A Complete Analysis of Iron Man Part 5: How Two Pizza Slices Make Iron Monger One of the MCU’s Best Antagonists (Film Analysis)

LINK TO PART 4: Tony Stark and the Heart, Ego, and Cheeseburger

The pizza slice scene is one of Iron Man's best scenes that goes completely unappreciated and unnoticed by the majority.  Here, Stane returns from a meeting with Stark Industries’ Board of Directors, bringing with him pizza that Tony immediately notes as a bad sign.  Stane informs Tony and Pepper that the Board are filing an injunction to lock him up on the grounds that Tony is suffering from PTSD:

Stane: They're making the case that you and your new direction isn't in the company's best interest.

Tony: I'm being responsible! That's a new direction for me..for the company. I mean, me on the company's behalf being responsible for the way that...this is great.

Indeed, it is Tony.  There is a great little moment here where Stane has this amused look of shock at Tony’s slip up of it being a new direction for him.  In this moment, there is not an ounce of villainy visible on Stane's face, Jeff Bridges masking it completely with the most good-natured, dare I say, smug dad look.  Here is the face of a friend and mentor to Tony Stark, someone Tony can confide with and has his back.  Then the two have this exchange:

Stane: Hey, hey! Hey, Tony. Listen. I'm trying to turn this thing around, but you gotta give me something. Something to pitch them. Points to Tony’s miniature Arc Reactor Let me have the engineers analyze that. You know, draw up some specs.

Tony: No. No, absolutely not.

Stane: It'll give me a bone to throw the boys in New York!

Tony: This one stays with me. That's it, Obie. Forget it.

Stane: All right, well, takes Pizza box back from Tony this stays with me, then…go on, here, you can have a piece. Take two.

Tony: Thank you.

I cannot disagree more whenever someone calls Jeff Bridges’ Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger a generic, bland antagonist.  The actor’s all-too-convincing performance is criminally underrated, and it’s the two pizza slices line that stands as the pinnacle example.  The decision to make Iron Monger Iron Man’s main antagonist was actually done only after Jeff Bridges was cast in the role (originally the superpowered Mandarin was going to be the main antagonist but was wisely scrapped by Favreau who wanted to keep the origin film realistic).  Similar to Downey, Bridges improvised many of his lines during filming, and while I couldn’t find any evidence to confirm, I bet my bottom dollar the two slices line was an improvised moment.  It’s just too genuine and true-to-life to be scripted.  No amount of Hollywood writing could come up with such a beautiful, spur-of-the-moment line.

Hollywood blockbuster villains don’t talk like this—not usually.  They are theatrically dramatic, over-the-top zany, and/or menacingly cold.  What is given here is a very real, down-to-Earth moment between two businessmen comfortable with showing a more childish side to each other—Tony storming off and an annoyed Stane taking back his pizza at his partner’s reluctance to cooperate.  The moment ends, however, with Stane backtracking in an amicable, empathetic manner, letting Tony take a slice or two down to his workshop with Tony thanking him.  These moments create something that most likely wasn’t there in the original script—a palpable bond between two colleagues trying to work things out in a father-son like manner…except that is not what's happening at all.

Their relationship is a one-way street, with Stane a greedy, envious, power-crazed man bent on killing Tony and being all-powerful.  Yet that’s not at all how Stane comes across in these and earlier scenes, and even upon rewatch where I know Stane’s true nature, it’s easy to forget with Jeff Bridges’ easygoing mellowness.  Stane is damn good at deceiving and manipulating through his own brand of charisma—making him the ideal foil for Tony Stark.  Yes, Stane does eventually showcase more card-carrying villainous behaviors later on after his backstab is revealed, but even then Stane still possesses that Jeff Bridges’ chill (for the most part).  Ultimately, just as Downey’s performance turns Iron Man into one of the MCU’s greatest protagonists, Jeff Bridge’s memorable and remarkably human performance turns Iron Monger into one of the MCU’s best antagonists.

LINK TO PART 6: The Wonderful Benefits of Showcasing Tony's Creative Process