IRON MAN

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) avoids his own Apogee Awards ceremony to gamble at a Las Vegas casino, leaving his deceased father's friend and business partner, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) to collect the award. As Stark leaves the casino with his entourage, he is approached by Vanity Fair reporter Christine Everhart (Leslie Bibb), whom he charms into a one-night stand at his Malibu house. As she awakens in the morning, she is escorted from the house by Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), Stark's personal assistant, who tells her Stark is away on a business trip, though Stark is really still in the house, until Potts informs him how late he is. Stark flies off to Afghanistan for a successful demonstration of Stark Industries' new weapon, the "Jericho" cluster missile. On the way back, however, the military convoy is attacked. In the ensuing firefight, Stark is wounded by one of his own company's bombs, which knocks him unconscious and embeds shrapnel in his chest, one fragment dangerously close to his heart. Waking up hours later in an Afghan cave, Stark discovers an electromagnet attached to his chest, powered by a car battery and designed to keep the shrapnel from piercing his heart and killing him.

Stark has been captured by the terrorist group known as the Ten Rings, who order him to build a Jericho missile for them. Instead, during the three months of his captivity, he and fellow captive Dr. Yinsen (Shaun Toub) begin building a miniature "arc reactor", a smaller version of a power source previously invented by Tony's father, Howard. With the reactor powering his electromagnet, Stark and Yinsen secretly build a crude but strong power armor as a means of escape. Unfortunately, the process of activating the armor takes more time than expected and Yinsen hurries out to buy time. Once the armor is ready, Stark charges through the caves. Near the exit, he comes across a dying Yinsen, who tells him "Don't waste your life." Upon leaving Yinsen, Stark burns all the Stark Industries munitions the terrorists have accumulated and then attempts to fly away, only to crash into the desert a few miles away. After being rescued by his friend and company military liaison Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes (Terrence Howard) and returned to the United States, Stark declares at a press conference that his company will no longer manufacture weapons. Stane tells him shortly thereafter that this move is being blocked by the members of the board of directors of Stark Industries.

Returning home, Stark retreats from the public eye and instead focuses on the design of his power suit, refining its size and improving its flight and fighting capability while making an improved arc reactor for his chest. During his work, Potts gives Stark his first miniature arc reactor as a gift encased in glass and bearing the inscription, "Proof that Tony Stark has a heart." During Stark's first public appearance since his return, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, he spots Potts, who is wearing the dress she bought for herself as a birthday present on his behalf. He is struck by her beauty and briefly dances with her, causing him to realize that he has romantic feelings for his assistant. As they're about to share a kiss, Potts interrupts by asking for a martini, as a ploy to hide her insecurity because of Stark's promiscuity. While ordering the drinks, Stark is accosted by Everhart, who shows him pictures of Stark Industries weapons back in the hands of terrorist groups, including Jericho missiles. He realizes that Stane has been "dealing under the table" by supplying both the Americans and their enemies, and that Stane has been attempting to remove Stark from power. Enraged, Stark modifies his palm thrusters for use as weapons, dons the power suit, flies to Afghanistan and rescues Yinsen's village from the Ten Rings, also destroying the latest Stark weapon shipments in the process. During the operation, Stark inadvertently attracts the attention of the United States Air Force and Lt. Col. Rhodes, who dispatches two F-22 Raptors to intercept and eliminate the unknown target. During the dogfight, one of the planes is accidentally destroyed, but the pilot is rescued by Stark, who during the fight privately calls Rhodes to reveal that he "is" the unidentified object. Rhodes later classifies the incident as a training accident to the press, at Stark's recommendation.