2.1 Iron Man 2
In a run-down house in Siberia, a dying Anton Vanko tells his son that every success Howard Stark and his family have had was stolen from them, because he had designed the first Arc Reactor but received no credit. With his dying breath, he charges his son to wreak revenge on the family who ruined them. Ivan strikes a heroic pose and swears that he will do everything he can to fulfil his father’s dying wish. “I will avenge your memory, father, I will bring down those snivelling treacherous snakes who would dare to despoil the proud name of-”
He’s interrupted by a knock on the door. When he opens it, he finds an extremely cold man in a pinstripe suit. The man tells him he’s a lawyer, sent by Tony Stark, here to discuss compensation for Vanko Sr’s role in the creation of the Arc Reactor. Ivan starts to say that this is about more than money, this is a matter of honour, and then the lawyer tells him just how much the compensation is. Filial piety suddenly doesn’t seem so important afterwards.
We cut to Los Angeles, where firefighters are struggling to remove rubble from a collapsed house to rescue a man still trapped inside. Suddenly, Iron Man arrives and lifts off the debris, freeing the man. This is a Tony who’s had a decade to mature, and a decade to watch the ‘war on terror’ achieve nothing. He’s not using the suit to fight America’s wars, like he had the first go around. He’s not perfect, by any means, but he’s trying to remember what the other Avengers taught him, and working to protect people, rather than attack people.
After posing for photos with the firefighters (he is still Tony Stark, after all), he heads for Stark Industries HQ, nearby. He’s clearly expected - there’s a suit (of the non-armoured variety) waiting for him in his office there, along with a first aid kit. As he changes, he discusses the upcoming Stark Expo with JARVIS. He bemoans the fact that it’s happening, given he doesn’t exactly have fond memories of the one in the original timeline. JARVIS suggests he just cancel it, but Tony explains that in order to make sure the Mind Stone comes to earth, and the Avengers assemble as they’re supposed to, he’s trying not to change more than he feels he has to. That means the Expo needs to go ahead, whether he likes it or not.
He heads towards a room set up for a press conference. On his way there he meets Pepper, headed in the same direction. He thanks her for the suit, and she tells him he’d better appreciate it, since it’s the last time she’s ever fetching anything for him. Then, more nervous than we’re used to seeing her, she asks if he’s really sure about this. He tells her he’s certain. There’s no one else he’d trust to run Stark Industries.
He steps out onto the stage, and it’s exactly as charming and theatrical as the audience, both diegetic and non, has come to expect from Tony when he’s performing. He announces that he is stepping down as CEO of Stark Industries, effective immediately, and introduces the new CEO - Pepper Potts.
He cedes the stage to her, leaving her to field the journalists’ questions. As he steps off the stage, his phone rings and JARVIS tells him it’s an unknown number. Calling from Guatemala.
When he answers it, he finds it’s Bruce Banner. He’d given Bruce his number shortly after he arrived in the past, in the hope that he might be able to bring Bruce in from the cold before Fury forces the issue. Bruce says that he has no idea if he can trust Tony, but he’s run out of other options. He’s asking for help.
Tony promises he’ll get there as quickly as he can. He starts to head for the suit before JARVIS reminds him that trying to carry the Hulk bridal-style is probably not a good idea, and orders a helicopter instead.
The next morning, an extremely confused Bruce Banner wakes up in a modern, minimalist bedroom, and finds that clean clothes have been left for him. Dressed, he stumbles out of the bedroom. In the main room of Pinnacle House he finds Tony Stark, billionaire CEO and legitimate superhero, is making a smoothie and looks like he maybe hasn’t slept.
The next morning, an extremely confused Bruce Banner wakes up in a modern, minimalist bedroom, and finds that clean clothes have been left for him. Dressed, he stumbles out of the bedroom. In the main room of Pinnacle House he finds Tony Stark, billionaire CEO and legitimate superhero, is making a smoothie and looks like he maybe hasn’t slept.
Tony cracks a joke about Bruce not being the type he usually brings home with him, and offers him a smoothie. Even more confused, Bruce asks Tony why he’s doing this, what possible agenda he could have for inviting a wanted fugitive into his home, especially when Bruce is pretty sure Tony knows what Bruce is.
Tony admits to knowing about the Hulk, but brushes off the rest of the question. Instead, he asks Bruce if he wants to see the particle reactor Tony built in his workshop, and even Bruce’s well honed self-preservation instincts aren’t strong enough to override his curiosity.
Some time later, they’re still in the lab, playing with Tony’s toys, when Rhodey arrives to ask if Tony’s ready for the Senate hearing the next day. Tony introduces him to Bruce, though Rhodey assumes he’s joking when he introduces Bruce as “Bruce Banner, the wanted fugitive”.
Rhodey wants to know what preparation Tony’s done, what he’s intending to say, because he doesn’t want to be blindsided by another ‘I Am Ironman’ moment. Tony tells him blithely that he doesn’t need to prep, he’s already seen exactly how it’s going to go, and Rhodey is clearly unimpressed.
At the hearing the next day, Tony’s even more irritated with the whole circus than he had been the first time around. He knows, this time, that they’ve got no real arguments. He knows that they’re going to trot out Justin Hammer, of all people, to be their expert witness. He talks over people, answers questions before Senator Stern can finish asking them, insults not only Hammer’s expertise but his dress-sense, his education, and his parentage.
He’s expecting Rhodey to be called to give evidence, and he’s had a decade of fighting shoulder to shoulder with War Machine, but hearing his friend describe him as a threat still stings. It’s hard not to cite all the ways Iron Man has saved people. It’s hard not to dwell on all the ways he’s failed. But he needs the committee to think he’s sane, so he settles for videos of all the failed attempts to replicate the armour that he’s found (and he’s had a lot longer to prepare this time, so he’s got a lot more of them). He still ends on Hammer’s failed tests, because hiring a Russian psychopath to murder you is one of those things you don’t really forgive and forget.
Needing to decompress, he spends some time in the workshop with Bruce. He tells him about the hunt for Steve Rogers, about the HYDRA weapons that only Bruce has any hope of tracing. Bruce thinks he’s crazy when he insists he knows they’ll find Steve alive, that he’s seen it, but the puzzle is intriguing enough that he agrees to work on it.
The following day, Tony travels up to New York City to prepare for the Expo. While he’s there, Pepper introduces him to her new personal assistant, Cliff. To her great consternation, Tony immediately recognises the guy, greeting him as Clint.
He asks why S.H.I.E.L.D are spying on him. (Synthesising JARVium - Just A Really Very Interesting and Unusual Mineral - was one of the first things he did when he arrived back in 2008, and he’d thought avoiding the palladium poisoning would mean he also avoided SHIELD’s up close and personal attention). Clint points out that Iron Man having a breakdown is the kind of thing Fury likes to try to prevent, and giving away control of a billion dollar company and then immediately inviting a wanted fugitive to live with you isn’t exactly the behavior of a stable man.
Pepper, pissed off that SHIELD would try to use her to insert a spy into Tony’s life, points out that just openly admitting to being a spy doesn’t seem like very stable behaviour either. Clint just shrugs and says that Fury knowns he’s shit at undercover missions, so he probably just wanted to see how Tony would react. Besides which, Tony somehow recognised him despite them never having met, and continuing to deny it after he’d been made seems like a waste of energy.
The only time his demeanor of cheerful curiosity even looks shaken is when Tony asks how Laura and the kids are doing. In retrospect, Tony should have predicted he would take as a threat.
We cut to an Airforce base, where Justin Hammer is giving his very best sales pitch to Rhodey and a bunch of other high-ranking officers. For the first time, we see that Hammer is actually pretty competent, despite all Tony’s jabs, at least when it comes to slick sales pitches. He’s got hand guns, he’s got automatics, he’s got grenade launchers. Last of all, he’s got a missile he designed personally, the sleekest, smartest, most devastating thing in his arsenal: the Ex-Wife.
A few days later, Rhodey and Tony are attending a swanky party cum defence-industry networking event. Tony doesn’t want to be there, but Rhodey is piloting him around the room, kicking him in the shins when he can’t resist pissing off all the most important people there. He keeps reminding Tony that SI still needs to stay on the military's good side if they want it to keep buying protective gear and vehicles and all the other things that didn’t get nixed when Tony stopped making weapons.
Rhodey finally decides he trusts Tony enough to leave him alone for five minutes while he goes to the bar, and Tony immediately gets cornered by Justin Hammer. Hammer’s got no agenda except satisfying his own ego, so we get to see just how badly he wants to be Tony, and just how much it burns him that no one else seems to think he measures up.
Rhodey returns from the bar just as Hammer is getting onto the subject of how his drone soldiers are going to make Iron Man obsolete. Tony, because even after all those years of personal growth he’s still a bit of a bastard, uses the momentary distraction to just straight up run (or at least power-walk) away, leaving Rhodey to deal with an increasingly voluble Hammer.
Rhodey manages to escape - although not before he’s downed both of their drinks just to take the edge off - and is contemplating whether to drink more or just go home, when he’s hit by the full force of Thunderbolt Ross on the warpath. Ross knows all about Tony’s mysterious new houseguest, and he’s oh so concerned for Tony’s safety. Surely Rhodey must be worried as well, having a man like Banner so close to his friend. A murderer, a man who’d stolen U.S. military secrets and killed anyone who tried to stop him. Rhodey must surely be even more concerned about Tony’s wellbeing than Ross very definitely genuinely is. Genuinely.
Rhodey tries to talk to Tony about it, but Tony just keeps brushing him off. He insists Bruce would never hurt him, but Rhodey can’t help noticing that he never denies the blood on Bruce’s hands.
It all comes to a head at Tony’s birthday party. Bruce gets invited, of course, since he’s still living with Tony, even though he’s very insistent that he’s not a party person. Tony has fallen back into the easy rhythm he’d had with the Bruce in his original timeline, apparently without remembering that it had taken them years to get to that point, and Bruce is bemused enough by this that he allows himself to be gently bullied into going. He even lets JARVIS pick out a shirt for him.
When Rhodey arrives, he seeing a clearly drunk Tony trying to annoy a wanted murdered into dancing, and that’s his breaking point. If Tony’s not going to worry about his own safety, Rhodey’s damn well going to do it for him.
He sneaks down to the workshop and figures it’s probably a sign that JARVIS doesn’t try to stop him from taking one of the suits. He flies back up to the party and tells Tony to send the guests away. Tony, resigned to the fact that he doesn’t seem to be able to avoid repeating the past, does as he asks. Clint, who’d accompanied Pepper since he’s still nominally working for her, lingers in the doorway, unsure if he should intervene, but when Tony tells him to leave, he does.
Bruce goes to leave as well, but Rhodey calls him back, tells him this concerns him as well. He demands to know what the hell Tony had been thinking, inviting one of the most dangerous men in the world to a party of all things. When Tony insists Bruce is there because Tony’d had a vision of the future, Rhodey explodes. They have a flaming row about Tony’s recent erratic behaviour, and Bruce, and the clearly bullshit clairvoyance, and the Senate hearings. There’s nothing that Tony can say that doesn’t make him sound even crazier, so when Rhodey leaves with the suit, he doesn’t try to stop him.
Rhodey takes the suit to the Airforce, just like he did in the original timeline. He guesses Senator Stern is going to insist on the suit being given to Hammer to study, so he removes the Arc Reactor before handing it over. No matter how pissed off he is, he’s not going to betray Tony by giving Hammer access to the most important technology SI has.
Tony finds Bruce packing. He tries to tell him he can stay as long as he wants, but Bruce says that he doesn’t want to be the cause of any conflict between Tony and Rhodey. He’s heading to Willowdale to retrieve some research he left in storage at Culver University (and to star in the Incredible Hulk, but he doesn’t know that yet), but he promises to stay in contact. Tony isn’t happy, but he lets him go, although he makes him take a StarkPhone Tony has been working on, designed to withstand even the Hulk.
We cut to Hammer Advanced Weapons Systems HQ, where Hammer talking to one of his engineers about the armour he’d gotten from Rhodey. The engineer explains that suit can’t fly or shoot repulsors without the Arc Reactor, and nothing HAWS has access to is small and powerful enough to replace it. But worse than that, even if they could get a new Arc Reactor for it, the suit’s controls are biometrically locked - only Tony, Pepper, or Rhodey can use them. Without one of them present, they can’t even remote-control it. It’s basically the world’s most technologically advanced paperweight.
Hammer is pissed off, but he’s an optimist, and not as much of an idiot as he looks. He tells them that if they have to, they’ll retrofit the propulsion system from his Drones onto the suit to counter the lack of Arc Reactor. It’ll look bulky but it should get the job done. The scientist points out there’s still the biometics, and Hammer says to leave them to him.
Back at the Airforce base, Rhodey runs into a group of Hammer employees. He challenges them, but they explain they’re here to deliver the weapons the Airforce had ordered from Hammer, and produce security passes to prove it. Satisfied, Rhodey walks with them to the elevator, making small talk. As soon as they’re out of sight of the rest of the base, one of them tases Rhodey when his back is turned, knocking him unconscious.
While Rhodey is being kidnapped, a second group of HAWS heavies are watching Tony’s house through infrared. They’re waiting for him to be as far away from the suits as possible to give them the best chance of stealing an Arc Reactor. One of them comments on there being a second heat signature in the house, but they dismiss this as probably being Pepper, a civilian and therefore not a threat.
They pick their moment and break in, but they’re expecting Tony to be unawares and only accompanied by a civilian. They’re definitely not expecting Tony to be being debriefed by SHIELD’s finest, and Tony and Clint working together are able to defeat them. As Tony is wondering who could have sent them, Clint directs his attention to the TV playing in the background, which is showing a breaking story from the Stark Expo.
At the Expo, HAWS is giving its big presentation, hosted by Justin Hammer himself. He’s clearly having a ball, at his loudest and most theatrical as he shows off his new Hammer Drones, the infantry of the future!
As he’s showing them off, an Iron Man Suit flies down into the arena, but it’s not one of Tony’s. This is all black, with red eyes and repulsors, covered in weapons.
In Tony’s voice, the suit orders Hammer to stop the presentation. Hammer valiantly refuses and it says that the Hammer Drones are just too good. They’re going to make Iron Man obsolete and he can’t let that happen. We finally cut to inside the suit, where Rhodey is desperately trying to make it listen to him, but there’s nothing he can do. The Hammer-added propulsion systems are being remotely controlled.
If the audience is paying close enough attention, they might also notice that everything the armour is saying is something Tony said at the hearing, the words chopped up and stitched back together to fit Hammer’s agenda.
Finally, the armour finishes its big speech and points all its many Hammer-added guns at Justin. As it’s apparently about to kill him, Hammer activates the Drones to protect him. The armour takes off out of the Expo centre, the Drones in pursuit.
Tony’s watching the footage at the mansion as he suits up, and when JARVIS tells him that Colonel Rhodes is not answering his calls, Tony puts two and two together. He realises that all he’s done by removing Vanko from the picture was force Hammer to get creative. Even without Vanko pulling the strings, Hammer’s still insecure enough to risk the lives of everyone at the Expo, and Rhodey, for the sake of an advertising stunt. As the faceplate of the Armour slots into place, he asks Clint if he wants to go for a really horrible ride.
At the Expo, Hammer has left the stage, and is talking on the phone to the guy back at Hammer HQ who’s piloting the War Machine Armour. He tells him they need to make it look good, to give the crowd a show before they let the Drones blow it (and by extension Rhodey) up. As he’s talking, the employee warns him that they’ve got company, and Hammer turns to see Iron Man high above, picking off drones with repulsor beams. Hammer is furious that the guys he sent to Tony’s house failed and tells the guy he’s talking to that he’s coming to collect ‘it’.
Clint, looking extremely windswept and more than a little nauseous, finds Pepper and Happy just as Hammer starts to leave. Clint tells them there’s no time to waste, so he’s taking the car. Happy responds “over my dead body” and insists on driving, the two of them leaving to tail Hammer.
The War Machine armour lands in Central Park, and Tony follows it. He assumes landing must mean Rhodey’s back in control, but as soon as he’s on the ground, War Machine attacks, and Rhodey isn’t able to stop it.
Clint and Happy infiltrate HAWS HQ, taking down the security guards who try to stop them with ease. (And yes, don’t worry, Clint absolutely gets all the only-included-because-sexy moves Tasha gets, although his hair flip is somewhat less impressive).
They don’t find Hammer, but they do find the guy piloting the War Machine armour. They knock him out, giving control back to Rhodey so he and Tony can finally team up to fight the Drones. However, even as they seem to be winning, Clint warns them that they’ve got incoming. Something is moving fast right towards their location, coming from Hammer HQ. Whatever it is, it’s being manually piloted, so there’s nothing Clint can do to stop it.
In Central Park, a lime green suit, similar in design to the War Machine armour but even bigger and more heavily armed, lands in the middle of the fight. It’s Justin Hammer, piloting what he calls the Titanium Man Armour. Tony and Rhodey take the piss out of him for the name and the colour (“he does know the Iron Man armour isn’t actually made of iron, right? It’s literally made of a titanium alloy, is this supposed to be impressive?”). Hammer obviously reveals his entire plan because he’s just that kind of bad guy, despite Tony repeatedly telling him that he’s figured it all out and Hammer doesn’t need to monologue.
Eventually Hammer gets annoyed enough by the interruptions that he just attacks them, and a big old armour fight ensues between Tony, Rhodey, Hammer, and the remaining drones. Hammer is defeated, but he’s never going to let anyone else have the last word if he can help it. With a dramatic ‘if I’m going down I’m taking you with me’ line, he arms the Ex-Wife missile that he’d shown off at the weapons demo.
Tony starts powering up his repulsors to deflect it, but Rhodey, who’d had a chance to look at it close up, is just like ‘nah, don’t worry about it’. Sure enough, the thing’s a dud.
Rhodey takes Hammer into military custody until the police can get there. After ensuring that he and Rhodey are good again, Tony flies back to the Expo Center to find Pepper. Tony tells her he’s been waiting a long time for it to be the right moment, and kisses her.
In our post-credits scene, Rhodey is just done handing Hammer over to the authorities, when he gets a call, routed through the suit. He picks up, and to his astonishment, it’s Bruce Banner, asking for help. As he speaks, the camera cuts to Bruce, and we see he’s in a cave in a forest, wearing the telltale torn trousers that always mean he’s recently hulked-out. Beside him is Betty Ross, covered in blood, and apparently having some kind of seizure. Before we fade to black, we see the veins standing out on Betty’s tensed neck start to turn green.
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