A Look Back at the Unexpected Groundbreaking Nature of "Iron Man" 10 Years Later

Scene from Iron Man

In 2008, it's a bit hard to remember what made director Jon Favreau's Iron Man so much of a gamble. After all, its lead actor Robert Downey Jr. is currently headlining The Avengers: Infinity War, which is also one of the highest grossing opening weekends of all time. 10 years on, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has proven itself an indomitable force. But at the time, there were a few factors to consider: Marvel was coming off of a year that featured such maligned films as Ghost Rider, Spider-Man 3, and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. One could argue that there was a superhero fatigue, but it was more from mediocre movies than interwoven plots leading to a grand crossover event. But for Iron Man, it could've been an anomaly on par with 2017's The Mummy: a film with grand ambitions that were never achieved. Instead, it's one of the biggest game changers in blockbuster cinema history. It's just that nobody saw it coming.

What sets Iron Man apart from almost every cinematic universe was how unassuming its introduction was. The central film didn't so much as feature allusions to the characters to come. It was sold just as a superhero movie about a narcissistic billionaire named Tony Stark, whose playboy ways proved to be the perfect vehicle for Downey, an actor coming off of a notorious past that, at best, left him doing ambitious indies to reclaim his image. Yet it was with Stark that Downey not only regained the audience's trust, but found the character by which his entire legacy will be judged. With his snarky humor, he created an iconic character whose confidence was both a compelling tool for a leader, and also the downfall of a man who would rather just tool around and make weapons to sell. If one thing has aged oddly about Iron Man, it's the parallels to the Bush era, where the War on Terrorism was more prominently a raw nerve.

The movie has an incredible electricity to every frame in large part because of the brilliant casting of every role. Stark has a magnetic presence in part because of how he can talk his way out of anything. It's also in his soundtrack choice, which features a heavy dose of AC/DC (ironic since the film ends with Black Sabbath's "Iron Man"). His love interest Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow) has a nagging chemistry with him, and even Favreau has a charm as the bumbling assistant Happy Hogan. Every character has a light and friendly vibe that undercuts the darker themes, which includes some terrorist kidnapping plots and fights with fellow megalomaniac Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges). Considering what's to come, it's incredible to note how much the central performances were already confident. In fact, the only true irony comes in a foreshadowing scene where Rhodey (Terrence Howard) alludes to playing War Machine with a "Next time, baby" quip. Within just a few years, Howard would be replaced by Don Cheadle.

While there was a plan in place for some sort of MCU (The Incredible Hulk would be released later that year), the film was great because of how unassuming it was. There wasn't a need to understand obscure characters, or even know who Thanos or the Infinity Stones were. It was a simpler time when Iron Man had yet to set a precedent that differed it significantly from something like Ghost Rider (save for quality). The series would explain how to dissect MCU films with its sequel a few years later, but for now it was just a high flying adventure that featured a great performance. Downey was no longer a hasbeen actor, and the quasi-obscure Iron Man was no longer a third rate character. In the years since, he would become one of the most iconic characters, at times releasing movies that out-grossed movies featuring the similarly rich and egotistical Batman. 

It was all part of a plan that was brilliant, in part because some people could leave the theater without knowing what was to come, literally. There wasn't a public perception of post-credit scenes, so the idea of staying to discover Nick Fury's (Samuel L. Jackson) Avengers Initiative was uncommon. With social media in its primitive state, it also wasn't a big enough deal - in part because shared universes weren't a popular fad outside of Kevin Smith films. Still, it was a moment that was brilliant in part because nobody knew what to expect from producer Kevin Feige and crew. There wasn't a need to make a shared universe in 2008. A sequel, sure, but the idea of making films that would lead to The Avengers four years later wasn't considered. You'd just make an Avengers movie without building up a trust. Therein lies the brilliance to the MCU, which for the first time acknowledged what made comic book culture so beloved. It was about seeing these characters together in one film. 

By Infinity War, the textbook knowledge needed to understand what's going on is massive. The world has grown beyond the nuclear testing of Iron Man and now includes galaxies of characters with strange powers. It's incredible to think that it started with Tony Stark in the desert making jokes about MySpace. It was all so simple, and it worked in part because it didn't have ties to any grander story. It's true that in the 18 films that followed that the MCU has become one of the most fascinating success stories in pop culture history. In that time, Stark has become less of an interesting protagonist - not "headlining" a solo movie in five years - as the universe has introduced characters that in any other decade would've tanked at the box office, but instead have become icons that were bought by Disney and even feature attractions at California Adventures. 

It's amazing to think of how far things have come. It's also crazy to think that there have been 19 movies in only a decade, with no signs of showing. There's an Infinity War sequel coming next year, and there's plans for the next few years as well as various spin-off TV shows. In that way, Iron Man is hard to isolate from what would come and thus seems to be less polished and aware of its grander universe. Iron Man was merely a proposal, an initiative, of creating something grander and more ambitious. It helped that Iron Man as a character was strong, but that Downey had the charisma to pull off something on par with Hugh Jackman in the X-Men franchise. It may have lead to the death of the movie star mentality, but it created a shared universe trope that many have tried to imitate, but they fail in large part because they are following a trend instead of being true to themselves. Iron Man could've failed and gone away. Instead it did the impossible of playing second fiddle that year to the more successful The Dark Knight, but ended up creating the longer shadow. There's been three Batman (four if you include The LEGO Batman) actors in the past 10 years, but only one Iron Man. That alone sets it apart in a significant way.