# The Iron Man Movie (no spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2008, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640 "2008-05-01T17:33:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/81 "2008-05-05T19:45:22Z")
I liked how we never see Tony Stark incapacitated by drunkenness but we still get pleny of foreshadowing that is going to be a problem with him. I don’t like the glowy-chest-thing. For one thing, it’s so deep it would **displace** his heart, not protect it. For another, if the electromagnet’s purpose is to keep shards of shrapnel away from the heart, why not just get them surgically removed? ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/82 "2008-05-05T19:57:51Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] Please tell me that was hyperbole. I’d be happy with a kickass, high-quality trilogy. [/QUOTE] I read an interview with Paltrow where she said that they had all signed on for three, so far. Can’t wait. So, the gist I am getting is that the 6 & 8 year old boys who are dying to see this movie won’t be permanently scarred by anything? They have already seen all the Toho _Godzillas_, _Jurassic Park_, _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ and _Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade_, _Forbidden Kingdom_, and the _Pirates_ trilogy. Think we’re okay? ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/83 "2008-05-05T20:03:37Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] I don’t like the glowy-chest-thing. For one thing, it’s so deep it would **displace** his heart, not protect it. For another, if the electromagnet’s purpose is to keep shards of shrapnel away from the heart, why not just get them surgically removed? [/QUOTE] My understanding was that the shrapnel was already in his heart, and so removing them would be problematical. The shrapnel was barbed, so it could only keep going deeper, and the magnet kept it from digging deeper. It’s a stupid concept, of course. I can’t imagine a better reason, though, for him to have a glowing disc in the middle of his chest. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/84 "2008-05-05T20:11:32Z")
[QUOTE=EJsGirl] So, the gist I am getting is that the 6 & 8 year old boys who are dying to see this movie won’t be permanently scarred by anything? They have already seen all the Toho _Godzillas_, _Jurassic Park_, _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ and _Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade_, _Forbidden Kingdom_, and the _Pirates_ trilogy. Think we’re okay? [/QUOTE] _Raiders_ is far more scary/gory than anything in _Iron Man_. If the kids were okay with that, they’ll be fine with this. ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/85 "2008-05-05T20:12:07Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] I thought the least realistic element was Pepper Potts’ shoes. Yes, yes, sexy as hell, but as a woman, you watch it and think _no WAY could she run in those things!_ and _I bet her feet are KILLING her!_ At least this woman does. 🙂 [/quote] I used to be able to hit a full run in heels that were maybe an inch shorter than hers, and mine didn’t have the straps keeping them attached to my ankles. That was a long time ago, but her shoes made me nostalgic for those times. [QUOTE=Jodi] And Robert Downey Jr. has been _working out_. Rowr. [/QUOTE] YES. He always seemed to me like the lightweight sort of guy I could toss around like a rag doll, but not here. When he was hammering out the Mark I suit in the cave, it flipped the “ooh, manly-man” switch in my brain. Want! ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/86 "2008-05-05T20:47:04Z")
By the way: Faran Tahir was wearing a HUGE ring. Was this to be a Mandarin tie in? His org was called The Ten Rings. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/87 "2008-05-05T20:54:06Z")
I miss Happy. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/88 "2008-05-05T20:58:52Z")
May I ask a question? I haven’t seen the movie, but I have seen a trailer. In the trailer, a tank (I will guess and say it is a former Soviet T-72 type) shoots at IM. IM takes a half step back to the left and leans slightly back. Round misses. IM shoots and destroys tank with wrist rocket. The T-72 uses a 125mm shell, fired anywhere from 1700 to 1800 meters per second muzzle velocity. How the heck do you _dodge_ that? Fanwank away. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/89 "2008-05-05T21:01:16Z")
[QUOTE=Lightnin’] My understanding was that the shrapnel was already in his heart, and so removing them would be problematical. The shrapnel was barbed, so it could only keep going deeper, and the magnet kept it from digging deeper. It’s a stupid concept, of course. I can’t imagine a better reason, though, for him to have a glowing disc in the middle of his chest. [/QUOTE] I think they did it to be true to the [comic-book origin story.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_man#Fictional_character_biography) (Of course, this is 2008, not 1963, so the locale is changed from Vietnam to Afghanistan and the villains are not Viet Cong but . . . well, not jihadists, AFAICT . . . warlords?) ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/90 "2008-05-05T21:02:31Z")
Yeah, that was a pretty clear reference to the Mandarin. Another tip-off was when he started rambling on about Ghengis Kahn - that’s another Mandarin hallmark. The thing about the Mandarin is that he’s sort of difficult to pull off now without coming across as hugely offensive. It’s not like he’s the Yellow Claw or anything, but the “Chinese mystic with a long beard who wants to take over the world” is something that we don’t really see much of now. Making him Arabic would be a way to get around that, but that also makes him a totally different character. The character we saw in the movie actually looks like an Arabic version of the Mandarin’s son Temugin, so it’s possible we could see an older character who actually heads up the organization we saw in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/91 "2008-05-05T21:03:36Z")
[QUOTE=ouryL] By the way: Faran Tahir was wearing a HUGE ring. Was this to be a Mandarin tie in? His org was called The Ten Rings. :eek: [/QUOTE] Yep. Well, they announced today that Iron Man 2 is a go for 2010, with two Avengers movies and a Thor movie also in the mix for the same time period. Looks like we’ll have our plates full for a bit. Ought to make Comic-Con even better for the next 3 years. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/92 "2008-05-05T21:08:04Z")
This movie freakin’ ROCKS. Best superhero movie yet, IMHO. Also, this was the best I’ve ever seen Gwyneth Paltrow looking. I’ll be seeing it again. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/93 "2008-05-05T21:13:56Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] Please tell me that was hyperbole. I’d be happy with a kickass, high-quality trilogy. [/QUOTE] Nooooooooo! The whole point of a superhero trilogy is to make a cool first movie, an awesome second movie, and then a third movie that is utter shit. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/94 "2008-05-05T21:17:51Z")
[QUOTE=mlees] How the heck do you dodge that? [/QUOTE] Welllllll…it’s a movie, ken? None of the things that suit does are really plausible…hell, even walking about is something we really can’t do with an armored suit yet. The power source is implausible. The flight is REALLY implausible. So, dodging a tank round is really not anything special. How about this. The suit has some sort of automated AI that is in it. It also obviously has radar. So…the suit detected the main gun firing and automatically moved itself out of the way of the tank round and brought the threat to the attention to the squishy lifeform inside…who fired a single shot from a wrist rocket (another of those more implausible thingies) to take the tank out. Simple. 😛 -XT ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/95 "2008-05-05T21:22:18Z")
Another explaination is that tank rounds aren’t really designed to hit a man sized target anyway…and the Soviet T-72 targetting system pretty much sucks regardless. So…tank fired and missed and IM simply moved by reflex after the round passed…then fired his wrist rocket (which is still implausible) to take the tank out. 😉 -XT p.s. Go see the movie…it kicked ass. Just leave your skepticism at the door. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/96 "2008-05-05T21:26:19Z")
If they were going for plausible, Stark would have broken his neck and died the first time he (unarmored) tested his rocket-boots in his lab and went crashing against a concrete wall. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/97 "2008-05-05T21:31:11Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] If they were going for plausible… [/QUOTE] He would’ve died a lot sooner than that. He slammed into that sand dune wearing a ton of metal plating, after launching himself in that first suit. Armor doesn’t help with deceleration- all that energy’s got to go SOMEWHERE. Even if the armor blunted the impact, he still would’ve been crushed by the fall. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/98 "2008-05-05T21:34:17Z")
Yeah, Tony Stark does a great Robert Downey Jr. The way I see it, the leader of the cave-people was one of the Mandarin’s sub-bosses. Each of them gets a ring as a badge and I guess as a communicator? So he wasn’t the chief, he was someone reporting to a higher-up… The Mandarin would be tough to pull off. Maybe they’ll just get copies of the aromor of Tony’s villains, since I think they want to keep his baddies tech-powered. The Ghost could be cool. And you actually could see why Stane was angry with Tony. It wasn’t the bwahaha evil capitalist from Spider-Man and FF. He had been babysitting this company for years, and now Tony has a little boo-boo and grows a conscience. Lots of fun geek-trivia, too, like a Roxxon sign. And overall it’s much more plausible than, say, Superman. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/99 "2008-05-05T21:38:49Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] Welllllll…it’s a movie, ken? None of the things that suit does are really plausible…hell, even walking about is something we really can’t do with an armored suit yet. The power source is implausible. The flight is REALLY implausible. So, dodging a tank round is really not anything special. How about this. The suit has some sort of automated AI that is in it. It also obviously has radar. So…the suit detected the main gun firing and automatically moved itself out of the way of the tank round and brought the threat to the attention to the squishy lifeform inside…who fired a single shot from a wrist rocket (another of those more implausible thingies) to take the tank out. Simple. 😛 -XT [/QUOTE] The round is doing 1700 m/s. What is that, 4 to 5 times the speed of sound? 😃 The suit’s AI would have to move so fast that it might hurt the wearer. (It’s difficult to gauge the distance to the tank in the trailer…) I suppose if the tank were 2000 meters away… ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640/100 "2008-05-05T21:43:51Z")
Oh, and I’m playing the Iron Man game now and didn’t think it needed it’s own thread. It’s eh. Not great, not terrible. Fun shooting people with repulsors and flying, but…try it out. Rent first, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-iron-man-movie-no-spoilers/447640.md?page=6)