A Complete Analysis of Iron Man Part 6: The Wonderful Benefits of Showcasing Tony's Creative Process (Film Analysis)

LINK TO PART 5: How Two Pizza Slices Make Iron Monger One of the MCU’s Best Antagonists

With neither Stane nor Rhodey onboard with pacifistic manufacturing, Tony secretly begins his own plans...to build a weaponized super suit (though, to be fair, only he plans on using it...I’m sure that plan won’t backfire in multiple films).  Meanwhile, the Ten Rings are shown combing the desert—finding the remaining pieces of Tony's giant metal suit (not even a sentence later and Tony’s plan has already backfired).

As with the Arc Reactor and prototype armor, Jon Favreau gives time and effort to showcase Tony’s creative process when building his upgraded suit.  Favreau wanted to make the suit seem as believable as possible for the audience, specifically focusing screen time on Tony developing the suit’s flight technology—one of the suit’s more fantastical aspects—through various recorded sessions often resulting in comedic slapstick.  A ten percent flight capacity test ends with Tony crashing into a wall, while a " completely harmless" flight stabilizer test sends Tony soaring backward much to Pepper’s dismay.

The meat of these trial and error sessions, however, is how believable they are crafted.  Watching Tony take these gradual steps in perfecting his technology really feels like a natural process that someone could actually do in real life.  It’s as enlightening as it is fun to watch Tony work, giving the audience a grip on how such fictional technology works—conveying these sci-fi elements in a realistic sense within Iron Man’s grounded world.  Downey does a fantastic job adding to the scenes’s authenticity.  I love when Tony gives this anxiously excited laugh as he practices floating around in his basement.  The laugh is such a genuinely realistic reaction—as if Downey is truly flying himself—to successfully doing something but being very close to failing at any moment.

Tony decides to prematurely take the suit out for a test drive (“Sometimes you got to run before you can walk.”) despite J.A.R.V.I.S.’ logical objections.  Paul Bettany is the ideal voice for Tony’s A.I. companion, with his sensible, blunt, and snarky personality working in beautiful contrast with Tony’s offhand recklessness:

J.A.R.V.I.S.: After completing the suit’s design The render is complete.

Tony: A little ostentatious, don't you think?

J.A.R.V.I.S.: What was I thinking? You're usually so discreet.

Tony: Tell you what. Throw a little hot-rod red in there.

J.A.R.V.I.S.: Yes, that should help you keep a low profile.

After seeing all the work Tony put into crafting the flight technology, it’s very gratifying to watch Tony successfully soar through the skies.  Despite being over ten-years-old, the scene’s CGI visuals hold up strikingly well—complete with a beautiful nightscape of a beachside city and a kickass soundtrack.  In his reckless ecstasy, Tony makes a rather stupid decision to test the suit’s ascent limits—causing the suit to shut down from ice buildup, nearly killing Tony as he falls and just barely (and I mean barely) gets it back on again.  For how brilliant Tony is, he certainly makes foolhardy decisions, putting not only himself but the civilians underneath in danger.

Tony decides to crash a Stark Industries charity event he was not invited to, saying hi to a visiting Hugh Hefner played by the late Stan Lee (Rest in Peace).  At the event, Tony is confronted by agent Phil Coulson about setting up a meeting discussing his escape, has an almost intimate moment with Pepper, and is confronted once again by reporter Christine Everhart—showing Tony pictures of the Ten Rings using new Stark weaponry, recently shipped without Stark's permission, to terrorize and oppress the peaceful locals.  Tony confronts Stane about this new information, the latter finally revealing his true colors that he has been double-dealing with the terrorists and was the one that suggested locking Tony out of his own company.  An angry and more determined than ever Tony decides to take vigilantism into his own hands and, with his freshly painted super suit, flies off to deal with the situation overseas.

LINK TO PART 7: Tony's Subtle Transformation from Grandiose Narcissist to Communal Narcissist