….
Day 70 of filming.
The shooting of Iron is moving forward to its final phases.
Currently it is - Edwards Air Force Base.
Regal had rented an actual hangar for the flight test sequence.
This was the scene where Tony tests the boot thrusters, crashes into his cars, gets sprayed by fire extinguishers.
Comedy, but grounded in real physics.
"We are doing this practically." Regal explained to the stunt team. "Wire work, practical fire effects, real cars that Robert will actually crash into. CGI is for enhancement, not replacement."
Josh watched them rig the wires.
Robert would be lifted twenty feet up, dropped, caught at the last second.
Again and again.
"How many takes?" Robert asked, already in the partial suit - just boots and gloves for this sequence.
"Obviously until we get it right." Regal said. "Or until you tap out."
Robert grinned. "I don't tap out."
They ran it sixteen times.
Sixteen times Robert went up on wires, sixteen times he crashed into foam-dressed cars, sixteen times he sold the physics of a man learning to fly and failing spectacularly.
On take seventeen, something happened.
Robert went up, the boot thrusters fired both practical effects and actual flames, and for just a second, maybe two, he hung there perfectly balanced.
The look on his face wasn't acting. It was a genuine surprise.
"JARVIS, you seeing this?" Robert called out, staying in character even though it wasn't in the script.
"Indeed, sir." Paul responded through the speakers, improvising. "I would recommend not celebrating prematurely."
Then Robert dropped, crashed, and the fire extinguishers went off.
"Cut!" Regal was laughing. "That's it! That's the take! The surprise was perfect!"
Later, watching playback, Josh saw what Regal meant.
That moment of unexpected success, that flash of genuine joy before the fall, that was Tony Stark learning he might actually pull this off.
"We are keeping the improv." Regal told the editor.
….
Pepper Potts walked onto set, and everything shifted again.
Grace had been shooting her scenes separately, but now she and Robert had their first scene together - the arc reactor removal in Tony's workshop.
"This scene is about trust." Regal explained to the crew. "Pepper's never seen this side of Tony. Tony's never let anyone this close. It's intimate without being romantic. It's vulnerable."
The set was dressed simply. Tony's workshop, the arc reactor glowing in its housing, medical supplies laid out on the workbench.
Josh stood off to the side with the backup arc reactor prop - a perfect replica, weighted correctly, LED lights programmed to pulse at the exact rhythm of a heartbeat.
"Let's rehearse it once." Regal said. "Grace, you are going to actually put your hands in the cavity. We built it with enough space, but it's going to feel invasive. Robert, let her feel that discomfort. Don't hide from it."
They ran the rehearsal.
Grace's hands went into the opening in Robert's chest - the prosthetic they had built fit seamlessly with his skin, making it look horrifyingly real. Her face immediately showed revulsion.
"There's pus!" Grace said, improvising disgust.
"It's not pus." Robert shot back, also going off-script. "It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the—"
"It smells!"
"That's because you're getting close to the socket, and I haven't showered in three days, so—"
"Regal, I don't think I can do this!" Grace was half-laughing, half-serious, her hands still in Robert's chest. "This is genuinely disturbing!"
"Stay with it." Regal called.
Grace took a breath, refocused. Her fingers found the old arc reactor, and she pulled. The prop came free with a magnetic click they'd designed to sound organic, medical, wrong.
Robert gasped, not acting, but a genuine reaction to the sensation of something being removed from his chest, even if it was just a prosthetic.
"Okay, now the new one." Regal directed. "Emma, hand it to Grace."
Emma, the AD stepped forward, placed the new arc reactor in Grace's shaking hands.
It was warm - they had heated it slightly so it would feel alive.
Grace guided it into the cavity.
The magnets pulled it home with that same unsettling click.
Robert's whole body relaxed, and his hand came up to cover Grace's, which were still trembling against his chest.
"Hey." He said quietly. "Thank you."
The line was scripted, but the delivery wasn't.
It was genuine gratitude - not just Tony to Pepper, but Robert to Grace for committing so fully to something that had to feel bizarre and invasive.
"Cut." Regal said quietly. "That's the rehearsal. Now let's get it on camera."
….
"Rolling!"
"Speed!"
"Mark!"
Grace's hands went in again, and this time Josh could see her really committing. The disgust on her face wasn't acted - it was real discomfort channeled into character.
"Don't ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like this again." Grace delivered the line coming out with perfect comedic timing despite the tension.
"I don't have anyone but you." Robert replied, and the vulnerability in his voice made the entire set go still.
This was the moment.
Tony Stark, the man who trusted no one, admitting he needed someone.
That he couldn't do this alone.
Grace pulled the old reactor free.
Robert's breathing quickened - they had discussed this, how Tony would panic slightly without the device keeping him alive, even for those few seconds.
"It's going to be okay." Grace said, her voice shaking. Not in the script, but fits right in.
Emma handed her the new reactor.
Her hands were genuinely shaking now - the adrenaline of the scene, the weight of what they were portraying.
She slid it home. Click.
Robert's hand covered hers, and for a moment, they just stayed there.
Two people, one dying, one saving him, neither able to look away.
"Thank you." Robert whispered.
"Cut." Regal's voice was thick. "That's it."
Nobody moved.
The intimacy of what they had just witnessed felt almost too private for the forty people standing around watching.
Josh realized he had been holding his breath. Marcus was beside him, and when their eyes met, Marcus just nodded.
"Chemistry." Marcus murmured. "That's the secret ingredient nobody can manufacture."
….
Day 79 of filming.
The crew were back at Edwards, desert location this time.
The Jericho missile demonstration - Tony's last moment before everything changes.
Twenty extras playing military personnel.
Practical explosions rigged by the effects team.
The actual Stark Industries backdrop painted on a massive screen.
"This is Tony at his worst." Regal told Robert. "Cocky, careless, selling death like it's a magic trick. The audience needs to see who he was to understand who he becomes."
Robert nailed it in two takes.
The casual arrogance and the showmanship. "I prefer the weapon you only need to fire once." The smooth drink from his whiskey glass. The easy charm masking moral bankruptcy.
But it was take three that gave them the moment.
After the explosion, after the spectacle, Robert ad-libbed: "That's how Dad did it, that's how America does it, and it's worked out pretty well so far."
The line wasn't in the script.
But the way Robert delivered it - proud, defensive, already showing cracks in his certainty, made it essential.
"We're keeping that." Regal called.
….
Day 83 of filming.
This was the big one.
Practical effects, pyrotechnics, stunt drivers, the Humvee flip that starts Tony's journey.
They had built the convoy route in a quarry outside Los Angeles. Real vehicles, real explosions, and a bit of a real danger.
Josh watched from behind barriers as they prepped.
The stunt coordinator was running through the sequence for the fifth time, marking positions, timing detonations.
"Robert's in the Humvee for the initial shots." someone explained. "Then we switch to the stunt double for the flip and explosion."
But when they started rolling, Josh saw Robert refuse to get out.
"I want to be in it for the flip." Robert told Regal.
"That's what stunt doubles are for."
"I know, but Tony needs to feel this. I need to feel this."
Regal studied him for a long moment.
Then nodded. "Extra padding, triple-check the rigging, and Robert, you get one take. One. Because I am not explaining to the studio why their lead actor is in the hospital."
They rolled.
The Humvee drove, the explosion triggered, the vehicle flipped—
And Josh's heart stopped as he watched Robert inside, being thrown around despite the rigging, despite the padding.
The terror on his face and impact was too natural.
When they pulled him out, Robert was laughing and shaking simultaneously.
"That was insane." He gasped. "That was absolutely insane. Did we get it?"
"We got it." Regal confirmed. "And you're never doing that again."
"Worth it." Robert said. "Tony needed to feel that. Now I know what it's like.
….
Day 102 of filming.
The set was enormous.
They had built the arc reactor facility - the massive power source beneath Stark Industries, on Stage 18.
Catwalks, industrial equipment, the giant arc reactor itself glowing in the center.
Jeff Bridges stood in the partial Iron Monger suit - just the torso and arms for this shot, the rest would be CG.
Even partial, it made him look massive, intimidating, monstrous.
Robert was in the Mark III, battered and sparking from the previous fight sequences. The suit looked barely functional.
Regal addressed both actors. "Everything comes down to this. Obadiah has become the thing he accused Tony of being - a man in a suit, using power without conscience. Tony has to win not with strength, but with intelligence."
They had rehearsed the choreography for days.
The fight was intricate, practical stunts mixed with wire work, timed explosions, coordinated suit movements.
"Let's run it from Obadiah's entrance." Regal called.
Jeff stepped onto the catwalk, and even in the partial suit, he radiated menace.
"Positions!"
"Rolling!"
"Action!"
The Iron Monger advanced, each step shaking the catwalk.
Robin, as scientist, backed away, one hand on the railing, clearly calculating.
"How did you solve the icing problem?" Robert called out, trying to sound confident but unable to hide the fear.
Jeff didn't respond with his scripted line.
Instead, he grabbed Robin - gently, because they were friends and this was rehearsed, but it looked brutal on camera, and slammed him against the railing.
"Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave!" Jeff roared, and the rage in his voice was so real that half the crew flinched. "WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!"
The line had become legendary during shooting.
Robin, pinned against the railing, managed to choke out: "I am sorry... I am not Tony Stark."
The delivery was perfect - defiant even while losing, that sarcasm intact even facing death.
"Cut!" Regal called. "Jeff, Robin, that's nice… Moving on to the throw sequence."
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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