Iron Man 2

Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the sequel to Iron Man (2008) and the third film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Directed by Jon Favreau and written by Justin Theroux, the film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Six months after Iron Man, Tony Stark resists calls from the United States government to hand over the Iron Man technology, which is causing his declining health.

Meanwhile, Russian scientist Ivan Vanko (Rourke) uses his own version of the technology to pursue a vendetta against the Stark family.

Following the critical and commercial success of Iron Man in May 2008, Marvel Studios announced and immediately set to work on producing a sequel. In July, Theroux was hired to write the script and Favreau was signed to return as director.

Downey, Paltrow, and Jackson were set to reprise their roles from Iron Man, while Cheadle was brought in to replace Terrence Howard in the role of James Rhodes.

In the early months of 2009, Rourke (Vanko), Rockwell, and Johansson filled out the supporting cast. Filming took place from April to July 2009, mostly in California as in the first film, except for a key sequence in Monaco.

Unlike its predecessor, which mixed digital and practical effects, the sequel primarily relied on computer-generated imagery to create the Iron Man suits.

Iron Man 2 premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on April 26, 2010, and was released in the United States on May 7, as part of Phase One of the MCU.

The film received praise for its action sequences and performances, although critics deemed it to be inferior to the first film. The sequel grossed over $623.9 million at the worldwide box office, making it the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2010.

It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects. A sequel, Iron Man 3, was released on May 3, 2013.

Six months later, Stark has become a media superstar and resists pressure to turn over his armored suits to the government.

To continue the legacy of his father Howard, he re-institutes the Stark Expo in New York City’s Flushing Meadows–Corona Park.

Stark learns that the palladium core in the arc reactor that keeps him alive and powers the armor is slowly poisoning him, and he cannot find a substitute.

Growing increasingly reckless and despondent about his impending death, and choosing not to tell anyone about his condition, Stark appoints his assistant Pepper Potts as CEO of Stark Industries and hires Stark employee Natalie Rushman to replace her as his assistant.

Stark competes in the Monaco Historic Grand Prix, where he is attacked in the middle of the race by Vanko, who wields electrified whips powered by his arc reactor. Stark dons his armor and defeats Vanko, but the suit is severely damaged.

Vanko explains that he intended 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. Vanko decides that unmanned drones are a better idea.

During what he believes is his final birthday party, Stark gets drunk while wearing the Iron Man suit. Disgusted, Stark’s best friend, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes, dons Stark’s prototype armor and tries to restrain him.

The fight ends in a stalemate, and Rhodes confiscates the prototype armor for the U.S. Air Force. Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., approaches Stark. Fury reveals that “Rushman” is S.H.I.E.L.D.

agent Natasha Romanoff and that Fury personally knew Howard Stark, who was a founder of S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury explains that Vanko’s father and Howard invented the arc reactor together, but Howard had Anton deported when the latter tried to sell it.

The Soviets then sent Anton to the Gulag. Fury gives Stark some of his father’s old material. In a diorama of the 1974 Stark Expo, Stark finds a diagram of the atomic structure of a new element. With the aid of his A.I., J.A.R.V.I.S.

, Stark determines it can replace his arc reactor’s current palladium core, and successfully synthesizes it. When Stark learns that Vanko is still alive, he goes to Hammer’s expo.

As Hammer unveils Vanko’s armored drones, they are led by Rhodes in a heavily weaponized version of the prototype armor, dubbed “War Machine”.

Just as Stark arrives to warn Rhodes, Vanko takes remote control of all the drones and Rhodes’s armor and attacks Stark.

Hammer is arrested for breaking Vanko out of prison while Romanoff and Stark’s bodyguard Happy Hogan go after Vanko at Hammer’s factory. Vanko escapes, but Romanoff returns control of Rhodes’s armor to him.

Together, Stark and Rhodes defeat Vanko and his drones. Vanko dies by suicide by blowing up his suit and the drones. At a debriefing, Fury informs Stark that because of his difficult personality, S.H.I.E.L.D.

intends to use him only as a consultant moving forward. Stark and Rhodes receive medals for their heroism. In a post-credits scene, S.H.I.E.L.D.

agent Phil Coulson reports the discovery of a large hammer at the bottom of a crater in a desert in New Mexico.