just been messing with Pepper. Also, why does Tony go into cardiac arrest when the copper ring is pulled out? The magnet is keeping the shards out of his heart, not keeping his heart running, even though they state in the movie that it is powering his heart). Perhaps I am just confused about what is actually happening with the device.

oldbaldyone

Chosen answer: The movie interchangeably refer to the device as keeping the shrapnel out of his heart and keeping it beating. The latter is supported by both this scene and the comment by Dr. Yinsen that the arc reactor could "run (his) heart for fifty lifetimes. The opening exposition in the cave explaining the danger of the shrapnel explains that it takes "about a week" for it to kill its subjects. Given how fast he started dying both in the scene with the copper ring and when Obadiah forcibly removed the arc reactor, it's entirely possible that the system is also acting as an admittedly very fancy pacemaker.

Alex Montenegro

Question: The terrorist group is called the ten rings. Does that refer to The Mandarin whose power in the cartoon came from his ten rings?

Ivan-sama

Chosen answer: It's intended as a subtle nod to the character, yes. It's been suggested that the Mandarin might be the villain in a future third film, so using the name "The Ten Rings" was a bit of foreshadowing that there might be a greater power behind the terrorist group.

Tailkinker

Question: Does anyone know if there will be a massive compilation of all the Marvel heroes, e.g. the Hulk, Iron man, Spider-Man, etc., and if so, who would most likely be the director?

Answer: The current plan at Marvel Studios is to do solo films for the various members of the Avengers superteam over the next couple of years. Iron Man and the Hulk were the first two, Thor is currently in pre-production under the directorship of Kenneth Branagh for a 2010 release and Ant-Man is reportedly to be directed by Edgar Wright, possibly for release in the same year. 2011 will see Captain America: The First Avenger being released under the guidance of Joe Johnston, which will be set during World War II and deal with how Steve Rogers became Captain America. Then a couple of months later a full Avengers film will be released, featuring all five characters teaming up to fight a greater threat. The cinematic rights to other filmed Marvel characters, like Spider-Man or the X-Men currently lie with other film studios, so they could not realistically be included unless the film rights reverted to Marvel.

Tailkinker

Question: Tony Stark has a socket in his chest that is dead centre. What on earth must his rib cage be like? Surely the chap who helped him out in the cave didn't cut out his rib cage to fit the socket in?

Answer: Without seeing X-rays of Tony Stark's chest its impossible to determine. Most likely, a large portion of his ribcage was removed (possibly a portion that was damaged by the shrapnel), and the remainder of the ribcage was secured to the elctromagnet's outer shell, built into Stark's sternum. How his ribcage is able to expand and contract with a large chunk of steel lodged into it I have no idea.

Question: I forget why Obediah Stane went bad. Why did he?

Answer: He doesn't go bad, as such, he just is bad. It's made reasonably clear in the film that he's been surreptitiously selling weapons to pretty much anybody who'll buy them, rogue governments, terrorist groups, anybody. In all likelihood, he's been doing this for years behind Stark's back. After Stark's attitude to their work changes and he starts to investigate what Stane's been up to, Stane takes steps to protect his various illicit enterprises.

Tailkinker

Speaking of selling weapons wouldn't Stane need a license to sell weapons?

As Stark Enterprises makes weapons as a major part of their output, they would certainly have every licence they would need to sell those weapons legally. When you're selling illegally, to terrorist groups, rogue governments and the suchlike, licences aren't really something you worry about too much.

In order to legally sell weapons yes.

Question: With its similarity to the Iron Man suit and the frequently-overlapping storylines of the Marvel universe, did Tony Stark develop the Exoskeleton in the first Spider-Man movie?

Answer: No, he didn't. The Goblin's battlesuit was developed by Oscorp, the other prototype seen in the film by Quest Aerospace. There's no indication that either has links to Stark Enterprises, plus, as Sony only had the rights to Spider-Man, rather than the Marvel Universe generally, they would not have been allowed to involve other characters without prior permission.

Tailkinker

Video

Other mistake: When Iron Man and Iron Monger are fighting, Iron Man catches the SUV, and you can see the family inside the car. Although the car is completely vertical, the hair of the people in the car seems to defy gravity.

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Trivia: Notice they don't play the lyrics with the "Iron Man" song in the closing credits. That's because the Black Sabbath song was not about the comic book Iron Man. There are many theories about what the song means, but the most popular is that it is about a man who travels to the future and sees the apocalypse. They couldn't use the lyrics to describe the Iron Man in the movie: He was turned to steel - In the great magnetic field - Where he traveled time - For the future of mankind. Now the time is here - For Iron Man to spread fear - Vengeance from the grave - Kills the people he once saved.

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