Directed by Jon Favreau from a screenplay by the writing teams of Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, and Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, the film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man alongside Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb, and Shaun Toub.

In the film, following his escape from captivity by a terrorist group, world-famous industrialist and master engineer Stark builds a mechanized suit of armor and becomes the superhero Iron Man.

A film featuring Iron Man was in development at Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and New Line Cinema at various times since 1990 before Marvel Studios reacquired the rights in 2005.

The armored Stark battles his way out of the cave to find the dying Yinsen, then burns the Ten Rings' weapons and flies away, crashing in the desert and destroying the suit.

At a charity event, reporter Christine Everhart informs Stark that his company's weapons were recently delivered to the Ten Rings and are being used to attack Yinsen's home village.

[38] In April 1990, Universal Pictures bought the rights to develop Iron Man for the big screen,[39] with Stuart Gordon to direct a low-budget film based on the property.

[44] Fox sold the rights to New Line Cinema the following December, reasoning that although the Vintar/Lee script was strong, the studio had too many Marvel superheroes in development, and "we can't make them all.

[43] In June 2001, New Line Cinema entered talks with Joss Whedon, a fan of the character, to direct,[49] and in December 2002, McCanlies had turned in a completed script.

[51] He reworked scripts that had been written by Jeff Vintar and Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, which had included the villain the Mandarin and Pepper Potts as a love interest.

[51] In November 2005, Marvel Studios worked to start development from scratch,[54] and announced Iron Man as their first independent feature, because the character was their only major one not already depicted in live action.

[12] According to associate producer Jeremy Latcham, "we went after about 30 writers and they all passed," saying they were uninterested in the project due to both the relative obscurity of the character and the fact that it was solely a Marvel production.

[55] Early scripts for the film also directly referenced Sony Pictures' Spider-Man 2 (2004) by identifying Stark as the creator of Otto Octavius's bionic arms.

[12] The director found the opportunity to create a politically ambitious "ultimate spy movie" in Iron Man, citing inspiration from Tom Clancy, James Bond, and RoboCop,[59] and compared his approach to an independent film—"[i]f Robert Altman had directed Superman"—and Batman Begins.

[63] Comic book staff Mark Millar, Brian Michael Bendis, Joe Quesada, Tom Brevoort, Axel Alonso, and Ralph Macchio were also called upon by Favreau to give advice on the script.

[21] Favreau chose Downey, a fan of the comic, because he felt the actor's past made him an appropriate choice for the part, explaining "The best and worst moments of Robert's life have been in the public eye.

"[9] Favreau faced opposition from Marvel Entertainment executives in casting Downey,[21][71] but would not take no for an answer, saying, "It was my job as a director to show that it was the best choice creatively ... everybody knew he was talented [and] certainly by studying the Iron Man role and developing that script I realized that the character seemed to line-up with Robert in all the good and bad ways.

"[74] Additional casting for the film occurred over the next few months: Terrence Howard was announced in the role of Stark's best friend James "Rhodey" Rhodes in October 2006.

[78] Choosing a character to be the villain of the film was difficult, as Favreau felt Iron Man's arch-nemesis the Mandarin would not feel realistic, especially after Mark Millar gave his opinion on the script.

[60] Saunders streamlined Granov's concept art, making it stealthier and less cartoonish in its proportions,[22] and also designed the War Machine armor, but it was "cut from the script about halfway through pre-production."

To generate shots of Iron Man and the F-22 Raptors battling, cameras were flown in the air to provide reference for physics, wind and frost on the lenses.

Given no further rewrites could occur because of the strike and Bridges unable to participate in shooting new material, ILM worked with as much previously-shot footage as possible to rework the film's ending.

[101] Djawadi had help with arrangements and additional cues from Hans Zimmer and Remote Control Productions,[101] and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, who also makes a cameo appearance in the film, contributed guitar performances to the score.

[36] The film also features a big band-style arrangement of the Iron Man theme song from the 1966 cartoon The Marvel Super Heroes from frequent Favreau collaborators John O'Brien and Rick Boston.

[107] In the film, Tony Stark drives an Audi R8, and also has an "American cheeseburger" from Burger King after his rescue from Afghanistan, as part of the studio's product placement deal with the respective companies.

[121] For the home releases of the film, the image on the newspaper Stark reads before he announces he is Iron Man had to be altered because of amateur photographer Ronnie Adams filing a lawsuit against Paramount and Marvel for using his on-location spy photo in the scene.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Powered by Robert Downey Jr.'s vibrant charm, Iron Man turbo-charges the superhero genre with a deft intelligence and infectious sense of fun.

"[141] Among the specialty press, Garth Franklin of Dark Horizons commended the "impressive sets and mechanics that combine smoothly with relatively seamless CG", and said, "Robert Downey Jr., along with director Jon Favreau ... help this rise above formula.

The result is something that, whilst hardly original or groundbreaking, is nevertheless refreshing in its earnestness to avoid dark dramatic stylings in favor of an easy-going, crowd-pleasing action movie with a sprinkle of anti-war and redemption themes".

[142] Among major metropolitan weeklies, David Edelstein of New York magazine called the film "a shapely piece of mythmaking ... Favreau doesn't go in for stylized comic-book frames, at least in the first half.

He gets real with it – you'd think you were watching a military thriller",[143] while conversely, David Denby of The New Yorker gave a negative review, claiming "a slightly depressed, going-through-the-motions feel to the entire show ... Gwyneth Paltrow, widening her eyes and palpitating, can't do much with an antique role as Stark's girl Friday, who loves him but can't say so; Terrence Howard, playing a military man who chases around after Stark, looks dispirited and taken for granted".