Every Major MCU Movie Twist Ranked Worst To Best

At the time of it's release, the first Iron Man movie wasn't a jetpack for a 20-plus movie franchise but a stand-alone story that needed to be judged on its own merits. Luckily, it was excellent in virtually every respect, and none more so than for the exemplary performance by Jeff Bridges as chief heel, Obadiah Stane, AKA Iron Monger.

The fact that Iron Man was so great meant that it didn't really matter that Stane was blatantly evil from the start. The moment we saw him glaring evilly on the cover of magazines was the same moment that his facade as Tony's nearest and dearest became fully transparent. Shave all of Jeff Bridges' hair off, give him a beard and a suit, and there's only one real side of the moral fence that he can feasibly reside.

Still, the reveal that he was the one who ordered Stark's attempted murder at the start of the film was a shocker. It may have been obvious, but Bridges nailed the part through and through. Shame the character couldn't stick around for more.