10 Movie Villains Killed By Characters Nobody Expected
9. Aldrich Killian - Iron Man 3
It's a given that audiences expect an Iron Man movie to end with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) destroying the supervillain antagonist, perhaps with a little help from one of his fellow Avengers.
And though Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) finally made her superhero debut as Rescue in Avengers: Endgame, back in Iron Man 3 she was still just Stark's non-combatant love interest.
That was, until she ended up infected with the Extremis virus courtesy of the movie's main villain, Aldrich "The Mandarin" Killian (Guy Pearce).
After Pepper seemingly perishes in a fiery fall and Killian has gotten the better of Stark, Pepper returns out of nowhere, using her Extremis abilities to take down a rogue Iron Man suit and blow Killian to smithereens.
Though fans sadly had to wait another six years to see Pepper in action again, it was nevertheless a fun, surprising hint of what was to come.
In a movie so thoroughly obsessed with subverting expectations, it was fitting that Iron Man didn't get the kill-shot in his own movie.