Ellen Brandt

: "You walked right into this one. I've dated hotter chicks than you.""Is that all you've got? A cheap trick and a cheesy one-liner?""Sweetheart, that could be the name of my autobiography."
: ―Tony Stark and Ellen Brandt[src]
Ellen Brandt was a United States Army veteran and amputee, who was consulted by Aldrich Killian to participate in A.I.M.'s Extremis experiments. Soon after, Brandt became one of Killian's agents, assigned to cover up a conspiracy connecting Chad Davis' death to an explosion in Rose Hill and the Mandarin terrorist attacks. Brandt worked with Eric Savin to capture Tony Stark after he survived the destruction of his home, but was killed by him in the process.
== Biography ==
=== Early Life ===
==== Losing an Arm ====
Ellen Brandt was an amputee, who lost her lower left arm while fighting in the United States Armed Forces.
=== Working for A.I.M. ===
==== Undergoing Extremis ====
: "Will you please state your name for the camera?""Ellen Brandt."
: ―Aldrich Killian and Ellen Brandt[src]
Brandt was approached by Aldrich Killian to act as one of the test subjects for the experimental Extremis. She accepted and joined A.I.M.. On June 25, 2009, Brandt's first Extremis infusion took place and she endured the pain long enough for her body to accept the compound, watching it regrow her missing limb. A fellow trial subject was not so lucky and exploded in her vicinity, yet Brandt was able to recover and subsequently entered into the service of Killian.
==== Battle of Rose Hill ====
: "Why don't you get on the horn to Nashville and uh, upgrade me?""Alright, you know what? I was hoping to do this the smart way, but uh... the fun way's always good."
: ―Rose Hill Sheriff and Ellen Brandt[src]
One of Brandt's assignments was to recover a set of documents from a Rose Hill bar that detailed the death of another Extremis subject, Chad Davis, in that area. On her way to retrieve them from Davis' mother, she encountered Tony Stark, who observed the burns on her face, and her hair concealing them. Brandt lightheartedly acknowledged Stark's limited edition Dora the Explorer watch he was wearing, before the two parted ways.
Unbeknownst to her, Stark was in Rose Hill to search for the documents himself, and had already collected them from Davis. Brandt, posing as a Homeland Security agent, barged inside and handcuffed Stark in front of the town Sheriff, claiming she was making an arrest. When the Sheriff got suspicious, Brandt resorted to using her Extremis powers to heat up her badge and burn the Sheriff's face, seizing his deputy’s sidearm and using it to kill both of them before pursuing Stark.
When Stark threw himself through the window of a nearby diner to avoid being shot at by Eric Savin, Brandt seized a shotgun from another bar patron after incapacitating him and opened fire on Stark herself, although missing. Brandt snuck up on Stark in the diner, and the two fought. Stark used her exothermal powers to his advantage, putting Brandt in a stranglehold with the handcuffs long enough for them to burn off her neck when her healing abilities took effect.
While Brandt was stunned, Stark used his ingenuity to create a trap; he started a fire using the heated metal from his broken handcuffs and a jerry can of kerosene. Brandt walked through the fire, incinerating her skin, although her Extremis abilities allowed her to survive. Stark made a quip assuming she wouldn't walk out alive, only to be shocked when Brandt emerged and began recovering from her sustained injuries, as her skin started to regenerate.
Brandt mocked Stark for his cheap attempt to kill her and his one-liner, to which he sarcastically replied that her remark could be the name of his autobiography before running away. Brandt realized that Stark had engineered a second trap by heating the metal dog tags from Chad's file in a microwave, and rigging it to an exposed gas line. The microwave exploded directly beside her, killing Brandt and throwing her lifeless corpse into nearby power cables.
== Powers and Abilities ==
=== Powers ===
* Artificially Enhanced Physiology: Thanks to Extremis, Brandt displayed various superhuman abilities, such as strength, agility, an enhanced healing factor, and the ability to generate intense heat.
** Superhuman Strength: Extremis enhanced Brandt's muscles to the point of being able to toss Tony Stark around with ease.
** Superhuman Agility: Extremis enhanced Brandt's agility. She was able to quickly disarm a man and fight a couple of sheriffs.
** Superhuman Stamina: Brandt fought Tony Stark for a fairly long time without getting tired before he blew up a microwave, sending her into a telephone wire.
** Superhuman Reflexes: Extremis allowed Brandt to dodge Tony Stark's blows while she fought him.
** Regenerative Healing Factor: Due to the effects of Extremis, Brandt managed to regrow her missing limb and withstand many other injuries that would have killed an ordinary human being, such as walking directly through a fire.
** Heat Generation: Brandt could consciously raise the temperature of her body through Extremis. The effect can be controlled to the extent that it might only scorch skin, or increased to the point where it can cause steel to turn into a molten state. Brandt used it to super-heat a metal law enforcement badge and burn the face of a sheriff who got in her way of capturing Stark. When Tony Stark tried to strangle her with his hand cuffs, she heated up her neck to break the cuffs.
=== Abilities ===
* Combatant: Due to being a former member of the United States Armed Forces, Brandt is quite skilled in hand-to-hand combat, able to pin down and nearly kill a handcuffed Tony Stark. She easily overtook a sheriff as well.
* Marksman: As a former soldier, Brandt was a capable marksman with different types of firearms. She quickly utilized a sheriff's pistol to kill both him and his deputy and nearly took down Stark with a shotgun.
== Equipment ==
=== Weapons ===
* Kimber Custom: The side-arm used by the Rose Hill Sheriff and his deputies. Brandt took it from a deputy in Rose Hill and shot both him and the Sheriff.
* Remington 870: Brandt took this shotgun from one of Rose Hill's citizens before he could attack her with it, and used it to shoot at Tony Stark while he tried to hide inside a diner.
== Relationships ==
=== Allies ===
* A.I.M.
** Aldrich Killian † - Leader
** Eric Savin †	
=== Enemies ===
* Tony Stark/Iron Man † - Attempted Victim and Killer
* Mrs. Davis - Contact
* Rose Hill Sheriff † - Victim
* Deputy † - Victim
== Trivia ==
* In the comics, Ellen Brandt is the ex-wife of Man-Thing and the scar on her left cheek is a reference to the scar Man-Thing created by his acid.
== Behind the Scenes ==
* Brandt was originally conceived as Aldrich Killian's main henchman and was intended to return at the end of the Battle on the Norco only to be killed by Pepper Potts. However, it was decided to reassign the henchman role to Eric Savin and replace Brandt for Killian at the climax to give the latter a chance to reveal that he was the "Mandarin."
* Tara Macken was a stunt double for Stéphanie Szostak in the role of Ellen Brandt.
== References ==
The Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki has a collection of images and media related to Ellen Brandt.
# ↑ Marvel Studios' The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline
# ↑ Jump up to:2.0 2.1 2.2 Iron Man 3
# ↑ Iron Man 3 - Audio Commentary
== External Links ==
* Ellen Brandt on Marvel Database