Movie · Phase 2

Iron Man 3

2013 · 130 min

Tony comes back from the wormhole with panic attacks, insomnia and 42 suits of armour he built instead of sleeping. When a terrorist calling himself the Mandarin starts detonating people on…

The Infinity SagaDisney+79%Released
Iron Man 3 (2013) poster — Marvel movie

The story

Tony comes back from the wormhole with panic attacks, insomnia and 42 suits of armour he built instead of sleeping. When a terrorist calling himself the Mandarin starts detonating people on television and puts Happy Hogan in a coma, Tony gives out his home address on the news and loses the house within the hour.

Stranded in Tennessee with a broken suit and a ten-year-old sidekick, the film becomes a Shane Black detective story about a man with no gadgets. The Mandarin turns out to be a drunk English actor named Trevor Slattery, and the real villain is a think-tank founder Tony humiliated on a rooftop in 1999.

Key facts

Release date
3 May 2013
Status
Released
Phase
Phase 2
Saga
The Infinity Saga
Runtime
130 min
Certificate
PG-13
Director
Shane Black
Writers
Drew Pearce, Shane Black
Streaming
Disney+
Timeline placement
December 2012 — roughly six months after the Battle of New York, with a 1999 Bern prologue

Cast

ActorRole
Robert Downey Jr.Tony Stark / Iron Man
Gwyneth PaltrowPepper Potts
Don CheadleJames Rhodes / Iron Patriot
Guy PearceAldrich Killian
Ben KingsleyTrevor Slattery / 'The Mandarin'
Rebecca HallMaya Hansen

Characters

Mandarin (Unrevealed (uses the name Zhang Tong)) — Marvel villain character art

Mandarin

Unrevealed (uses the name Zhang Tong)

Hulk (Robert Bruce Banner) — Marvel hero character art

Hulk

Robert Bruce Banner

Easter eggs

  • Bruce Banner appears in the post-credits scene as the world's worst therapist, having fallen asleep during Tony's entire story.
  • The villains front their operation through A.I.M. — Advanced Idea Mechanics, a genuine Marvel organisation dating to 1963.
  • Stan Lee cameos as a beauty-pageant judge holding up a perfect ten.
  • The House Party Protocol deploys the full Iron Legion, including recognisable comic designs like the Silver Centurion, Heartbreaker, Shotgun and Igor.
  • Extremis is lifted from Warren Ellis and Adi Granov's 2005 Iron Man arc, right down to the regenerative heat glow.
  • The 1999 prologue is dated by Y2K chatter and a Roxxon reference, tying Killian's funding to the MCU's oil villain.
  • Trevor Slattery's fake broadcasts include a Fu Manchu-styled tea ceremony, a deliberate parody of the Mandarin's racist comic origins.

Trivia

  • Shane Black co-wrote and directed, having previously directed Downey in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and set it at Christmas as he does with nearly every script.
  • The Chinese co-production cut runs four minutes longer, with additional scenes featuring Dr. Wu and a milk-drinking product placement.
  • The Air Force One rescue used thirteen real skydivers from the Red Bull Air Force performing the 'barrel of monkeys' chain in freefall.
  • It was the first MCU film after The Avengers and finished 2013 as the year's highest-grossing release.
  • The Mandarin twist provoked such a backlash that Marvel produced the one-shot short All Hail the King specifically to walk it back.
  • Rebecca Hall has said Maya Hansen's role was significantly reduced during production, with her original villain function reassigned.

Box office

Budget
$200 million
Worldwide
$1.215 billion
Domestic
$409.0 million

Reviews

Critics

79%

Iron Man 3 is a smart, self-aware film buoyed by another charming performance from Robert Downey Jr.

The MarvelGossips verdict

The most interesting Iron Man film and the least satisfying one — a genuinely strange PTSD noir wearing a blockbuster's suit. Ben Kingsley's twist is a great joke about Western fear of a faceless enemy, and it also blows up the trilogy's only real villain. Downey's Tennessee stretch is the best acting he ever did in the armour.

Related titles

Related reading

Frequently asked

Is the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 the real Mandarin?
No. Trevor Slattery is an actor hired to front A.I.M.'s bombings. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings later introduces the real Ten Rings leader, Xu Wenwu, who is furious that a fraud borrowed his organisation's name.
Does Tony quit being Iron Man at the end?
He blows up the suits and has the shrapnel removed, but the retirement lasts exactly one film. Age of Ultron opens with him back in the armour, and the arc reactor's removal is treated as symbolic rather than final.
Why is Rhodey called Iron Patriot?
The War Machine armour is repainted in stars and stripes as a public-relations exercise, borrowing the Iron Patriot name from Norman Osborn's Dark Reign armour in the comics.
Is Iron Man 3 a Christmas movie?
By its own design, yes. Shane Black sets nearly all his scripts at Christmas, and the film is scored, decorated and structured around the holiday, ending on a fireside voiceover.