Corrected entry: Iron man rescues a man who is about to be executed in front of his family. Before the relieved son runs up to his father you see a shot of the wife with her two children. The scene takes place in an poor afghan mountain village. Still the mother manages to display a set of perfectly manicured fingernails. (01:17:55)
Corrected entry: In Tony's workshop is a silver clock resting on a shelf with his model airplanes. At one point, this clock is stopped reading a little after midnight (a stopped clock is a common technique used by filmmakers to keep continuity problems to a minimum between shots,) and it is rational that Tony would display the clock for its artistic or sentimental value even if it was broken, but later the clock reads about ten past nine, showing that someone has changed the time.
Correction: If it's later, it is possible someone changed the time for whatever reason. Since it is later, and not the same series of shots, it's not a mistake. Or, it just doesn't work properly. I have a clock on my wall that reads slow, and I just got tired of always correcting it, so it usually shows the wrong time. It's just decorative.
Corrected entry: When Iron Monger throws Iron Man into the bus and it explodes, an Audi R8 suddenly appears on the road. This is explained in the deleted scenes, where Rhodes drives an Audi R8 into Iron Monger to help Tony, but still a mistake in the finshed movie.
Correction: Though explained in deleted scenes this could also be seen to the audience as just someone else with the car in the wrong spot at the wrong time.
Corrected entry: The broadcast of the news conference at the end of the movie has Lt. Col. Rhodes listed as "Col. James Rhodes". He is a Lt. Col, because of the silver oak leaf cluster. In an official capacity a Lt. Col. would not be referred to as a full Colonel. (01:48:50)
Correction: News broadcasts in the real world frequently make mistakes, so it can't really be considered an error when the news media in a movie makes a mistake as well.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Stark is riding in an Air Force convoy that begins to take on small arms fire, one of the troops shouts "Contact Left!" This is to tell everyone else where the hostile contact is coming from so that they don't expose themselves directly to enemy fire. In this scenario all occupants would exit the right side of the vehicle where there is cover and return fire. The driver of that vehicle jumps out on the left side which is absolutely not the way Air Force combat troops are trained - beyond a simple character mistake. (I would know, I am one and I've been there.) It's no surprise that the driver is immediately shot.
Correction: It's not far fetched that an inexperienced soldier would panic and go against his/her training and do something crazy like jump in the line of fire. I would know this, I've seen it many times.
Corrected entry: When Tony is having his chest generator replaced Pepper pulls out the magnet. When he has to use the old generator again after the new one is stolen the magnet is not replaced.
Corrected entry: During the scene where Tony finally successfully flies in the garage. One of the robotic arms has a camera on it. This camera is a Phantom brand high speed camera. All of these cameras only have connections for power and video in the back of the camera, but there is nothing connected to it.
Corrected entry: When Pepper helps Tony stark get his new electromagnet into his chest, you can see when Pepper fits it in, Tony locks it in place, turning it to the right. When Obediah takes it out, he turns it to the right - the same direction Tony used to lock it in place.
Correction: Many devices use this type of locking mechanism. Turning the device in one direction locks, then unlocks, then locks the device, similar to a ratchet. Since we never see inside Tony's chest we have to accept that the movement is correct.
Corrected entry: When we first see the operation where Tony had Pepper take the chest thing out, before she takes it out, it pops out about a half an inch past the metal case that holds it. Later, we see that Pepper has displayed it in a glass case. Later,(SPOILER) when Obediah takes Tony's newer one out, Tony finds the one that Pepper displayed and puts it into his chest. This time, the same chestpiece that popped out a couple of days ago now sinks just below the rim of the metal case inside Tony's chest.
Correction: Pepper pulls out the first chest piece then pulls out the circular electromagnet that it was resting on. When Stark puts the original chest piece back in it is no longer resting on the magnet, so it sinks deeper into the chest socket.
Corrected entry: Why do the jihadis in the beginning want Stark to make them the jericho missile system? They obviously were able to buy it from Obidiah anyway.
Correction: This is a question about character choices, not a mistake.
Corrected entry: In the scene that shows Pepper Potts helping stark install his new heart, she pushes it in his chest, then turns it to the right. How would she know she had to turn it after putting it in?
Correction: This is a question, not a mistake. However, the answer is "habit". If she's ever opened a jar, she'd know the cap goes on, then gets turned. Here she places the part, then gives it a turn as a normal check to assure it's secured. If I were putting it there, I wouldn't assume to just push it in and let go. I'd give it a wiggle and turn to assure it would stay put.
Corrected entry: When Stark needs to have his power cell replaced by Pepper, the fake chest used for the effect moves up and down to simulate breathing. But watch him closely and you can see that his real breathing doesn't match what the chest's doing.
Correction: That's not likely as the top part of the opening was a physical prop attached to RDJ's chest during the scene. The "hole" was the added special effect.
Corrected entry: When Tony Stark orders drinks for him and Pepper, he places a $100 bill in the tip jar, but in the next shot, the bill is gone.
Correction: The bartender took it. Who wouldn't seize a $100 tip as fast as they could?
Corrected entry: Stark supposedly graduated from MIT "summa cum laude", but MIT doesn't assign honours to graduates.
Correction: Even when schools don't issue the honors, they've come to be accepted as terms for specific grade point averages. Summa cum laude means 4.0 or perfect to near-perfect grades.
Corrected entry: During the scene when Iron Man is being attacked by the two jets, a red light is flashing in the command center. That red light is supposed to signify an "uncleared" person in the room. Not an intense situation like it did in the movie.
Correction: The light exists in an imaginary room full of imaginary characters made up for the movie. How can you know what anything should or shouldn't do contrary to its function inside the movie?
Corrected entry: Watch Robert Downey Jr.'s mustache at the beginning of the movie. At one point, his mustache only extends about half-way up his lip; supposedly 36 hours later, his mustache is completely covering his upper lip. This weird facial hair change occurs several times throughout the movie.
Correction: Some people's mustache hair grows very quickly. It took me 6 months to grow one, but I need to trim it at least once a week to keep it from growing over my lip. My brother-in-law has to trim his daily, and his beard twice a day.
Corrected entry: At the beginning of the film Tony Stark's Hummer is ambushed. When the soldier sitting to Stark's left leaves the vehicle, closes the door and is immediately shot, many of the rounds fired at him puncture holes in the side of the car. If these rounds were powerful enough to punch holes through a flack jacket, the soldier's body and a car door, how is it that Tony Stark leaves the Hummer completely unscathed considering how close he is sitting to the holes they made? Given the distribution of the holes in the side of the car, he would almost certainly have been riddled with bullets and killed.
Corrected entry: In the opening scene when Tony Stark is riding in a non up armored HMMWV in Afghanistan with several members of the US Air Force. You can tell the HMMWV is not armored by looking at the holes in the side of the vehicle when its attacked. An up armored HMMWV has 1-2 inch thick glass and armor and the holes look dramatically different. There is no way the US military would allow someone of Tony Stark's profile to be riding around in a non-armored vehicle. Months after the US military attacked Afghanistan a General Order prohibited these types of vehicles from leaving protected bases.
Correction: The Army has never, at any point in its history, had enough new equipment to supply everyone, at once. 90%-plus of the up-armoring kits for Humvees are going to Iraq. Whoever was in charge of his security simply didn't have one available.
There is an entry stating that that is no longer like it was a few years ago.
Corrected entry: Stane calls his secret lab Sector 16, and it comes up in the computer files as Sector 16. However, when it is first approached, Potts calls it Section 16, which is how it is labeled on the door.
Correction: This is a character human error. Not a fault of the film-makers. Sector and Section can be easily mistaken and interchanged even in our real world.
The files that Pepper downloaded from Tony's computer were labeled "Sector 16" while the door to the area was labeled "Section 16" - I don't think this was a character getting the word wrong.
Corrected entry: When the local villagers are backing away into their caves, as the terrorists are shooting them all, a boom mic can be seen overhead briefly.
Correction: A fault of the theatre you watched it in, not the movie.
Correction: Poor does not mean dirty or scruffy and there is no need to assume an Afghan woman will necessarily have soiled fingernails. Grooming fingernails is not a particularly hi-tech task unless you are perhaps a refugee and it is perfectly conceivable in quiet mountain village prior to an armed militia raid. Not a movie mistake.
egullo