Why Iron Man 1 Has The Best Opening Scene

Iron Man 1 has the best opening scene in the whole of the MCU.

If we think about the goal of an opening scene, and looking with hindsight, the first film of a cinematic universe that had to succeed or else the company goes bankrupt, then we can see that Iron Mans hit’s all the marks. It is a masterclass in how to craft a perfect character introduction whilst playing with stakes and tension.

Iron Mans Opening Scene Makes us Love Tony Stark

Iron Man 1 opens with a military convey driving through a warzone. As an audience, we don’t know the context of the warzone or any of the characters at this point, but we bring our pre-existing knowledge of warzones to the scene. This is to say, that this is probably not a great place to be, and the situation will be somewhat tense.

Our first encounter with Tony Stark is through military personal sneaking glances at him and smiling like a child before looking away. We then see a glass of whiskey being held still against the rocking of the vehicle before we are finally shown Tony Stark. He then begins making quips about his current situation and the scene begins.

This method of introducing Tony tells us that he is an important character and has the respect of the military personnel, who would normally be the more respected party. The whisky glass shows us that Tony Stark isn’t worried or concerned about being in a potentially dangerous environment which adds to his power over his environment. His power is reinforced by him calling the military personnel by their names but them calling him sir. Whilst this is most likely just standard procedure, it does add to Tony’s power over them.

Tony starts making remarks about how he feels like he’s going to be executed, which shows extreme confidence to be making self-depreciating remarks, and then mistakes a woman for a man. This would usually be a very embarrassing situation but Tony plays along with it and it adds to his character.

From this short interaction alone, we know that Tony Stark is a very respected person, is very confident, and is the centre of attention. All of this is established in about 1.5 minutes.

The Balance of Power is Constantly Changing During the Attack

Up until this point, Tony Stark has had the power and control over the situation despite being surrounded by trained military personnel. The film spends 1.5 minutes building him up before it brings him crashing down very quickly.

Tony loses all power the moment the convey is attacked and we see him cowering and taking orders from the soldiers. He’s asking what’s going on, he’s terrified, and he doesn’t want to be left alone. This is in stark (lol) contrast to the control that he had over the soldiers just a few seconds ago.

This scene does a great job of playing with power balances with Tony having and then losing power/control over the situation. We see him lose power as he is now under the protection of the soldiers and then forced to stay inside. He then regains some power as he chooses to leave the safety of the vehicle to find safety on his own. He’s scared, but he’s taking action and is regaining control of the scene. This makes us respect Tony as he’s not just a pushover and he will take matters into his own hands when he needs to.

Tony being attacked by his own missile is genius because its puts us in his shoes as he realises what’s going on. As the attack begins, a soldier yells “protect Stark” which would have told us who he is for anyone who didn’t know. Seeing “Stark Industries” on the missile then connects the dots together in our heads as to the irony of the scene.

The scene ends with him bleeding out in the dirt and then being captured by terrorists. This is a nice ending as it shows how much power he’s lost and makes the next scene more powerful.

The Awards Ceremony lets us Know How Far Tony has Fallen

Whilst it’s not the opening scene, I feel that the awards ceremony scene is the perfect scene to follow up the brilliant opening. This scene begins 36 hours prior with an introductory video about Tony Stark and his achievements in life before he’s set to receive an award. Not only is this a great way of giving the audience all the necessary background on the character without it being pointless exposition, but it also let’s us see how far Tony starks situation is.

The video only talks about his achievements and how brilliant he is whilst only briefly talking about his setbacks in life. This again reinforces the idea that he was once great but is now in a very bad situation. The video also fleshes out many of his character traits, especially his engineering and mechanical abilities.

The genius part is when the video celebrates just how far Tony has advanced weapons technology when we know that his weapons have caused him to be captured by terrorists. It’s an amazing piece of meta play between the film and the audience.

On a side note, I love how this video subtly sets up the main antagonist. We’re told that Obadiah took over the company after its original founder died and was then replaced by Tony once he came of age. We don’t yet know what Tony and Obadiah’s relationship is like, but we can also see a situation where Obadiah is upset with Tony for being the face of the company purely due to his father and not necessarily due to his contributions.

Overview

• The opening scene of Iron Man 1 establishes Tony as a very respected person by placing him amongst military personnel and having him be calm and jokey
• This scene constantly changes the dynamics of power which creates a lot of tension but also characterizes Tony as we see him in several different states
• The Video is a great way of giving us backstory whilst also showing us how far Tony has fallen. It also subtly sets up the big bad

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