Iron Man 2 sees Tony Stark continuing to deal with both his identity as Iron Man and the health effects of the arc reactor core keeping him alive. A new villain, Ivan Vanko, emerges who can also build arc reactor technology. At the same time, Stark's rival Justin Hammer breaks Vanko out of prison and has him build a line of weaponized suits. This sets up a final showdown between Iron Man and Vanko's drones at Stark Expo.

1. Iron Man 2
Ben Wakeford

2. Synopsis
• In Russia, the media covers Tony Stark's disclosure of his identity as Iron Man. Ivan Vanko, whose father Anton Vanko has just
died, sees this and begins building a miniature arc reactor similar to Stark's. Six months later, Stark is a superstar and uses his
Iron Man suit for peaceful means, resisting government pressure to sell his designs. He re-institutes the Stark Expo
in Flushing Meadows to continue his father Howard's legacy.
• The palladium core in the arc reactor that keeps Stark alive and powers the armor is slowly poisoning him, and he cannot
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 CEO of Stark Industries, and hires Stark employee
Natalie Rushman as his personal assistant. Stark competes in the Monaco Grand Prix, where he is attacked in the middle of
the race by Vanko who wields electrified whips. Stark dons his Mark V armor and defeats Vanko, but the suit is severely
damaged. Vanko explains his intention was to prove to the world that Iron Man is not invincible. Impressed by Vanko's
performance, Stark's rival, Justin Hammer, fakes Vanko's death while breaking him out of prison and asks him to build a line
of armored suits to upstage Stark. During what he believes is his final birthday party, Stark gets drunk while wearing the
Mark IV suit. Disgusted, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes dons Stark's Mark II prototype armor and tries to
restrain him. The fight ends in a stalemate, so Rhodes confiscates the Mark II for the US Air Force.
• Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D.s director, approaches Stark, revealing "Rushman" to be undercover agent Natasha Romanoff and that
Howard Stark was a S.H.I.E.L.D. founder whom Fury knew personally. Fury explains that Vanko's father jointly invented the
arc reactor with Stark, but when Anton tried to sell it for profit, Stark had him deported. The Soviets sent Anton to the gulag.
Fury gives Stark some of his father's old material; a hidden message in the diorama of the 1974 Stark Expo proves to be a
diagram of the structure of a new element. With the aid of his computer J.A.R.V.I.S., Stark synthesizes it. When he learns
Vanko is still alive, he places the new element in his arc reactor and ends his palladium dependency.
• At the Expo, Hammer unveils Vanko's armored drones, led by Rhodes in a heavily weaponized version of the Mark II armor.
Stark arrives in the Mark VI armor to warn Rhodes, but Vanko remotely takes control of both the drones and Rhodes' armor
and attacks Iron Man. Hammer is arrested while Romanoff and Stark's bodyguardHappy Hogan go after Vanko at Hammer's
factory. Vanko escapes, but Romanoff returns control of the Mark II armor to Rhodes. Stark and Rhodes together defeat
Vanko and his drones. Vanko seemingly commits suicide by blowing up his suit.

3. Characters
• Tony Stark- Robert Downey JR
• Gwyneth Paltrow- Pepper Pots
• Don Cheadle as Lt. Col. James Rhodes
• Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanov
• Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer
• Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury

4. Kermode’s Rules
• Budget- $200 million
• ‘A list’ stars- Robert Downey Jr, Samuel L Jackson,
Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson.
• Slight comedy to it but it is not a comedy, it is
more an action movie.
• Large amounts of special effects are used it is also
high in action.
• The fact that the film succeeded and made
$623.9 million, this shows that the Kermode's
rules do apply to this film.

5. The Production company
• Iron man 2 was produced by the marvel studios
production company, this is the same as the other
marvel films. This means that the film is being
produced by the best people possible.
• This is a very large company and it makes some really
good films, the production company is a very large part
about whether the film succeeds or not, so the better
the production company normally the better the film
will be.
• Normally films produced by this production company
succeed as they have many fans of the movies they
produce already.

6. Distribution and Marketing
• For the Iron Man 2 film the distribution
company is Paramount pictures, this is a very
large production company which has also
done films like Transformers, The Godfather
and Jackass.
• Paramount is one of the ‘big six’ film studios in
Hollywood.

7. The importance of technological convergence
for institutions and audiences and how they
help the film industry.
• The improvement of technology is important for some
films to succeed, this is like a film being in 3D for
example. If the film is in 3D then people will expect it
to be full of action.
• Iron Man 2 was not in 3D but it does have quite a lot of
action in it. Some people feel that 3D is not the best to
put on lots of films, but it does look good on films such
as Avatar. This is a good example of technology
increasing the success of a film.
• The film generated $9.8 million from IMAX cinemas,
this is the highest amount from a 2D film shown in
IMAX surpassing Star Trek.