Tony Stark has been renowned for his quippy one-liners ever since he ignored Nick Fury’s wishes and told the world, “I am Iron Man,” at a press conference – a line that was reportedly improvised by Robert Downey, Jr. Ever since Tony set the tone for the MCU, every superhero in this franchise has been a quipster. But none of them have managed to match the spontaneous energy and pitch-perfect comic timing that Downey brought to his performances as Tony.
Some of Tony’s MCU appearances, like the first Iron Man movie and Endgame, have more memorable one-liners than others, like Iron Man 2 and Age of Ultron.
Iron Man 2 – “I Told You I Don’t Want To Join Your Super-Secret Boy Band.”
After his initial appearance in the post-credits scene of the first Iron Man movie, Nick Fury reappeared with a larger role in the second movie to check back in on his Avengers Initiative offer.
Fury meets Tony at the donut shop where he slept off a hangover inside a giant plaster donut. Tony turns down the offer yet again, jokingly referring to the team as a “super-secret boy band.”
Avengers: Age Of Ultron – “For Gosh’s Sake, Watch Your Language!”
The opening Hydra raid in Age of Ultron is one of the most exciting action set-pieces in the entire MCU. It establishes that the team has developed a tangible dynamic in the years since they assembled in the first film.
This scene exhibits Marvel’s penchant for filling its action scenes with snappy dialogue. Tony cries out, “S**t!” and Cap retorts, “Language!” Tony refuses to let this go. Later on, he tells his fellow Avengers, “And for gosh’s sake, watch your language!”
Captain America: Civil War – “Sometimes, I Wanna Punch You In Your Perfect Teeth.”
Just when Tony is starting to get along with Steve Rogers, the Sokovia Accords debate creates a rift between them in Captain America: Civil War. They meet up to discuss the issue before realizing they’ll never agree and turn to violence.
Tony’s one-liner in this scene – “Sometimes, I wanna punch you in your perfect teeth” – foreshadows their brutal fight in the finale. After making a truce, the rivalry is back on when Tony learns that Steve’s best friend assassinated his parents (and he knew about it).
The Avengers – “Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist.”
When the Avengers first assembled, they didn’t get along right away – especially Tony and Steve. Tony immediately grew tired of Steve’s goody-two-shoes Boy Scout schtick, while Steve felt that Tony was all flash with no integrity.
Steve calls Tony a “big man in a suit of armor” and asks, “Take that off, what are you?” Tony snaps back, “Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.”
Iron Man – “My Turn.”
At the beginning of the original Iron Man movie, Tony is kidnapped by terrorists, trapped in a cave, and forced to build weapons of mass destruction. Instead, he uses his time and resources to build a weaponized suit of armor to help him escape.
In one of the film’s most glorious sequences, Tony dons the suit, breaks out of the cave, and faces a barrage of gunfire. After all the bullets ping off his armor, Tony quips, “My turn,” and unleashes his flamethrowers on the terrorists.
Avengers: Infinity War – “You Throw Another Moon At Me, I’m Gonna Lose It!”
Tony lived in a state of constant paranoia ever since he went through a wormhole in the first Avengers movie and glimpsed the space fleet that Thanos could one day bring to Earth. He finally faced the Mad Titan on his home turf six years later. In Infinity War, Tony teamed up with a bunch of other heroes to fight Thanos on Titan.
During the scuffle, Thanos uses the infinite power of the Infinity Stones to drag a moon out of the sky and drop it on Tony’s head. After he narrowly manages to avoid being flattened, Tony quips, “You throw another moon at me, I’m gonna lose it!”
Spider-Man: Homecoming – “Don’t Do Anything I Would Do, And Definitely Don’t Do Anything I Wouldn’t Do.”
Tony’s supporting role in Spider-Man: Homecoming follows up on the surrogate father-son dynamic that he forged with Peter Parker in Civil War. At the beginning of the movie, Tony takes Peter back to Aunt May’s apartment in Queens after the airport battle.
He promises to call Peter when the Avengers need him again and tells him to stick to his friendly neighborhood crimefighting around New York in the meantime. There’s a hilariously awkward moment when Tony leans over to open the car door and Peter goes in for a hug.
Iron Man 3 – “Which Happens, Dads Leave, No Need To Be A P**** About It.”
After the inciting incident in Iron Man 3, a failsafe function in the suit takes Tony out into the middle of nowhere, then crashes when it runs out of juice. He teams up with a local kid to fix his suit so he can get back to fighting Aldrich Killian and his Extremis-powered henchmen. As he gets to know the kid, he delivers a savage put-down.
He asks Harley Keener if either of his parents are home and Harley says, “Dad went to 7-Eleven to get scratchers... I guess he won, ‘cause that was six years ago.” Tony instantly quips back, “Hmm... which happens, dads leave, no need to be a p***y about it.”
Avengers: Endgame – “And I... Am... Iron Man.”
Tony’s final one-liner in Avengers: Endgame brings his MCU arc full circle. He repeats the line he uttered when he decided to ignore S.H.I.E.L.D.’s demands and took credit for being the armored superhero who defeated Ten Rings terrorists and the Iron Monger.
As Thanos prepares to snap his fingers and wipe out the universe so he can remake it to suit his vision of a perfect utopia, he declares, “I am inevitable.” When Tony reveals that he’s absorbed the Stones into his armor and does a snap of his own to eradicate Thanos and his armies, he quips back, “And I... am... Iron Man.”