15 Greatest Heroic Sacrifices In Comic Book Movies

13. Yinsen - Iron Man

As sacrifices go, genius Dr Ho Yinsen's is about as pure and as human as possibly imaginable. Not only could he have taken the deaths of his family (no doubt because of Tony Stark's own weaponry) as a reason to hate Stark, but he could have used his genius to build a bomb to kill his Ten Ring captors from the inside as further vengeance. That certainly wouldn't have been beyond him, given that he managed to build an electromagnetic that fit into Stark's chest without killing him.

Instead, Yinsen dutifully helped Stark build the first Iron Man armour, and then sacrificed himself to help Stark escape, fulfilling his wish to rejoin his family in the afterlife. It is his sacrifice, and his final challenge to Stark about his legacy and his company's role in terrorist damage that turns him truly into the hero beneath the armour.

And to think, Yinsen had nothing to gain from any of this: not from saving Stark, nor helping with the armour (you can't punish a man who wants to die by threatening him with death) and not from helping him escape. He is arguably the purest, most selfless character in the entire MCU.