50 Fun Facts About Iron Man 2

Who directed Iron Man 2?

Jon Favreau directed the first two Iron Man films and also acts in both as Happy Hogan, Tony Stark's bodyguard and chauffeur.

Which MCU film came between Iron Man and Iron Man 2?

The Incredible Hulk opened in June 2008, weeks after Iron Man, which makes Iron Man 2 the MCU's third film; Robert Downey Jr. turns up as Tony Stark in its final scene.

Which element in Stark's arc reactor is slowly poisoning him?

Palladium powers the arc reactor in Stark's chest and is slowly poisoning his blood, until he synthesises a new element from a diagram hidden in his father's 1974 Stark Expo diorama.

Who plays Ivan Vanko, the Russian physicist with electrified whips?

Mickey Rourke toured Moscow's Butyrka prison to research the part and decided to deliver half of Vanko's lines in Russian.

Vanko is an amalgamation of Whiplash and which other comics villain?

Crimson Dynamo supplied the surname: in the comics Anton Vanko was the first man to wear that Soviet armour, while Whiplash was a separate whip-wielding villain.

Which pet did the actor playing Ivan Vanko buy with his own money for the character?

A cockatoo was the actor's own idea, along with Vanko's tattoos and gold teeth, and he paid for both the bird and the teeth himself.

In Iron Man 2, Tony Stark's portable Mark V armour unfolds from what?

A suitcase: the portable suit assembles around Stark when Vanko ambushes him mid-race in Monaco and wins him the fight, though the armour comes out of it severely damaged.

Who replaced Terrence Howard as James Rhodes?

Don Cheadle took Marvel's call at his child's laser-tag birthday party and was given about two hours to decide, without knowing where Rhodes's story would go.

Terrence Howard claimed Iron Man's star 'took the money that was supposed to go to me' and did what?

Pushed him out, Howard said on a 2013 talk show: he had been the first actor hired for Iron Man and its highest paid, but says Marvel offered far less than his contract promised for the sequel.

What name does Natasha Romanoff use while posing as Stark's new assistant?

Natalie Rushman was a S.H.I.E.L.D. plant: Nick Fury had sent her undercover to keep watch on Stark, and the truth comes out when the pair meet him at Randy's Donuts.

Which actress was in early talks to play Black Widow before Johansson?

Emily Blunt was the director's pick, but Fox exercised an option left over from her Devil Wears Prada contract and put her in Gulliver's Travels instead.

What did Scarlett Johansson do before her casting as Black Widow, hoping it would help her land the part?

Dyed her hair red: she had first met the filmmakers a year earlier to talk over Marvel's heroines, then arrived at their second meeting as a redhead, hoping they would like it.

Who plays rival arms dealer Justin Hammer?

Sam Rockwell had been considered for Tony Stark in the first film, then signed on as Stark's rival while he was still waiting to see a script.

Which Iron Man 2 character is an elderly Englishman in the comics, to his actor's surprise?

Justin Hammer is an ageing English billionaire in the comics; the film remade him as a younger American who envies Stark, and his actor had to ask an interviewer, 'Is he an older guy?'

Which Iron Man 2 actor signed a nine-film Marvel deal?

Samuel L. Jackson told a reporter 'Maybe I won't be Nick Fury' in January 2009; a month later he had an option to play the spy chief in nine more Marvel films.

Garry Shandling's senator character was named after which radio host?

Howard Stern lent his surname to Senator Stern, the director has said; the senator who demands Stark's armour for the government is later exposed as a Hydra ally in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

In his Iron Man 2 cameo, Stan Lee is mistaken for which TV personality?

Larry King is who Stark hails him as: Stan Lee filmed the cameo dressed as the talk-show host, after the first film had Stark take him for Hugh Hefner.

Which tech CEO plays himself in Iron Man 2's Monaco restaurant scene?

Elon Musk takes Stark's compliment on his Merlin rocket engines and replies with a pitch of his own: an idea for an electric jet.

Who played the boy in an Iron Man mask whom Stark saves from a drone in Iron Man 2?

The director's son, Max, wore the mask; Spider-Man: Homecoming's director later floated the idea that the boy was a young Peter Parker, and Kevin Feige said the maths might work.

To whose memory is Iron Man 2 dedicated?

DJ AM spins the records at Stark's drunken birthday party; his planned one-day cameo stretched to about a week on set, and he died in August 2009, months before the film came out.

Which comics storyline did Iron Man 2 reportedly tone down to protect toy sales?

Demon in a Bottle is the comics arc about Stark's alcoholism; studio executives reportedly feared a drunk Iron Man would hurt overseas marketing and toy sales, so the film keeps only traces, such as his armoured birthday binge.

What does Tony Stark build at home to create a new element in Iron Man 2?

A particle accelerator: Stark builds a makeshift one in his workshop, and when Agent Coulson turns up a prototype of Captain America's shield there, he uses it to prop the apparatus level.

Which Iron Man 2 game villain later appeared in Ant-Man and the Wasp?

Ghost is a male saboteur in the comics and the game; on film the role went to Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr, and Marvel Studios' official history says an early Iron Man 2 story already included the character.

Iron Man 2's writer Justin Theroux co-wrote which 2008 comedy?

Tropic Thunder starred Robert Downey Jr., who then urged Marvel to hire its co-writer for the Iron Man sequel.

Iron Man 2's storyboard artist Genndy Tartakovsky created which animated series?

Samurai Jack's creator was brought in because the director loved that show and his Clone Wars shorts, and wanted an animator's feel for rhythm in the film's fight scenes.

Whom does Tony Stark appoint as the new CEO of Stark Industries in Iron Man 2?

Pepper Potts gets the job because Stark, who secretly believes he is dying, is putting his affairs in order; she is soon watching TV pundits question her qualifications.

Which English actor voices J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony Stark's AI butler, in Iron Man 2?

Paul Bettany got the part after acting beside the director in Wimbledon; five years on, the disembodied voice gained a body when J.A.R.V.I.S. became Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Which Formula One boss overruled Iron Man 2's permission to film at the Monaco Grand Prix circuit?

Bernie Ecclestone overruled Monaco's government, so the crew flew over one Rolls-Royce Phantom to drive the circuit, added the racing cars digitally and staged the crash in a California car park.

Which Mad Men actor appears in old film reels as Tony's father, Howard Stark, in Iron Man 2?

John Slattery, Mad Men's Roger Sterling, plays Howard in a reel that ends with the distant father telling Tony that his greatest creation is his son.

Where in New York City does Tony Stark stage the Stark Expo in Iron Man 2?

Flushing Meadows hosted the 1964 World's Fair and still has its Unisphere globe; the film faked most of its Expo in Los Angeles, against a five-storey green screen of shipping containers at the Sepulveda Dam.

What name is given to the weaponised suit James Rhodes pilots at the Stark Expo in Iron Man 2?

War Machine began as Stark's own Mark II armour: Rhodes took it after their drunken brawl, and a rival arms maker loaded it with weapons for the military.

Who directed Iron Man 2's post-credits scene, in which Coulson finds a hammer in New Mexico?

Kenneth Branagh shot it on the set of Thor, the film he was directing at the time, and part of the footage turns up again in that movie a year later.

Which studio distributed Iron Man 2 under a deal signed before Disney bought Marvel?

Paramount Pictures kept its Marvel deal after the takeover and went on to release Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger; Disney later paid at least $115 million for the rights to The Avengers and Iron Man 3.

Disney announced its 2009 purchase of Marvel Entertainment at roughly what price?

$4 billion bought Disney more than 5,000 Marvel characters, from a company that had filed for bankruptcy protection thirteen years earlier.

Which effects house built most of Iron Man 2's digital armour?

Industrial Light & Magic leaned on practical suits for the first film but went almost fully digital here, with actors often wearing only a chest plate and helmet; Double Negative handled the Monaco chase.

Tony Stark's mansion in Iron Man 2 stands in which California beach city?

Malibu is home to the mansion where a drunk Stark parties in his armour until Rhodes puts on a spare suit to stop him.

Which band's songs fill the Iron Man 2 soundtrack album?

AC/DC supplied all fifteen tracks, yet only 'Shoot to Thrill' and 'Highway to Hell' are heard in the film; others were used in its trailers and adverts.

Which rock guitarist worked on Iron Man 2's score?

Tom Morello, Rage Against the Machine's guitarist, already had Iron Man form: he has a cameo in the first film as one of the Ten Rings terrorists.

Which Disney songwriting legend wrote Iron Man 2's Stark Expo theme?

Richard M. Sherman wrote 'Make Way for Tomorrow Today' for the film's invented fair, decades after he and his brother Robert wrote 'It's a Small World' for the real 1964 New York World's Fair.

On which late-night show did Robert Downey Jr. unveil an Iron Man 2 trailer after the 2010 Oscars?

Jimmy Kimmel Live! screened it in the post-Oscar special that also launched the 'Handsome Men's Club', a sketch in which Hollywood's best-looking stars throw the host out for not being handsome enough.

Which comics writer scripted the Sega video game tie-in to Iron Man 2?

Matt Fraction, then writing Marvel's Invincible Iron Man comic, called the game a 'sister story' that runs in parallel to the film rather than retelling it.

Why did Iron Man 2 open overseas before its US release?

To get ahead of the FIFA World Cup, due to start that June, the studio opened the film abroad from April 28; it had taken $100 million overseas before American audiences saw it.

At the end of Iron Man 2, Nick Fury says he wants Tony Stark only as what?

A consultant is all Fury will offer: at the closing debrief he tells Stark that Iron Man suits the Avengers Initiative but that his own difficult personality rules him out as a member.

James Rhodes, who confiscates one of Stark's suits in Iron Man 2, is an officer in which US military branch?

Air Force liaison Rhodes takes the suit to Edwards Air Force Base, a real California base where the production shot on the flight line.

Which film held the opening-weekend record when Iron Man 2 opened?

The Dark Knight kept its record, but the sequel that critics ranked below the original still opened about 30 percent bigger than the first Iron Man, the fifth-best start to that point.

Which 2010 release was the year's biggest at the US box office, with Iron Man 2 third?

Toy Story 3 led the year and Alice in Wonderland came second, both released by Disney, the company that had just bought Marvel but did not yet release its films.

Which actor plays Agent Phil Coulson in Iron Man 2?

Clark Gregg had introduced the agent in the first Iron Man; the character went on to front his own TV series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., from 2013 to 2020.

For which Academy Award was Iron Man 2 nominated?

Best Visual Effects was its only Oscar nomination, for armour that, unlike the first film's practical suits, was almost entirely computer-generated; the award went to Inception.

Which carmaker supplies the convertible supercar Tony Stark drives in Iron Man 2?

Audi was among the film's promotional partners, so Stark drives its then-new R8 Spyder, having driven an R8 coupé in the first film.

Who took over directing duties for Iron Man 3?

Shane Black had directed Downey in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and it was the star who reached out to bring him in to write and direct the third film.