Iron Man: Rise of the Patriots

**Iron Man: Rise of the Patriots** is a 2008 superhero film set in the Marvel Media Franchise, the eighth film in the universe. It is also a sequel to *Iron Man*. The film stars Bradley Cooper, Bryce Dallas Howard, Mahershala Ali, Milo Ventimiglia, Emilia Clarke, James Marsden, Robert Downey Jr., and Aidan Gillen, and was released worldwide on August 29, 2008. The film ran 106 minutes and grossed $586.1 million on a $200 million budget.

## Plot

Two years after The Mandarin's attack on New York City, Tony Stark has been continuing as Iron Man saving people. He and Pepper Potts have had a stable relationship since then, while James "Rhodey" Rhodes has been working at Stark Industries, though he has broken up with Bethany Cabe in the time. Happy Hogan is still obviously angry at Tony for taking Pepper and is purposely doing bad at his job. Olivia has graduated and is preparing to join New York Univerisity. Tony learns his business rival Justin Hammer of Hammer Industries is preparing to launch a program that will monitor what all these new superheroes are doing, to make sure they don't cause harm. Tony realizes it will also reveal their identities to the public and decides to stop him.

Pepper calls S.H.I.E.L.D. but learns that the matter is for Fury to interfere on, not them, and Fury is off on business. Tony asks for a top-notch S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to help them out. However, they are surprised to meet Clint Barton, an arrogant archer going by the codename Hawkeye. Barton agrees to help but only because if Hammer's program goes through it will expose S.H.I.E.L.D., too. Tony, Rhodey, and Clint infiltrate Hammer's warehouse, guided by Pepper over ear-coms. Happy tries to find Tony but finds Pepper and she tells him to leave. He tries to get her to let him know what is going on but she forces him out. Tony, Rhodey, and Clint split up, with Rhodey finding the room with the patriots, the watchers in the program. Clint is almost caught but escapes to the room, where Tony has already made his way to.

They steal one of the patriots and bring it back to Stark Industries to experiment on it. They manage to rewire the software and discover the key to disabling the program but someone will have to go in who knows how to hack. Pepper volunteers to seduce her way in and rewire the system to clear the program. Tony traces back the program data and learn it was made by Howard Stark, his father, in an attempt to stop Captain America. Pepper makes her way in and after using a guard to get her into the tech room, she knocks him unconscious and destroys the suit and the program data, making it impossible to recreate. Pepper leaves but is caught Hammer and taken to a prison in his building. Tony and Clint leave to save her but on their way up from the Stark Industries basement, the elevator collapses, knocking both of them unconscious. Rhodey uses one of the patriot suits to escape the basement and leave to save Pepper.

Rhodey makes his way to Hammer Industries where he finds Pepper. He fights off the guards until Hammer arrives in his own, upgraded patriot suit. The two fight until Rhodey is near-death. Pepper begs him to stop until everyone in the building has evacuated besides Pepper, Rhodey, Hammer, and his guards. Pepper contacts S.H.I.E.L.D. and gives them the safecode "Breakout" before she and Rhodey are extracted by S.H.I.E.L.D. Hammer tries to go after them but S.H.I.E.L.D. bombs the building, killing Hammer, his guards, and everything related to the program. Rhodey is given medical attention before returning with Pepper to the base. Tony congratulates Rhodey on his job, who decides to go by the name "War Machine" and help out Tony. Happy reveals he is leaving the city and his job. Tony tries to get him to stay, but he leaves. Olivia says goodbye to everyone before going off to NYU.

In a mid-credits scene, Clint returns to S.H.I.E.L.D. where he reveals Tony as a good candidate but Rhodey is off. In a post-credits scene, Olivia enters NYU where she is met by Obadiah Stane, who claims to have been good friends with her father.

## Cast

* Bradley Cooper as Tony Stark/Iron Man
* Bryce Dallas Howard as Pepper Potts
* Mahershala Ali as James Rhodes/War Machine
* James Marsden as Clint Barton/Hawkeye
* Milo Ventimiglia as Happy Hogan
* Emilia Clarke as Olivia Stark
* Robert Downey Jr. as Justin Hammer
* Aidan Gillen as Howard Stark

## Production

After the major commercial success of *Iron Man*, a sequel was immediately announced by Marvel. Cooper, Howard, Ali, Ventimiglia, and Clarke had signed on for another *Iron Man* film, while Samuel L. Jackson signed on for ten total films in the franchise, and would not be returning, along with Liam Neeson. The film's release date was announced for August 29, 2008. Jon Favreau had already signed on to film a sequel, while Marvel hired Justin Theroux to write the film based on a story by Favreau and Cooper. The film began casting in early 2007, with filming saisd to begin in fall or winter of that same year. James Marsden was the first new actor cast, cast in the role of Clint Barton/Hawkeye, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. In June, Robert Downey Jr. was cast as the main villain, Justin Hammer, while by September, Aidan Gillen had been cast as Howard Stark, Tony and Olivia's father. Filming began on November 7, 2007 and ended on March 30, 2008. The film was released on schedule, on August 29, 2008.

## Reception

### **Box office**

*Iron Man: Rise of the Patriots*grossed the equivalent of $417,722,300 in countries other than Canada and the US, where it grossed $168,368,427, to give a total of $586,090,727.

### **Critical reception**

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 65% based on 282 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Brutal and breathless, *Iron Man: Rise of the Patriots* delivers tender emotions along with frenetic action, though it cannot seem to capture the charm of the cast from the original." On Metacritic, which assigns an average rating to reviews, the film has a score of 58 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".