Goofs for
Iron Man (2008) More at IMDbPro »

• Crew or equipment visible: In the movie clip after the credits, you can see the reflection of the camera man in the picture frames.
  
  
• Factual errors: Stark is said to have graduated from MIT summa cum laude, but MIT does not graduate people with honors.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Stark is lying on the table and asking Pepper to remove the power cell from his chest, the prosthetic chest used for the effect is moving up and down to simulate his breathing. If you watch Downey Jr.'s upper chest you can clearly see that his actual breathing is out of sync with that of the prosthetic chest.
  
  

• Continuity: When Tony Stark drives his Audi R8 to Disney Hall for the benefit event, there is no front license plate affixed to the vehicle. However, when he pulls up to the entrance, his "STARK4" vanity plate is clearly visible on the front of the car.
  
  
• Continuity: When Tony Stark is being interviewed by Christine Everhart, his goatee is small, thin, and pointed, and his mustache appears almost drawn-on. The following morning, after seducing her, his goatee and mustache have grown, becoming round and full, in far too little time to be natural.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Several of the devices in Tony's home display live transcriptions of what Tony says. In some cases, the transcript appears slightly before Tony says the words.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Tony asks Pepper to exchange the power cell in his chest the black and white leads of the ECG monitor are reversed.
  
  
• Continuity: When Tony Stark is working at his computer, his coffee mug is upside down. In the next shot, it is right side up and partially filled with coffee.
  
  
• Continuity: When Pepper brings a cup of coffee balanced on a brown paper wrapped parcel, the parcel is on its side (taped ends are horizontal, box is on its longer side). When Tony later moves the coffee mug and proceeds to unwrap the parcel, the taped ends are now at the top rather than the side (it's resting on its shorter side).
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): One of the Air Force personnel says that an "AWAC" is in the area. "AWACS" is an acronym (Airborne Warning and Control System) and it is incorrect to refer to a single AWACS aircraft as an "AWAC."
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the terrorists are filming Tony Stark's hostage video, the blank firing plug is very visible through the slits on the flash suppressor of the rifle being held to his head.
  
  
• Continuity: Stark secures his upgraded power supply in his chest by turning it clockwise (from our point of view) until it clicks into place. When Stane steals it, he also turns it clockwise to unlock and remove it, instead of counterclockwise.
  
  
• Continuity: The amount of grain on the bags that Yinsen is lying on in the cave changes in between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Yinsen is showing Tony the picture of the Jerico the terrorist wants him to build, his hand position holding the picture changes between the in-front and point-of-view shots.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Crew are visible in the reflection of Yinsen's glasses outside of the cave when Tony "agrees" to create the Jericho missile.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Pepper is replacing the miniature arc reactor in Tony's chest, the prosthetic chest piece used to make a hole for the reactor to go in is clearly seen. The edge of the vest is a different shade of skin than his actual arm.
  
  
• Continuity: During the scene when Raza is threatening Yensin, he picks up all of the papers with designs for the Mark I and when he places them back, there are other papers sitting there as if he hadn't picked them all up.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the "Jericho" rocket explodes in the distance, an explosion is heard, this is not possible due to the speed of sound being much slower than the speed of light.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Tony's mustache alternates between a real mustache and an applied prosthetic, throughout the film.
  
  
• Continuity: In the extended ambush scene, when the first turret gunner on Rhode's Humvee is killed, the machine gun is an M-240. When Rhodes mans the gun, it's changed to a 50-cal.
  
  
• Continuity: In the opening scene where Tony Stark is in the "funvee" with AC/DC playing, drink in hand, there's some kind tape glue residue (like duct tape would leave) on his window that is inconsistently visible between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: While Stark is working on the flight stabilizers, Pepper brings down a box with a cup of coffee on top of it. Following that, Stark eventually goes upstairs, talks with Stane, comes back down, finishes the stabilizers, tests them, builds the entire prototype suit, test flies it, returns and picks the coffee up off the top of the box. Steam can be seen coming off the cup even though it's probably hours, if not days, old.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the movie, JARVIS gives Tony the altitude record of the SR-71 Blackbird as 85,000 feet, but this is only the Operational Ceiling, with the maximum altitude of 100,000 feet.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Newspaper clipping dated Friday December 17 2001, during the award ceremony telling about Stark's parents' death. However, December 17 2001 was a Monday.
  
  
• Continuity: When Pepper is helping Tony replace the power source in his chest, her hand alternates from dry to wet to dry to wet again with the "pus".
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Outside the press conference, Tony pulls one Burger King cheeseburger out of the bag Hogan is holding and is seen finishing it in the next scene when he is walking to the podium. But, when Tony is seated and begins talking about his father, he pulls the cheeseburger out of his pocket and begins eating it. When Stan asked if he had one for him, Stark replied that there was only one left, suggesting he bought more than one. In fact, he did buy more than one burger as he was finishing one when he was getting out of the car. There is a good chance that he placed one in his coat pocket before reaching for the last one in the bag. When Stane asked him if he had one for him he had one open in his hand getting ready to eat it and one in his pocket for to eat later.
  
  
• Factual errors: Stark falls off of one plane and another plane flies through him shearing off its left wing. The plane immediately starts a clockwise roll as if the right wing's weight would cause the right side of the plane to dip. In actuality the plane would roll counter clockwise because the only lift is from the right wing so it would rise.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the beginning sequence when Tony Stark is in Afghanistan riding in a HMMWV without armor protection with several US Air Force Airmen. An up armored HMMWV's doors have very thick armor and glass. You can tell by looking at the blast holes in the side of the vehicle this is not an armored variant of the HMMWV. This is almost impossible. Months after the US military attacked Afghanistan a General Order was made that prohibited non up-armored HMMWV's from leaving any base camps. Certainly, if Tony Stark was traveling with the US military he would have been afforded the highest level of security.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The Afghan people speak in Arabic which is wrong. In fact, Afghan people speak in Ordu, Pashtu and Farsi, not Arabic. However, Yinsen tells Tony that the group that captures him speak many different languages. So any Afghan people talking in a different language than their own is plausible.
  
  
• Factual errors: Rhody wears his MIT class ring (The Brass Rat) backward, with the rat (really a beaver) facing him. Undergraduates wear the ring facing them. After graduation, they turn the ring around.
  
  
• Continuity: In the first scene were the two Humvee's are traveling in the desert. As the 1st Humvee explodes, the shot quickly jumps to outside showing the exploding Humvee with the 2nd behind it. Then the shot quickly changes again showing the 2nd Humvee in front of the exploded one. Then it changes back to a view from within the 2nd Humvee and the exploded one is in front of it again.
  
  
• Factual errors: Though it makes for a good kidnapping, in reality, US soldiers are specifically trained to never to stop when ambushed in a convoy.
  
  
• Continuity: During the movie that Pepper's bangs vary in length. At the party, Pepper's bangs are short and fall just above her eyes. During the fight sequence while Pepper is with the government agents, her bangs are short and barely able to be pushed behind her ears. But the following day when she is helping Tony prepare for the press conference her hair is longer as if she never had bangs in the first place.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Shortly after Tony gets back, he and Stane are walking to the arc reactor and Stane has a cigar. Stane accidentally touches the end of the cigar, which should have burned him.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: A magazine cover announces that Tony Stark 'takes the reigns' at his company, rather than the correct 'reins'. Some people have suggested that the this could be a pun made by the magazine, however wordplay of this type would need to make contextual sense in order to be used by a Forbes. In this particular context, 'reigns' is clearly incorrect.
  
  
• Factual errors: The lead F-22 Raptor pursuing Iron Man is firing a 30mm GSh-30-1 cannon. The rate of fire is insufficiently fast for a Raptor's actual cannon armament, the 20mm M61A2 Vulcan.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the opening scene a rocket is seen burrowing into the dirt next to Tony before exploding. The warhead is clearly blue and likely a Mk 153 SMAW round. Any munition in use with the military that is blue (such as the SMAW Common Practice Round) is used for the sole purpose of training and would therefore not explode.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The woman holding her son in the scene where Iron Man saves the villagers by shooting darts on the bad guys has a French manicure.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Tony states that calculations "always are [correct]". Yet twice in the film (when he first tests the boots and gauntlets) he drastically underestimates their force.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: CNBC's two streaming tickers indicate the exchange stocks are traded on. The upper is NYSE, the lower is NASDAQ. Stark Industries has a three letter symbol, indicative of an NYSE listing but the quotes are displayed on both tickers amongst fictional companies named after Mad Money production staff.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Yinsen asks Tony Stark about the first arc discharge reactors capacity, Stark gives it in gigajoules per second. From this Yinsen calculates that it could sustain his heart for fifty lifetimes. This deduction is impossible, as total running time of a device requires knowledge of total energy produced and not just instantaneous power which Joules per second describes. However, this is not a goof, as Yinsen may have seen some calculations of Stark's and with this new information, reached his conclusion.
  
  
• Continuity: When "Yinsen" is pouring the melted palladium. You will see he has poured it and turned back up the casting cup. Then when it switches back he is seen finish pouring the palladium again.
  
  
• Continuity: When Tony Stark is showing Yinsen the schematic for the Iron Man suit, you can clearly see the newly made mini arc reactor glowing in his shirt. Then in the next scene it shows them placing the one in he just made before that scene.
  
  
• Continuity: At the end of the movie, Pepper Potts removes Tony Stark's handkerchief, fixes it, and replaces it in his breast pocket. When Stark appears for the press conference, he no longer has a handkerchief in his pocket.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Tony reveals the power generation of the first arc reactor he uses in his chest, he gives it in Gigajoules per second. Since the reactor is generating this much power per second, the amount of power available to the suit in the ending battle should not be dropping steadily, but should be constant until the reactor stops generating power It is implied earlier in the film that an arc reactor works for decades, as there hadn't been a development in "30 years" and they'd built the one they have to "shut the hippies up", so Stark should not run out of power in the climactic battle.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Rhodey talks about UAV's as not having the experience or instinct of a pilot. In reality, UAV's are not completely autonomous, but piloted from a command area by a person and thus these arguments against UAV's are void. Rhodey would know this as it's commonly available knowledge.
  
  
• Continuity: When miniature arc reactor is first implanted into Tony Stark's chest in the cave, the reactor occupies his entire chest. Subsequent scenes throughout the movie show the reactor being smaller.
  
  

• Factual errors: SPOILER: Ironman encounters icing on his suit at his greatest altitude and assumes that the higher he flies the more likely Iron Monger will suffer from icing. Icing only occurs in visible moisture, cloud, fog or rain, of which there was none, plus it only occurs at temperatures of TAT +10 degrees C or below and above a static air temperature of -40 deg C. As Ironman was not in visible moisture and at the altitude that was quoted the air temp would be below -40, then there would have been no icing (and incidentally would be more likely to ice up on descent if he passed through clouds on his way down with the cold temperature of the suit).
  
  
• Plot holes: SPOILER: The terrorists capture Tony Stark and insist he build them a Jericho missile. Later in the movie, it is discovered that Obediah is selling the Jericho missile to the very same terrorists. If Stark Industries was selling the Jericho missile to the terrorists, why would the terrorists insist on Tony Stark building them one? This very request paved the way for Tony Stark to build the Iron Man suit in the cave.
  
  

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