One Marvelous Scene: Development and Testing of the Marks II & III

Hi everyone!  My name is SneakySam and today, as part of the Avengers initiative that’s been happening on Youtube as of late before and after the release of Avengers Endgame, I am going to be talking about my personal favourite scene in the Marvel cinematic universe.  One Marvelous scene is the opportunity to discuss your favourite standalone moments in the Marvel movies that make you feel all gooey and muchy inside.  When I first saw people doing these, I couldn’t help but think about what my favourite moments in the MCU are.

I think one of the most fun and memorable MCU scenes for me is in good ole’ Iron Man, directed by Jon Favreau specifically the collection of moments we get when Tony is first engineering, prototyping and testing the Mark 2, the reveal of the finished Mark 3 suit ambushing and destroying the 10 rings forces in Gulmira, and finally the ultimate test of going toe to toe against two F 22 raptors thousands of feet in the air.  I’m very excited.

So if you are watching this you have probably seen Iron Man at least once.  Tony drinks his way into a sticky situation in Afghanistan after a weapons demonstration by not sticking to his bestest friend and winds up getting captured by the 10 rings forces.  He is then ordered to cannibalize the Stark weapons that they have amassed and mash them together into one of the Jericho missiles that he showed off to the military folks.  It’s worth noting that this seems to be shown off as the pinnacle of Stark tech up to this point.  With the help of Yinsen he pushes himself to his creative and technological limits and ends up building the Mark 1, an ingenious feat of engineering that allows him to escape and ultimately gets his creative juices flowing.  Once back in California and after downing some cheeseburgers, he shuts down his weapons depot to stop the creation of more weapons for the 10 rings.  Obidiah tells him to take some time off and “let him handle the board”.

It is during this downtime that he gets to work on the “Mark 2”, his title for a new and improved Iron Man suit.  It’s very telling that he’s able to build such an incredible machine in the Mark 1 with a couple of extra hands and “a box of scraps” as Obadiah puts it.  It is here however that we see Tony in his element, the helping hands of Yinsen replaced by the sarcastic sophistication of J.A.R.V.I.S., his in-house AI, and the box of scraps replaced with all the most top of the line engineering technology a gearhead like Tony could ever dream of.

During a small montage we see the creation of the internal structures of the iron man suit, starting with the boots and flight stabilizers.  I really like how we see Tony’s first promising stumbles right out of the gate, with the boots and arm cannons knocking him to the floor again and again.  It shows that Tony is not only not perfect, it also clearly shows that the systems that Tony is creating, powered by the Arc Reactor in his chest, work better and are more powerful than he or the audience would expect them to right off the bat.  It some great bits of physical comedy that also manage to show off the latent potential of the Iron Man suit, which to me has always been awesome and entertaining.

After some more growing pains in learning how to fly using the tech he builds, it’s here that we see a sneak peak of the epic suit up of the Mark 3 to come.  It’s such an awesome revelation to me that Jarvis gets to sit inside of the iron man suit and help Tony on the inside.  Between the wonderful UI that we see him use and the technological marvel that the suit itself is, it’s fantastic that the next logical step is to have the dreamy AI helper that we all wish we could have be inserted into the suit.  As the audience, we basically see that on a whim, Tony can switch of some functions of the suit to Jarvis while he handles tasks that he wants to accomplish himself on the fly, such as controlling the flight stabilizers and arm cannons, and eventual use of weapons and surface controls.

Tony flies around in the Mark 2 for a while before trying to break the altitude record of the SR 71 Blackbird.  This is the first we see of him taking his Mark 2 and pushing it to the limits.  This is not only logical as he wants to see what his first rig can do, it’s awesome that his first test is able to outdo the blackbird.  It goes a long way for the audience to see Tony’s first steps into the superhero world are already outclassing the technological marvels (ahaha!) of the real world while also grounding the film with something that they can directly compare it to, which adds a layer of realism to whole charade.

After nearly falling smashing into the ground from the lower atmosphere, Tony gives some notes to Jarvis to improve the suit, given stuff that he notices during the initial test flight.  I love the fluidity in which Tony and Jarvis can work seemlessly together, Jarvis doing a lot of the leg work for Tony in terms of design and creation while Tony is able to oversee its development and provide unique and innovative ideas.  It’s a stunning look into Tony’s creative process that I don’t think has been matched in a “Superhero getting their shit together” kind of scene, and side note is also shows how much money Tony is able to throw around just to invent some new tech without a care in the world.

Once some non-freezing metals and a new coat of paint have been implemented in the design, Tony sets his sights on his first mission and essentially the first opportunity to field test his new design for the suit.  It is here that we get, in my opinion, one of the finest if not the most satisfying suit up in all of the marvel cinematic universe.  It is awe-inspiring that this suit up makes so many top 10 videos on Youtube given that it is the first one that’s ever shown off in the universe.  The people at Industrial Light and Magic did a completely spectacular job with the CGI and the build up to this suiting up moment is handled expertly, flaunted somewhat during the test run of the Mark 2 but really goes into great detail here to show you how the suit works and becomes attached to Tony Stark.  The core design of this suit involves several pieces that knit themselves together and screw in with the help of the mechanical cradle that we see fitting the suit to Tony.  The cradle is colored in this incredible lemon yellow that looks positively industrial grade and just looks super cool.  I wish I could have a system like this at home to put on all of my clothes, I would get one no doubt.

Next thing we know we see Iron Man in Gulmira finally getting down to business and getting some much needed payback for his abduction, with the added bonus of saving many innocent lives in the area.  The 10 rings forces in Gulmira get absolutely demolished by Iron Man in this scene, with no extra music and great use of a handheld camera shot to further add realism to the moment.  It speaks volumes to me that Tony’s suit can handle the force of getting hit by a shell from a tank and absolutely shrug it off with no negative implications given to the audience.  We just accept that he is completely fine; a feat like this is unquestionably badass and the excitement is driven home entirely when we see a tiny rocket fired from his arm is enough to obliterate the 10 rings tank, offering us an extremely iconic image of Iron Man to boot.

The final test to Tony’s Mark 3 is then given here when Iron Man, seemingly on his way home after a job well done, is confronted by two F-22 Raptor jets, along with a team of military personnel working on the ground trying to figure out what the hell just attacked the terrorists in their battlefield.  What absolutely gets me every time is that this scene basically shows off what would happen if you dropped the real Iron Man suit in an active warzone and you get to see how the military would respond to a threat of this caliber.  As soon as the Iron Man suit appears on the radar of everyone at ground control, 2 raptors swoop in and star firing missiles and machine gun rounds at Tony.  It’s flipping awesome because we get to see all of the counter measures that Tony invented while creating the suit and all of the extra functions that it has, including the ability to move at super sonic speeds, deploy flares and spring air breaks, all in an effort to get out of the sights of 2 of the most advanced jets ever built by man.  It really takes the very best of the best for the military to attack and try to take down Tony; you really get the sense that the ground forces in Gulmira really stood no chance at all, given how poorly the Raptors fair against the Iron Man suit in this moment.

Rhodey gets real mad at Tony and after some back and forth, Tony accidentally causes the destruction of one of the F-22s.  What I love about this moment is how ground control and the other pilot of the second jet respond; they are still absolutely focused on taking down this still unknown threat.  They have absolutely no idea what it is and it just took down one of their freaking jets, which must be absurd and terrifying to them in a way.  Their training pays off and the second pilot is able to lock onto Tony and re-engage with him in the air.  I think this is awesome because it just really feels like such a grounded real world example of what would happen if you had to fight one of these suits in real life – you get the sense that these planes would get annihilated so quickly.  Hell Tony wasn’t even trying to hurt them with extra weapons or anything; his suit knocks into one of the planes and him and his suit come out unscathed, which is somewhat terrifying in a sense.  At the last minute, Tony is able to make the call to help the downed pilot by getting his parachute to release just in the knick of time.  This moment is paralleled somewhat by what Rhodey says earlier in that the pilot’s judgment mid flight is critical to the success of every mission.  Whereas JARVIS would have simply taken evasive maneuvers to avoid the line of fire from the second jet, it’s Tony’s quick decision making that lets the downed pilot live and he really becomes a hero in that moment.

That pretty much covers this Marvelous scene in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Thanks very much for watching.  If you like this video drop a like and consider subscribing to my channel, I’m looking to do more opinions, reviews and discussions on all things video game, tv and film related, so if you are interested in seeing more then definitely check back to my channel for future videos.  You can also subscribe to my let’s play channel What2PlayGaming, where my friend Medium Mike and our friends chat, hang out and play video games.  We upload weekly and are looking to make you laugh however we can.  Thanks again for watching and until next time, have a great day.