Iron Man 3 Includes Robert Downey Jr’s On-Set Broken Ankle Injury

Robert Downey, Jr. injured himself on the set of Iron Man 3 — and the moment made it into the final cut of the MCU movie! RDJ was the face of the MCU for over a decade, portraying Tony Stark aka Iron Man; his character development from the first Iron Man movie to Avengers: Endgame painted the portrait of a man who was forced to face his flaws and overcome them to be one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. A big part of that journey took place in the character’s final solo film, Iron Man 3. 

Tony Stark is at his most vulnerable in Iron Man 3: Having just stopped the Chitauri invasion of New York, Tony struggled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the loss of his formerly unshakeable self-confidence. Not only that, but now he faced a new threat in the form of Aldritch Killian, another ghost from his past come back to haunt him under the guise of one of Iron Man’s greatest comic villains, the Mandarin.

Downey Jr. was injured during the production of Iron Man 3 while filming a stunt for the movie’s climax. In the scene, the actor jumped from one platform to another in a drop that was about 12 feet high. According to The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Downey landed harder than he was supposed to, breaking his ankle and halting production for five to six weeks. The shot where Downey broke his ankle is the same one used for the final film, meaning that it can still be seen every time one watches the movie.

Injuries like the one RDJ suffered while filming Iron Man 3  aren’t unheard of; after all, superhero movies are very stunt-heavy, so accidents are bound to happen now and again. Less common, though, is an actor’s injury making it into the final cut. The book The Story of Marvel Studios suggests the incident happened largely because Downey chose to try and do the stunt in one take as opposed to rehearsing first. This act of reckless self-abandonment just further proves that Downey was perfectly cast to play Iron Man; Tony Stark would be proud.

In many ways, Iron Man 3 is more about the man than about the armor he wears. It focuses on his vulnerability as a (relatively) normal human as opposed to the larger-than-life billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist audiences were used to seeing up to that point. It’s fitting, then, that the movie where Tony Stark faces his greatest personal struggle is the same one featuring Robert Downey, Jr.’s injury.

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