Endgame, which marks Tony Stark's final appearance in the MCU, features him making the ultimate sacrifice in order to protect the Earth from Thanos. So we probably won't be seeing the self-described billionaire genius playboy philanthropist again anytime soon (if ever) -- especially since Marvel's got their hands full with the remaining Avengers, Black Panther, the Guardians of the Galaxy and, eventually, both the X-men and the Fantastic Four. But Stark's impressive Hollywood run deserves to celebrated. We've seen him go from a narcissistic arms-dealer to a selfless hero onscreen. From facing off against terrorists to surviving
4. The Age of Ultron
Still shaken by his experiences during the Battle of New York, Tony concludes that the best defense against alien invaders is an army of artificially intelligent drones. After he and Dr. Banner seemingly fail at using Loki's scepter and some weird science to make this dream a reality, the resentful robot Ultron achieves consciousness. Ultron is more or less the physical manifestion of Tony Stark's megalomaniacal ego. And he accurately (unfortunately) calls out the Avengers for the killers that they are. Before long, the nearly-indestructible murder-bot concludes that the biggest threat to the planet is humanity and sets out to cure the globe's "infection" by raising a piece of the Republic of Sokovia so high that a subsequent crash back to Earth would amount to an extinction-level event.
Three years after the Battle of New York, it's evident that Steve Rogers has forged the members of the Avengers Initiative into a perfectly coordinated, well-oiled machine as they execute a strike on the Eastern European compound of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. During the raid, they seize Loki's scepter, which had gone missing some time following the latter's invasion of Manhattan. However, Tony Stark experiences a chilling vision of the future during the incursion. Still plagued by PTSD, one of von Strucker's new allies, Wanda Maximoff, uses her psychic manipulation abilities to stoke the Iron Man's anxieties so that he imagines his teammates dead following a confrontation with some unknown enemy.
Later, at a party held at Stark Tower, many of the team members -- Stark, James "War Machine" Rhodes and Clint "Hawkeye" Barton -- attempt to lift Thor Odinson's mystical hammer, Mjolnir, only to fail utterly. But when Rogers gives it a try, the enchanted weapon budges ever so slightly, visibly astonishing Thor.
After Stark and Dr. Bruce Banner use the scepter in a seemingly failed attempt to launch an artificial intelligence program, Ultron, the unexpectedly hostile and completely independent AI attempts to murder the Avengers, citing their history of bloodshed. It also views them as its only obstacle to accomplishing its mission: eradicating mankind, which Ultron believes to be the Earth's biggest threat.
The team later tracks Ultron, who managed to flee following his failed attack at Stark Tower, to the Johannesburg headquarters of black market arms dealer Ulysses Klaue. Ultron intends to procure Klaue's stash of vibranium, the same substance used to make Rogers' shield, so that he can construct a new, indestructible body for himself. A battle ensues, during which the Avengers encounter Ultron's allies, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, Sokovian twins who blame Stark for the deaths of their parents -- as explosives manufactured by his corporation destroyed their home in the bombing that took the latter's lives. The Maximoffs volunteered for experiments conducted by von Strucker, using the scepter. Though all of the other test subjects died as a result of the trials, the twins emerged with enhanced abilities. Pietro confounds the Avengers with his superhuman speed and Wanda manipulates them with hallucinations based on their deepest thoughts.
After Banner's vision triggers a transformation into the Hulk and a subsequent rampage through a South African shopping district, which is only brought to an end by a destructive confrontation with Stark outfitted in a battle-suit specifically designed to oppose the monster, the Avengers are vilified by the media. Heeding Maria Hill's warning to lay low, the team heads to Barton's family farm, which he'd kept secret from everyone but Romanoff" to regroup. While there, tensions between Rogers and Stark rise once again, illustrating the deep philosophical differences between the two men.
After tracking Ultron to the Seoul, Korea lab of geneticist Dr. Helen Cho, the team engages him again, with Rogers fighting the robot one-on-one. Ultron sought out Cho in order to use her work with synthetic-tissue and the scepter to create a synthetic, humanoid body. When he begins to upload his consciousness into the body, Wanda is able to read Ultron's mind for the first time and discovers his plan to render the human race extinct. She subsequently betrays him and informs Pietro and the Avengers. Rogers, Barton and Romanoff then interrupt the upload and seize the body, into which Ultron has implanted the scepter's gem.
When the body is transported to Stark's lab, he convinces Dr. Banner to aid him in uploading his AI personal assistant J.A.R.V.I.S. into it. Stark's actions reignite the rift between he and Rogers. Thor, while disagreeing with Stark acting unilaterally, nevertheless actuates the body -- Ultron's vision for the future. The Avengers, with the twins and the Vision in tow, then fly to Sokovia, the Maximoff's home country, where Ultron has constructed a vibranium-powered machine he intends to use to lift the capital city to such a height that dropping it back to Earth will render the planet uninhabitable for humans.
Shortly after their arrival, Rogers directs the team in combat against Ultron's drone army but insists that rescuing the citizenry is their highest priority. After defeating the drones with no apparent civilian casualties, the Avengers evacuate the city, after which Stark and Thor shatter it into pieces too small to cause the genocide that Ultron had intended. Ultron himself is eliminated when his Vision destroys his last remaining body.
3. Infinity War
Following a half-cocked attempt to protect Doctor Strange from extra-terrestrial kidnappers (members of Thanos' Black Order), Iron Man finds himself in a starship with no back-up, facing an alien torture-specialist until he realizes that Peter Parker ignored his wishes and stowed away on the same ship. After a tense but hilarious introduction to the Guardians of the Galaxy, the new alliance of heroes make an ultimately futile last stand against Thanos in an effort to prevent him from claiming the Time Stone, which Strange has been sworn to protect.
After Dr. Bruce Banner is transported to Earth via the bifrost by Asgardian sentry Heimdall, he crash-lands into Dr. Stephen Strange's Sanctum Santorum, where he delivers the warning: "Thanos is coming!" Having witnessed first-hand alien warlord Thanos' murder of several of the Asgardian refugees aboard the ship on which he was a passenger, Banner's alert prompts Strange to elicit the aid of former Avengers member Tony Stark. Banner explains that Thanos plans to travel to Earth in order to retrieve two Infinity Stones -- ancient, immensely powerful gems -- thought to be on the planet. One of the gems, the Time Stone, is in Strange's possession. While Stark believes the Stone should be destroyed so as to prevent Thanos from apprehending it, Strange insists that it must be protected at all cost.
The two men clash almost immediately. When Stark patronizes Strange, the latter explains that he's responsible for protecting the former's reality and goes as far as calling him "douche bag". Determining that the Vision, who possesses another Infinity Stone, is a likely target for Thanos, Banner is informed by Stark that the android has disabled his transponder, making him difficult to locate. After revealing that Steve Rogers may be in touch with the Vision, Stark explains that the Avengers Initiative came to an end as a result of his issues with the former soldier. While Stark contemplates whether or not to contact his former teammate, the conversation is interrupted by another alien incursion into Manhattan. Having arrived in a spacecraft in search of the Time Stone, two of Thanos' lieutenants, Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian, lay waste to the area surrounding the Sanctum before Banner and Co. confront them.
After hurling insults at Maw and discovering that Banner is unable to transform into the Hulk, Stark dons his Iron Man armor and leads the attack on the extra-terrestrials. He manages to save the scientist's life during the ensuing fight and is saved in turn from being killed Obsidian by teenage vigilante Peter "Spider-Man" Parker and Strange's sorcerer ally, Wong. After Stark instructs Parker, whose enhanced senses alerted him to the alien threat while on a school bus nearby, to prevent Strange's abduction, he clings to the hull of Maw's ship until it reaches the upper atmosphere. Racing to catch the departing ship, Stark orders his AI, F.R.I.D.A.Y., to launch an airtight suit to envelop Parker, who briefly loses consciousness before stowing away on the ship against his mentor's wishes.
Meanwhile, as Stark catches up to the ship, his fiancee, Pepper, pleads with him to come back just before the distance from the planet becomes too great for him to receive signals from either Pepper or F.R.I.D.A.Y.
When Stark drops his phone during the ensuing fight with two of Thanos' lieutenants and pursues their ship into the upper atmosphere, Banner reaches out to the fugitive Rogers himself.
Upon learning that Parker's on board, Stark chastises the young hero before prevailing on him to come up with a plan that'll enable the two of them to rescue the incapacitated Strange from Maw's torture. Inspired by the movie Alien, the duo blows a hole in the side of the craft, through which the sadistic off-worlder is sucked, only to be killed by the vacuum of space; Parker prevents Strange from suffering the same fate by trapping him with his webbing, while Stark quickly seals the breach. Stark subsequently argues with Strange over their next course of action -- Stark wants to remain on course to rendezvous with Thanos on his homeworld, Titan; Strange wants to return to Earth -- until the sorcerer relents and agrees to the Tony's plan. However, Strange warns that, as his first duty is protecting the Time Stone, he won't hesitate to let either Stark or Parker die should saving them jeopardize the security of the Stone.
Shortly after crash-landing on Titan -- due to their unfamiliarity with the ship's steering mechanism -- the earthlings are attacked by Peter Quill, Drax and Mantis. Suspecting the New Yorkers of being subordinates of Thanos, the trio demands to know where the tyrant has taken Gamora (he'd abducted her from the planet Knowhere after obtaining the Reality Stone). After determining that each group wishes to defeat the Thanos, they wait for the warlord's arrival. During this time, Strange reveals that after viewing over 14 million possible outcomes of the impending battle, only one depicted Thanos being vanquished. When he appears, the six new allies spring a trap devised by Quill (following an argument with Stark, who refers to him as "Flash Gordon") and succeed, temporarily, in subduing the mass-murderer. While Mantis induces Thanos to fall into a stupor, Stark and Parker attempt to pry off his Infinity Gauntlet, which he had constructed for the use of multiple Infinity Stones at once. When he awakens from his daze, Thanos incapacitates them all, including Nebula, who'd summoned Mantis to Titan to begin with. After Thanos uses the Stones to crash a moon onto the planet's surface and critically injuring the Iron Man by stabbing him with his own weapon, Strange offers the Time Stone in exchange for sparing Stark's life. Thanos, who's somehow familiar with Stark, accepts and travels to Earth after adding the Time Stone to the Gauntlet.
Returning to the Avengers' facility in upstate New York (the first time in years for Rogers and Wilson), the five reunited former colleagues meet with Banner and Col. James "War Machine" Rhodes in order to regroup and devise a strategy. While the Vision proposes that Maximoff destroy the Stone -- and himself in the process -- in order to keep it out of Thanos' hands (he plans to assemble the six Infinity Stones so that he can kill off half the population of the universe in order to alleviate overcrowding). However, Rogers refuses this option, insisting that, "We don't trade lives." After Banner hypothesizes that it may be possible to remove the Stone (from which much of his power is derived) from the android's forehead without destroying him, Rogers suggests that the group travel to Wakanda, where the technological advancement far exceeds anything with which Banner is unfamiliar.
Upon their arrival in the secretive African nation, Wakanda's monarch, King T'Challa, tasks his sister, Shuri, with safely extricating the Stone. Rogers reunites with the king, who provided the former's longtime friend, James "the Winter Soldier" Barnes, with sanctuary in the wake of the international manhunt launched for him two years prior. In preparation for the inevitable battle with Thanos' forces, T'Challa orders that Rogers be provided with a vibranium shield (to replace the longtime weapon that he relinquished to Tony Stark), while Barnes is presented with a new vibranium arm to replace the one destroyed by Stark in combat.
When Thanos' troops, the Black Order and the Outriders, arrive, T'Challa leads Wakanda's forces -- while Rogers leads the gathered former Avengers --against them. Eventually, the Mad Titan himself
makes his way to Wakanda and is confronted by Rogers, who, though overmatched, survives the encounter. Nevertheless, Thanos gains possession of the Mind Stone by ripping it from the Vision's skull. Armed with all six of the ancient gems, he wipes out half of all living creatures in the universe by snapping his fingers. While Rogers is spared, Barnes is not. And Cap can do nothing but watch as his old friend disintegrates before his eyes.
Everyone on Titan but Stark and Nebula dies. And Parker turns to ash before Tony's eyes.
As the Avengers' slickest talker, Tony has some of the movie's best lines:
"He means beat it, Squidwirt!"
"Ok, Mr. Clean's on his own page."
"Missouri's on Earth, dipshit!"
Thanos' final words to Stark in the film prove to be prophetic:
"You have my respect, Stark. When I'm done, half of humanity will still exist. I hope they remember you."
2. Civil War
On December 16, 1991, long before Steve Rogers learned that he'd survived the war, his oldest friend, James Buchanan Barnes, murdered Howard and Maria Stark. Barnes carried out the killings as part of an assignment while involved in the Winter Soldier program. His other objective was to retrieve the last batch of the super soldier serum that provided Rogers with his enhanced abilities, which Howard had in his possession. Because Barnes staged the murders to look like a car accident, neither the couple's famous son, Tony, nor the general public, has ever suspected any foul play.
In 2016, Avengers Rogers, Sam "Falcon" Wilson, Wanda Maximoff and Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff track a terrorist cell to Lagos, Nigeria. The terrorists, led by former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Brock Rumlow, steal a bio-weapon from the city's Institute of Infectious Diseases but are prevented from fleeing with it by Rogers and co. During a confrontation with Rogers, Rumlow detonates a bomb on his person in an attempt to kill the former but Maximoff uses her powers of telekinesis to elevate the ensuing explosion away from everyone on the ground. Unfortunately, the blast kills several Nigerians and 11 visiting humanitarian aid workers from the African nation of Wakanda.
Meanwhile, Tony Stark unveils a new $600 million neurological technology allowing the projection -- or suppression -- of old memories at MIT, during which he announces his decision to fund all of the students' research projects. Following the presentation, the philanthropist is confronted by the mother of a young U.S. serviceman killed the previous year, during the Battle of Sokovia. She blames Stark for her son's death -- and he agrees.
Later, the Lagos team -- and Tony Stark -- are visited by U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross in upstate New York. Citing the collateral damage left in the wake of several Avengers' missions, Ross presents them with an ultimatum: sign the Sokovian Accords, an agreement placing them under the authority of the U.N.; or retire. While Rogers is staunchly opposed to government oversight, Stark, Rhodes, the Vision and Romanoff are in favor.
Elsewhere, former Sokovian Intelligence colonel and kill squad commander Helmut Zemo locates and murders Barnes' former handler. He also takes possession of the man's book containing codes used to trigger the former assassin following his brainwashing at the hands of Soviet intelligence.
Later, during the ratification of the Accords, held in Vienna, Austria, a bomb kills several of the attendees, including King T'Chaka of Wakanda. Barnes is identified as the culprit via security footage. When Rogers and Wilson arrive, the former reaches out to Romanoff, who was present during the detonation and caught the edge of the blast. Despite her pleas for him not to get involved, Rogers vows to track down Barnes and Carter provides him with the location of his last known whereabouts. And despite her similar pleas to T'Chaka's son, T'Challa, the new Wakandan king swears vengeance on the former Winter Soldier.
When Rogers and Wilson track Barnes to an apartment in Bucharest, Romania, it becomes clear to Cap that his friend finally recognizes him. But shortly after his arrival, a Bucharest SWAT team breaches the building, leading to a confrontation during which Rogers and Barnes evade and fight the SWAT team members non-lethally. Shortly after Barnes escapes into a tunnel, with Rogers close behind, both of them out-running cars, T'Challa joins the pursuit dressed in vibranium armor. With T'Challa displaying abilities not unlike the two former soldiers, Cap calls for an assist from Wilson. Eventually, all four are placed under arrest by the newly-arrived Rhodes, working with the international authorities.
After the group is transported to a secure facility, Barnes is questioned by Zemo posing as a psychiatrist. Rogers and Stark meet once again to discuss discuss their contrasting views on the Sokovian Accords but fail to agree: Prompted partly by guilt, Stark believes that government oversight is necessary and will prevent the team's disbandment; Rogers worries that the team will be used to further political agendas. Having arranged for a device that emits an EMP to be delivered to the electric grid that powers the building, Zemo recites the code words designed to trigger Barnes once the electricity -- and thus, the audio/video surveillance -- is knocked out. Having deduced that Zemo was an imposter seconds before the EMP, Rogers, Wilson and Carter race to Barnes' holding cell in time to confront him after he breaks out of his restraints. A skirmish with Barnes leads to him hurling Rogers down an elevator shaft; Stark, armed only with a single gauntlet, barely survives a face-off with the prisoner; Wilson and Carter prove to be no match for the former assassin; and T'Challa arrives just in time to save Romanoff from being strangled by him. After Barnes exits the facility and commandeers helicopter, Rogers stops him from fleeing by grabbing one of the struts and anchoring himself to the helipad. Barnes attempt to kill Cap with the chopper's rear propeller results in the craft crashing and the would-be pilot's fall into a body of water below.
After saving his unconscious friend from drowning, Rogers and Wilson secret him away to a location in which a hydraulic press is housed, which they use to trap Barnes cybernetic arm, preventing him from escaping. Barnes, however, proves that he's recovered from his episode by recounting a memory of Rogers that preceded his military enlistment. He also reveals Zemo's motives: the fact that there are five other members of the Winter Soldier program, who remain in cryogenic stasis in Siberia and are as susceptible to suggestion as he is. The trio surmises that Zemo could use these operatives to overthrow a small country.
Unwilling to allow Zemo to enact his suspected plan, Wilson enlists Scott Lang's help in their effort to stop the Sokovian terrorist. Rogers recruits the retired Clint Barton, who in turn liberates Maximoff from her Tony Stark-ordered home confinement. Sharon Carter then rendezvous with the group at Germany's Leipzig/Halle Airport to return Rogers' and Wilson's confiscated equipment.
Meanwhile, having been given 36 hours to apprehend Barnes, Rogers and Wilson from Secretary Ross, Stark has assembled a team of his own and tracked his former colleagues to the airport. Unaware of the threat that Zemo poses, Stark tries and fails to change Rogers' mind a final time; a battle ensues between Stark's allies, T'Challa, Rhodes, the teenage Spider-Man, the Vision and Romanoff and Rogers', backed by Wilson, Barnes, Lang, Barton and Maximoff. During the confrontation, Rogers and Peter "the Spider-Man" Parker discover that they share New York City roots (Brooklyn and Queens, respectively). Ultimately, Romanoff's decision to switch sides allows Rogers and Barnes to avoid apprehension so that they can continue their pursuit of Zemo.
Having uncovered evidence of Barnes having been framed for the bombing and subsequently convincing Wilson to divulge his and Rogers' whereabouts, Stark makes his way to the Siberian facility as well. Upon encountering the two fugitives and proposing a cessation of hostilities, the trio discovers that instead of recruiting Barnes' fellow Winter Soldiers, Zemo has murdered them. However, Zemo, from the security of a blast-proof control room, activates video footage of Barnes murdering the billionaire's parents. Stunned by the revelation, Stark demands to know if Rogers was aware of what took place. When the latter confesses that, though he hadn't been informed of the assassin's identity, he did know about the circumstances surrounding Howard and Maria Stark's deaths.
The admission prompts a rage-filled attack from Stark, initiating a brutal fight between the industrialist and the two war veterans. Initially Rogers urges Barnes to flee but Tony seals the hatch leading outside. The pair then work together, severely damaging his armor. Barnes uses the strength of his cybernetic arm to crush one of Stark's gauntlets -- until the latter severs it; Stark proves to be no match for Cap fighting hand-to-hand -- even wearing his armor. After Stark downs him using a combat algorithm, Rogers offers him the line that he delivered to bullies growing up: "I can do this all day." Strong enough to stop Stark from taking flight by holding him in place, Rogers ends the fight by throwing Tony to the ground and overwhelming him with punches before finally disabling the Iron Man armor by driving his shield into the suit's arc reactor.
T'Challa, who's also arrived at the facility, apprehends Zemo, preventing him from committing suicide. It becomes clear that his true goal was to manipulate the Avengers, whom he recognized were too powerful for him, into killing each other.
When Stark reminds Rogers that his father designed his shield, he leaves it behind as he departs with Barnes.
Rogers subsequently breaks into the detention center where Wilson is held and frees both he and Maximoff. He then sends Stark a package containing a phone programmed with a number where he can be reached, should he ever need his assistance. Later, he enlists T'Challa's help in providing sanctuary for Barnes, aa well as treatment to counter the lingering effects of the psychological programming he experienced during his time in the Winter Soldier program.
Already known for one-liners, Iron Man brings the funny with one word (his nickname for Spider-Man):
"Underoos!"
1. The Avengers
Although he squabbles with his teammates quite a bit (namely, Captain America and Thor), the former playboy but still billionaire/philanthropist gets down to business and helps to repel an alien invasion in the Avengers' first official mission.
Following his televised confession that he is, in fact, the so-called Iron Man responsible for waging war on international terrorist groups, billionaire Tony Stark has retired from vigilantism. But after a S.H.I.E.L.D. research facility is infiltrated and destroyed, the former arms dealer is contacted by federal agent Phil Coulson, who's intent on recruiting him for a government op. He's tasked with helping to recover the Tesseract, an ancient alien device, from Norse deity Loki Laufeyson, which the Asgardian took from the aforementioned agency. After being flown to a helicarrier, he meets intelligence operative Natasha Romanoff and Dr. Bruce Banner, whose work with gamma radiation will hopefully allow the assembled team to track down the powerful device. Stark is also introduced to Steve Rogers, who was actually an acquaintance of Stark's father, Howard, during the war.
Loki is subsequently spotted in Stuttgart, Germany, where both Rogers and Stark confront and apprehend him. En route to the carrier aboard a quinjet, Loki's brother Thor Odinson arrives and absconds with his sibling while the craft is in flight. After Stark takes off after them, he's drawn into a physical confrontation with Thor, during which the latter uses lightning against him, inadvertently boosting the power level of his Iron Man armor to 400%. When Rogers ignores Romanoff's warning not to get involved, he pursues them, making a HALO jump after donning a parachute. Arriving during the fight between Stark and Thor, Rogers intervenes and absorbs the full impact of the latter's mystical hammer, Mjolnir, on his shield.
Having convinced Thor to turn his brother over to S.H.I.EL.D., Stark and Rogers returns to the helicarrier. Suspicious of Director Fury's motives, Stark hacks into the craft's server's in search of intel not long after his arrival. After finding evidence of weapons based on the Tesseract's alien technology, he confronts Fury. Stark and his new teammates, also suspicious, argue amongst themselves. Stark finds himself particularly at odds with Rogers, who perceives him to be lacking in integrity. He even challenges the former arms dealer to a fight with the line: "Put on the suit."
Before Stark can respond, Loki's allies assault the helicarrier in order to free him, severely damaging one of its engines in the process. Rogers and Stark work together to repair the engine; the former has to kill several of Loki's operatives in order to complete the task, while Stark reactivates one of the turbines, getting caught in the blades in the process. The attack results in Loki's escape and both Banner and Thor missing, leading Rogers, Stark, Romanoff and assassin Clint "Hawkeye" Barton to ignore orders and fly to New York City in order to stop Laufeyson, whom the team realizes intends to launch an alien invasion.
Upon arriving at his penthouse in the towering Manhattan office building that bears his name, Stark encounters Laufeyson himself. After explaining his new team's commitment to defeating him, an angry Loki throws Stark through a plate-glass window, though the Iron Man activates his new armor in time to save himself from plunging to his death.
Shortly after the team's arrival in New York City, astrophysicist Dr. Erik Selvig uses the Tesseract to open a wormhole in the sky above Manhattan for Loki, through which the latter's army of Chitauri warriors begins to pour. During the ensuing battle (which is eventually joined by Thor and Banner, who transforms into a hulking monster), Stark flies aerial sorties against the enormous winged creatures employed by the Chitauri. At one point, against the advice of his onboard AI, J.A.R.V.I.S, Tony even flies into the gaping mouth of one of the creatures, shooting his way through the length of its body.
When an international council gives the order to launch a nuclear strike on the invaders, Stark redirects the missile, personally flying it through the wormhole towards the aliens' mothership. Although agreeing with Rogers that his action constitutes a suicide mission, Stark manages to fall through the hole after losing consciousness, just before it closes (Romanoff initiated the breach's seal, with Dr. Selvig's help, on Rogers' orders, moments before his re-emergence). Careening towards the street below, Stark is caught -- and saved from certain death -- by the Hulk. When he initially fails to regain consciousness, the monster roars in Stark's face, shocking him awake with a terrified start.
As usual, Tony has the best lines, which include:
"Better clench up, Legolas."
"That man's playing Galaga -- thought we wouldn't notice."
"How about that?"
Originally Posted 6/28/19
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