10 Iconic Movie Moments With Unexpected Origins

1. "I Am Iron Man" - Iron Man & Avengers: Endgame

The Scene

This one's a two-fer! In brilliantly circuitous fashion, 2008's Iron Man concludes with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) shedding the notion of secret identities in the MCU, outing himself with the line, "I am Iron Man."

This would then be recalled 11 years later in the highly affecting finale of Avengers: Endgame, when Stark utters the line moments before snapping his custom-made Infinity Gauntlet and turning Thanos (Josh Brolin) to dust.

How It Happened

The original Iron Man started shooting without a completed screenplay, so it's nothing short of miraculous that the final film turned out as well as it did.

To that end, Stark revealing his identity wasn't originally part of the plan and was in fact an ad-lib on the part of Robert Downey Jr.

Kevin Feige heard about the take and became extremely excited at the prospect of what it meant for future MCU movies, so approved Jon Favreau featuring it as the movie's twist ending.

And because that's not awesome enough, Endgame's "I am Iron Man" also wasn't part of the plan originally, with Stark's finger snap originally being filmed without the hero saying anything.

During the edit, however, the Russos felt that Stark needed to say something, and after an intense brainstorm session, the solution came from veteran MCU editor Jeff Ford, who suggested Tony should circle back to his original zinger.

The Russos quickly approved, and cobbled a skeleton crew together to re-shoot the scene the very next day. That's shockingly off-the-cuff for what instantly became one of the most iconic moments in superhero movie history.