omg somehow i have NEVER seen this INCREDIBLE deleted scene from iron man 2??? it is literally just a minute and a half of tony stark being a horrible tantrum-throwing child to the only people in the world who care about him and it’s very beautiful and special to me. i think one thing that iron man 2 does really well is make it clear that tony stark is acting out even by his own standards because he is secretly dying, while also making it clear that (1) this is the reaction of an adult baby with poor coping mechanisms and (2) nothing about how understandable it is makes it any less horrible to be around for every single other person in the movie. i love that he is secretly proud of himself for remembering pepper somethings strawberries, even if he is wrong, and i also love, i would not be able to love that without, the fact that pepper herself is aggressively unimpressed. in this scene pepper asks if they can get through some of the stuff of the list, and tony stubbornly responds, “i am iron man” — another iteration, another shading for it — where at the end of the first movie it was a sign of choosing to take responsibility, here it is a sloppy attempt to abdicate it it — iron man doesn’t do lists, iron man protects the free world! and pepper, gorgeously, just says, “okay, iron man, if we could get through some of the stuff on the list,” like a parent trying to get a child who’s decided their name is miss kittyface to decide on a breakfast cereal already. also at one point don cheadle gives an absolutely exquisite reading of the line “i think hanging out is bad for our friendship” and i die about it.
honestly don cheadle beating tony up with his own armor and then stealing it is such an important moment, tony gave him the keys to the kingdom bc he maybe knew someone more reliable had to have them ala pepper as ceo, rhodey not even mad at tony for being a jackass and breaking a party and his own house but just, he hoped he wouldn't have to do this. and not bc he's not up for it, bc come on tony he's more ready than you are, but bc of what that means about how far gone tony is that rhodey stealing the war machine suit is //neccessary//. and rhodey knew tony's heart reactor was doing terrible things inside his chest, there is a 90% chance rhodey flew off in the backup suit worrying about whether tony would even survive long enough to swallow his pride and not (know how to) apologize.
#james rhodes problems