Iron Man (film)/Awesome

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Iron Man

  • "Jarvis, sometimes you gotta run before you can walk." And then Tony Stark and his brand new Mark II suit don't walk or run.....he FLIES!
  • "Yeah. I can fly."
  • Tony Stark, where he hero dodges a tank shot and returns fire with a miniature rocket launched from his forearm. It hits the tank and makes a tiny "clang" sound, seemingly doing nothing. Tony turns around and starts to walk away. Then the tank explodes. A whole new level of movie Superhero awesomeness!
    • This moment was perhaps better in the trailer, as it had Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" playing as he walked, his steps in time with the opening riff.
  • Yinsen's Heroic Sacrifice, along with Tony Stark building the Mark 1 suit and a miracle power source, "IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!"
    • After Tony has been captured and is moping (understandably) that he'll probably be dead in a week no matter what, Yinsen has a very quiet CMOA: "Well, then this is a very important week for you." In one line, he helps Tony find his inner hero.
  • The introduction of the Jericho Missile by Stark.

Tony Stark: They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree; I prefer the weapon you only need to fire once. That's how Dad did it, that's how America does it... and it's worked out pretty well so far. I present to you the newest in Stark Industries' Freedom line. Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee, the bad guys won't even wanna come out of their caves. Ladies and gentlemen, for your consideration, I give you... Jericho. (mountainside behind him explodes)

  • Pepper Potts gets her moment when she verbally serves Christine Everheart, after she joins the list of the many, many women Stark has slept with and subsequently dumped.

Christine: After all these years, Tony still has you picking up the drycleaning?
Pepper Potts: I do anything and everything Mr. Stark requires. Including, occasionally, taking out the trash.

    • She gets a better one later on when the Villain, Obadiah Stane, walks in on her as she's uncovering all the incriminating evidence against him in his laptop. She keeps her cool, smoothly covers up what she's been doing (clicking off the screen she was on, casually draping that day's newspaper over the device she's been using to hack his files), pretends to go along with his conversation, than walks out the room with the memory stick carrying the incriminating files in her pocket. By the time Stane realizes what she was up to (just seconds later), she's talking to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, telling him everything.
    • "I know what you're going through" . Both genuinely creepy and awesomely funny for this troper.
  • Tony survives getting shot at in his crude Mark I suit when leaving the terrorist hideout. He waits until they stops firing, and then says, "My turn." And breaks out the flamethrower.
    • The flamethrowers akimbo. Additionally, right after a terrorist shoots the Mk. I in a joint, dropping Stark to one knee, there is an incredibly badass shot of the fire from an explosion fading to reveal Tony Stark, down but not out, firing his flamethrower. This Troper (Morgan Frohman) had a copy of the movie on his iPod a week after it came out in theaters, and successfully managed to persuade seventeen people to see the movie based on that still alone.
    • I'm pretty sure this bit is paying homage to V for Vendetta.
      • I'm pretty sure the Mk I is a homage to the Firebat.
    • Pretty sure it's not, as it has its own trope page: Now It's My Turn
  • When Obadiah Stane is trying to get his scientists to miniaturize the arc reactor in order to power his Iron Monger suit. All but one of them immediately leave when they see him enter the room, leaving the last one to try to explain their failure to do what he wanted. The lone scientist eventually tells Stane to his face that miniaturizing the reactor is impossible.

Stane:TONY STARK WAS ABLE TO BUILD THIS IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!

Scientist: Well, I'm sorry. I'm not Tony Stark.

  • When he's apparently reached a point wherein he has to risk killing a bunch of women-and-children hostages in order to get at the terrorists, he targets each one and collectively shoots them in the heads without touching a hair on the hostages' heads. There was a standing ovation at this Moment of Cool in this troper's theatre.
    • After taking on the terrorist group, Tony throwing the leader to the refugees stating "he's all yours."
    • In this troper's opinion, the entire village rescue scene is a CMOA on a movie full of CMOAs. Stark suits up, flies halfway around the world, then defeats all of the terrorists (including the aforementioned hostage rescue) in under a minute makes the entire film.
    • This Troper's favourite moment in the movie is Iron Man's Dynamic Entry right at the beginning of this sequence. THUD.
  • Finally, luring Iron Monger into high altitude where the suit freezes and falls. Especially because Monger is so sure of Iron Man's inevitable destruction given the tone of his ranting, Stark's response is said in such a condescending I-know-something-you-don't-know tone that you can't help but laugh:

Stark: How'd you solve the icing problem?

Obadiah: ..."icing problem"?

(Iron Monger's suit begins to freeze over and short out.)

Stark: You might want to look into that.

(Iron Man brushes him off with a Three Stooges-esque blow to the helmet.)

  • Also, Samuel L. Jackson's appearance as Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD in The Stinger.
    • No. That is not the CMOA. You know what is? When he says: "I'd like to talk to you about the "Avenger Initiative".
    • He also deactivates JARVIS, which trivial as it is, demonstrates something important about SHIELD; as brilliant and smug as Stark is, SHIELD still has his number.
  • The final scene before the credits, where Tony is shoved onstage by SHIELD to make an excuse for who Iron Man is... and then just outright admits that yes, he is Iron Man. The reporters all go insane. Cue the Black Sabbath!
  • And the part where Tony realizes just how effective his repulsors are as weapons by blowing out the glass in his workshop with them.
    • Which goes something like this: After being enraged by the deaths caused by the terrorist group that captured him, he accidentally blows out a window in his workshop. He's surprised, then get's serious again as he proceeds to blow out every window in turn.
  • When escaping the terrorists' hideout, one of them goes up to shoot Stark in the head. However, Stark's armor deflects the bullet back into the shooter's head.
  • Pretty much anytime Robert Downey Jr. is on the screen, a Moment of Awesome has either just happened, is about to happen, or is happening right now. It's that kind of movie. The awesome kind.
    • This troper prefers to think of the entire movie as one huge Crowning Movie Of Awesome.
    • Downey Jr. sums up the movie, his portrayal of Tony Stark, and what he'll be (to us) for the rest of his life, in one simple quote:

I am Iron Man.

  • The majority of the preceding examples fall into the category of Moment of Awesome for Tony Stark, Hero. THE Crowning Moment of Awesome for Tony Stark, Smartass Genius Playboy, occurs when it turns out that the flight attendants on his plane are strippers...complete with a brass pole that rises out of the floor.
    • Making it even more awesome is that this is taking place while Tony is having a deep, heart-to-heart conversation with a drunk Jimmy Rhodes, who in the previous scene was not only absolutely infuriated by something Tony did, but was completely refusing to drink anything.
  • Obadiah goes into a tent, leaving his guards standing in the center of the cars he just came in, surrounded by terrorists. Then he kills paralyses the terrorist leader, and comes outside, to reveal that his guards have captured and disarmed all of the terrorists-who had them in a perfect crossfire-without firing a shot.
    • The way Obadiah paralyses the terrorist leader deserves mention. When the leader makes his proposal, Obadiah puts his hand on his shoulder in the same "jolly old uncle" manner he has acted as throughout the film, flips out the device, and when the leader is immobilised, he tells him coldly:

This is the only gift you'll receive.

  • The novelization of the film included a moment for Tony that this troper would have liked to see in the film itself. At the climax of the final battle, after Pepper has hit all the buttons and launched the EMP, freezing both Tony and Stane and collapsing the roof, Stane begins to fall into the reactor, but has enough time to give a speech rife with Contemplate Our Navels:

Stane: I guess this is a draw. The genie is out of the bottle. We've done our part. We've brought a great gift to the world and now it is time to go. That is the law of nature, Tony.
Stane falls into the reactor. Tony watches him, feeling nothing.
Tony: And that is the law of gravity.
Bad. Ass.

  • Casting Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark. Pure and simple.
  • The fighter pilot who looks like he's about to not appear in Iron Man 2..but then; Stark catches the falling pilot and unjams his parachute. Made. Of. Win.
  • In a deleted scene, Rhodes saves Stark by ramming his car into Stane, who flies into a bus and explodes. Quite awesome. Not as awesome as Stane's death scene WITHIN the movie, but still.
    • This troper also thinks that could have been an awesome ending, and is slightly disappointed now because that would have shown the non-comic reading audience just how badass Rhodey is.
      • "Next time, baby."
  • Another deleted scene that was still pretty awesome: during the opening ambush, Tony Stark actually picked up a weapon and returned fire on the ambushers. I can understand why it would be removed - to better show how Tony Took a Level In Badass later on after being captured - but still, that was pretty damn badass that a spoiled, irresponsible playboy had enough wits about him to at least shoot back.
  • Not that he didn't have a pair before, but this is the moment where you know

Pepper: Tony, you know that I would help you with anything, but I cannot help you if you're going to start all this again.
Tony: There is nothing except this. There's no art opening, no charity, nothing to sign. There's the next mission, and nothing else.
Pepper: Is that so? Well, then I quit.
Tony: You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. Now that I'm trying to protect the people I've put in harm's way, you're going to walk out?

Pepper: You're going to kill yourself, Tony. I'm not going to be a part of it.

Tony: I shouldn't be alive... unless it was for a reason. I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it's right.

  • This troper really loved the Mark II test-flight scene, specifically the part where a gung-ho Stark takes the suit higher than it can go, and it ices over and shorts out. Tony plunges back to the ground, but after Stark manually opens the flaps and cuts the ice, suddenly the suit wakes up and promptly ignites its rockets and Tony soars again.
    • INCHES from the ground, no less.
      • Inches? Look closer: he scrapes the damn pavement.
      • And all while the Crowning Music of Awesome track "Driving With The Top Down" by composer Ramin Djawadi is blasting in the background. (So awesome, this troper is listening to it now on YouTube as he adds this edit!)
  • Iron Man vs. Iron Monger. One of the best superhero vs. supervillain fight scenes This Troper has ever seen. Even if the beginning is Stane giving Tony a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown (Which is one hell of a CMoA for Stane), both Iron Man and Iron Monger show us how undeniably badass they truly are. It was a festival of Holy Shit!'s in This Troper's room.
    • This Troper's favorite part was Iron Monger picking up a motorcycle and smacking Iron Man upside the head with it. What made this awesome was that he picked up the motorcycle while it was still moving.
  • When the Mk I suit comes to life. All the lights go out, and all you can hear is the suit powering up and taking it's first step. This troper's whole body clenched up to brace for epic.
  • "Just call us S.H.I.E.L.D." This Troper practically cheered when he heard the agent finally reveal it. And the big reveal after the credits made it even better.
  • How about the reporter lady, coming up to Tony at the party and showing him photographic proof of Obadiah's double-dealing? What makes this better is that she put aside her spontaneous one-night stand with him to tell him that.
    • This Troper always read that situation as: she's still a little bitter and trying to catch him in a moment of hypocrisy. When he finds out what his company is doing without his knowledge, however, he's genuinely concerned and walks off without explaining himself. Because at this point, his public image is less important to him than whether his company is following through on his ideals.
  • Tony using the Mrk 1 to break down a solid steel door. the look on the terrorists faces says it all.
  • Tony Stark's press conference immediately after he was rescued from Afghanistan. The hero kicking the crap out of the guys that captured and tortured him? Been there, done that. The hero publicly admitting that everything he's done up to that point was wrong and he's going to shut down his company's bread and butter to atone for everything they've done? Badass.

Iron Man 2

  • Based on the trailers, there's going to be a lot of CMoAs in Iron Man 2, but the first official theatrical trailer gives us the sight of Iron Man and War Machine fighting side-by-side, and it looks AWESOME.
  • It also gave us a badass monologue from Whiplash delivered in Mickey Rourke's trademark rumble (with a Russian accent no less) describing how the Stark family is built on lies and thievery and how they will meet their fate. This is followed by him cutting a Formula One car in half with a single strike of his whips, then skipping down the track slamming his whips into the pavement before cutting to a shot of him laughing. Just from the trailer it's clear Whiplash is gonna be a badass.

Whiplash: You come from a family of thieves and butchers. And now, like all guilty men, you try to rewrite your own history. And you forget all the lives the Stark family has destroyed. There will be blood in the water, and the sharks will come.

    • Countered in the movie by Tony's wonderful Shut UP, Hannibal: "And where will you be watching all this from? Oh yeah, inside a jail cell. Bye."
  • There's also Tony jumping out of the back of a plane, flying down into a building and... robots taking the armour off, revealing a tuxedo in front of a cheering audience.
  • Don't forget Whiplash's escape from prison. He nonchalantly kills his fellow prisoner, arms a plastic explosive, kills a guard attempting to accost him, and walks away from his cell's explosion like it was all just a walk in the park for him. Badass.
  • The entire Senate hearing for Stark. From the beginning, he is totally unflappable and manages to verbally serve the chair of the committee several times:

Stark: I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one. To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself, which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending on which state you're in. You can't have it.
Senator Stern: Look, ah, I'm, um, no expert on-
Stark: On prostitution? Of course not, you're a Senator, come on!

    • As the hearing continues and Stark's Rival, Justin Hammer, tries to testify against him by showing evidence of other "Iron Man" suits being built, Stark effortlessly hacks into federal computers with a PDA and zooms satellite imagery in enough to show that these suits are really nothing to worry about -- including Hammer's own pathetic attempts. Stark then goes on to espouse how much of a hero he really is for having taken care of several threats as Iron Man and finishes it off with this bold statement:

Stark: I have successfully privatized world peace!

    • Chillingly awesome.
      • Cue the senator's response:

Senator Stern: *BLEEP* you, mister Stark. *BLEEP* you, buddy!

  • The briefcase suit. Seriously, the briefcase-Transformation Sequence has got to be one of the most salivating Technology Porn moments in the history of film. Can the suit really fit into it? Does the suit's weight difference between briefcase and suit make any sense? Does it make sense for him to go through a twenty-second-long Transformation Sequence while Ivan Vanko could easily give him a good smack with his whips? Who cares? It was so awesome that when it was revealed in one of the trailers, bloggers the world over had a Nerdgasm and used that screenshot for their posts.
    • It's so awesome that it's on the main image on the DVD cover despite being featured for less than five minutes.
    • Let's give a hand to the SFX people for pulling off something that's been done for forty years in the comics but seemed impossible to do on film: actually make a suitcase armor realistic.
  • During the climax, Tony and Rhodey, fully armoured Back-to-Back Badasses, find themselves trapped in a "killbox" surrounded by armoured drones on all sides. What did they do? Tony unleashed Iron Man-fu, repulsor blasts all over, and finished them off with a 360 degree death blossom. War Machine let the hot lead fly, and his shoulder cannon fired behind him taking out multiple targets. The two of them lit up the screen and the audience let out a holy shiiit.
    • The 360-degree laser attack is a CMOA on its own.
  • Lt. Col. Jim Rhodes finally shows us how he earned his stripes and why he is Tony's best friend: he hijacks Tony's Mark II suit while Tony is going on an absolutely ridiculous bender at his birthday party, walks upstairs to deliver a What the Hell, Hero? in full armor, and manages to go toe-to-toe with Tony in a brawl despite his suit not being as advanced and it being the first time he had ever stepped into it! Awesome for two reasons: it was a well-deserved slap in the face to Tony, and it showed that when pushed to his wit's end, "Rhodey" is not someone to be trifled with and will have the balls to stand up to even Iron Man. Not to mention how this scene introduces the Chekhov's Gun that when repulsor blasts hit each other, things go very big boom.
    • Not to mention that the music playing during that scene was Robot Rock!
  • Having AC/DC do the entire soundtrack, 'nuff said.
    • Actually AC/DC only have two songs in the movie, but John Debney definitely earned his paycheck with the score!
  • Tony Stark has a problem: he is slowly dying from the arc reactor in his chest, powered by palladium - which is poisoning him. No suitable element exists as an alternative, and the technology to create an element that would be a suitable alternative doesn't exist, so what does Tony do? He spontaneously invents the technology needed to create a brand new element to custom requirements, props it up with Captain America's shield, and makes the right element himself!
    • IN HIS BASEMENT, WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!
      • Even more awesome given what we now know about where the Arc Reactor concept came from. Tony successfully reverse engineered the Cosmic Cube!
  • Happy Hogan. Just the Plucky Comic Relief, right? Sure, apart from the scene where he drives a normal car on a F1 track, in the opposite direction of the F1 cars, and rams the car into Whiplash. Then, when Whiplash starts moving, he does it again. Awesome.
  • Also, Happy Hogan himself taking down one of Hammer's guards after a long struggle; doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny thanks to Black Widow.
  • The after-credits scene had the 50 or so people who stayed at the theater with This Troper scream a geekgasmic howl of joy when the camera slowly pans over a crater in the New Mexico desert to show MJOLNIR!!!!!
  • Whiplash has another one. We last see him without his shoes, pillows, and parrot and there are two big guards keeping an eye on him until Justin returns from the expo so they can re-negotiate their contract. Next we see him, there's blood on his hands, he's typing away to start up the movie's climax, and those guards are, shall we say, tied up? Genius Bruiser indeed.
    • Tied up? How about "Hanging out"?
    • Also, before they cut away, the burd has been put in a bag. When they come back, the burd is on Vanko's shoulder again.
  • I thought it was awesome when Tony was trying to irritate Agent Coulson, who had been sent to make sure he didn't leave the premises. Coulson grins and replies that he'd tase Tony and then watch Super Nanny while our hero twitches and drools on the ground.
  • The smarmy senator that Tony has been using as a verbal chew toy for the entire movie finally getting his moment at the end of the film, as he pins the medal on Tony.. a little too enthusiastically.

"Isn't it amazing how so much irritation can come from such a little prick."

  • Black Widow unleashed in all her glory. During the Climax Black Widow enters Hammer's head office to get to Vanko. She goes through the assembled security like a hot knife through butter, with a mix of martial arts, smoke bombs, taser mines and street fighting. The fact she finishes the last guard with a casual spray of mace and an annoyed look on her face makes it one Badass Crowning Moment of Awesome.
    • How about when Happy attempts to hit her while her back is turned, and without looking she beats him with ONE MOVE?
  • One random little kid standing up to a rampaging robot with his toy Iron Man repulsor. Whether s/he actually thought it would work or he was trying to scare it off is irrelevant; that kid has a pair of brass ones. Tony dropping in, shooting the Hammeroid, and going "Good job!" to the kid before leaving was just the icing on the cake. Whoever that kid is, that has to have been the best night of his life.
    • Note that this kid probably prevented the deaths of dozens. That Hammeroid was going on a rampage trying to bring down Tony, and probably would have caused massive collateral damage. However, it is clearly shown that the Hammeroid can't tell if the kid is Tony or not, and freezes up.
  • In Vanko's first attack, how does Iron Man defeat him? By wrapping himself in one of Vanko's whips, which are visibly scarring and damaging the armor he's wearing, and then dragging himself closer so Vanko can't escape, and then punching his lights out. When it comes to showing how impossibly tough the Iron Man suits are, there's nothing better than literally wrapping a car-slicing electrified heat-whip around yourself to take down the bad guy.
  • A villain moment for Vanko. As he slowly walks down the race track in his jumpsuit and turn it on the exoskeleton to burn his shirt into ribbons. This troper's friend actually said "That is so cool" as the scene happened.
  • Tony and Pepper's conversation when Natasha arrives:

Tony: I want one.
Pepper: No.

  • Mickey Rourke turned D-List Villain 'Whiplash' into such a remarkable badass, he makes even a simple request into a memorable line:

Vanko: "I vant my burd."

  • A little Fridge Logic but the fact that Agent Coulson is even in the second movie is a pretty CMOA moment. Remember how at the end of the last one he went up against Stane in his armor and lived? Despite the other agents that we see getting pretty much massacred? Either he's very lucky or a lot more Badass than anyone realises.
    • Definitely badass, as "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Thor's Hammer" and The Avengers prove. And the best part: rewatching the movies again, it becomes clear that Coulson definitely knows what is going on, and is playing everyone while pretending to be a dumb, harmless, boring federal agent.

Iron Man 3

  • While its subtle and for a few seconds only, Tony's first scene shows that has been practicing fighting moves
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