Amph "I Am Iron Man" - Iron Man 3 Discussion Thread

Regarding an earlier comment- Tony never saw the bald guy with Killian, only Happy did, thus couldn't make the Killian connection.

Spoiler

SHIELD has a file on everybody- doesn't mean they're going to do anything about it right away.

And the Ten Rings is the same group in all three films- they just have different groups in different countries (thus the different languages Yensin mentions in the first movie). Raza's was one group (one ring?), the Russians that helped Ivan was another, while the Mandarin was the oversight the entire time.

Vincent Vega Happy FTW, ha!

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They address this in the film- they had to wait for the cranes to arrive at Stark's house and then wait for the cranes to clear away the debris that was on top of the Wine Cellar. Thats why as soon as the iris is clear of major debris, they're able to launch the House Party.

Rhodes mentions in the dinner something to the effect of "chasing down these terrorists isn't superhero business, it's American business".

Actually, Fury doesn't scramble his entire organization for Stark in IM2- you'll recall he's actually somewhat annoyed at having to intervene and outright states that Stark is "not the center of my universe" and that he has bigger things to deal with across town (the Hulk, etc).

Fury then drops off the cases at Stark's house and bugs out of there pretty quickly (not several days), leaving Coulson to watch Stark (and even he is busy enough with other matters that he misses Stark leaving the house).

The intended character arc/point of IM3 is intended to show that Tony's "powers" are not the suits so much as his intelligence. Others can operate them, but Tony is still smarter.

That's the plot to Ant-Man 2.

 

Spoiler

Many people saw him and Killian together at Stark Industries- but none of them ever saw him use his powers in public except for Happy (who ended up in a coma). And everyone else (including Tony) who saw the bald guy use his powers in public never saw him and Killian together (let alone [except for Tony] know who Killian even was) so it would be impossible for them to make the connection. And there was no recording of him using his powers so they wouldn't be able to ID him.

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Extremis wasn't far enough along yet- they had no need of Tony's help because the human testing "misfire" glitches hadn't happened yet

And you'll recall that Raza's group was supposed to kill Tony, until Raza got some bigger ideas and ignored Stane's order. And Raza's group wouldn't have known about Extremis- different cell, different goals, etc.

But, regardless, Favareu and others have basically said it's the same group- that all those were building up to using the Mandarain.

On the subject of the franchise's longevity and future prospects...

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We know Iron Man's rogue's gallery has been his weakest point as a franchise, with the Mandarin being the only real notable villain and the rest being variations of armored foes (though I would propose that the Living Laser would have a good deal of potential to shake things up a bit, as least from a powers perspective).

But, really, people have only cared about the Mandarin. He's not The Joker, but he is Iron Man's Joker. Problem is, even if you dig the twist in IM3, they've kinda screwed the pooch as far as the character (and what he represents) goes in the films.

So, the question is then where do you go for sequels? Well, there's obviously plenty of great stories that can be told in an Iron Man film, even if they lack strong supervillains. Using the modern run of Invincible Iron Man as a basis would be a great start (we've kinda covered a little of The Five Nightmares in IM3 already, but building to a Star Dissembled/Star Resilient storyline would be a solid foundation, with the Hammers (an Detroit Steel) making a good non-powered point of conflict).

Of course, that whole run builds up to the Mandarin's endgame with the true nature of his rings and the titanomechs. Which is a problem if the Mandarin is dead and never had his rings to begin with,

So, my theory? The next series of IM stand alone films will be focusing mostly on standalone stories while they begin to rebuild the Mandarin as a villain. But how? Well, assuming Killian is truly dead (and it's quite possible he regenerated and escaped), the "Mandarin" actor is still alive. Assuming the rings fall to Earth (maybe Thanos's fault?), what if the "actor" came upon those rings by accident (or design) and changes/influences him to the point where now the actor has truly become the role he used to play- the Mandarin?

Obviously, if Killian survived then the rings could just go to him and we're golden too.

But, anyways- build up to the Mandarin being reborn through the rings, and then things can come to a final head with the powered Mandarin facing Stark and we get our little save-the-world super climax to the series?

Not saying its going to happen- but they've certainly left the door open for the possibility.

 

Spoiler

You're right- Killian rising out of the fiery wreckage was exactly like the T-800 doing the same at the end of T1. And it's hard not to make comparisons between the T-1000 and the Extremis Enhanciles healing capabilities.

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As far as we know, no one took any photos of him, so there'd be no way to identify him (plus, you'll recall it was the female soldier who used her powers in public- he only fired a gun once or twice during the panic where people's eyes would be on the glowing technodemon-looking woman. He didn't use his powers until the watertower and junkyard fight, where they were apparently out of sight with no witnesses.

EDIT- Oh, that;s right, i forgot to ask- what happened to the exterior scenes of AIM? Didn't we have a photo a few months back of a building with a large Advanced Idea Mechanics sign out front? Or was that just for the Chinese scenes or something?

EDIT 2, here we go:





We never see an actual "public" AIM facility in the film. Deleted scenes, I suppose?

 

Spoiler

But, again, there was no one around to see him burn the watertower down- he was out of sight except for Tony from the backdoor alley.

And, again, it wouldn't matter that Tony or the kid saw his face, because neither had seen him with Killian before.

And, sure, a police sketch could probably be made based on the handful of witnesses, but I don't think it'd be accurate enough to say "Its that guy with Killian!", especially if Killian just had him stay out of sight after the sketch showed up in the news. (and given that he could keep the Mandarin out of sight in Miami, I think its safe to say he could do the same for the shaved head guy,

 

I think Tony simply assumed he wouldn't NEED 40 suits to defend his house. He probably assumed he had air superiority and would have to just concern himself with a ground attack by some minions (as he assumed the Mandarin was overseas).

And, yeah, there's a lot from the trailers not in the film (like the "backup" exchange between Tony and Rhodes). But I think a lot of that was just alternate takes to choose from ("say these scary lines for the Mandarin and we'll choose which ones to use in this video in the film").

However, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a subplot or two that got trimmed down in the final cut.

EDIT-

Spoiler

the helicopters were disguised as newschoppers, which allowed them to get close without arousing suspicions.

Killian didn't know she was at Stark's house (and she didn't know Killian was going to blow it up).

 

Yeah, that in particular sticks out to me as having been trimmed (though, to be fair, it seems they did a very effective job of cutting it down to the essentials of what that plotline needed perfectly, which is just good editing).

I also suspect there's more Pepper/Maya scenes because they kind of vanish for a stretch in the film, as if waiting for Tony to discover something first before allowing their plotline to resume.

Spoiler

Oh, and the female Enhancile that captures Rhodey- I think she was on Lost, no? Kinda seems like she was meant to have another scene after that, but she didn't have a particularly noticable role or moment in the end battle...

(and, obviously, the Chinese scenes with Dr Wu, but those don't count)

 

Well, he kept a close enough of an eye on her to bring her in almost right afterwards.

 

Spoiler

I assumed that was his daughter. "Do as I say and you'll be President and your daughter will walk again." type deal

"Is there anything you would not do, for your family?"

wait, wrong summer movie...