Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is not exactly notorious for having a social conscience; in fact, he has become a billionaire primarily through his skill at designing and selling weapons, and has a reputation for being flashy and irresponsible. While on a business trip to the Middle East, however, Stark is kidnapped by terrorists who want his help using the weapons he himself made to kill civilians, and in order to escape he must design his most deadly yet—a powerful metal suit of weaponized armor. The incident leaves Stark with an unexpected new awareness of how his money has really been made. With help from his increasingly refined design for computerized armor, and his friends and colleagues Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) and Col. Rhodes (Terrence Howard), Stark becomes the superhero Iron Man and sets out to right some wrongs, starting by destroying the weapons he designed himself that have fallen into the wrong hands. But even at home, not all his friends may be as loyal as he thinks.