Iron Man 2 (2010)

Iron Man 2 (2010) Full Recap

In a cold, dark apartment in Russia, an old man lies in bed with a TV playing in the corner. On the news, an American billionaire is standing in front of reporters telling the whole world that he is Iron Man. The old man's name is Anton Vano and he's dying. His son sits beside him.

Anton whispers that it should have been his son up there. He says he's sorry and that all he can give him is his knowledge. Then he goes still. His son, Ivan, leans over him and cries. Ivan pulls out a roll of old blueprints. Printed on the corner are two names, Anton Vano and Howard Stark.

It's the design for an arc reactor, the same glowing power source that keeps Iron Man alive. Ivan covers his wall with newspaper stories about Tony Stark. Then he gets to work. He welds and builds in that tiny room. When he's done, a small ring of blue light glows on his workbench, and Ivan smiles. 6 months later, Iron Man drops out of a plane over New York.

He flies down through the fireworks and lands on a stage in front of a screaming crowd. Robot arms peel the armor off him piece by piece. Underneath, in a black tuxedo, is Tony Stark. He holds up his arms and soaks it all in. Oh, it's good to be back. This is the opening night of the Stark Expo.

Tony tells the crowd the world is enjoying its longest stretch of peace in years, and he hints that they have him to thank. Then the screen behind him plays an old film of his father, Howard Stark. Howard stands next to a model of a city of the future and says, "Everything is achievable through technology." While the crowd watches, Tony slips backstage. He takes out a small blood tester and checks the reading.

Outside, fans and photographers push in around him. A man walks up and hands Tony an envelope. It's a court order. Tony has to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington the next morning. At the hearing, Senator Stern wants one thing. He wants Tony to hand the Iron Man suit over to the government.

He calls it a weapon. Tony calls it a high-tech prosthesis. He tells the senator that he and the suit are one, so he isn't giving it up. So, the senator calls in another witness. His name is Justin Hammer, and his company makes weapons for the army. Hammer's company competes with Tony's.

He smiles at Tony and praises his late father. Then, he warns the room that Tony won't always be there to protect them. Next comes Tony's best friend, James Rhodess, an Air Force colonel everyone calls Roadie. Senator Stern makes him read one paragraph from his own report out loud.

It says Iron Man could be a threat to the country. Roadie adds that the rest of his report says the opposite, but nobody wants to hear it. Then the senator puts photos up on the screens. Other countries are trying to build copies of Tony's suit. Tony takes out his phone and hacks into the screens.

Now the room sees the real videos. One copy after another fails. In one clip, a pilot in a suit built by Hammer's own company spins out of control. Tony tells the senators that nobody will catch up with him for years. He says he has privatized world peace. The crowd in the room cheers as he walks out.

Far away in Russia, Ivan watches the whole thing on TV. Back home in Malibu, Tony's computer welcomes him. He drinks a thick green juice that's supposed to help with his symptoms. He checks his blood again. The ark reactor in his chest runs on a metal called palladium, and that metal is poisoning him.

His blood toxicity is at 24%. Every time he puts on the suit, it gets worse. He pulls out a burned up core and slots in a new one. The thing keeping him alive is also killing him. Then his assistant, Pepper Potts, walks in and she's angry. Tony just gave away their whole modern art collection to the Boy Scouts.

Yes, it is a worthwhile organization. Tony says it's his collection, not theirs. Pepper says she spent 10 years putting it together. She has a pile of company problems to talk about, but Tony isn't listening. Out of nowhere, Tony makes a decision. He names Pepper the new chairman and CEO of Stark Industries, starting right now.

He says he's been looking for the right person for a while, and it's always been her. Pepper can't believe it. Tony hands her a drink. In a snowy alley in Russia, a man hands Eene a passport and a plane ticket. Evane flips through them. He's leaving the country. At Stark Industries, Tony is boxing in a ring with his driver, Happy Hogan.

A woman from the legal department walks in with papers for Pepper to sign. Her name is Natalie Rushman. Tony stops boxing and stares. He calls her up to the ring. Pepper warns him that staring at her could get him sued. Tony looks her up on a screen. She speaks French, Italian, Russian, and Latin.

In the ring, Happy tells Natalie never to take her eye off her opponent, and he reaches for her. In one move, she wraps her legs around his neck and flips him onto the mat. Tony's eyes go wide. Natalie calmly gets his fingerprint for the papers and walks out. Tony says he wants her as his new assistant.

Pepper says no. Next, they're in Monaco for a big car race. Pepper is the boss now, and she's made Natalie her new assistant. Natalie walks right behind her. Tony greets old friends at a fancy restaurant by the track. Then Justin Hammer walks up with a reporter named Christine Everheart.

She's the same reporter who wrote about Tony a year ago. Hammer's army contract is on hold after the Senate hearing. Tony jokes that if Hammer ever invents something that works, he'll give him a spot at the expo. Tony walks off to the restroom and checks his blood again. He sits there and stares at the reading.

A few minutes later, Pepper looks up at the TV in the restaurant. Tony is on the screen in a racing suit, climbing into one of the race cars. He's decided to drive in the race himself. The race starts and Tony roars down the track with the others. On the side of the road, a track worker in an orange suit stands by the fence.

Under the helmet is Ivan. He walks out onto the track. Strapped to his chest is a glowing ark reactor. Two long whips crackle with electricity in his hands. A race car speeds toward him and Ivan slices it right in half. The pieces fly past him in flames. Cars crash all around. Tony comes around the corner and Ivonne swings again.

Tony's car splits apart and flips over. He crawls out of the wreck and falls down. Ivan walks toward him through the smoke and fire. Tony has no suit. Then Happy drives the car straight onto the track with Pepper in the back. He slams into Ivonne and pins him against the fence. Ivon's whips slice through the car's roof.

Pepper screams. Happy backs up and hits him again. Then Pepper throws Tony a silver briefcase. Tony steps onto it and the case opens up and wraps around his legs and arms. In a few seconds, he's wearing a new red and silver suit. Iron Man faces Ivan. Ivan wraps a whip around Tony's neck and the electricity lights up the suit.

Tony grabs both whips and pulls Ivan close. Then he rips the reactor right off Ivan's chest. Ivan falls to the ground. The police pile on him and drag him away. He's laughing the whole time. At the police station, Tony visits Ivonne in his cell. He looks at Ivon's reactor and says it's decent work, but not very efficient.

He asks where Ivonne got the design. Ivonne says Tony comes from a family of thieves and butchers. He says Tony's family has destroyed many lives. Tony says Ivan had his shot and missed. Ivan smiles. He says, "If you can make God bleed, people stop believing in him and the sharks come." As Tony turns to leave, Ivan says one more thing.

"Palladium in the chest is a painful way to die." On the plane home, the news is talking about Iron Man copies all over the world. Tony brings Pepper a plate of food he cooked himself. She asks what he's not telling her. He almost says it. Instead, he asks her to skip work and go to Venice with him.

Pepper says it's a bad time and the company needs her. Back in Ivan's cell, a guard slides in a tray of food with a note on it. Later, something blows up down the hall. Guards rush Ivan out of the cell and push him into a van. The van drives into a hanger with a private jet. Waiting at a table full of food is Justin Hammer.

What an absolute pleasure. He welcomes Even like an old friend and has his handcuffs taken off. Hammer says he saw what Ivan did to Tony on that track. He tells him not to kill Tony. He should go after his legacy instead. Hammer has the money and Ivan has the brains. He wants them to work together.

Ivan smiles. He asks for only one thing. He wants his bird. Hammer has no idea what he's talking about, but he promises to get it. Back in Malibu, Pepper and Natalie work the phones while the news talks about Tony. Down in his workshop, Tony is reading about Ivan. Anton Vanco was a Soviet scientist.

He came over to America in 1963, and four years later, they kicked him out for spying. Ivan spent 15 years in a Russian prison for selling weapons materials. Rodie comes down in his uniform. He's been on the phone all day trying to stop the government from coming to take Tony's suits.

Somebody else built the same tech yesterday, and they're scared. Rodie notices the dark line spreading on Tony's neck. Tony says it's road rash. Rodie tells him he doesn't have to do this alone. Tony says he knows exactly what he's doing. At his factory, Hammer shows Ivan around.

The news thinks Ivan is dead, so he can work in peace here. Hammer shows him the robot suits he's been trying to build. None of them work. Hammer wants suits that will make Iron Man look like an antique, and he wants to show them off at the Stark Expo. Ivonne says he can do it.

Hey, fabulous. It's Tony's birthday, and there's a party at his house tonight. Natalie helps him choose a watch. Tony asks her a strange question. If this was the last birthday party you'd ever have, how would you celebrate? She says she'd do whatever she wanted with whoever she wanted.

Rodie is on the phone with the military promising Iron Man will be back on duty. Then he walks into the party and sees Tony. He's wearing the Iron Man suit in front of all his guests and he's out of control. Pepper tries to send everyone home. Tony tells the crowd the party isn't over yet.

Rodie has seen enough. He walks downstairs and steps into an older silver suit from Tony's collection. When he comes back up, he tells Tony to shut it down. Tony refuses and the two best friends start fighting in their suits. They smash through walls, glass, and furniture. The guests run for the doors.

Natalie pulls Pepper out of the way. Tony and Rodie land in the wrecked living room and aim their hands at each other. They both fire at the same time. The blasts crash together in a huge flash. When the dust settles, Tony is lying on the floor in the wreckage. Rodie takes off through the roof and flies away in the silver suit.

He lands at Edward's Air Force Base in California. Soldiers and officers surround him. Roadie takes off the helmet. He has brought the military the Iron Man suit they wanted. Later, Tony sits inside a giant donut on top of a doughut shop, still wearing his suit. A bald guy in a leather coat stands below and tells Tony to get out of the donut.

Tony knows him. It's Nick Fury, the boss of Shield, Eye Patch and all. Inside the shop, Natalie slides into the booth next to Fury. Tony stares. Natalie is really Natasha Romangh, a Shield agent, and Fury put her on Tony the day they learned he was sick. Tony's busted. Natasha jabs a needle into his neck.

Tony thinks they're stealing a kidney, but the shot only dulls his symptoms. Tony says he's tried every element on Earth to replace the palladium. Fury tells him he hasn't tried them all. At Hammer's factory, Hammer proudly brings Ivan a bird in a cage. Ivan says it's not his bird.

Then Hammer notices what Ivan is building. He wanted suits for human pilots. Ivan built drones, robots with no people inside. Ivan says drones are better because people make problems. Hammer is angry, but he tells Yan to make them work. At the Air Force base, a general tells Rodie the suit will be shown to the world at Hammer's presentation at the expo.

Rodie isn't happy about it, but it's an order. Back in Malibu, Fury drops in on Tony. He says Tony's father always believed the Ark reactor was the first step to something much bigger. Anton Veno worked with Howard, but Anton only wanted to get rich, so Howard had him sent away. Tony says his father never once told him he loved him.

Fury says that's not the whole story. Howard was one of the people who started Shield. Fury leaves Tony a big box of his father's old things. Then Agent Coulson stays behind to guard the house. Koulson tells Tony he's not allowed to leave. At the Air Force base, Hammer shows up to arm the silver suit.

He lays out a whole table of guns and rockets for Rodie to choose from. Then he shows off his favorite, a huge missile he calls the ex-wife. Rodie doesn't say much. He decides to take all of it. Tony opens his father's box. Inside are old notebooks and film reels. He sets up a projector and watches the footage Howard shot while planning the very first Stark expo.

Most of it is Howard messing up his lines. Then young Tony walks into the shot and Howard sends him away. Then Howard looks straight into the camera and talks to his son. He says Tony is too young to understand this now, so he put it on film for him. The Expo model represents his life's work.

He couldn't finish it with the technology of his time, but one day Tony will. Then Howard says his greatest creation is Tony. Tony sits there in silence. The next day, Tony drives to Pepper's office with a box of strawberries. She's on the phone with lawyers about the stolen suit.

Tony tells her he came to say something important. He wants to be honest with her. Pepper cuts him off. She's been putting out his fires while he hid at home. Then she sees the strawberries. She's allergic to them, and he didn't even know. Natasha walks in and tells Peppa her plane leaves in 25 minutes.

Tony asks if anything about her is real. She says something in Latin and tells him to go home. At home, Tony looks closer at his father's model of the expo. His computer turns it into a floating blue hologram. Tony throws out the trees, the paths, and the parking lots. What's left looks a lot like an atom.

Howard hid the design for a brand new element inside his model. It could replace the palladium. The only problem is that nobody can make it. Thanks, Dad, Tony says. Tony takes a sledgehammer to his own walls. He tears out pipes and builds a giant machine across his workshop right in front of Agent Coulson.

Coulson tells Tony he's been called away to New Mexico. Before he leaves, he tells Tony they need him. Tony powers up the machine and fires a beam of light across the room. It slices through walls and metal. He aims it at a small target and a new triangle core starts to glow. He has made the new element.

Congratulations, sir. Tony puts the new core in his chest. It works. Over at Hammer's factory, Ivan tells Hammer the drones won't fly or shoot at the expo. Hammer is furious. He bursts into Ivan's workshop, takes away the bird, and orders his men to take Ivan's shoes, too. Hammer says he has a piece of Stark tech now, the silver suit.

So, he doesn't need Ivan. If Ivan doesn't keep his word, he'll be what he was when Hammer found him, a dead man. Hammer leaves Ivan with two guards and heads to the expo. Back in Malibu, Tony's phone rings. It's Ivan. He says what Tony's father did to his family over 40 years, he'll do to Tony in 40 minutes.

Sounds good. Let's get together and hash it out. Tony sees Hammer's big show at the expo on his screen. His new reactor flares bright in his chest and he heads out. At the expo, Pepper walks in with Natasha. On the stage, Hammer takes the microphone in front of a huge crowd. He shows off his new weapon, the Hammer drone army.

Rows of robot soldiers rise up out of the stage, one row for each branch of the military. The crowd goes wild. Then, Hammer introduces the star of the show. Rodie rises up in the silver suit, now painted gray and covered in guns. Iron Man drops onto the stage next to him. Tony tells Rodie that Hammer is working with Avon and everyone here is in danger.

Rodie can't believe it. Then Rod's suit locks up. Ivan has taken control of it from his computer. Rod's suit aims at Tony. So do all the drones. Tony shoots into the sky and the drones blast off after him. Backstage, Pepper and Natasha grab Hammer. They demand to know who's behind this.

Hammer cracks and admits it's Ivan and he's at Hammer's factory. The drones chase Tony across the expo, firing at him. People run screaming in every direction. Back at the factory, Ivan watches it all on his screens. Happy drives Natasha to Hammer's factory. In the back seat, she changes into a black fighting suit.

Overhead, Tony leads the drones away from the crowd with Rody's suit right behind him. At the factory, Happy tries to take on one guard and barely wins. Natasha walks in and takes out a whole hallway of guards in seconds. She jumps, spins, and knocks them down one after another.

Happy finishes his one guard and looks up. Natasha is already gone. Ivonne's computer room is empty. He's already gone. Natasha hacks into his system. Outside, Tony and Rodie crash through a glass dome full of plants. Natasha finds the program controlling Rod's suit and shuts it down.

Iron Man 2 (2010) Ending Explained

Rodie has his suit back. Rodie is free again. Rodie apologizes. He says he should have trusted Tony more. Tony says it's his own fault. Then the drones come back for them. Tony and Rodie stand back to back and fire in every direction. One by one, the drones blow apart. Back at the expo, the police arrest Hammer.

He tells Pepper she's starting to think like a CEO. Pepper stays to make sure everyone gets out safely. Then one more machine lands in front of Tony and Rodie. It's a giant armored suit. Inside is Ivonne with his electric whips glowing. Ivonne swings and the whips throw Tony and Rodie across the garden.

He wraps a whip around each of them and pulls them in. Tony has an idea. He and Rodie fire their beams at each other and the beams cross right in front of Ivan. The blast knocks him down and tears his armor apart. Ivan looks up at Tony. Then the lights on his suit start to blink.

So do the lights on every broken drone around them. The drones are about to explode and one of them is right next to Pepper. Tony flies in, grabs her, and pulls her into the sky. A second later, everything below them blows up. He sets her down on a rooftop. Pepper is shaking. She says she can't take this anymore, and she quits as CEO.

Then Tony tells her she deserves better and that she got him through the hardest time of his life. Pepper steps closer to him. Rodie lands next to them and jokes about the two of them. He tells Tony he's keeping the suit for a while, then he flies off. Later, Fury shows Tony a report Natasha wrote about him.

It calls him self-destructive and a textbook narcissist. Fury has a new team in mind called the Avengers Initiative. Iron Man is in. Tony Stark is not recommended for now. Fury only wants him as a consultant. In Washington, Senator Stern has to give Tony and Rodie medals for their bravery.

He pins them on with a smile that looks painful. Then all three of them pose for a photo. Tony spent this whole story dying in secret and pushing away the people who wanted to help. He fought his best friend, hurt Pepper, and nearly lost everything. The answer to his problem was left behind by the father he thought never cared about him.

Howard believed in his son more than Tony ever knew. Or did he need to hit bottom first?