History Awesome / IronMan

* Tony Stark, where he hero dodges a tank shot and returns fire with a miniature rocket launched from his forearm. It hits the tank and makes a tiny "clang" sound, seemingly doing nothing. Tony [[UnFlinchingWalk turns around and starts to walk away]]. Then the tank explodes. A whole new level of movie SuperHero awesomeness!

--->''I am Iron Man.''[[hottip:*: unless you prefer him as Film/SherlockHolmes or both]]

* The movie itself is a Crowning Moment of Awesome, before Comic book movies tended to range from decent to bad. This was the first one to prove that you could make one that would be good. Without this we may have never gotten the sequels, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, or other Movies that were made and are being produced.

* Yinsen's HeroicSacrifice, along with Tony Stark ability to buildi the Mark 1 suit and [[AppliedPhlebotinum a miracle power source]] [[MemeticMutation IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!]]

* [[spoiler: Tony, after being told that he could only carry four people with the suit, rescues ''thirteen'' people who had been sucked out of a breaking Air Force One plane. Iron Man then gives a little "yay team, yadda yadda yadda, whatever, I'm gonna go now" speech before promptly flying into the path of semi and breaking into several pieces... before the scene flashes to Tony using remote controls to do all of this.]]

* When he's apparently reached a point wherein he has to risk killing a bunch of women-and-children hostages in order to get at the terrorists, he ''targets each one and collectively shoots them in the heads'' without touching a hair on the hostages' heads.
** After taking on the terrorist group, Tony throwing the leader to the refugees stating "he's all yours."
** The entire village rescue scene is an [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Awesome Moment]]: Stark suits up, flies halfway around the world, then defeats '''all''' of the terrorists (including the aforementioned hostage rescue) in ''under a minute'' makes the entire film.
** Iron Man's DynamicEntry right at the beginning of this sequence. THUD.
*** Indeed, it is pure, premium-quality excellence: While tinkering with a forearm from his armor, Stark is watching an international news report on a town ravaged by the black-market trade in his company's weapons. As the on-screen scenes get more and more disturbing, the [[PowerGlows palm repulsor brightens a bit]] while [[TranquilFury Tony's face darkens]]. Just after Stark [[LockAndLoadMontage suits up]] in the [[TechnologyPorn Mark III]] for the first time, he flies to the besieged town of Gulmira. Meanwhile, the Ten Rings terrorists are rounding up the village's men and generally [[KickTheDog being violently disruptive assholes]], when one innocent man refuses to go any farther with them. This dude is about to [[BoomHeadshot catch a bullet for his trouble]], ''right in front of his horrified, screaming wife and kids'', when the boy suddenly hears a roaring sound overhead. Cue [[BigDamnHeroes Iron Man]] [[DynamicEntry suddenly landing in their midst]], immediately [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom gut-punching some idiot]] stupid enough to fire a gun at [[ImmuneToBullets him]]. He then proceeds to [[CurbStompBattle kick all asses in need of said service]]; the terrorist leader [[BarrierBustingBlow couldn't hide]] [[OhCrap from him for long]]. '''Damn''', this movie is awesome!
*** The best part? Yinsen had mentioned earlier that Gulmira is his hometown. Tony [[CurbStompBattle curbstomping]] the invaders could be seen as a RoaringRampageOfRevenge on his behalf.
* Finally, luring Iron Monger into high altitude where the suit freezes and falls. Especially because Monger is so ''sure'' of Iron Man's inevitable destruction given the tone of his ranting, Stark's response is said in such a condescending I-know-something-you-don't-know tone that you can't help but laugh:

* It also gave us a [[HannibalLecture badass monologue]] from Whiplash delivered in Mickey Rourke's trademark rumble (with a Russian accent no less) describing how the Stark family is built on lies and thievery and how they will meet their fate. This is followed by him cutting a FormulaOne car in half with a single strike of his whips, then skipping down the track slamming his whips into the pavement before cutting to a shot of him laughing. Just from the trailer it's clear Whiplash is gonna be a badass.

** Countered in the movie by Tony's wonderful ShutUpHannibal: "And where will you be watching all this from? Oh yeah, inside a jail cell. Bye."
*** Though Vanko gets in one last jab before he leaves letting Tony know he's going to die a painful death due to the Palladium Poisoning and he says it with a smile on his face.
* There's also Tony jumping out of the back of a plane, flying down into a building and... robots taking the armour off, revealing a tuxedo in front of a cheering audience.
** Don't forget the [[FanService high-kicking Iron Man-ettes chorus line!]]
* Don't forget Whiplash's escape from prison. He nonchalantly kills his fellow prisoner, arms a plastic explosive, kills a guard attempting to accost him, and [[UnflinchingWalk walks away from his cell's explosion]] like it was all just a walk in the park for him. {{Badass}}.
** Also one for Justin Hammer who had organised the escape in the first place. Especially impressive considering how incompetent he is in the rest of the movie.
*** To be fair, organizing and planning can be two different things. In this case, Hammer probably didn't plan any part of the actual escape, he probably just threw money at it and let them plan it. Not that it was a very subtle plan in the first place.
* The entire Senate hearing for Stark. From the beginning, he is totally unflappable and manages to verbally serve the chair of the committee several times:

** As the hearing continues and Stark's {{rival}}, Justin Hammer, tries to testify against him by showing evidence of other "Iron Man" suits being built, Stark effortlessly ''hacks into federal computers with a PDA'' and zooms satellite imagery in enough to show that these suits are really nothing to worry about -- including Hammer's own pathetic attempts. Stark then goes on to espouse how much of a hero he really is for having taken care of several threats as Iron Man and finishes it off with this bold statement:

** Chillingly awesome.

*** That was actually in direct response to Stark calling him (and the rest of the committee) assclowns, but it's still a great moment.

** Let's give a hand to the SFX people for pulling off something that's been done for forty years in the comics but seemed impossible to do on film: actually make a suitcase armor realistic.

* Lt. Col. Jim Rhodes finally shows us how he earned his stripes and why he is Tony's best friend: [[spoiler:he hijacks Tony's Mark II suit while Tony is going on an absolutely ridiculous bender at his birthday party, walks upstairs to deliver a WhatTheHellHero in full armor, and manages to go toe-to-toe with Tony in a brawl despite his suit not being as advanced and it being the first time he had ever stepped into it!]] Awesome for two reasons: it was [[spoiler:[[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan a well-deserved slap in the face to Tony]]]], and it showed that when pushed to his wit's end, "Rhodey" is ''not'' someone to be trifled with and will have the balls to stand up to even Iron Man. Not to mention how this scene [[spoiler:introduces the ChekhovsGun that when repulsor blasts hit each other, things go [[StuffBlowingUp very big boom.]]]]
** Not to mention that the music playing during that scene was [[spoiler: '''[[Music/DaftPunk Robot]] [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome Rock!]]''']]

* Pretty much Demon In The Bottle on a meta level for tackling alcoholism realistically.

** GeniusBonus on Hammer's sales pitch speech. Two things he says gives away just how full of crap he is, and how much intelligence he actually possesses. First, he rattles off the full chemical name then follows it up with the letter abbreviation of the same name. He is just quoting a spec sheet. Second, Ulysses WAS written in crayon. James Joyce's eyes were failing him, and he used crayon so he could see his writing better.

** Similarly, while there is a dark undertone to it from what the audience knows will happen, out-of-context, the debut of the Hammeroids and War Machine was pretty damn cool. The fact that each Hammeroid for each branch of the service is introduced with each service's individual theme...Say what you will [[{{Jerkass}} about]] [[SmugSnake the]] [[SmallNameBigEgo guy]], but Justin knows how to present a product.

* Yinsen's HeroicSacrifice, along with Tony Stark ability to buildi the Mark 1 suit and [[AppliedPhlebotinum a miracle power source]] [[MemeticMutation "IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!"]]

--> '''Tony''': Is it better to be feared, or respected? I'd say: "Is it too much to ask for both?" With that in mind I humbly present you the crown jewel of Stark Industries' Freedom Line. It's the first missile system to incorporate the latest in proprietary Repulsor Technology. Today, they say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I ''respectfully'' disagree; I ''prefer''... the weapon you only need to fire ''once''. That's how Dad did it, THAT'S HOW AMERICA DOES IT... and it's worked out pretty well so far. Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee you the bad guys won't even wanna come out of their caves.

--> '''Tony''': For your consideration... [[MeaningfulName the Jericho]]. ''(mountainside behind him explodes)''

--> ''These are the Cubans, baby. This is the Cohibas, the Montecristos. This is a kinetic-kill, side-winder vehicle with a secondary cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment RDX]] burst. It's capable of busting a bunker under the bunker you just busted. If it were any smarter, it'd write a book, a book that would make Ulysses look like it was written in crayon. It would read it to you. This is my Eiffel Tower. This is my Rachmaninoff's Third. My Pieta. It's completely elegant, it's bafflingly beautiful, and it's capable of reducing the population of any standing structure to zero. I call it "The Ex-Wife."''

** Also one for Justin Hammer who had organised the escape in the first place.

** And then, he unfurls his whips, engergizes them and ''cuts a F-1 racer almost in half.''

-->''"[[CrowningMomentOfFunny Isn't it amazing how so much irritation can come from such a little prick.]]"''

--> ''These are the Cubans, baby. This is the Cohibas, the Montecristos. This is a kinetic-kill, side-winder vehicle with a secondary cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartmant RDX]] burst. It's capable of busting a bunker under the bunker you just busted. If it were any smarter, it'd write a book, a book that would make Ulysses look like it was written in crayon. It would read it to you. This is my Eiffel Tower. This is my Rachmaninoff's Third. My Pieta. It's completely elegant, it's bafflingly beautiful, and it's capable of reducing the population of any standing structure to zero. I call it "The Ex-Wife."''

--> ''These are the Cubans, baby. This is the Cohibas, the Montecristos. This is a kinetic-kill, side-winder vehicle with a secondary cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine RDX burst. It's capable of busting a bunker under the bunker you just busted. If it were any smarter, it'd write a book, a book that would make Ulysses look like it was written in crayon. It would read it to you. This is my Eiffel Tower. This is my Rachmaninoff's Third. My Pieta. It's completely elegant, it's bafflingly beautiful, and it's capable of reducing the population of any standing structure to zero. I call it "The Ex-Wife."''

''(Iron Man brushes him off with a ThreeStooges-esque [[CherryTapping blow to the helmet]].)''

* Also, [[spoiler:Samuel L. Jackson's appearance as Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD in TheStinger]].
** No. That is not the CMOA. You know what is? When he says: [[spoiler: "I'd like to talk to you about the "Avenger Initiative".]]

* And the part where Tony realizes just how effective his repulsors are as weapons by blowing out the glass in his workshop with them.
** Which goes something like this: After being [[RoaringRampageofRevenge enraged]] by the deaths caused by the terrorist group that captured him, he accidentally blows out a window in his workshop. He's surprised, then get's serious again as he proceeds to blow out every window in turn.

* Pretty much anytime Robert Downey Jr. is on the screen, a Moment of Awesome has either just happened, is about to happen, or is happening right now. It's that kind of movie. The '''awesome''' kind.
** Downey Jr. sums up the movie, his portrayal of Tony Stark, and what he'll be (to us) for the rest of his life, in one simple quote:
--->''I am Iron Man.''
** Contested. To me, he is Film/SherlockHolmes.
*** [[TakeAThirdOption Can't he be both?]]

--> '''Tony''': Is it better to be feared, or respected? I'd say: "Is it too much to ask for both?" With that in mind I humbly present you the crown jewel of Stark Industries' Freedom Line. It's the first missile system to incorporate latest in proprietary Repulsor Technology. Today, they say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I ''respectfully'' disagree; I ''prefer''... the weapon you only need to fire ''once''. That's how Dad did it, THAT'S HOW AMERICA DOES IT... and it's worked out pretty well so far. Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee you the bad guys won't even wanna come out of their caves.

* The introduction of the Jericho Missile by Stark.
--> '''Tony Stark''': They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree; I prefer the weapon you only need to fire once. That's how Dad did it, that's how America does it... and it's worked out pretty well so far. I present to you the newest in Stark Industries' Freedom line. Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee, the bad guys won't even wanna come out of their caves. Ladies and gentlemen, for your consideration, I give you... [[MeaningfulName the Jericho]]. ''(mountainside behind him explodes)''

'''Pepper Potts:''' I do anything and everything Mr. Stark requires. Including, occasionally, taking out the trash.