Chapter 149

"Tony? What's that noise?"

"Oh, I'm driving a convertible."

"Then why are you panting?"

"Oh, I'm jogging in a canyon."

"Weren't you driving?"

"That's right, I drove to the canyon to jog…"

Just then, two F-22s had already locked onto Iron Man!

The military ordered the jets to open fire!

Iron Man accelerated again, using supersonic flight to instantly shake off the most advanced 5th-gen fighter jets the U. S. military currently had!

This aerial combat sequence was equally tense and thrilling,

Xu Can referenced later aerial combat shots from "Top Gun: Maverick," "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," "The Wandering Earth 2," and others,

using his god-tier director's ultimate control of the camera to extract the essence and discard the dross,

ultimately fusing them into this improved version of the chase scene!

F-22 vs. Iron Man

Adrenaline surging!

A string of pursuit dogfights—Iron Man broke free from radar and vanished from the F-22s' field of vision.

Then he was actually clinging to the bottom of the jet (caff)! Everyone in the air force command post was scared half to death!

What the hell was that thing?

After toying with the F-22s, Tony Stark returned to his mansion. Facing Pepper Potts, he knew his mission.

"I have to protect those people, protect the people who fell into danger because of me."

It was this very sentence that sent Iron Man into life-and-death peril time and again, turning the tide in countless crises!

Of course, because his obsession was too strong, he also created quite a few crises himself.

Meanwhile, Obadiah Stane colluded with the terrorist group the Ten Rings, using the Mark 1's tech to build an even larger Iron Monger mech.

But he couldn't build a portable enough Arc Reactor.

So Obadiah, exploiting Tony's lapse, dug the life-saving reactor right out of his chest.

Tony Stark collapsed in despair onto the ground, and the audience in the theater gasped one after another.

At the critical moment, Tony saw the original reactor Pepper Potts had given him.

This foreshadowing thrilled the entire theater—Tony Stark has a warm heart! Literally, a heart!

By this point Pepper Potts had already obtained evidence of Obadiah's collusion with the enemy and his illegal arms trafficking.

She contacted that agent and hurriedly brought people to capture this traitor.

Obadiah had already obtained the reactor, installed it on the giant mech, and transformed into Iron Monger!

Ordinary agents couldn't stand against the giant steel mech. Just as Pepper Potts was about to fall into danger, Iron Man descended from the sky!

The two tangled in combat, fighting from the factory floor to the highway, then up into the sky.

This fight scene was different from Spider-Man's agility—two hunks of iron couldn't really pull off any acrobatics,

they went fist-to-flesh, the battle brimming with a sense of power and the texture of clashing steel!

Crisp, heavy impacts rang out one after another through the theater!

Though the final boss fight wasn't grand enough in scale, the combat was plenty spectacular!

Because the original reactor's energy was insufficient, Iron Monger gradually gained the upper hand.

Seeing things going badly, Tony hurriedly guided Iron Monger to fly higher into the sky!

The two kept climbing, blazing fire streaking across the night sky!

Iron Monger clearly had more power and had already caught up to Iron Man.

"You may be a genius, but my suit is more advanced than yours!"

"So, how do you solve the icing problem?"

"Huh?"

Full-body freezing shut Iron Monger down instantly, sending it plummeting!

Unfortunately, Iron Monger didn't die from the fall—its combat power still surpassed Iron Man's.

At the critical moment, Tony had Pepper Potts activate the large Arc Reactor below, luring Iron Monger to the glass dome.

Tony was now cornered with no way out; Iron Monger was on the verge of total victory.

By movie logic, villains always give a speech, only to be killed by the hero.

Everyone likes to roast this point—it really is a common movie disease.

But in reality, if many of us faced such a situation, we'd probably find it hard to avoid either.

A huge advantage, pushing past three lanes of high ground to the enemy crystal, the enemy team is in the death countdown, but stubbornly refuses to push the crystal, wanting to keep spawn-camping—only to be wiped out in one counterattack by the respawned opponents, ending the match.

Obadiah still wanted to taunt a few lines.

"How ironic! You wanted to avoid making weapons, yet you made the world's most powerful…"

Before he could finish, the reactor exploded instantly, an electric arc piercing the clouds! 【】

Iron Monger was utterly destroyed by the electric arc, its massive weight making it teeter on the brink of collapse!

Obadiah, in his final moments, still tried to grab Tony and drag him down to die together.

Who would have thought Tony's gauntlet could come off!

And so Obadiah fell into the reactor, engulfed in a sea of fire, not even leaving scraps to blast.

The villain brought about his own destruction.

……

The next day, Stark Industries held a press conference to explain the previous night's scenes of the superhero "Iron Man" and the large-scale mecha battle.

The incident caused an enormous uproar, and clips of the battle had already spread throughout society.

Facing the media's questions, Agent Coulson had prepared a speech for Tony—flawless, so that no one would suspect him.

The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division has now been simplified, called S. H. I. E. L. D.

Tony Stark stepped up to the podium, intending to explain things.

"I know yesterday's situation was terrible, and you may be implying that I have something to do with that superhero."

"I'm not cut out to be a superhero. I have plenty of character flaws, and I've made many mistakes…"

"In fact…"

He stared at the speech and fell silent.

Facing the packed crowd of reporters and their cameras, looking at the familiar faces, Tony Stark's gaze remained sharp.

"Could it be?"

"No way—is he really going to do that?"

"Wait, something seems off!"

The pause was very long. Xu Can even deliberately used the camera to slowly zoom in, giving Robert Downey Jr. an extreme close-up.

The audience in the venue gradually realized that something seemed off.

Could it be… Tony didn't intend to use some cliché way to sweep this incident under the rug?

The audience had already vaguely guessed the ending!

Sure enough, Tony Stark's next words would echo for ten years!

"I am—I am—Iron Man."

I am Iron Man!

The whole venue erupted!

The camera froze on Tony Stark's meaningful smile,

The film cut off abruptly! Clean and crisp!

This time it wasn't like The Dark Knight, where the whole audience fell into deep thought.

The moment the film ended, the audience had already erupted, rising together in applause!

Indeed, as the foundational work of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man was positioned as a commercial sci-fi action film—a popcorn blockbuster.

It did touch on some anti-war and individual heroism themes, and contained a wave of shady arms-dealing antics by the Eagle.

But fundamentally it was still about feeling good—ignite the audience's emotions, and that's a wrap!

As a commercial film, Iron Man won unanimous praise from the entire audience.