The Invincible Iron Man

The Invincible Iron Man is a 2006 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The film was directed by Nick Cassavetes and written by by David Hayter, Alfred Gough, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, and Tim McCanlies. The film was produced by Marvel Entertainment and co-produced and released by New Line Cinema. The film stars Tom Cruise as Tony Stark a young man who is the son of wealthy weapon concept artist Howard Stark both estranged and trying to reunite with the people in his life until both are assassinated by terrorists planning to steal the company weapons with Tony's father now presumed dead he will take on the mantle Iron Man.

The film was released on April 22 2006 and received mixed reviews to negative reviews from fans and critics who criticized it for its lack of humor, being too grim, too violent, too dark, as well Cruise's performance as Tony Stark while the special effects, the casting of the other characters such as Dalton's performance of the films' villain Howard Stark was slightly well received along side Jamie Foxx's performance of James Rhodes, and Hannigan's performance of Pepper Potts

Stan Lee and his wife Joan both aggressively disowned the film calling it the worst peace of comic book movie sh+t they had ever watched on the big screen.

Plot

Genius inventor Tony Stark is the estranged son of weapons manufacturer Howard Stark, who blames Tony for his mother’s death in a boating accident. Tony refuses to build weapons and leaves his father’s conglomerate, Stark Ironworks, to start his own company, Stark Innovations, whose greatest achievement is the Repulsor technology primed to revolutionize space flight. Tony’s best friend, engineer James Rhodes, reluctantly decides not to accompany him and instead becomes Howard’s chief of security, straining their friendship.

Tony’s ex-girlfriend, Homeland Security agent Bethany Cabe, confronts him with newly-acquired evidence that someone is arming America’s political rivals with advanced weapons technology based on his designs. Tony accuses Howard’s business partner, Justin Hammer, of stealing his creations, and is later targeted by a drone and severely wounded, forcing him to wear an advanced chestplate to prevent heart failure. Rhodes realizes Tony was right about Hammer and is in danger, and extracts him to a secret workshop at Catskills Mountains, where Tony and Rhodes work together to build an advanced prototype exoskeleton. Meanwhile, Cabe is captured and tortured by Hammer after learning that Stark Ironworks is financing criminal organization Rising Dawn, but Tony finds and rescues her with his prototype.

Tony attempts to alert his father of Hammer’s crimes, only to learn that Howard is the true mastermind behind the conspiracy and is planning to assassinate the President of the United States at the behest of his associate, corrupt Vice-President Peter Benton, who will then authorize the use of Stark Ironworks' Repulsor-based weaponry by the U.S. military to subjugate foreign countries, as part of a larger masterplan to subjugate the entire planet. Howard intends to disable the President's Stark-issued "biochip" that allows the Secret Service to track him, causing a fatal heart attack.

Tony survives an assassination attempt by Howard and disables the satellite that Howard would use to sabotage the President's biochip, but his suit is damaged by the altitute and crash-lands in the ocean, allowing Rising Dawn to capture Tony and study his design before he rescued by Bethany and Rhodes. Tony informs the President of Howard’s crimes, but is despondent when the President orders an airstrike on Howard’s yacht, blaming himself for his father’s death.

Exposed, Rising Dawn attacks Washington, D.C. with advanced Repulsor-based weaponry provided by Howard. Bethany and Rhodes encourage Tony to fight on, and Tony confesses his feelings for Bethany before joining the battle against Rising Dawn in a heavily armed suit, earning him the designation “Iron Man” from the military. Tony manages to lure Rising Dawn into a trap and disables their weapons with a secret kill switch he had installed in all his designs, allowing the military to subdue them. While he is away, his radio's signal is traced to the workshop, which is attacked by the mysterious War Machine, who kidnaps Bethany to lure Tony into a confrontation at Stark Ironworks's headquarters in Los Angeles.

Arriving there, Tony learns that Howard is War Machine, having survived the yacht’s explosion and develop his own suit based on Tony’s design. Howard kills Bethany, leading to a vicious battle in which Tony defeats him, but chooses to spare him. Refusing to accept defeat, Howard attempts to kill Tony with a missile, but it malfunctions, killing him instead. Tony replaces Howard as CEO of Stark Ironworks, which he rebrands as “Stark Industries” and turns into a humanitarian organization. Hammer is arrested and provides Homeland Security with information on which terrorist organizations Howard armed as part of his plan. Rhodes intercepts the intel, and Tony sets out to honor Bethany’s memory by dismantling the organizations and destroying the weapons he inadvertently created, embracing the mantle of Iron Man.

Cast and Characters

Tom Cruise as Tony, Anthony Stark / Iron Man

Timothy Dalton as Howard Stark / War Machine

Jamie Foxx as James Rhodes

Famkee Jeenson as Bethany Cable

Morgan Freeman as Justin, James Hammer

Alyson Hannigan as Pepper Potts

Joan Collins as old woman at Stark register

Development[edit]
In April 1990, Universal Studios bought the rights to develop Iron Man for the big screen,[31] with Stuart Gordon to direct a low-budget film based on the property.[12] By February 1996, 20th Century Fox had acquired the rights from Universal.[32] In January 1997, Nicolas Cage expressed interest in portraying the character,[33] while in September 1998, Tom Cruise expressed interest in producing as well as starring in an Iron Man film.[34] Jeff Vintar and Iron Man co-creator Stan Lee co-wrote a story for Fox, which Vintar adapted into a screenplay. It included a new science-fiction origin for the character, and featured MODOK as the villain. Tom Rothman, President of Production at Fox, credited the screenplay with finally making him understand the character. In May 1999, Jeffrey Caine was hired to rewrite Vintar and Lee's script.[35] That October, Quentin Tarantino was approached to write and direct the film.[36] Fox sold the rights to New Line Cinema the following December, reasoning that although the Vintar/Lee script was strong, the studio had too many Marvel superheroes in development, and "we can't make them all."[37]

We worked with Michael Crichton's researchers to find a grounded realistic way to deal with the suit. The idea was he needed the suit to stay alive. He's the same guy we used with Spider-Man 2 to come up with Doc Ock's inhibitor chips and what the arms are made of and how they work. ... Mandarin was an Indonesian terrorist who masqueraded as a rich playboy who Tony knew.

By July 2000, the film was being written for New Line by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio,[35][39] and Tim McCanlies.[40] McCanlies' script used the idea of a Nick Fury cameo to set up his own film.[35] In June 2001, New Line entered talks with Joss Whedon, a fan of the character, to direct,[41] and in December 2002, McCanlies had turned in a completed script.[42] In December 2004, the studio attached director Nick Cassavetes to the project for a target 2006 release.[43] Screenplay drafts were written by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and David Hayter, and pitted Iron Man against his father Howard Stark, who becomes War Machine

Production

The film began photography from March 21 2005 and ended in August 19 2005

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics and fans alike.