Yes! I’m gonna start doing more of these ’cause they’re fun and I love breaking down structure. I figured after my first one was about the most current film in the MCU, I’d do one on the now classic Iron Man, the one that started it all, and eventually made Robert Downey Jr. one of the highest paid actors ever. Let’s get it on!
ACT ONE
1. The Ordinary World
We open with Tony Stark on a convoy, he jokes around with some soldiers then the convoy gets bombed. He’s thrown the ground and sees the enemy is using Stark missiles. This is the inciting incident too, though it’s more of a flashforward, as we then see the events that lead up to it, where Tony’s current world is revealed.
2. The Inciting Incident
Tony’s been captured by terrorists, he has a huge electromagnet attached to his chest to keep shrapnel from his heart. He’s ordered by his captors to build a Jericho missile, be secretly he works with his cellmate Yinsen to build the first Iron Man suit so he can escape.
3. The Exposition
As the Mark 1 suit is built, we see Tony’s true genius at work. We learn more about him and Yinsen. Yinsen challenges Tony’s ideals, starting his shift toward hero and away from being a “Merchant of Death.”
4. The Obstacles
The terrorists threaten to kill Yinsen, but Tony refuses to tell the terrorists leader of the Ten Rings what he’s actually building. He finishes the suit then escapes captivity, though Yinsen dies in the process, telling Tony to not “waste his life” just before he passes. Tony wanders the desert after his escape but is eventually found.
ACT TWO
5. The New World
Tony is back in the good ol’ US of A and announces he will shut down the Stark weapons division as he eats a cheeseburger at a press conference. This creates a news frenzy and immediate tension between Tony and his mentor, Obadiah Stane, beginning Stane’s shift from ally to antagonist.
6. The Real Journey Begins
Tony gets an improved Arc Reactor put in his chest, and builds a new Iron Man suit, the Mark 2. Montage of him testing and working out the kinks of his suit. Meanwhile, the Ten Rings discover pieces of his destroyed Mark 1 suit and begin piecing it together.
7. The Big Plan
The suit is just about ready for primetime. Stane comes to Tony with news the board of directors at Stark Industries wants Tony out. This only strengthens Tony’s new resolve to finish the suit.
8. The Midpoint
The first successful test of the Mark 2 Iron Man suit. He flies around for a minute or two but goes too high and the suit gets covered in ice. He falls, but recovers, then falls through his garage. Tony works on upgrading the suit and working out the ice problem.
9. The New Plan
Tony continues work on the suit, but then decides to make an appearance at a charity event. There, he has a romantic moment with his assistant Pepper Potts, then a slightly hostile one with the reporter, Christine Everhart, who he slept with in the first act. She shows him pictures of some Stark weaponry recently sold without his authorization. This sets him on a new mission to find and destroy his companies weapons of mass destruction, even proclaiming to Pepper that he knows in his heart this is what he’s meant to do. His transformation into hero is complete.
10. The Lowest Point
Stane fully turns into Tony’s true antagonist, we see him deal with the Ten Rings, then start work on his own suit. Stane momentarily paralyzes Tony, and takes the Arc Reactor from his chest to use on his Iron Monger suit.
ACT THREE
11. The Climax
Rhodey finds Tony, on the brink of death, trying to retrieve his old Arc Reactor that Pepper encased in glass. Pepper, along with Agent Coulson and some other S.H.I.E.L.D agents, break into Stane’s lab and find his suit, which suddenly activates as Stane starts causing destruction. Tony, with his old reactor back in his chest, suits up and fights Stane. They battle it out in the middle of the street, Stane goes full on cray, caring nadda for any collateral damage he’s causing. With the help of Pepper, Stane is defeated.
12. The Resolution
Coulson has a little pow wow with Tony about what to say or not say at the news conference. Pepper thanks Couslon for the help, and he tells her to officially call his bureau S.H.I.E.L.D, setting up their future involvement in the MCU, and the ABC TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Tony and Pepper’s relationship strengthens, and their blossoming romance is hinted at. Tony announces at a news conference that he “is Iron Man.” Cut to Black Sabbath.
END TITLES
Set-up for The Avengers with a post-credit scene involving Nick Fury.
That is all, more breakdowns to come! Stay tuned!
-Tim
