Iron Man (movie)
Genius industrialist Tony Stark builds weapons-plain and simple. He has little regard for the consequences and victims of his superior death-dealing technology as long as he gets to be the best at it. When he is captured and injured by the enemy in the Middle East after a weapons test, he builds a high-tech suit of armor to escape his captors that is powered by energy from an “arc reactor” inserted into his chest (a Tony Stark original super-creation). The reactor happens to have the capability of running his heart for fifty lifetimes (or running “something really big for fifteen minutes”) and is the only thing keeping him alive. After seeing the costs of his handiwork firsthand he uses this sophisticated technology to try to save the world and become a hero. But when coworker and trusted friend Obadiah Stane betrays Stark and gets a hold of his creations (the suit and reactor), Stark must stop him from abusing the technology and using it for his own gain.
The context for the depicted time is the same as the context for the time of production.
The movie is set in the present. With the current wars and disputes in Iraq and Afghanistan, there has been an acute increase over the past few years in the interest, invention, and use of bigger, better, and more efficient weapons and technology. The movie uses this explicitly (Tony is captured by a Middle Eastern terrorist group during an attack on a U.S. military convoy) to place the story right in the middle of real world conflicts, connecting the story to the modern audience. With the ongoing military weapons and technology fixation (that Tony is also a part of), the movie shows both the consequences of “bad” science and the morally appropriate use of science in general.
The story has an idealistic approach to science; it says that science should be used for the betterment of mankind and that the good scientist will always prevail, while also showing the consequences of greed and militaristic science.
Iron Man. Dir. Jon Farveau. Paramount Pictures, 2008.Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. London: Penguin Books, 1992.
This movie is a great example of how science and its products can be used for both good and evil and addresses the question of whether or not scientists have a moral responsibility to society to consider the consequences and use of science. The technology in question-the Iron Man suit-is shown as both good and bad in different hands. Tony Stark is the good scientist using science to save the world, and Obadiah Stane is the bad guy using science for nefarious means; one product of science has two opposite uses. This also brings up the question of, since this suit can do both wonderful and horrific things, whether this science should be used at all (a question of morality). Also, Tony’s valiant effort to right wrongs and stop Obadiah can be likened to a scientist accepting responsibility for the consequences of his actions, similar to Victor at the end of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Victor, after avoiding the blame for his and his creation’s actions, finally accepts responsibility for his misdeeds and attempts to rectify his mistakes (however late the attempts were); Tony accepts responsibility for what his weapons and technology has done and potentially can do and tries to stop Obadiah’s wicked plans for the suit from coming to fruition.