Iron Man: Ranking All Of Robert Downey Jr.'s MCU Performances From Worst To Best

With absolute minimal screen-time here, Downey manages to deliver a performance that feels as huge to the audience as it does to Peter Parker.

Serving as Peter's mentor and surrogate father, the role required an entirely different kind of performance out of Downey and he completely knocks it out of the park. He's still the fun-loving Tony Stark who is more than willing to cut loose with Peter in the opening scenes but the real heft of the performance comes in the scene in which he takes away Peter's suit.

Downey channels a kind of stern, reserved anger here that plays subtler than almost every beat he had had in the franchise up until this point. The result is something unexpected and off-kilter that winds up being truly affecting. It also must be noted just how excellently Downey plays off of Tom Holland here, simultaneously giving a great performance himself and deliberately leaving room for Holland to excel.

Obviously, the relationship between these two actors and characters would go on to become a central part of Infinity War and Endgame and the only reason it works so well there is because the crucial groundwork laid in their performances here.