Iron Man

During a business trip to Afghanistan to demonstrate Stark Industries' new weapon, the "Jericho" cluster missile, Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) military convoy is attacked. During the ensuing firefight, he is wounded by one of his own company's bombs, which knocks him unconscious and embeds pieces of shrapnel in his chest, one fragment dangerously close to his heart. Approximately 36 hours earlier, Stark avoids his own 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, 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), who tells her that Tony is away on a business trip to Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, Tony's convoy is attacked, and he is knocked unconscious. 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, 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 Stark's father, Howard Stark. With the reactor powering his electromagnet, Stark and Yinsen secretly build a crude but strong power armor as a means of escape. Despite breaking free from their cell, Dr. Yinsen is killed whilst setting up a diversion for Stark in order for the suit to power up in time. In the suit, Stark kills several terrorists, destroys their weapons stockpile and flies away before crash-landing in the desert, destroying the suit in the process. After being rescued by the Air Force 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. Stark retreats from public view, focusing on the design of his power suit, refining its size and improving its flight and fighting capability while making an improved arc reactor for himself, which he uses to replace the old one. During his first public appearance since his return to the United States, he is accosted by Everhart, who shows him pictures of Stark Industries weapons in the hands of terrorist groups, including Jericho missiles. Realizing 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, Stark dons the power suit and flies to Afghanistan, rescuing Yinsen's village from the Ten Rings. During the operation, Stark inadvertently attracts the attention of the United States Air Force and his friend and company military liaison, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes (Terrence Howard), 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 privately calls Rhodes to reveal that he was the unidentified object. Rhodes later classifies the incident as a training accident to the press. Determined to amend his mistakes, Stark sends Potts to find the shipping records of Stark Industries, so he can track the illicit shipments and destroy them. While hacking into the system, she discovers that Stane hired the Ten Rings to kill Stark and the group reneged on the deal upon discovering his true identity. She also learns Stane has recovered the power suit prototype and reverse-engineered his own version, but his engineers are unable to engineer the miniature arc reactor to power the new suit. Stane ambushes Tony in his house, using an experimental Stark Industries device to temporarily paralyze him and removing the arc reactor from Stark's chest to power the new suit. As Stane leaves, the dying Stark manages to re-install his first reactor to save himself. Although his first reactor was not designed to power his latest armor, Stark takes it to battle with Stane atop Stark Industries and the surrounding streets, luring him atop the full-sized arc reactor at Stark Industries just as Potts overloads it, causing an electrical surge that kills Stane and destroys the Iron Monger suit. In the following days, the press has dubbed Stark's alter ego "Iron Man." During his press conference, Stark considers telling the cover story given to him by his S.H.I.E.L.D. contact, before abandoning it and announcing that he is Iron Man. Following the closing credits, Stark is visited by S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who warns him that he is not the only 'super hero' in the world, and states he wants to talk to him about the "Avenger Initiative".