Other mistake: When Iron Man and Iron Monger are fighting, Iron Man catches the SUV, and you can see the family inside the car. Although the car is completely vertical, the hair of the people in the car seems to defy gravity.
Continuity mistake: When Pepper is watching the television program about Stark Industries' stock troubles, after Tony's press conference, notice she has a wireless headset in her left ear. When Tony calls her down to the lab, the camera flashes back to Pepper and the ear piece is gone. (00:48:50)
Visible crew/equipment: In the extra footage after the credits, the reflection of the crew is visible in the picture frames around the apartment.
Continuity mistake: After flight testing the suit the first time, Tony crashes through his house, landing on and partly crushing his blue Cobra roadster, as building debris litters the ground around and on the car. Later, when Pepper finds Tony being fitted by robotic arms, we see the same garage area in the background and the Cobra and debris have been cleared away, replaced by the 1932 Ford hot rod. Still later, when Tony suits up for the final battle, the damaged Cobra and all the debris is back in place in time for him to shove the car out of the way. Note the same location in all three shots is below the second set of windows on the wall. (01:04:30 - 01:42:15)
Continuity mistake: When Stark is paralysed his fringe (hair bangs) keeps changing style all the time.
Continuity mistake: When we first see Tony Stark arrive at the benefit, his car doesn't have a front plate. When we actually see him pull up to the entrance though, his personalised "Stark" plate has appeared.
Continuity mistake: When Tony Stark is at home he's wearing a black tank top while working on the suit, and there is a bad cover-up of one of his tattoos. It almost looks like a band-aid is over it. It goes away and comes back.
Continuity mistake: When Stark fires the two rockets to Raza, before Yinsen dies, there's two green rockets standing next to him that change position in less than a second.
Continuity mistake: When Tony is paralysed on the couch, in one shot his head is facing to the left. However, in the very next shot he is facing forward and slightly slouching back a bit. There wasn't enough time for him to move into the other position, even if he wasn't paralysed.
Continuity mistake: After Stark is paralysed and slightly recovers, he goes to get his energy. Right then the blood around his left ear has vanished. Being seconds away from dying, the last thing he would think of is taking a shower.
Continuity mistake: Just after Pepper replaces Tony's chest piece, she clenches her hands, complaining about how disgusting the "pus" is. When the shot changes, she closes her hand again.
Factual error: When Iron Man catches the Audi SUV, the front wings/fenders don't bend when he catches it, the car weighs close to 2 tons, some damage should occur to them as they are made of such thin metal.
Other mistake: When Tony's convoy in Afghanistan was ambushed at the beginning of the movie, he was riding in a non-armored HMMWV (Humvee). Prior to 2007, all vehicles that leave the bases in Iraq and Afghanistan are up-armored; under no circumstances would you be allowed to leave a base in a soft vehicle. The Airmen were wearing the Airman Battle Uniform, which was released for use in the Middle East around 2007, so the movie couldn't have taken place before that time period. Some people may try to correct this by claiming that the military doesn't have enough up-armored vehicles to go around, and they just got the short end of the stick. That is not the case today like it was a few years ago. Even if it were the case, the military wouldn't put a passenger who would be considered a "high-value target" to the enemy like Tony at risk for capture or death in a soft vehicle, especially with his knowledge of weapon systems that can be used against the U.S. if he were captured.
Factual error: When the "Jericho" rocket explodes in the distance, an explosion is heard simultaneously, this is not possible due to the speed of sound being much slower than the speed of light.
Revealing mistake: Some of the shots involving the terrorists firing at the prototype suit are "flipped" duplicates of other shots. In the scene where he first emerges from the cave, several of the terrorists are firing M4-type rifles with the ejection port on the LEFT side of the rifle. In reality, except for a few specially made versions, all M4-types eject spent brass through an ejection port on the right. Later in the scene, this shot is repeated, but with the proper orientation.
Continuity mistake: In the montage of Stark designing the Mark II suit on his computer, he picks up a coffee mug to his left and absent-mindedly drinks it, then gets a not-good expression as the liquid was presumably not what he was expecting. A second earlier, the coffee mug had been shown completely upside-down on the desk.
Audio problem: After Stark escapes, he is walking in the desert, and crests the brow of a sand dune. Then, helicopters burst into view over him and you hear them for the first time. Stark was on the brow of the dune and should have heard them long before.
Character mistake: There is a misspelling on the cover of the issue of Forbes magazine shown in the presentation about Stark's life. It reads "Tony Stark takes reigns at 21". The correct spelling of the word is "reins". Stark may "reign" at Stark Industries but he would take over the "reins" of the company.
Factual error: After Tony demonstrates the Jericho for the first time, the aftershock hits the soldiers in the face and blows at least three people's hats off. From the side shot of the event, happening simultaneously, you can only see one hat being blown into the air. The aftershock also makes a dead stop, weakening too quickly and appearing anti-climactic. The aftershock should have blown at least ten yards more before dying out.
Audio problem: When Pepper runs out of the Stark Industries building and says "Obadiah, he's gone insane", her lips don't match with her mouth.
Answer: Iron Man by Black Sabbath (minus the lyrics).
Rydersriot87