Hidden Details In Iron Man Movies

Movies with shared continuity are all the rage these days, and you've got one movie franchise to thank: Iron Man. When the Robert Downey Jr.-starring action flick debuted in 2008, no one could've predicted the effect it would have on movies for years afterwards. As it happens, Marvel Studios and director Jon Favreau laid the groundwork for the forthcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe by stuffing in as many Easter eggs and hidden references as they could. For Easter egg-obsessed comic fans, the Iron Man franchise can be summed up in one word: Marvelous.

In the beginning of Iron Man, Tony Stark is kidnapped by a terrorist group known as The Ten Rings. Stark's captors discuss their plan, and their secret partnership with Tony's friend, Stane, right in front of him, seemingly spoiling the whole movie before it can even really begin. But as it happens, most viewers in the Western world were none the wiser, since the exchange happens in Urdu, the national language of Pakistan.

Still on the subject of rings, when Tony's pal Rhodey gets a call from him on his cell phone, we can hear a very unique ringtone. That little tune is actually the theme song from the 1966 Iron Man cartoon. Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" probably would've been a little more badass, but maybe a little too on-the-nose.

In the comics, Bambina "Bambi" Arbogast has been a valued Stark employee for decades. She made her first appearance in 1979, helping Iron Man defeat Whirlwind in the middle of her own job interview, and played a key role in a number of other storylines (including the classic "Demon in a Bottle" arc). She's much more of a background character in the movies, but she's definitely there. You can spot Bambi (played by Margy Moore) in Iron Man 2, when she goes from being Tony's assistant to working for Pepper Potts after Pepper takes over as CEO of Stark Industries. Bambi's the one who ends up unwittingly hiring Black Widow, for which we can all be grateful, and she's also heard offscreen in Iron Man 3, informing Pepper of her 4 o'clock appointment with Aldrich Killian.

Near the end of Iron Man 2, Tony meets with Nick Fury to discuss the emerging Avengers Initiative, and in the background, you can see a map marking locations of interest for S.H.I.E.L.D. It's the kind of thing you need to pause and zoom to really get a good look at, but it's loaded with pretty obvious references to the comics, including a spot in the middle of the ocean (presumably one of the Sub-Mariner's lairs), one in Africa (Wakanda, home of the Black Panther), one near Norway (where the Red Skull tracks down the Tesseract in Captain America: The First Avenger), another near Greenland (where Cap crashes the Skull's ship at the end of First Avenger), and one in New Mexico, where Thor's hammer had just turned up. This was way back in 2010, before Marvel really started rolling out its MCU Phases, so it gives you an idea of just how detailed the planning was.

In Iron Man 3, Ellen Brandt is a war veteran recruited into Aldrich Killian's army of Extremis soldiers who's killed in an explosion after attempting to get some sensitive documents from Tony Stark. It's a fairly minor role, but hardcore Marvel fans recognized Brandt's name from the comics, where she's the ex-wife of Ted Sallis, better known as the Man-Thing. In the original story, Ellen's actually responsible for Sallis' transformation, and she's ultimately attacked and disfigured by the creature, a detail nodded to in the movie with the scars on her cheek.