"Iron Man 3" As Conspiracy Narrative

The new movie "Iron Man 3" has pulled in the second-highest opening weekend in the history of cinema. It also boldly incorporates popular conspiracy narratives that the mainstream media normally condemns.

Spoilers for "Iron Man 3" ahead.


Mandarin Is The Fake Bin Laden

The "twist" of the entire movie is that The Mandarin, a villain that looks like a cross between Fu Manchu and Osama Bin Laden, is a complete fake. He is an actor, hired by A.I.M., an Illuminati-type terrorist organization created by scientists and working with traitors within the government. A.I.M. purposely manipulates the public by having this actor and his pseudo Al-Qaeda type group take responsibility for terrorist attacks.

In case it needs to be made any clearer, at one point in the movie it is stated that Mandarin is a fake "just like Bin Laden and Gaddafi."

The idea that Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda are "fakes" created by the C.I.A. (CIA/AIM), the Illuminati, or another such organization, has been made by many high-profile people within the conspiracy theory community, most notably Alex Jones. From Jones' Infowars website:

The real Osama bin Laden is a Western-trained CIA asset with the declassified code-name “Tim Osman.” He was chosen to lead the Mujahideen / Taliban in Afghanistan, in part, because his wealthy family has been a long-term business partner to key families in the West, including the Bush family (Carlyle Group). In fact, George H. W. Bush, the father, had been meeting with one of Osama bin Laden’s brothers on the morning of 9/11. The real Mujahideen has been used for a variety of Western-backed political purposes, namely upheaval and regional-destabilization.

Further, Jones/Infowars alleges that many of the Bin Laden videos we have seen are fakes, complete with multiple actors playing the terrorist leader:

"Admittedly fake videos with bad look-alikes and audio recordings supposedly sent by bin Laden surfaced routinely just before elections (Tom Ridge later admitted that terror threats were elevated to help Bush’s re-election bid) or when the American people needed a reminder of the threat of terror. Prior to the admissions, analysts correctly suspected that al Qaeda video logos matched the signature of the CIA-linked Intel Center, revealing an unholy connection at the source of the video-taped threats."

Again: this is the crux of the entire "Iron Man 3" movie, its big surprise: basically, that an allegorical Bin Laden is a fake and a smoke-screen. And if Bin Laden is a fake, it makes the Seal Team 6 stuff quite questionable.

The question must be asked: if conspiracy theorists are supposedly hated so much, their ideas so crazy -- why was this the central idea of the film? Further: why did the American public so readily accept it by going in droves to watch this movie?

It is significant to note that there is also a nod to the MSM/government suspicion of Libertarians/Constitutionalists -- in the backdrop of The Mandarin's videos are the words, "We The People."


Boston Bombing Parallels

There are creepy parallels between the terrorist bombings in "Iron Man 3" and the recent Boston Marathon Bombings. In the movie, bombs seemingly go off in several high-traffic civilian areas. When Tony Stark's assistant Happy is caught in one of them, the tableau is extremely similar to that of the aftermath of the bombings.

Everybody thinks that the Mandarin (representing Bin Laden/Al-Qaeda) are related to one of the bombings. Another bombing is blamed on a "domestic terrorist" -- a returning army veteran. As Infowars has mentioned many times on their site, returning vets are being "profiled" by the U.S. government as potential terrorists: "The government seems to be obsessed with targeting disgruntled veterans with pre-crime and other unconstitutional forms of surveillance, demonization and harassment..."

The focus on people missing limbs -- including one haunting image of a little girl -- also subliminally bring up memories of the Boston Bombings.


Army Vets Given Mind-Control To Become Human Weapons

Tony Stark finds out the that real culprit is not Mandarin or the vets, but A.I.M. -- who targets injured army vets and makes them undergo painful experiments to literally become human bombs!

These vets are essentially Manchurian Candidates and "sleepers," who can "go off" at any moment. Jones and other theorists have openly wondered if the Boston Bombing suspects might also be "mind-controlled" agents of a shadowy group that were sent to commit the attacks. From an article on Examiner.com:

The fact that the CIA successfully trained unsuspecting individuals to place and explode bombs and to serve as assassins while under hypnosis back in the 1950s raises serious questions. Could the Boston Marathon bombers and even the Newtown, Columbine, and other school shooters have been programmed to carry out these destructive deeds?

Interesting to note: one such "human bomb" introduces herself to Stark as an agent of "Homeland Security" before attacking him.


Tony Stark, "Domestic Terrorist"

One of the most eyebrow-raising sequences of the whole movie is when Tony Stark, on the run from A.I.M. and the "human bombs," has to essentially turn to an "Anarchist's Cookbook" of home-grown weaponry to defend himself. This includes a lingering camera shot of a big bag of fertilizer he buys at a Home Depot-type store. I am surprised he did not buy a pressure-cooker as well.

Further: when Stark uses his "low tech" weapons to infiltrate A.I.M., he wears a hoodie and sunglasses...making him look like the Unabomber!

Why is Stark being show embracing the "tools" of "domestic terrorists" in order to save the day?


Traitors Within Government

A key reveal at the end of the film is that the Vice-President has been covertly working with A.I.M. to help them on their terrorist missions. This plot includes killing the President.


Conclusion

So here is what we have learned from "Iron Man 3":
* Bin Laden was a fake, used in continuing "False Flags."
* Veterans and Constitutionalists/Libertarians have been purposely targeted by "Homeland Security" as potential "domestic terrorists."
* Injured vets and other American citizens are used in MK-Ultra type experiments to create literal "human bombs" who are then used in terrorism.
* Factions of the government are working with a shadowy Illuminati/C.I.A. type organization in order to create "False Flag" terrorist situations and eventually conduct a takeover of the United States.

They say that every blockbuster movie sort of encapsulates the zeitgeist of the people who watch it; these films are inevitably a reflection of our very world. What does this all say about "Iron Man 3?"

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Recession Superheroes: Impersonators and Millionaires

This photo series by Nicolas Silberfaden, "Impersonators," features superheroes and other pop-culture icons literally "crying" over the economic crisis in the United States. Most of these seeming "cosplayers" are really celebrity impersonators who make their living posing for photos in Los Angeles...and are technically unemployed themselves.

You might recognize Superman, above, from the documentaries "The Reinactors" (2008) and "Confessions of a Superhero" (2007).  Christopher Dennis, perhaps more so than any other living actor, comic book creator, or Man of Steel enthusiast, currently contains the true Superman zeitgeist -- pounding the pavement extolling Kryptonian virtues, keeping his spit-curl jet-black, living in a small apartment crowded with comic book-themed collectibles, and choosing "superhero" as his official life-role.

every good American superhero knows to drink their milk

As textured rubber and military-style body armor replace nylon bodysuits and satin as the superhero costumes of record, Dennis and his fellow Hollywood "impersonators" get "priced out" of the game; who can afford a decent suit resembling Henry Cavill's upcoming movie Superman, for instance?

"Man of Steel": ribbed, for her pleasure

There might even come a time when the "classic" Superman costume design will be forgotten among the newest generations, the bright red-and-blue with the cape resembling no more than a naive glyph from another time.

Silberfaden's photo series also touches upon non-superhero icons as well, such as Rambo:

At which I could only think of my post "Twilight Of The Action Movie Gods." These classic heroes have been handed a pinkslip, victims not only of aging but changing times. They seem too vulnerable in their long-underwear and muscle-displaying wife-beaters. Even the original Robocop seems too quaint, his rebooted makeover giving him more of that military-grade Dark Knight look:

Batman with a Power Rangers helmet: the rebooted Robocop

And that is why there is one superhero you will never see in Silberfaden's photo gallery:

It took many decades, but Iron Man is the superhero of our current times -- Tony Stark has the good sense to be fabulously wealthy, and, unlike head-cases such as Bruce Wayne, is unashamed to be so:

Millionaire-as-superhero: it seems like a premise tailor-made for the Reaganite 1980s. In fact, during the  "meat" of that decade, there were no major/successful superhero movies (the Superman films and "Batman" sort of bookending those ten years at opposite poles). And I believe this is because nobody thought to make that "rich guy superhero" movie. Tony Stark in the comics was too busy atoning for his fiscal sins by fighting alcoholism.

This leads into my final point in this post -- I firmly believe we are stepping into another Eighties scenario. In such a climate, will a Superman movie (especially a "dark, gritty" one) really do well? Won't the Millionaire Superheroes (Batman, Iron Man, Green Arrow) plus the Patriots (Captain America) lead the day, complimented on the opposite side by radical/anarchist heroes the kind of which I don't know if mainstream comics are capable of producing anymore (though certainly it's the subliminal reason the "Watchmen" characters were dusted off). 

In fact, if I had to guess, this is the next hero DC will reboot:

Now, there's a superhero for our times!

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