Iron Man Hero's Journey

The life of a hero matches a certain pattern. All types of heroes from different type of stories all resemble the theory of John Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. In the 2008 film Iron Man, Tony Stark alias Iron Man follows the Hero’s journey. Three important components of the Hero’s journey are depicted in Iron Man. The hero gets a call to adventure,embarks on a journey, and fights his/her way through a final battle. Tony Stark is called for an adventure but is reluctant to accept. Stark crosses the threshold with the help of his mentor and embarks on a journey to create his own suit. In the end, Stark has to face the final resurrection where he has to destroy the Obadiah Stane. Stark completes the hero’s journey hence become a modern hero. In the

movie Iron Man, Tony Stark meets 3 of the essential parts of a Hero’s journey.

In Iron Man, the audience sees how Tony Stark gets a call to adventure and is reluctant to accept- a common characteristic of the Hero’s journey. Tony Stark is a millionaire and owner of Stark Industries who visits Afghanistan to present his new project the Jericho Missile. The movie shows how Tony Stark and a few army soldiers are ambushed, with Tony being the only survivor. Tony is captured by a lethal terrorist group called the Ten Rings thus being called to the adventure and Herald. Stark realizes that he is being powered by an electromagnet which was inserted by his fellow prisoner, Yinsen. Ten rings command Tony to re-create the Jericho missile. Tony refuses and decides to wait upon death, thereby refusing the call to adventure. Stark counters the call to adventure, but refuses it, thereby fulfilling an essential part of the Hero’s journey.

Like other heroes, Stark embarks on a journey and faces many challenges - yet another characteristic of the Hero’s journey.

Commonly, a hero embarks on a journey to get something, destroy something or learn something. In the movie Iron Man, Stark comes across his mentor Yinsen and is able to accept the call to adventure. Stark gets help from Yinsen and makes a suit to escape- a typical feature of the hero’s journey since Stark is helped his mentor. Stark starts his journey and crosses the threshold by escaping from Afghanistan using his suit. Stark wants to stop Stark Industries from making weapons so no one goes through the struggle he did. In this stage, Stark finds a dark side in his company manager, Obadiah Stane, thus becoming a threshold guardian and shadow. Stark finishes his new suit, but faces difficulty in flying- an element of the hero’s journey since he is facing a challenge. After facing these hardships, Stark is proud of his work and decides to use his suit to protect people. Stark uses his suit and goes to Afghanistan as the newly built Iron Man. He faces even more challenges when he has to protect the villagers and eliminate Ten Rings. Stark defeats Ten Rings and defeats his ordeal until he faces another problem. Stark flies into a U.S no-fly zone where the U.S try to kill him. In the process, a U.S pilot falls out of his plane getting saved when Stark sacrifices his life and saves the pilot. Iron Man is recognized by the U.S air force for his good

deeds – his reward; a characteristic of Hero’s journey. Stark now wants to live 2 lives- the road back; a common characteristic of the Hero’s journey. The completion of his quest took Stark on a journey on which he acquires allies as he found an ally in his assistant Pepper Potts. He faced challenges such as not being able to fly and also faced an ordeal because he had to eliminate Ten rings and take on the U.S army. Stark received a reward as Iron Man was recognized for his good deeds. These are all hallmarks of the Hero’s journey thus fulfilling an important component of the Hero’s journey.

Finally, after completing the quest, the hero must face their final battle.

In the film Iron Man, Stark is betrayed when the threshold guardian, Obadiah Stane takes the electromagnet of Stark and uses it for his own suit. Stark’s ally and assistant Pepper Potts find out about this and they inform S.H.I.E.L.D. Pepper Potts and S.H.I.E.L.D go to Obadiah Stane’s workplace where they find a big gigantic suit which Obadiah wears. This resurgence of evil comes in the form of Obadiah wearing a suit which is seemingly more powerful and bigger than Iron Man. Stark fits in his old electromagnets and sets off to defeat Obadiah. Iron Man and Obadiah have a duel in which an innocent family is almost killed. There is always a doubt of success in a Hero’s journey and Iron Man who has almost drained all of his power seems unfit to fight Obadiah. Iron Man manages to beat Obadiah and returns successful thus defeating his final test. He is swarmed by media who think that Stark is Iron Man. Stark deceives the idea of lying and reveals to the media that he is Iron Man this being the Atonement. Stark returns to his life and lives life with the world knowing he is Iron Man- his return with the elixir. The completion of the resurrection is an important feature of the Hero and his life. The hero completes the final test and returns with the elixir which Stark has both done by defeating Obadiah and confirming his status as Iron Man. This pattern in Stark’s life confirms his status as a true model

of the Hero’s journey.

In conclusion, Tony Stark as portrayed in the movie Iron Man lives the life of an archetypical Hero. Stark’s kidnapping and the refusal of recreating the Jericho missile proves his call to the adventure. Stark escapes Afghanistan, makes new friends and foes, faces challenged in flying and eliminates Ten rings which prove his quest. All of this culminates to his final test where Stark succeeds in fighting off the threshold guardian and former Ally Obadiah Stane. In all these stages of life. Tony Stark demonstrates to be the model of classical heroism as he fulfills the criteria of the Hero’s journey.