Blank Check — Patreon: Iron Man

Published 2019-01-01; 2:15:31 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David (Patreon)” and the episode “Iron Man”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims. Guests: Ben Hosley (producer, in the room; says he has never seen the film).

Subject films: Iron Man (2008).

On the transcript: No speaker labels and heavy crosstalk; most statements cannot be assigned to Griffin or David with confidence. Lots of off-topic banter (apartments, Patreon branding, Connors), so scene-by-scene movie content is sparse in places.

Films that came up

Claims (70)

craft (craft): Teen Titans Go! To the Movies → Iron Man. That film parodies the page-flipping Marvel logo, which opens Iron Man.
“They, uh, they do a really good parody of that in, um, Teen Titans go the movies.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:08:41 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Iron Man → modern superhero movies. Called the prototype format every later superhero film riffs on.
“this is the prototype for the modern superhero movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:09:11 · unknown (Griffin or David) (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Iron Man → Disney-era MCU films. Iron Man shows a promiscuous, drinking Stark that the Disney-era films would not.
“introducing the character through the whiskey glass is something I think would not happen in the Disney days.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:09:26 · unknown (Griffin or David) (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Jeff Bridges → Crazy Heart. Iron Man is the start of the older, bearded, weirdo Bridges that peaks with Crazy Heart.
“This is the beginning of him with the beard, tight-mouthed, is Crazy Heart?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:13:14 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Iron Man → Tom Cruise. Iron Man was at New Line for Nick Cassavetes and Tom Cruise, who wanted it forever, and would have been less faithful.
“It was supposed to be a Nick Castavetti's movie starring Tom Cruise.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:13:52 · unknown (Griffin or David) (0.30 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Thor → Matthew Vaughn. Paramount had Thor in development with Matthew Vaughn attached at one point.
“Matthew Vaughn was supposed to make it.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:14:13 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Jon Favreau → Elf. Marvel hired Favreau because of Elf, not Swingers.
“because he'd made like elf.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:16:19 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Jon Favreau → Swingers. Marvel did not hire him on the strength of Swingers.
“They weren't hiring like swingers made Fabreau in their mind.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:16:31 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Jon Favreau → John Carter. After Elf, Favreau kept attaching to big effects movies to prove himself as an adult sci-fi director.
“he wanted to make the John Carter of Mars movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:16:46 · unknown (Griffin or David) (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Iron Man → Iron Man 3. Pepper is the secret of why the first film works and of why Iron Man 3 works.
“Iron Man works best as a character through Pepper.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:18:36 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Iron Man → Captain America: The First Avenger. Marvel put up character rights (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor) as collateral for a $1B Merrill Lynch loan to self-finance.
“And what they put up as collateral was the rights to the characters.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:19:54 · unknown (Griffin or David) (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Iron Man → The Incredible Hulk. Hulk remained at Universal, which helped make a new Hulk, so Marvel's Paramount five-picture deal excluded it.
“So Hulk was still set up at Universal, and they were able to be like, we'll help you make a new Hulk.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:21:42 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Terrence Howard → Don Cheadle. Cheadle (in the sequels) gives a more soulful best-friend performance and is the better actor.
“Like Don Shiel gives a more soulful performance and it's you get more of a best friend vibe.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:22:21 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (industry): The Avengers → Iron Man 3. Disney paid $500M to buy the rights to those two before Paramount's deal ran out; each made over a billion.
“So they pay them $500 million for the rights to just Avengers and Iron Man 3 before the deal moves on.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:22:58 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Iron Man 3 → The Avengers. Paramount's logo is on both because Disney could not put its name on them, per contract.
“Paramount's logo is in front of Iron Man 3 and Avengers.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:23:47 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Terrence Howard → Hustle & Flow. Howard was cast as the rising star coming off a Hustle & Flow Oscar nomination and paid the most in the cast.
“he's coming off this hot year, hustle and flow, Oscar nomination.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:24:36 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Jeff Bridges → Surf's Up. Bridges had made nothing in two years except the animated Surf's Up before Iron Man.
“except for he had an animated role.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:25:27 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Iron Man → Stan Lee. The film follows the first comic issue's origin; Lee wanted to make an industrialist war profiteer compelling to hippie kids.
“here's like an industrialist, war profiteer, Laos, and make him like compelling to these, like, hippie kids.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:27:36 · unknown (probably David) (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Stick It → Step Up. Stick It (a Bridges 2006 movie) is similar to Step Up but the speaker greatly prefers it.
“Oh, I greatly prefer stick.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:28:57 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Jeff Bridges → Seabiscuit. Bridges' bad stretch (Tideland, The Door in the Floor) came after Seabiscuit, the last hit, and an Oscar nomination for The Contender.
“These are bad years.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:29:19 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Jeff Bridges → Tron: Legacy. Two years later Bridges has his biggest star year with Tron Legacy and True Grit, each about $180M domestic.
“He has Tron legacy and true grit, which both make $180 million in theaters at the same time.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:29:47 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Jeff Bridges → Hell or High Water. After bad choices (R.I.P.D., Seventh Son), he is back in great character actor mode in Hell or High Water.
“And now he's back in like great character actor mode.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:30:01 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Jeff Bridges → The Big Lebowski. Casting him coincided with the 10-year anniversary of The Big Lebowski becoming a phenomenon.
“We're at like the 10 year anniversary of Big Lebowski.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:30:28 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Iron Man → Venom. Marvel third acts have the villain become a bigger version of the hero and they punch; Venom does the same.
“even like Venom, which I know isn't Marvel, does the exact same thing”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:32:20 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Iron Man → Batman Begins. Studios used to fuck with comic origin movies to squeeze them into classic arcs, as in the Batman films, while Iron Man tore up the shooting draft.
“And so that's why you have the Batman movies where it's like fucking with the origin movie by movie or whatever.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:37:20 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Faran Tahir → Star Trek. Tahir (Raza) is the doomed captain in the Star Trek opening scene the speaker loves.
“I love him so much in the opening scene of Star Trek, which is a movie I've seen 1000 times.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:38:22 · unknown (Griffin or David) (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Ghostface Killah → Iron Man. Ghostface is the Wu-Tang member particularly obsessed with Iron Man, who is the avatar of many of his songs.
“Iron Man is like the like his hero.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:40:17 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Iron Man → Jon Favreau. The lab sequence is shot like a horror movie, showing Favreau wanted a badass film after kid-friendly work like Elf.
“Yeah, I like that he shoots this like a horror movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:43:44 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Matthew Libatique → Iron Man. Libatique shot it; later Marvel films use it as a template but a watered-down version.
“And the Marvel movies start looking a lot more generic after this.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:43:56 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Matthew Libatique → Inside Man. Libatique shot Inside Man (not The Wrestler, which used a documentary DP).
“he shot Inside Man, which is a gorgeously shot movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:45:08 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Iron Man → AC/DC. Instead of an original hero theme, the score identity is the song Iron Man, which becomes a lot of AC/DC.
“This is not a movie with a particularly recognizable theme, partly because they decide the theme should just be the song Iron Man.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:47:47 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Iron Man → Ghostface Killah. A Ghostface Killah song should have been the film's music, given his devotion to Iron Man.
“It should have they should have gotten a Ghostface Killer song.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:47:56 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Iron Man → The Avengers. Lacks a recognizable hero theme (uses the AC/DC song instead); a hoped-for harmonizing of every hero's theme would have been exciting at Avengers.
“I love Alan Sylvestri's Avengers theme.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:48:15 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Alan Silvestri → Iron Man. Silvestri's Avengers theme is the recognizable hero theme that Iron Man lacks.
“I love Alan Sylvestri's Avengers theme.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:48:15 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Black Panther → Tyler Perry. Marvel shoots in Atlanta, where Tyler Perry built production infrastructure; Black Panther was largely built there.
“He set up a whole production infrastructure in Atlanta, and now Marvel just runs.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:49:44 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Iron Man → Star Trek. Both use real industrial locations (a factory) as sets rather than green screen; Star Trek's engineering was a Budweiser plant.
“like in Star Trek, which is the year after this, where engineering is a Budweiser factor.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:55:05 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Gwyneth Paltrow → The Thin Man. Pepper and Tony have a Thin Man/Myrna Loy rapport; she is the one calling him out.
“They have this great, like, thin man, like...”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:58:37 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Iron Man → Batman Begins. The suit-development process scenes are a funny version of Batman Begins' gadget-building.
“This is like funny version of Batman begins.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:05:06 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Jeff Bridges → The Big Lebowski. His Stane is the midpoint between the Dude and his Crazy Heart character.
“This is the perfect midpoint between the dude and his billy goat groth.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:07:10 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Iron Man → Ghostbusters. Like Ghostbusters, it lets you learn each piece of tech step by step so the payoff means something.
“This is like the same shit that makes Ghostbusters great”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:08:43 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Stan Lee → Iron Man 2. The Stan Lee cameo running joke is mistaken identity: Hugh Hefner here, Larry King in Iron Man 2, then they dropped it.
“In Iron Man 2, they think he's Larry King.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:16:15 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Gwyneth Paltrow → Iron Man. She uses the cachet of this movie to launch Goop.
“she uses the cache of this movie to Launch Goop.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:17:40 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Gwyneth Paltrow → Two Lovers. Same year, she is wonderful in Two Lovers, which would have gotten the speaker's supporting nomination.
“She would have gotten my best supporting for 2 lovers.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:18:00 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
programming (programming): Iron Man → Iron Man 2. Griffin has a point about Paltrow in Iron Man 2 and promises a separate Iron Man 2 commentary.
“We're going to do an Iron Man 2 commentary so we can talk about the movie I want to talk about there.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:18:06 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Mark Ruffalo → View from the Top. Ruffalo was a rom-com mail-it-in actor after that bomb before Marvel and The Kids Are All Right rescued him.
“he starts calling him the mailman because he mails it in.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:18:56 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Mark Ruffalo → The Kids Are All Right. Oscar nomination for The Kids Are All Right (2010) plus Marvel saved him.
“Because he gets his Oscar nomination for the kids are all right.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:19:16 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Gwyneth Paltrow → Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Pre-Iron Man she had a dip (Running with Scissors, Infamous, Proof, Sylvia, Sky Captain, View from the Top).
“she really had had a serious dip.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:19:45 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (people): Gwyneth Paltrow → Brad Falchuk. Paltrow met Falchuk (Glee co-creator, Ryan Murphy colleague) and now works on a Murphy Netflix series.
“she met Falchuk there.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:19:55 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Iron Man 3 → Iron Man. Iron Man 3 later parodies the Osama-type Mandarin expectation that Iron Man originally planned (Ten Rings leader, no magic).
“And then Iron Man 3 wisely parodies that expectation.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:25:03 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Iron Man → Iron Man 3. Each sequel repeats the Tony-alone-in-the-basement-with-robots plot; Iron Man 3 does it better.
“Tony Stark is very weird. He mostly sits in his basement building robots.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:33:38 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Peter Billingsley → A Christmas Story. The scientist hugged by Stane is Ralphie from A Christmas Story, Favreau's and Vince Vaughn's friend and producer.
“Or Peter Billingsley, who plays Ralphie in Christmas story, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:43:07 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Jeff Bridges → Iron Man. Argues Bridges is wrongly ranked bottom five in Marvel villain lists; it is one of the best performances.
“It's one of the best performances.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:44:44 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Peter Billingsley → Couples Retreat. Billingsley directed the Vince Vaughn comedy Couples Retreat.
“He directed, uh, couples retreat, the Vince Vaughan comedy.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:45:13 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Jeff Bridges → Robert Downey Jr.. Bridges and Downey threw the script down and made the scenes real acting exercises.
“And the 2 of them and Favreau are controlling the scene because they decide to throw the script down.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:46:24 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Terrence Howard → Iron Man 2. Howard left for Iron Man 2 after asking more than Downey; Marvel was notoriously cheap.
“But that's why he's not an Iron Man 2 because he demanded the same...”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:47:08 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Iron Man → Sam Raimi. The paralyzed-Stark crawling sequence has Raimi's shaky expressive camera and Evil Dead Ash-crawling feel.
“The sequence feels very Sam Raimi, actually.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:47:37 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Robert Downey Jr. → Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Downey's performance template and real comeback came in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which made no money.
“But he'd already given you the template for this performance in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which is his real comeback movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:47:57 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
programming (programming): Iron Man → Thor. The hosts preview the next trio: Thor, Captain America, Avengers; one hates Thor.
“So what our next three is going to be Thor, Captain America, Avengers.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:48:57 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Captain America: The First Avenger → Joe Johnston. Great film but a generic final act, a shame since Johnston suits the material.
“Which is genuinely too bad because Joe Johnson is so suited to it.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:49:19 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Iron Man → RoboCop. The Ironmonger voice and suit recall ED-209, and the finale is ED-209 versus RoboCop.
“You know what the voice is? He's Ed 209.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:53:20 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Iron Man → The Avengers. Iron Man's lo-fi highway fight vs the later hole-in-the-sky stakes inflation seeded by Avengers.
“And now the stakes don't mean anything because every movie has that level of things.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:54:44 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Iron Man → Avengers: Infinity War. Prefers Iron Man's visible plate-and-gear machinery to Infinity War's seamless nanobite suit.
“I like it so much more when it's the thing where like one plate has to like rise up”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:55:33 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Fantastic Four → Iron Man. Argues the Fantastic Four wouldn't work if established as the 25th superhero group.
“I also don't think the Fantastic Four would like work if you establish that they're like the 25th superhero group on the block.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:57:47 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
programming (programming): Iron Man → Captain Marvel. Mentions Captain Marvel's upcoming 90s setting and Kamala Khan idolizing her as a possible future movie.
“And then like models herself after Captain Marvel.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 2:01:42 · unknown (Griffin) (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Iron Man → The Avengers. Iron Man dropped the secret identity, treating it as a punchline, unlike Batman and Superman.
“We're not Batman and Superman.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 2:04:32 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Iron Man → The Incredible Hulk. Hulk is what Marvel wanted all its movies to look like, and it is generic and lacks personality; Iron Man came out first and lucked into its looseness.
“that's what they, I think, wanted all these movies to look like, and it's so generic and lacking in any sort of personality.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 2:04:50 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Iron Man → Maid of Honor. The weekend's counter-programming: Iron Man $98M, Made of Honor $14M second, Baby Mama, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
“Number 2 is a classic piece of counter programming opens number 2 at 14 million, which is called Native Honor.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 2:07:47 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay → Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Hosts disagree over whether Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is the best or worst of the series.
“It's Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay, which I think is the best of them.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 2:09:05 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Forgetting Sarah Marshall → Get Him to the Greek. Get Him to the Greek is the quasi-sequel/spinoff of Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
“They made kind of a spinoff.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 2:09:29 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Iron Man → The Avengers. The post-credits Nick Fury scene established the shared-universe model that changed Hollywood for a decade or more.
“I mean, this has changed the next 10 years of Hollywood filmmaking.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 2:13:16 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

Fun items (24)

fun, about Iron Man: Tom Cruise wanted to do Iron Man forever, and it was set at New Line for Nick Cassavetes before Marvel took the character back.
“Tom Cruise wanted to do Iron Man forever.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:13:56 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Marvel Studios / Iron Man financing: Feige convinced Ike Perlmutter to take a $1B Merrill Lynch loan with the character rights (Iron Man, Cap, Thor) as collateral to make their own movies; a flop meant Merrill would own them.
“to go to Meryl Lynch, to get a loan of a $1000000000 so they can make their own movies.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:19:45 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Robert Downey Jr.: Downey did 20 screen tests, got the role, and immediately told Favreau they both agreed the script was bullshit.
“And then the 2nd he gets the part, he sits down with Favreau and he's like, so we both agree the script is bullshit, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:35:38 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Faran Tahir: Raza's actor has a beaklike nose and is also the doomed captain in Star Trek's opening, which makes the speaker cry.
“he's got the most beaklike nose.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:38:10 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Iron Man: See the end-of-act-two set piece where Pepper has to download files to a USB (ghost drive, isometric folders) and hand Stane the paper without being noticed.
“a crucial 2nd act, end of the 2nd act set piece in which Pepper Pots has to put a USB into a computer.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:38:57 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Ghostface Killah: Ghostface treats Iron Man as an avatar in many songs; Wu-Tang are nerds.
“Ghostface Killer loves Tony Stark.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:40:13 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Iron Man: Shot in California desert; the actor was buried in a sand dune for eight hours for one shot, while modern Marvel shoots in Atlanta.
“yes, I will allow myself to be buried in the sand for 8 hours for one shot.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:49:03 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Gwyneth Paltrow: Tony and Pepper never kiss in the whole movie, which builds tension like a shaken soda.
“I love that they don't kiss the whole movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:50:47 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Iron Man: The Burger King product placement made the speaker crave Burger King, and the LG phone placement recouped about $1M of budget.
“I definitely wanted to eat Burger King after seeing this movie”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:51:13 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Jeff Bridges: Stressed by the improvised shoot, Bridges adjusted three days in by treating it as a $150M student film.
“you have to treat this, like a $150000000 student film.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:53:09 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Star Trek: Star Trek's engineering room was a Budweiser factory; fans complained but it looked real, and real locations beat a railing against green screen.
“where engineering is a Budweiser factor.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:55:05 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Iron Man: See the scene where Pepper reaches into Tony's chest to swap the arc reactor, a prosthetic, and quips; the best Tony/Pepper scene.
“It's actually a prosthetic thing that she can reach her hand.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 0:58:17 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Stan Lee: See the cameo where Stan Lee is mistaken for Hugh Hefner; in Iron Man 2 it's Larry King; the running joke was dropped.
“Yeah, so in this, he thinks it's Hugh Hefner.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:15:56 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Iron Man: Initial plan was the Mandarin, then they swapped to Obadiah Stane and cast Bridges; the Ten Rings symbol remained as a leftover.
“Now, you know, like up until like, like 3 or 4 months before they filmed, it was always supposed to be the Mandarin.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:24:16 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Iron Man: The Afghan village scene, when his computer figures out the hostage situation, made the audience scream in the speaker's theater.
“this is the scene in my theater. When the audience is just screaming.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:25:07 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Peter Billingsley: Favreau and Vaughn put their friend Billingsley in Iron Man but gave him a shaved donut male-pattern-baldness haircut to embarrass him.
“They like shave his hair into a donut.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:45:27 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Jeff Bridges: See the scene where Stane takes one strip of bacon and chews it while delivering the villain monologue over paralyzed Tony, getting close in his face.
“He's just taking a one strip of bacon and chewing it very, very deliberately.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:45:42 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Terrence Howard: Howard got paid the most ($4M) in the cast; Downey got roughly $500K; Howard wasn't in Iron Man 2 as Marvel wouldn't pay him more than Downey.
“So Terrence Howard gets paid the most out of everyone in this movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:46:55 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Hillary Swank: Rumors before release: Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Hillary Swank shooting a Wasp cameo, which the speaker thinks was disinformation.
“And there's a rumor that Hillary Swank shot a wasp cameo.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:51:58 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Iron Man: See the scene where Tony walks out as armor flies on in the throwaway silver suit's 'next time' line; the audience clapped in the speaker's theater.
“But I remember the next time getting, um, a clap from my audience.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 1:56:05 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Marvel: The original Paramount slate announcement included a Power Pack family comedy; they'd love a kids' Marvel film.
“That was part of their 1st announcement was like, we have power pack.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 2:02:26 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Iron Man: The film opened to $98.6M, nearly $100M for a character without name recognition, with Maid of Honor second at $14M.
“And they almost hit 100.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 2:07:04 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Robert Downey Jr.: The Monday after opening he told Jimmy Kimmel he'd been locked at a $25,000 raise for the sequel and now held the cards for $20M.
“And now I hold the cards, baby.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 2:07:41 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Samuel L. Jackson: After the credits, Nick Fury's cameo arrives; the speaker heard the rumor and still was blown away; Avengers Initiative wasn't a household name.
“You become part of a big universe.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man · 2:13:35 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Griffin Newman (host): Loves Marvel comics deeply (Ultimate line, Ms. Marvel, Franklin Richards), actor-driven performances, and looseness; hates a studio-polished formula and a reporter sleeping with the subject trope. A sucker for comic-book film process scenes, the Comic-Con trailer era, and the Tick.
David Sims (host): Pro-Iron Man, loves Downey's improvisational energy, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges' performances, and the Marvel comics of the 60s; dislikes Terrence Howard and generic Marvel scores. Cares about industry business details.
Ben Hosley (guest): Producer who has never seen the early MCU; into comics tattoos, Bukowski, Ghost Rider and Deathlok cards; practical-minded about sets and effects.

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong

Avi Rod / a rod → Avi Arad
Pearl Mutter / Ike Pearlmutter → Ike Perlmutter
Meryl Lynch → Merrill Lynch
Matty Le Petigue → Matthew Libatique
Sean Tob / Ginson / Yensen / Incense → Shaun Toub as Yinsen
Ferrant → Faran Tahir (Raza)
Don Shiel → Don Cheadle
Brian Tyler → later corrected to Ramin Djawadi
Hole → The Incredible Hulk; Hulk 3 -> likely Incredible Hulk
Native Honor / Maid of Honor → Made of Honor
Faggy / Feigi → Kevin Feige
Stanley → Stan Lee
Colson / Coulson → Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg)
Michael Chase → Michael Chaves (?)
Baltrow → Paltrow
Pretty Tony → Ghostface album Pretty Toney
to behedron → Tippi Hedren
Stain Elsewhere → St. Elsewhere
Lornbaugh → Lorne Balfe? (end credits)

Blank Check — Patreon: Iron Man

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Films that came up

passing (22)

recommended (2)

anecdote (37)

subject (1)

compared (15)

dismissed (3)

Claims (70)

Fun items (24)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong