It has been 15 years since the first Iron Man movie was released. It makes me feel old. Do you remember what exactly happened in that movie? I thought I remembered everything that happened in the movie. But apparently, it is not the case. I just remember the basic plot. I can even say that I missed some very important points that were necessary to fully understand the movie. When I first saw the movie I enjoyed the action sequences to my heart’s content but didn’t do justice to the story. However, revisiting the movie made me realize that the story is as beautiful if not more than the action sequences.  With all the Wars happening around the world today. It feels like a story more relevant to recent times. So if you are someone like me, I think you would also like to revisit the movie now. If you don’t have time or need more persuasion let me awaken your long-forgotten recollection a little. If you are not “old” like me and considering starting your Marvel marathon and want to keep it simple, watch the movies in release date order, start with Iron Man. For anyone who by any chance didn’t watch the movie please don’t read ahead because, spoilers ahead!

The movie starts with Tony Stark traveling with the US military in the middle of a desert in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Tony fires up a conversation with the shoulders riding with him with his regular Tony Stark charm. One of the soldiers asks for a picture to be taken with Tony. 

As another soldier was about to take the picture, suddenly their convoy gets attacked. All of the soldiers riding with him get killed. He manages to get out of the vehicle and take cover behind a rock and tries to contact his office. But a Stark missile lands beside him and explodes leaving him bleeding from his chest and knocking him unconscious. The next time he gains consciousness, he is surrounded by terrorists making a hostage video.

The next scene cuts back to 36 hours earlier in Las Vegas, at an award ceremony. There he is given the Apogee Award for design and engineering excellence. But he is totally absent from the award ceremony. Obadiah Stane, a friend of his father Howard Stark, receives the award on his behalf and tells the audience that he is always working, while in reality he is actually out gambling and enjoying himself with the ladies. 

Obadiah took care of Stark Industries because of the untimely death of Tony’s parents in a car crash until he turned 21 and took over the company. Tony was a child prodigy. He built his first circuit board at age four, his first engine at age six, and graduated from MIT at age 17.

After the award ceremony, his friend and US military’s liaison to Stark Industries and Air Force’s Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes takes the award to him at the casino and tries to keep him on the line. But on his way out Tony gives the award away to a cosplayer dressed as Julius Caesar.

When getting into his car Tony gets stopped by a Vanity Fair reporter Christine Everhart who requests a few answers to her questions. Upon her being cute, Tony agrees. At one point she asks if he ever loses an hour of sleep being in the weapons manufacturing business. But Tony being Tony takes her home with his regular charms. 

The next morning, he starts his day working on a car engine when his personal assistant Pepper Pots interrupts him and tells him that he is late for his flight to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. On his way to the airport, Tony races his Audi against Happy Hogan, the Head of Security of Stark Industries. He was driving the Rolls Royce Tony usually rides in. Tony arrives at the airport 3 hours late and turns the flight into a party house drinking hot sake and making the air hostesses dance in his private jet. Rhodey(James Rhodes) complains about how he is incapable of being responsible. 

Upon reaching Afghanistan he gives a killer weapons presentation on “The Jericho Missile”, the first missile system to incorporate Stark Industries proprietary repulsor technology. On the way back to base his convoy gets attacked by the terrorists and a shrapnel from the missile hits him in the chest and he gets taken by the terrorists to a cave.

In the cave of the terrorists, he undergoes surgery performed by his fellow hostage Dr. Ho Yinsen who fixes an electromagnet to his chest which is hooked up to a car battery to stop the shrapnels from the missile from entering into his heart. 

Yinsen and Tony met once at a technical conference in Bern but Tony doesn’t remember that because he was very drunk while lecturing on integrated circuits. 

Dr. Yinsen speaks many languages and is a translator for Tony and the terrorists. Soon after he gains consciousness the terrorists tell Tony to make them The Jericho missile he demonstrated. He refuses their demand and gets tortured as a response. The terrorists take him and Yinsen outside the cave and show him that they already have many of his weapons and have everything he needs to build the missiles.  

They agree to free him if he finishes building the Jericho missile for them. But he and Yinsen both know what they will do if he makes the missile. 

Upon returning to the cave Yinsen Tries to convince him to do something about the weapons that they have and this should not be the legacy of Tony Stark. Tony replies that whatever he does, they will kill him and even if they don’t, given his current physical condition he will be dead within a week.  Yinsen replies that then it would be a very important week for him. 

Tony gazes into the distance forming a plan and starts asking for things from the terrorists as if he needs them for making the missiles. While working on his new project in his new workstation which is a cave of terrorists Tony asks Yinsen how many languages Yensin speaks. He replies that a lot but not enough for that place. It’s like The terrorists speak almost all the major languages of the world. 

He asks who these people are. Yensin says that they are Tony Stark’s loyal customers and they call themselves the Ten Rings. 

Yensin asks Tony to include him in the planning process so that he can be more productive. Tony takes apart a missile and takes out a tiny piece which is 0.15 grams of palladium. He tells Yensin that they need at least 1.6 grams of it. So they need to break down 11 more of those missiles. 

During the whole process, the terrorists monitor their work on CCTV. What Tony and Yensin are actually doing is making a miniature version of an arc reactor, the bigger version of which powers the factory of Stark Industries. 

The smaller one that he just made should be able to produce three gigajoules of power per second. It could power the electromagnet keeping the shrapnel away from his heart for 50 lifetimes or something big for 15 minutes. 

Tony shows Yensin a blueprint of a metal suit and tells him it’s their ticket out of the cave. While they are having a little break Tony asks Yensin where he is from and if he has a family. Yensin replies that he is from a small town called Gulmira. He has a family and he will see them when he leaves the cave. Yensin asks back if Tony has a family or not. He replies no. Yensin says that he is a man who has everything and nothing.

Back at the CCTV cave, the terrorists get suspicious as a lot of time has passed by and everything they have built so far looks nothing like the Jericho Missiles. This time the terrorist leader Raza Hamidmi al-Wazar pays a visit to Tony. Raza who wants to dominate the world says that in recent times whoever holds the latest Stark weapons rules the lands and soon it will be his turn. 

He threatens to put a piece of burning coal in Yensin’s mouth but Tony saves him by saying that he needs him and he is a good assistant.  Raza gives them until the next day to assemble the missile. 

Tony and Yensin get to work to assemble the suit instead. When Yensin is helping Tony to suit up Raza gets suspicious as he is not able to see Tony on the CCTV. He tells the guards to go and check on them. The guard speaks Hungarian and Yensin does not speak Hungarian. 

The guards try to get inside but they are blown away by a handmade explosive made by Tony. The explosion cuts off the CCTV feed. Raza sends all the guards to Tony’s cave. Tony tells Yensin to initialize the power sequence and then helps him to suit up. Yensin realizes they need more time. He takes up a gun from beside a dead guard and starts running and shooting toward the incoming guards while Tony yells at him to stick to the plan.

Yensin gets stopped at the entrance of the cave by Raza and his troops. 

Back at the cave, the power sequence completes and Tony’s suit powers up. He single-handedly takes down all the guards and meets Yensin at the entrance of the cave where he is lying on the ground wounded. Tony tells him they need to move, they had a plan and they need to stick to it. 

Yensin tells him that this was always the plan and his family is dead. He is going to see them now. Tony thanks Yensin for saving him. Before leaving his final breath Yensin tells Tony to not waste his life. 

Tony gets out of the cave destroys all the stark weapons, kills the terrorists guarding the weapons, and leaves the exploding valley launching his suit into the sky. 

He crash lands in his suit into the sands of the desert. He is soon discovered by the Rodhey and the Air Force and they bring him back to the USA.  

Upon returning, instead of going to the hospital, Tony says that he wants an American cheeseburger and tells Pepper to call for a press conference. 

Back at the office, Obadiah Stane welcomes him at the entrance. While Tony gets on the stage to start the press conference, Agent Fill Colson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division approaches Pepper Pots requesting an appointment with Tony saying that they need to debrief him about the circumstances of his escape.

At the press conference, Tony says that he saw young Americans killed by the very weapons he created to defend and protect them. So he is shutting down the weapons manufacturing division, effective immediately. 

Hearing this the press goes crazy and Obadiah tries to cover up for Tony. He meets Tony back at the factory in front of the big arc reactor and tries to convince him to continue making weapons. But Tony says that he wants to do something else. He says that they should take another look at arc reactor technology. Already knowing about the mini arc reactor in his chest from Rhody, Obadiah tells Tony to show his chest. Seeing the mini arc reactor he tells Tony to lay low and let him handle the situation. 

Back at the house, Tony asks Pepper to help him replace the arc reactor in his chest. Traumatized by the experience Pepper tells him not to ask her to do anything like that again. Tony replies that he doesn’t have anyone but her. She asks him what to do with the old arc reactor. He tells her to destroy it. 

Tony goes to visit Rhody at the Air Force hanger and tells him that he is working on something big and he wants Rhody to be a part of it. Rhody tells him that he is going to make a lot of people in the military happy. Tony says that it’s not for the military. Hearing that Rhody gets pissed and says that Tony needs time to get his mind right and leaves. 

Back at the house, Tony asks his AI Jarvis to open up a new project file index as Mark II and to keep everything on the private server so that it doesn’t wind up in the wrong hands. And maybe in his hand, it can do something good.  

Back at the desert Raza and his terrorists dig out the wreckage of the crashed suit Tony escaped in.

While Tony is working on his new suit in his garage Pepper brings in a gift for him and tells him that Obadiah is waiting for him upstairs. Obadiah just came back from a board of directors meeting in New York. He tells Tony that the board is claiming that Tony has post-traumatic stress and they are filing an injunction against him. They want to lock him out of the company.

Obadiah asks Tony to let the engineers analyze the arc reactor in his chest. It will let him calm the board members down. Tony says that the arc reactor technology stays with him and returns to work. 

After some tests in the garage, Tony decides to assemble the suit and go for a flight. After flying for some time with satisfaction he decides to go for the record of SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest aircraft there is. As he flies at a very high speed aiming toward the moon ice builds up on the surface of the suit it shuts down. He begins to fall freely and asks Jarvis to open the flaps to break the ice. The suit being shut down Jervis remains unresponsive. He manually opens up the flaps. As he was about to fall to his death the suit reboots and picks up the flight just in time. He returns to his house and tries to land on the rooftop. Hovering inches above the rooftop he tells Jervis to kill the power. Not realizing how heavy the suit is he falls through the roof straight into the gurage crashing into one of the cars in his collection from above.

After getting out of the suit Pepper’s gift catches his eyes. Unwrapping it he sees that it’s the old arc reactor he had in his chest in a circular frame that says “Proof that Tony Stark has a heart” enclosed in a glass box. 

Back at his cave, Raza is trying to figure out how to assemble the crashed suit using the blueprints Tony left at the cave.

Back at his workstation, Tony analyzes the problems he found on his last flight he instructs Jurvis to make some modifications to the next suit. In the background, he hears in the news there is an ongoing event that night at the Disney Concert Hall for Tony Stark’s third annual benefit for the Firefighter’s Family Fund which he was not invited to. The public thinks that he is suffering from post-traumatic stress and is bedridden for weeks and no one is expecting him there that night.

Hearing this Tony tells Jurvis to fabricate the suit, fires up the Audi, and heads off to the party. There he meets Obadiah at the gate. He tells Tony to take it slow because he got the board right where they want. Tony reassures him that he is here just for a while. He walks up to the bar and orders a scotch where Agent Phill Colson approaches him and asks for an appointment to debrief him about the incident in Afghanistan. 

But his attention was actually on Pepper who was looking stunning in her blue backless dress. He agrees on an appointment with Phill, walks up to Pepper, and takes her for a dance. Pepper being uncomfortable in the situation they goes to the rooftop to get some air where Pepper approaches to kiss him but he holds back. Then Pepper asks for a drink. 

He goes to the bar to get the drink where he is approached by Christine, the Vanity Fair reporter. She shows him some pictures of stark weapons being used by terrorists in a town called Gulmira. The terrorists even had the Jerrico Missiles. 

Seeing the pictures Tony confronts Obadiah if he had anything to do with the terrorists having those weapons. Obadiah tells Tony that he can’t be that naive. It was Obadiah who locked him out of the company and filed the injunctions against him. He says that it was the only way he could protect him. Saying that Obadiah leaves the party leaving Tony standing bewildered. 

Going back home Tony watches the actions of the terrorists in the news and gets furious while working on the hand repulser and blasts the glass walls in the room. Noticing the capabilities of the repulsor he becomes confident and suits up to fight the terrorists.  

While the terrorists are conducting a massacre, Tony lands in his Iron Man suit, defeats all the terrorists alone, and destroys the Jericho Missiles. 

While returning from the scene he gets detected by the Air Force. Not knowing what it is they call Colonel James Rhodes. Rhodes called Toney to confirm if he had any technology in that area as it was very close to where he was held captive.

Tony denies having anything to do with it. Unable to confirm the flying object, two fighter jets engage the Iron Man suit. Tony tries to outrun them by going supersonic but fails.

Being hit Tony calls Rhodes back and asks for help while he is hanging under one of the fighter jets. The other one spots him and tells the pilot to shake him off. Tony loses his grip and slipping from the jet he hits the other jet. The pilot ejects but his chute gets jammed. Tony dives down and saves the pilot by deploying his chute.

Back in the desert, Obadiah pays Raza a visit. Raza Shows Obadiah the first suit Tony made to escape from the cave which they recovered from the desert.  He offers Obadiah the designs of the suit in exchange for a dozen iron suits. But Obadiah kills all of his terrorists and takes everything from Raza by force. 

On his way back from the desert Obadiah instructs his employees to set up a secret project to build a suit for himself. 

Tony sends Pepper to retrieve recent shipping manifests from his office with a lock chip which will allow her to hack into the mainframe of Stark Industries. He plans to destroy all the weapons that are in the wrong hands. 

Pepper refuses at first saying that he is going to kill himself but agrees to do it when Tony replies that he shouldn’t be alive unless it were for a reason. He finally knows what he has to do and he knows in his heart that it’s the right thing to do. 

Looking to retrieve the shipping details Pepper discovers that Obadiah set up a new project in sector 16 and he is also trying to build his own suit. She also discovers that it was Obadiah who tried to kill Tony by hiring the terrorists. While she was copying the files into the drive she got from Tony Obadiah walked into the office. She manages to turn the screensaver on before he catches her.

She manages to successfully get out of the office with the drive. Immediately after she leaves the room Obadiah logs into the computer and realizes that she has downloaded all the data. As she was getting out of the building she saw Agent Phil Colson waiting for his appointment. She notices that Obadiah is watching them from behind. She tells Phil to walk with her and they are going to have the meeting in his office instead. 

Obadiah rushes to sector 16 and there a scientist William tells him that the technology needed to power the suit does not exist. He points to the arc reactor and says that it is the technology they just need to make it smaller. William says that they can’t do it as they are not as gifted as Tony Stark. 

Assessing the situation Pepper calls Tony but before he can pick up the phone and talk Obadiah paralyzes Tony using an old tech that they had built long ago but the government didn’t approve. Obadiah rips out the arc reactor from Tony’s chest with ease as Tony lies on the sofa temporarily paralyzed.

Worried sick Pepper calls Rhody and requests him to go check on Tony as she is on her way to sector 16 with some agents along with agent Phil. 

Back at the house,  Tony struggles his way to the arc reactor Pepper had previously framed for him as a gift. While at the same time, Obadiah puts the arc reactor he took from Tony into his prototype. 

In the meantime, Rhody reaches Tony’s home and finds him on the ground. Tony successfully puts the old arc reactor in his chest and asks where is Pepper. Rhody tells him that she is all right with five agents and they are going to arrest Obadiah. Tony says that it would not be enough. 

By the time they get into section 16, Obadiah has already activated his Iron Monger suit. Tony gets into his Iron Man suit and tells Rhody to keep the skies clear for him.

Back at the factory Obadiah attacks the agents and tries to kill Pepper. As he is about to shoot Pepper, Tony reaches the scene and the Iron Man engages the Iron Monger in an epic fight. 

He finally defeats Obadiah with the help of Pepper by overloading the big arc reactor in the factory which blasts the roof and fries Obadiah’s suit and he falls into the big arc reactor exploding with it.

The next day at a press conference Tony was supposed to give a statement to cover up the real story but he ended up saying, “I am Iron Man.”

In a post-credit scene, Nick Fury meets Tony to talk about the Avengers Initiative and tells him that he is not the only superhero in the world.

Apart from being  an action masterpiece the movie Iron Man is a great example of wonderful  storytelling.