Anecdotes for
Iron Man (2008) More at IMDb Pro »

• Rachel McAdams was Jon Favreau's first choice to play Pepper Potts, but she turned the role down.
  
  
• During pre-production, Robert Downey Jr. set up an office next to Jon Favreau's office, to discuss his role with Favreau and to be more involved in the film's screenwriting.
  
  
• Jon Favreau was originally going to direct The First Avenger: Captain America (2011) in the manner of a superhero comedy adventure, but he instead chose to direct this film and give it a more serious tone. Ironically, Nick Cassavetes, who was chosen to direct that film, had been filled in to direct this film in December 2004.
  
  

• Jon Favreau describes the film as "a kind of independent film-espionage thriller crossbreed; a Robert Altman-directed Superman (1978), with shades of Tom Clancy novels, James Bond films, RoboCop (1987), and Batman Begins (2005)."
  
  
• In the comics, Tony Stark participated (and became Iron Man) in the Vietnam War; later this was retconned to the Gulf War. In this film, the character's origin was retconned to Afghanistan, as Jon Favreau did not wish to make the film a period piece but instead give it a realistic contemporary look.
  
  
• The script was not completely prepared when filming began, since the filmmakers were more focused on the story and the action, so the dialogue was mostly ad-libbed throughout filming; Jon Favreau acknowledged this made the film feel more natural. Some scenes were shot with two cameras to capture lines improvised on the spot; Robert Downey Jr. would ask for many takes of one scene since he wanted to try something new.
  
  
• Tony Stark drives an Audi R8 in the film, as part of a promotion deal Marvel Studios made with the Audi Automobile Company. Two other vehicles, the Audi S5 coupe and the Audi Q7 SUV, also make an appearance in the film.
  
  
• An Aaton 35mm camera was accidentally run over by a tank during a shoot.
  
  
• In October 1999, Quentin Tarantino was approached to write and direct the film. Later, Joss Whedon, a big fan of the comic book, was in negotiations to direct the film in June 2001. In December 2004, Nick Cassavetes was hired as a director, with the film to release in 2006, but everything fell through. Finally, Jon Favreau was hired as director in April 2006.
  
  
• Nicolas Cage and Tom Cruise were interested in playing Iron Man. Cruise in particular was going to act in and produce the film.
  
  
• Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard and his father, Faran Tahir, composer Ramin Djawadi and VFXpert Stan Winston are fans of Iron Man.
  
  
• Stan Lee, the creator of Iron Man, had originally based Tony Stark on Howard Hughes, whom he felt was "one of the most colourful men of our time: an inventor, an adventurer, a multimillionaire, a ladies man and finally a nutcase." Robert Downey Jr. further described his portrayal of Stark as "a challenge of making a wealthy, establishmentarian, weapons-manufacturing, hard-drinking, womanizing prick into a character who is likable and a hero."
  
  
• According to Ramin Djawadi, Tony Stark's different moods, as performed by Robert Downey Jr., was the inspiration the Iron Man scores in the film.
  
  
• To prepare for his role as Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. spent five days a week weight training and practiced martial arts to get into shape.
  
  
• Ghostface Killah, who has been a long-time fan of the Iron Man comics (he uses the aliases "Ironman" and "Tony Starks", titled his 1996 album "Ironman" and samples clips of "Iron Man" (1966)), was given a cameo as a Dubai tycoon. However, his scene was cut from the final film. Favreau apologized to Ghostface and made it up to him by using his "We Celebrate" video in the film.
  
  
• All three sets of Iron Man's armor were designed by Phil Saunders and Adi Granov (a comic book artist from the "Iron Man" comic). They were then constructed by Stan Winston Studios.
  
  
• The Iron Man Mark I armor weighed 90 pounds.
  
  
• In the scene where Pepper discovers Tony removing the damaged Iron Man armor, you can clearly see Captain America's shield partially constructed on a workbench. This same scene was shown in many trailers, but the image of the shield was edited out.
  
  
• Terrence Howard was cast as James Rhodes as Jon Favreau felt he could admirably portray War Machine, Rhodes's alter ego. In the film Rhodes looks at the Mark II armour and says "Next time, baby!" hinting at War Machine's appearance in a sequel. An animation of a War Machine suit can also be seen in the closing credits with a Gatling gun attached on a shoulder.
  
  
• An animatronic puppet of the Iron Monger was built for the film by Stan Winston Studios. It stood 10 feet tall and weighed 800 pounds, and was built on a set of gimbals to simulate walking. It required five operators to run it.
  
  
• When Robert Downey Jr. was carrying out motion-capture work on the film, he would sometimes wear the helmet, sleeves and chest of the Iron Man armor over the motion-capture suit to realistically portray Iron Man's movements.
  
  
• To prepare for his role as James Rhodes, Terrence Howard visited the Nellis Air Force Base on March 16 2007, where he ate with the Base's airmen and observed the routines of HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopters and F-22 Raptor jets.
  
  
• To prepare for his role as Obadiah Stane, Jeff Bridges read some of the "Iron Man" comic books that featured Stane, and grew a goatee and shaved his head (which he said was something he always wanted to do).
  
  
• Comic book writer Stan Lee, as always, has a cameo in the live-action film of his creation Iron Man. He plays the man with three blondes whom Tony Stark mistakes for Hugh M. Hefner. He later mentioned that it was his most fun cameo.
  
  
• Jon Favreau shot the film in California, as he felt that too many superhero films had been set on the East Coast, particularly in New York City.
  
  
• An early draft of the script revealed Tony Stark to be the creator of Dr. Otto Octavius's tentacles from Spider-Man 2 (2004).
  
  
• 400 extras were meant to be filmed standing at Tony Stark's press conference, but Robert Downey Jr. suggested they ought to sit down, as that would be more realistic and comfortable.
  
  
• According to Jon Favreau, it was difficult to find a proper opponent for Iron Man to face, since he wanted the film to remain grounded in reality as much as possible. It was decided to have a foe in the film who would serve as a parallel of Stark (i.e. an armored opponent). Well-known enemies like the Titanium Man and the Crimson Dynamo were considered, but finally the lesser-known Iron Monger, Obadiah Stane, was chosen as Iron Man's adversary (Stane, as well as possessing his own armor, is also a business contemporary of Stark).
  
  
• Marvel Studios' first self-financed movie.
  
  
• Marvel and Paramount approached the CMT show 'Trick My Truck' to select a Truck driver and trick his rig with the Ultimate Ironman makeover. Lance Burk was the lucky driver to be selected. When finished the exterior of the truck was painted to look like Iron Man's armor, led lights were put everywhere, the engine compartment was tricked out, jet thrusters (not real ones obviously) were attached to the back, and a copy of Iron Man's chest plate was attached to the back under a crafted sign that said Iron Man. The inside of the truck was refurnished to look like Tony Stark's lab, complete with a monster sound and video system.
  
  
• The cave that imprisons Tony Stark was a 150-200 yard-long set, which had built-in movable forks to allow greater freedom for the film's crew. It also had an air conditioning system installed, as production designer J. Michael Riva had learnt that remote caves are actually very cold.
  
  
• Production designer J. Michael Riva researched on objects found in prison which could be improvised and used for other purposes (for instance a sock used to make tea), to provide more verisimilitude to the film.
  
  
• Jon Favreau chose Industrial Light & Magic to provide the film's VFX after watching Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) and Transformers (2007).
  
  
• The film's composer Ramin Djawadi's favourite musical score is the "Kickass" theme, because he composed it according to "a rhythm very much like a machine."
  
  
• Most of the exterior scenes set in Afghanistan were filmed at Olancha Sand Dunes. There, the crew had to endure two days of 40-60 mph winds.
  
  
• Jon Favreau advised composer Ramin Djawadi to keep the core of the music on heavy guitar, which he felt suited Iron Man best. Djiwadi composed the music on a heavy guitar before arranging it for the orchestra to perform.
  
  
• According to Terrence Howard, he and Robert Downey Jr. competed physically on the set: "I'm 40-50 pounds heavier than him, so I'm lifting and I push up about 225 and knocked it out ten times. Robert wanted to go about 235, and he did it, so I push it up to about 245... Robert and his competitive ass almost tore my shoulder trying to keep up with him!"
  
  
• An early draft of the script had Howard Stark, Iron Man's father, be a ruthless industrialist who becomes the War Machine, with the two having to fight it out.
  
  
• An early draft of the script had the Mandarin appear in the film, re-imagined as an Indonesian terrorist.
  
  
• Gwyneth Paltrow only needed to travel 15 minutes to get to the studio. She claimed that this is a part of the reason she took the role, as she could be home with her two children during the entire shoot.
  
  
• The theme song from "Iron Man" (1966) is is heard three times in the film: in the Apogee Award ceremony, the Casino, and in Tony Stark's bedroom.
  
  
• Stark and Rhodes graduated from MIT together. In the scene where Rhodes calls Iron Man (who's flying with the F-22's), you can see a big gold ring on the hand that he's holding the phone in. This is MIT's class ring, the "brass rat."
  
  
• As a tribute to Howard Hughes, who inspired Iron Man, production was mainly based in the former Hughes Company soundstages in Playa Vista. The scene where the Iron Man Mark III armor was created was filmed in the area where Hughes assembled the H-4 Hercules airplane (better known as “The Spruce Goose”).
  
  
• The sound used during a target lock on in Iron Man's heads up display is the sound of the laser cannon firing in the original Space Invaders game.
  
  
• The F-22 in the closeup ground shots is serial number 6, deployed to Edwards Air Force Base. This is one of the last "pre-production" F-22's, and is one of the first fully operational aircraft. (The first 5 airframes were later retrofitted to also be fully operational). Interestingly, the pole model outside of Stark Industries is labeled as "YF-22", meaning the first flying prototype for the competition between the YF-22 and the Northrop YF-23. The size of this pole model indicates that it may be one of the original wind-tunnel models.
  
  
• Tony Stark's computer system is called JARVIS (standing for "Just A Rather Very Intelligent System"). This is a tribute to Edwin Jarvis, Tony Stark's butler. He was changed to an artificial intelligence to avoid comparisons to Batman (1989)'s butler Alfred Pennyworth.
  
  
• S.H.I.E.L.D., the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Engagement and Logistics Division was known in the comics as Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division. It became Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage Logistics Directorate in 1991.
  
  
• The film was shipped to some theatres under the titles "Bell" and "Debonair".
  
  
• Obadiah Stane plays on the piano a musical piece written by 18th-century composer Antonio Salieri. Salieri is most famously known as a jealous rival of his contemporary, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and was said to have murdered Mozart (although historical records have proven that on the contrary both have collaborated/promoted each other's work on several occasions). This serves as an appropriate parallel of Stark and Stane's relationship in the film.
  
  
• The leader of the Ten Rings is named Raza, after a Marvel Comics character. However, the comic version of Raza is not an enemy of Iron Man, but an alien cyborg who is a member of the space pirate gang known as the Starjammers. The only similarity they share is their facial disfigurement; in the comics Raza has implants on his left side of his face, while in the film Raza is scarred on the right side of his face.
  
  
• The assault rifles Tony Stark refers to as 'his' are in fact modified G36c rifles. The only thing that has changed on most of these weapons is the barrel and upper receiver, but some haven't been modified much at all apart from the magazine wells.
  
  
• During the highway battle with Iron Monger, a building can be seen in the background with a Roxxon logo. In the Marvel Universe, Roxxon is a notorious conglomerate known for illegal activities, agents of which were responsible of the death of Stark's parents.
  
  
• The Stark Industries weapons the terrorists are carrying are actual weapons, but mostly made by German arms firm Heckler & Koch. Many of the terrorists are carrying H&K G36 assault rifles or the smaller UMP sub machinegun. A few are also using Colt M-4s (or various M-4 clones) with various accessories, include ACOG optics, PEQ-2 Infra-Red illuminators, and notably, one terrorist has an M-4 carbine with a 12 gauge Lightweight Shotgun System (LSS) mounted underneath the barrel.
  
  
• While playing backgammon with Yinsen, Stark says "Sheesh o Besh."This is a Persian slang phrase which means a roll of 6 and 5 ("Sheesh" is Persian slang for 6 "o" means "and" and "Besh" is Turkish for 5). Shaun Toub, who plays Yinsen, is originally of Persian ethnicity.
  
  
• The pilots in the F-22 jets are codenamed Whiplash '1' and '2'. In the Ultimate Iron Man comics, Whiplash is a supervillain who possesses a pair of gloves with steel wires attached that acted as whips.
  
  
• Originally, Iron Man's arch-nemesis the Mandarin was going to be the film's villain, but Jon Favreau felt him to be too fantastic and dated, so he was rewritten into a "working-behind-the-scenes" presence similar to the Dark Lord Sauron from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" (who also wields magic rings) and Star Wars (1977)'s Emperor Palpatine.
  
  
• Jeff Bridges, hearing that Obadiah was a biblical name, researched on the Book of Obadiah in the Bible, and was surprised to learn that a major theme in that particular book is retribution, which Obadiah Stane represents.
  
  
• The ILM animators studied skydivers performing in a vertical wind tunnel to create Iron Man's aerial movements. Iron Man was also animated to take off slowly and land quickly to make those movements more realistic.
  
  
• To create the shots of Iron Man against the F-22 Raptors, cameras were flown in the air to provide reference for the dynamics of wind and frost at that altitude.
  
  
• The montage of Tony Stark's life story was created by editor Kyle Cooper, and contains real-life photos of a young Robert Downey Jr. and his father.
  
  
• Just before the final press conference, Tony Stark is reading the newspaper with a grainy, amateur photograph of Ironman on the cover. That picture is part of an entire video shot by onlookers in a bush during initial filming of the movie that appeared on the Internet in the middle of 2007.
  
  
• First film released in 2008 to pass the $300 million mark at the domestic box office.
  
  
• During Jim Cramer's Mad Money segment, the upper (NYSE) and lower (NASDAQ) tickers are filled with quotes of fictional companies named after various Mad Money production staff such as George Manessis (segment producer) and Regina Gilgan (executive producer).
  
  
• Paul Bettany' recorded all his lines as JARVIS in two hours.
  
  
• This is the last film VFXpert Stan Winston completed before his death.
  
  
• According to Paul Bettany, he did not know which film he was working on; he merely did the job as a favour for Jon Favreau, whom he worked with on Wimbledon (2004)
  
  
• Rock guitarist Tom Morello assisted Ramin Djawadi in composing the film's soundtrack. Morello himself has a cameo in the film as a guard.
  
  
• Comic book writers Mark Millar, Brian Bendis, Joe Quesada, Tom Brevoort, Axel Alonzo and 'Ralph Macchio' were commissioned by Jon Favreau to give advice on the script.
  
  
• One of the cars in Tony Stark's garage is an all-electric Tesla Roadster which at the time of the film's production, had not yet been released.
  
  
• Tony's and Christine's short conversation before she hands him the pictures: "Carrie? Christine!", is a joke referring to two of Stephen King's most-acclaimed novels.
  
  
• According to Favreau, Clive Owen and Sam Rockwell are among the actors that were considered for Tony Stark during pre-production.
  
  
• EASTER EGG: In the Region 1 DVD disc 1, Special Features section, there is a hidden circle icon (not Iron Man's arc generator, oddly enough) between the "Previews" and "Main Menu" items (on a DVD remote, highlight "Main Menu", then go left). Press Enter to see a video of Stan Lee and 'Jr Robert Downey' discussing Lee's cameo in the film.
  
  

• SPOILER: The climactic showdown in the film, with Tony Stark/Iron Man facing Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger is adapted from Iron Man #200, published in November, 1986. Both pit Stane's larger, more powerful Iron Monger armor against Stark's greater experience, and both also feature an exploding reactor as a prominent feature of the battle. Unlike in the film, however, the comic concludes with Stane committing suicide through a repulsor ray blast to the head rather than facing defeat and imprisonment.
  
  
• SPOILER: In the Ultimate Marvel Comics series, the character of Nick Fury is portrayed as African American, with his look and personality tailored after actor Samuel L. Jackson, all carried out with the actor's explicit permission. During one of the Ultimate Avengers issues, whilst discussing the possibility of a movie being made about them and which actors would play which heroes, Nick Fury even comments that nobody else but Samuel L. Jackson could play him. Jackson, himself a comic book fan, plays Fury in this film.
  
  
• SPOILER: Brian Bendis had written three pages of dialogue for the Nick Fury scene, out of which the filmmakers chose the best lines. To keep it a secret, the scene was filmed with a skeleton crew and was deleted from all previews of the film, which thus maintained the mystery and surprise and kept fans speculative and interested. It conclusively appeared in the final cut as a post-credits scene.
  
  
• SPOILER: Nick Fury wants to talk to Tony Stark about the Avengers Initiative. This is a reference to the Avengers, a team of superheroes assembled in the 1960-70s, and foreshadows a live-action Avengers film. Iron Man is a founding member of the Avengers, along with the Hulk, Ant-Man, Wasp and Thor.
  
  

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