Iron Man 3
Director:	Shane Black
Writer(s):	Shane Black Drew Pearce
Release Date:	Australia: April 24, 2013 United Kingdom: April 25, 2013 Worldwide: May 3, 2013
Running Time:	130 mins
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Iron Man 3 is the seventh film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the first in "Phase 2", as well as the third film in a proposed Iron Man trilogy and the first film since the crossover film The Avengers. The film was released May 3, 2013, and was made available in 3D. Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, and Jon Favreau all reprise their roles in the film. Joining the cast are Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley, Rebecca Hall, James Badge Dale and William Sadler. The film is directed by Shane Black.

Plot

Sometime after the events of The Avengers, a haunted Tony Stark has obsessively built several Iron Man suits in his mansion. This causes friction with his girlfriend, new Stark Industries chief Pepper Potts. In a flashback to New Year's Eve 1999 in Bern, Switzerland, Stark gives a lecture on integrated circuits. After his presentation, he is approached by a crippled scientist, Aldrich Killian, who seeks Stark's aid in his endeavor, Advanced Idea Mechanics. Stark tells Killian to meet him on the roof in five minutes. The desperate Killian waits for hours, but Stark himself fails to show. Stark and Maya Hansen spend the night together. In addition, we see the fatal flaw of the extremis virus, the host is violently exploded.  

In present-day America, a string of bombings by the terrorist known as The Mandarin has left intelligence agencies bewildered at the lack of forensic evidence. When Stark Industries security chief Happy Hogan is caught in one such attack, Stark revives himself from his stupor and issues a televised threat to the Mandarin, who responds by destroying Stark's home with helicopter gunships. Hansen arrives at Stark's house to warn him about the Mandarin, but she arrives to late and Stark's mansion is attacked. Stark mentally summons the Mark XLII to Pepper to protect her. After Pepper brings Hansen to safety, Stark summons the armor to himself. Although the suit is not combat ready, Stark manages to take down 2 helicopters and escape. Stark falls unconscious mid-flight but awakens after J.A.R.V.I.S. desperately warns Stark that the suit is running out of power. Stark crash lands in rural Tennessee and has no way of returning to California.

Stark drags his suit around until he finds and breaks into a garage, in an attempt to repair his suit. Harley Keener goes to investigate the noise and finds Stark, whom he befriends after seeing his armor. Teaming with Harley,  Stark investigates the remains of a local explosion bearing the hallmarks of a Mandarin attack. He discovers the explosions were triggered by soldiers from the Extremis program, an experimental treatment intended to allow its users to recover from crippling injuries. However, if a user's body cannot properly metabolize Extremis, the user heats up and explodes. After veterans started growing unstable and exploding, their deaths were used to cover up Extremis' flaws by manufacturing a terrorist plot. Stark witnesses Extremis first hand when Mandarin agents Ellen Brandt and Eric Savin attack him. 

With Harley's help, Stark traces the Mandarin to Miami. Stark infiltrates the headquarters using a variety of home-made weapons where he discovers the Mandarin is actually a British actor named Trevor Slattery , who is oblivious to the acts the Mandarin has carried out. The Mandarin is a creation of Killian, who appropriated Hansen's Extremis research as a cure for his own disability and expanded the program to include injured war veterans. Killian reveals he has kidnapped Potts and subjected her to Extremis, intending to infuse her with superhuman abilities and turn her against Stark as leverage to gain Stark's aid in fixing Extremis' flaws.

Killian has also manipulated American intelligence agencies regarding the Mandarin's location, luring James Rhodes — the former War Machine, now rebranded as the Iron Patriot — into a trap to steal the armor. Stark escapes his captivity by summoning his armor and reunites with Rhodes, discovering Killian intends to attack President Ellis aboard Air Force One. Remotely controlling his Iron Man armor, Stark saves the surviving passengers and crew after a bomb was detonated but cannot stop Killian from abducting Ellis. They trace Killian to an impounded oil drilling platform where Killian intends to kill Ellis (wearing the Iron Patriot armor) on live television. The Vice President will become a puppet leader, following Killian's orders in exchange for Extremis to cure a little girl's disability.

On the platform, Stark goes to save Potts, and Rhodes the President. Stark summons each of his Iron Man suits, controlled remotely by JARVIS, to provide air support. Rhodes secures the President and leads him to safety, while Stark discovers Potts has survived the Extremis procedure. However, before he can save her, a rig collapses around them and she falls 200 feet to her apparent death. Stark, forced into confronting Killian, traps Killian in an Iron Man suit that self-destructs. Potts, whose Extremis powers allowed her to survive her fall, kills Killian, who had survived the exploding armor.

After the battle, Stark orders J.A.R.V.I.S. to remotely destroy each Iron Man suit, as a sign of his intention to devote more time to Potts. Both the Vice President and Slattery are arrested. Potts undergoes surgery to remove Extremis, and Stark to remove the shrapnel embedded near his heart; the latter of which was performed by Dr. Wu, the very man Tony's ally Ho Yinsen had attempted to introduce in Bern, Switzerland all those years ago. Tony then returns to the ruins of his Malibu home and pitches his obsolete chest arc reactor into the sea, musing he will always be Iron Man, even without his armor.

In a post-credit scene, Stark's narration of the film has actually been his talking to someone about his traumas. Dr. Bruce Banner is who Stark has been talking to. He awakens after having fallen asleep during Stark's narration. When Stark asks when he lost him, Banner replies, "The elevator in 1999."

Cast

• Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
• Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine/Iron Patriot
• Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts
• Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian/The Mandarin
• Rebecca Hall as Maya Hansen
• Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery/The "Mandarin"
• James Badge Dale as Eric Savin
• Ashley Hamilton as Jack Taggart
• Wang Xueqi as Dr. Wu
• Fan Bingbing as Dr. Wu's wife
• Yang Mi as Dr. Wu's assistant
• Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan
• William Sadler as President Ellis
• Miguel Ferrer as Vice President Rodriguez
• Paul Bettany as J.A.R.V.I.S.
• Stephanie Szostak as Ellen Brandt
• Yvonne Zima as Miss Elk Ridge
• Wu Jing as a Ten Rings terrorist
• Ty Simpkins as Harley Keener
• Stan Lee as Beauty pageant judge
• Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner
• Dale Dickey as Mrs. Davis
• James Rackley as Chad Davis
• Noa Lindberg as Michele Cusick
• Sarah Farooqui as Heather
• Shaun Toub as Ho Yinsen
• Tom Virtue as Thomas Richards
• Adam Pally as Gary

Continuity and References to the Marvel Cinematic Universe

• Tony Stark built 35 new armors since the Chitauri Invasion of New York in The Avengers.
  • Scenes of the invasion are seen in Tony's nightmares.
• Ho Yinsen appears in a flashback to 1999.
• A.I.M. is established.
• Extremis is similar to the Super Soldier Serum, giving its patients superhuman strength.
• The Chitauri are referred to multiple times as "aliens".
• S.H.I.E.L.D. is mentioned.
• Thor Odinson is mentioned by Killian when speaking to Tony, stating "Ever since that big dude with the hammer fell out of the sky, subtlety's kinda had it's day."
• The Avengers are referenced.
• Thomas Richards was an accountant for the Roxxon Corporation.
• Bruce Banner cameos in the post-credits sequence.

Production

Director Black says that Iron Man 3 will not be another "two men in iron suits fighting each other" film. Instead, it will be more like a Tom Clancy-thriller, with Iron Man fighting real world villians, it will be a post-Avengers the various films will focus on individual heroes, and that the crossovers were designed primarily as a lead in to that Joss Whedon-directed film.

Before Jon Favreau stepped down from directing Iron Man 3, he said that The Mandarin would be reworked to fit into the Iron Man 3 movie.^[1]

The film will be shot in North Carolina, Miami, Florida and China.

Iron Man 3 is the highest grossing solo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Gallery

See main article: Iron Man 3/Gallery

References

1. ↑ Shane Black talks direction of Iron Man 3 and whether or not to expect more Marvel cameos!

External links

• Iron Man 3 on IMDB