7. Tony Stark & Harley Keener (Iron Man 3)
Following an attack on his luxury home by the Mandarin, Tony Stark escapes, unconscious, in one of his suits, which his artificial intelligence JARVIS pilots to rural Tennessee by following a flight plan from Stark's prior investigation into the Mandarin's attacks. The experimental armour lacks sufficient power to return to California and the world believes him dead. He pulls his suit along the snowy ground to the nearest unoccupied building - a garage - and takes refuge there. Harley Keener, the child who lives in the household who own the garage, becomes aware of an intruder in the garage and, armed with a potato gun, confronts him. He finds that the intruder is Stark and he is highly impressed by the presence of Tony's latest prototype Iron Man armour, which is sat upright on a couch. Although Tony wouldn't admit it, he and the boy quickly develop a rapport. After providing Tony with supplies from various household objects, Harley shows Tony to a location that had been the site of an explosion with a rare thermal signature and then to a woman whose son had been the cause of the event. During the meeting, Tony encounters Ellen Brandt and Eric Savin, two Extremis-enhanced soldiers also intent on finding the woman Tony was speaking to. Savin then uses Harley as a hostage to ensure Tony's compliance, but Harley is able to break free from the situation by using a flash grenade that Tony had supplied earlier as a bully-deterrent. Despite the boy's earlier assistance, Tony leaves him by the roadside and quite callously drives away to continue pursuing the mysteries he is chasing. Harley's persistence in communicating with Stark has a positive outcome while the two speak over the telephone. He stops Stark from having an anxiety attack by pointing out that Tony's nature is to be a mechanic and therefore he should simply build something, which gives Tony renewed focus. The pair head back to Harley's garage where Stark improvises a new series of gadgets with which to help himself while his armour is charging. At the end of the movie, after Stark has successfully defeated the Mandarin and Harley has returned to his normal life, the young boy comes home from school to find his garage packed with new equipment, from computers to robotics and is overjoyed. Also, on a table is a more personal gift with a placard saying "Potato Gun Mark II" and regards from "The Mechanic", Stark's alias.