Staring – Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stephanie Szstak, James Badge Dale, Jon Favreau, Ben Kingsley
Tony Stark remembers a New Years Eve party where he meets a scientist Maya Hansen who has invented Extremis which is a regenerative treatment to help recovery from crippling injuries. A disabled scientist Aldrich Killian who offers them a role at his company Advanced Idea Mechanics, but Stark rejects this and humiliates Killian.
In the present day (6 months after the events in the Avengers), Stark is having nightmares and panic attacks related to the battle. He spends a lot of time building Iron man suits rather then spending time with his girlfriend Pepper Potts.
There is a series of bombs which are claimed by a terrorist known as the Mandarin, but no one knows who he is. Starks chief of security Happy Hogan is seriously injured in one of the attacks which leads Stark to issue a televised threat to Mandarin. Starks home is then destroyed by helicopters. Pepper managed to escape by putting on an Iron Man suit along with Maya who came to warn them. Stark escapes separately in one of his suits but doesn’t tell them he alive, meaning most of the world believes he is dead.
Stark travels to Tennessee and meets up with a 10 year old Iron Man fan called Harley who helps him out by mentioning a local attack which is similar to the others. Stark discovers that the bombing as actually people combusting after they have been subjected to Extremis and the terrorist plot was used as a cover-up for Extremis’s flaws.
Harley helps Stark track Mandarin to Miami and Stark sneaks in to their HQ and discovers Mandarin is just an actor called Trevor Slattery who claims to be unaware of what is being done in the name of his character.
Killian then reveals he is the real Mandarin and captures Stark. He shows Stark that he has already kidnapped Pepper and is subjecting her to the Extremis treatment to force Stark to fix the flaws in the programme to save his girlfriend
Killian trapes James Rhodes (formerly War Machine now called the Iron Patriot) and steals the armour. Stark escapes and finds Rhodes. They discover that Killian wants to kill the President on Air Force One. Stark manages to use his suit to save a number of passengers before the plane crashes, but Killian gets the President.
Stark and Rhodes trace him to an oil platform, and Stark goes to save Pepper and Rhodes goes to save the President. Stark summons many of his suits and Rhodes saves the President. Stark finds Pepper who has survived the Extremis procedure, but before he can save her the rig starts to collapse and she falls into a fireball.
Stark manages to trap Killian into one of his Iron Man suits and makes it self destruct, but the Extremis means he survives and he then starks to attack Stark. Pepper who survived her fall due to Extremis hits Killian with a pole, killing him but saving Stark.
Stark orders his computer JARVIS to destroy each suit to prove he cares more about Pepper than he does about being Iron Man. Pepper’s condition is stabilised and Stark undergoes an operation to remove the shrapnel near his heart. he then throws the chest arc reactor into the sea but says that he will always be Iron Man.
There is a post credit scene with Stark talking to Dr Bruce Banner who has fallen asleep listening to the story.
DVD extras – behind the scenes feature and preview to Thor Dark World
7/10