“Iron Man” tells the story of weapons magnate Tony Stark, who goes from misanthropic merchant of death to philanthropic superhero. (Spoilers below.) He constructs a metallic robotic suit that enables him to fly, break down walls, and shoot various weapons. He fights terrorists in Afghanistan and an executive from his own company named Obadiah Stane who tries to wrest control from Stark. For a detailed plot summary go to the relevant Wikipedia page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
My high school English teacher, Mrs. Carpenter, used to say that meaning-making begins with title. So let’s start with the title – “Iron Man.”
I turned to http://www.dictionary.com for some assistance. It gives three definitions for “iron man:”
| 1. | a person, as a worker or athlete, of great physical endurance who can be depended upon to perform a given task or job tirelessly. |
| 2. | a machine that performs a job formerly done by hand; robot. |
| 3. | Slang. a dollar bill or a silver dollar. |
The first definition expresses the heroic nature of Iron Man. He does have incredible endurance as he proves early in the film when he is imprisoned by terrorists. Obadiah Stane, the disloyal Stark Industries executive, describes Tony Stark as a man who is always working.
The second definition, a machine or robot, captures another aspect of Iron Man. He represents a merging of robot and machine.
The third definition also has some relevance to the movie. Tony Stark is amazingly wealthy, being the second generation CEO of a multinational defense corporation. Stark is defined by his money. His virtues and his vices both flow from his immense wealth. His wealth enables him to build the suit that turns him into Iron Man. But his tendencies to drink, to gamble, and to philander are also products of his wealth.
Iron Man is a different kind of hero from someone like say, Superman. Superman was raised as Clark Kent, a Kansas farm boy. Iron Man grew up as the son of Howard Stark, a brilliant industrialist. In a flashback, the film reveals that Tony was a boy genius, graduating summa cum laude from M.I.T. at age seventeen. Blessed with wealth and genius, Stark is used to getting whatever he wants at an instant. One could say that he is addicted to instant gratification.
Does Iron Man represent America? Let’s look at the evidence. Today America is the world’s only superpower. Though it trails many other countries in the quality of its education, infrastructure and health care, it leads the world in military might. From time to time, it has taken on the role of international policeman, trying to mediate conflicts around the world.
Iron Man represents the paragon of military technology. He has agility and power. When he learns about a conflict going on in Afghanistan, he immediately flies over to intervene. He may not be a paragon of morality, but no one surpasses his military strength.
That is, no one except Obadiah Stane. Stane uses the resources of Stark Industries to build his own robotic exoskeleton to become Iron Monger. The name “Obadiah Stane” is quite telling. Obadiah is the name of a prophet and a book of the Old Testament. The book focuses on the topic of retribution. Obadiah feels betrayed by Stark when he decides to end his company’s defense business. Stane becomes Iron Monger to exact his revenge. And the surname “Stane” reminds us of how rage stains the heart.
The heart as metaphor recurs throughout the film. The explosion in Afghanistan at the movie’s beginning causes shrapnel to get stuck in Stark’s chest. Another prisoner, Yinsen, implants an electromagnet in his body to prevent the shrapnel from ripping his heart open. Stark replaces the device when he gets back to the U.S. His assistant, Pepper, helps him do the operation. He tells her to incinerate it, but she decides to keep it.
The explosion that leads to Stark being injured by one of his own weapons totally changes his worldview. Before the explosion, he thought his company was helping America stay safe and free. Afterwards, he realizes that his weapons are being misused by warlords to create misery around the world. One could say that he has a drastic change of heart. When he trusts Pepper to help in his operation, in a sense, he is giving his heart to her. When she keeps it, she encases it in glass with the message, “Proof That Tony Stark Has a Heart” next to it.
The film does not carry a strong pro-war or pro-peace message. At one point, a soldier poses for a picture with Stark and makes a peace sign with his fingers. Stark says, “No gang signs please. Just kidding, go ahead, I love peace.” The movie does question the extent to which better weapons actually make us safer. Any weapon can fall into the wrong hands so hoping that the latest weapon will end war is rather naïve. Yet it does allude to the nuclear bomb which has considerably helped to prevent a world war in the past sixty years. But we cannot forget the hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese civilians who died because of that bomb.
Ultimately the film is about redemption. Like many heroes (including Shane, Umar ibn al-Khattab (R), and Malcolm X), Iron Man breaks with an immoral past to try to bring about a brighter future.
-Asad Jaleel is a graduate student of the University of Illinois at Chicago who lives and teaches in Naperville, Illinois.
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