History YMMV / IronMan1

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: "Next time, baby". Well, not so much for Creator/TerrenceHoward. He gets replaced by Creator/DonCheadle in all of the following Marvel movies.

** "The truth is... I am Iron Man." Unprecedented in any superhero movie before, its effect is lessened now that none of the supers of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse (except for Spider-Man) even ''have'' a secret identity.
** The fact that Nick Fury arrives in TheStinger to recruit Iron Man for the Avengers is pretty well known now.

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* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Sega's game based on the movie was criticized for making flying and shooting around in cool PoweredArmor seem downright boring, between poor controls, outdated graphics, and levels full of bugs and unrelenting enemies.

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** '''[[LargeHam TONY STARK WAS ABLE TO BUILD THIS IN A CAVE!]]''' '''''[[LargeHam WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!!]]''''' [[labelnote:Explanation]]Obadiah suddenly yells at his staff.[[/labelnote]]

** The moment where a tech tells Obadiah Stane "Well I'm sorry; I'm not Tony Stark" takes on a different tone after you've seen ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'', when the same guy shows up again [[spoiler:working with Mysterio, the latter of whom's motivated by what Tony Stark previously did to him]].

** The formal event in the middle of the first film takes place at the Disney Concert Hall. Guess who owns Marvel now? (The Walt Disney Concert hall has nothing to do with the Disney company and was endowed by a private foundation in Walt's name, but it's still pretty funny.)

** [[NoodleIncident Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing.]] [[labelnote:Explanation]]Tony is stuck in a machine that's trying to get his armor off. Pepper walks downstairs and sees this happening.[[/labelnote]]

** Pepper having to replace Tony's mini-arc reactor was more than a little gross for some. Her comment about pus didn't help, and even though Stark calls it [[InsistentTerminology inorganic plasmic discharge]], having everything she pulls from his chest dripping with slime, just makes it worse.

** [[spoiler:Tony's final act in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', [[BadassFingersnap finger-snapping Thanos and his entire army]] with his own nano-tech Infinity Gauntlet]]" re-frames the last line ''"I am Iron Man"'' in a whole new light. Since Creator/RobertDowneyJr solidified the existence of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse with that single line alone, [[spoiler:saying it as his FamousLastWords in ''Endgame'' just reminds viewers of [[EndOfAnAge how far the MCU has gotten in the past 11 years]]. It's also safe to say that Tony heeded Yinsen's own FamousLastWords with that one act of self-sacrifice]].

** '''[[LargeHam TONY STARK WAS ABLE TO BUILD THIS IN A CAVE!]]''' '''''[[LargeHam WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!!]]'''''

** The truth is… ''I am Iron Man.''
** [[NoodleIncident Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing.]]

* VindicatedByHistory: Creator/JeffBridges' turn as Obadiah Stane didn't get a lot of press at the time when the film came out, with most people focused on the action Creator/RobertDowneyJr's performance. Fast forward through two phases of mediocre villains (barring Loki and ''maybe'' the Red Skull), and people started to notice just how good Bridges was as Stane, who was subsequently reevaluated as an excellent villain and a terrific EvilCounterpart.

** '''[[LargeHam TONY BUILT THIS IN A CAVE!]]''' '''''[[LargeHam OUT OF A BOX OF SCRAPS!!!]]'''''

** Doubles as HeartwarmingInHindsight. When Pepper finds out that Tony is Iron Man, Pepper attempts to quit her job, telling him that he will "kill [him]self" eventually, and that she won't "be a part of it.". [[spoiler:In ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', Tony literally kills himself with gamma radiation when he uses his nano-tech Infinity Gauntlet to snap away all of Thanos' forces. Pepper is the last person that approaches and speaks to him at his deathbed]].

** Rhodey is visibly worried when he finds a dehydrated and injured Tony in the desert, saying, "Next time you ride with me." [[spoiler:Rhodey and Iron Man "ride together" again in ''Avengers Endgame'' in the final fight, only this time Rhodey doesn't get to save his best friend]].

** In the opening scene, a soldier tries to get a picture with Tony before terrorists attack the convoy. The solider makes a peace sign, which Tony give him some light teasing for. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudios/comments/3y9a2d/tony_stark_is_always_throwing_up_the_peace_sign/ Throughout the MCU, Tony has a tendency to make peace signs in the soldier’s memory]].

* GeniusBonus: Tony's craving for a cheeseburger when he's rescued may seem like just a joke, but if you know anything about Robert Downey Jr.'s story of recovery it starts to take on a larger meaning -- [=RDJ=] actually credits [=McDonalds=] with inspiring him to get off drugs because one day he was driving a car with a "half a ton" of drugs in the trunk, he decided to get a burger. He called it "worst burger of [his] life" and it actually made him reevaluate all of his life-choices. After that, he threw all the drugs into the ocean and checked into rehab. So, rather fittingly, Tony's equally life-changing decision to stop making weapons also involved a burger in some way.

*** The lead-off movie would feature Iron Man, a B-list (at best) comic book character, who Marvel fans hated thanks to [[ComicBook/CivilWar a then-recent villainizing arc]].

* VindicatedByHistory: Creator/JeffBridges' turn as Obadiah Stane didn't get a lot of press at the time when the film came out, with most people focused on the action Creator/RobertDowneyJr's performance. Fast forward through two phases of mediocre villains (barring Loki and ''maybe'' the Red Skull), and people start to notice just how good Bridges was as Stane, who was subsequently reevaluated as an excellent villain and a terrific EvilCounterpart.

* VindicatedByHistory: Creator/JeffBridge's turn as Obadiah Stane didn't get a lot of press at the time when the film came out, with most people focused on the action Creator/RobertDowneyJr's performance. Fast forward through two phases of mediocre villains (barring Loki and ''maybe'' the Red Skull), and people start to notice just how good Bridges was as Stane, who was subsequently reevaluated as an excellent villain and a terrific EvilCounterpart.

** '''[[LargeHam TONY STARK WAS ABLE TO BUILD THIS IN A CAVE!]]''' '''''[[LargeHam WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!!]]'''''

* CompleteMonster: In the {{novelization}} by Creator/PeterDavid, [[BigBad Obadiah Stane]] is presented as [[AdaptationalVillainy far worse than his film counterpart]]. Just like in the movie, Stane is a [[WarForFunAndProfit warmonger]] and [[ArmsDealer weapons manufacturer]] who hires terrorists to murder his surrogate nephew, Tony Stark, alongside an entire military squad. Using Tony's seeming death to take over Stark Industries and begin selling off dangerous weapons to terrorists for a profit, Stane later betrays and wipes out his former terrorist partners before attempting to murder Tony with his bare hands. After creating his own suit of superpowered armor and becoming the Iron Monger, Stane slaughters anyone in his way in a mad attempt to murder Tony and Pepper Potts, using a woman and her four [[WouldHurtAChild children]] as ammo to attack Tony with. In the novel, in additin to all that, in his prime moment of villainy, Stane completely ignores the fact that the damaged Arc reactor will explode and wipe out thousands of innocents, so hell-bent on crushing Tony that he is willing to take down an entire city in the process.

* CompleteMonster: In the {{novelization}} by Creator/PeterDavid, [[BigBad Obadiah Stane]] is presented as [[AdaptationalVillainy far worse than his film counterpart]]. Stane is a [[WarForFunAndProfit warmonger]] and [[ArmsDealer weapons manufacturer]] who hires terrorists to murder his surrogate nephew, Tony Stark, alongside an entire military squad. Using Tony's seeming death to take over Stark Industries and begin selling off dangerous weapons to terrorists for a profit, Stane later betrays and wipes out his former terrorist partners before attempting to murder Tony with his bare hands. After creating his own suit of superpowered armor and becoming the Iron Monger, Stane slaughters anyone in his way in a mad attempt to murder Tony and Pepper Potts, using a woman and her four [[WouldHurtAChild children]] as ammo to attack Tony with. In his prime moment of villainy, Stane completely ignores the fact that the damaged Arc reactor will explode and wipe out thousands of innocents, so hell-bent on crushing Tony that he is willing to take down an entire city in the process.

** The juxtaposition of humor and action. This movie and later Phase One films were good about knowing when to leave one or the other to the side as needed. Later films would be negatively reviewed for not maintaining this and reducing the tension of serious scenes.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: "Next time, baby."? Well, not so much for Terrence Howard. He gets replaced by Creator/DonCheadle in all of the following Marvel movies.