| Movie DescriptionRussian television shows Stark Industries CEO Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) revealing his identity as Iron Man to the world. Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), whose father has just died, sees this and begins building a similar weapon.
Six months later, Stark has used his Iron Man armor to help maintain world peace. He re-institutes the Stark Expo in Flushing Meadows, New York to continue his father Howard's legacy. Senator Stern (Garry Shandling) demands that Stark turn over the Iron Man technology to the government. Stark refuses, claiming that foreign nations and business competitors are years away from successfully recreating his achievements.
The palladium core in the arc reactor that keeps Stark alive and powers the armor is slowly poisoning him, and he has failed to find a substitute. Growing increasingly despondent and reckless due to his impending death, and choosing not to tell anyone about his condition, Stark appoints his personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) CEO of Stark Industries, and replaces her with Stark employee Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson).
Vanko attacks Stark while racing at the Circuit de Monaco, using an arc reactor of his own powering whip-like energy weapons. Stark defeats Vanko with the aid of his portable briefcase armor. He learns that Vanko is the son of his father's old partner, Anton Vanko. Anton collaborated with Howard on the first arc reactor, but was deported to his native Soviet Union following his attempts to profit from the technology and died in poverty, explaining Vanko's desire for revenge on the Stark family. Rival defense contractor Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) fakes Vanko's death and recruits him to perfect a line of armored combat suits to upstage Stark. |
